and welcome. This is Melissa Armo with the Stock Swoosh and I thought I would review GME. This has been pretty much covered by every news organization for the last week. I've talked about it a few different places myself. One of the reasons this is getting so much coverage is because retail traders have been buying the stock and there was a hedge fund that was shorted. If you didn't know that, now you know. That's one of the reasons it's been getting a lot of coverage and also because the stock has had a tremendous move in a very short period of time. But every single day that the stock is doing action, I'm talking about live action on the day. As you can see here today is Monday, last Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, the stock is trading red. So today we fell. I mean, you know, this is one of the most, that's the word I'm trying to use, this is one of the most institutional money is not controlling the stock. And this is one of the one of the easiest, quickest ways for me to explain it is simply about how the stock is trading on the live day. It is not getting bought. Okay. It is having selling. Okay.  For example, I looked at this last week, it was Friday, close to the money options calls out for the following week for one week were guess what? You never guess $125 for one call, which was basically close to the money. That that's insane. That's insane. I've never paid that for an Amazon for one call on Amazon, which would be actually a good, a good, I would pay that in Amazon if I felt like it. I'd pay probably something that would be through the strike.  So that would have basically cost you $12,500 for one call in this last week at the strike for a week out. I mean, that's crazy. And people are paying it. It's nuts. They think it's going to go to 1,000 and I don't think it's going to happen. It could, but I don't think it's going to happen because why institutions aren't buying this.  And I'm not saying a hundred percent, but I'm saying, I wouldn't be surprised if this gets smacked down, smacked down overnight in a gap down one day, just absolutely obliterated by funds that end up coming in then and smashing this and shorting this down and taking out all the retail traders or longness because if a couple of funds wanted to do that, they absolutely could. They absolutely could. Now, why didn't they do it last week to support the position in Melvin Capital? Well, maybe, maybe they wanted Melvin Capital to go out of business. Maybe that, you know, Melvin Capital is a competitor for another fund. Maybe they didn't care and wanted them to go under. But there's an opportunity that could be setting up at some point in this, if a fund wanted to short it, because again, fundamentally, which I don't follow fundamentals, but people are saying this doesn't, a $500 strike price or $300 or $240 or wherever this is trading at any given second does not justify this for this company. So it's very, very interesting. Again, I don't follow fundamentals. I look at institutional money. I look at gaps, but it's very obvious here that institutions are not buying this stock or it would not be falling every single day. Okay. Yes, the price has lifted. It lifted actually in a gap. But if you weren't running in overnight, you didn't get the play through. You didn't get the momentum. As you can see here today, and I'm just going to just quickly show you, we'll show you a 15 minute chart here today. Well, actually, you'll see here today, the stock open today down, gap down today, open at 316.56 and it's fallen. It's fallen. It fell and was 100 points today, low as 212. So this is just, yeah, just a stay away, volatile stock right now with all of the attention it's getting. It was halted pretty much every day last week. I don't know if it was halted today because I didn't really pay attention to it today. It was busy, but it's very, very interesting here. Again, how there is not institutional money coming up and buying this. There's no support here from the institutional money. And it will be very interesting to see here exactly what ends up happening with this stock. My take is that a lot of people are along this stock and have no idea how to trade, no idea what they're doing and are jumping on the bandwagon. And again, it's a free market. You can risk your money and anything you want. But I think it's extremely important to know what you're doing before you trade and to know what you're doing before you risk money in the market. Not everybody agrees with me, but I teach people how to trade. I teach people my strategy. Again, ironically, my strategy is on gaps. This stock has been gapping every day, whether up or down. And I'm telling you right now, this never set up right, never set up right in a bullish gap to go long. And as you can see, if I had, it would have failed because it didn't move right. You can see it. So anyways, have a great day everyone. If you're interested in more information or want to sign up for the Gap Options newsletter, where I call options trades on the newsletter. They're emailed to you. It's an annual subscription. Email me at melissathestockswush.com. Have a great day everyone.


Pre-market is a lot riskier and I don't recommend it like most traders and I give myself a pre-market size So if I'm trading pre-market, I limit myself to like 2,000 shares I don't want to use more than 2,000 shares because that's like the size for me that I don't get like emotional So in case things go wrong it doesn't screw up my day because what ends up happening is you trade pre-market You lose pre-market and then you're just like on tilt in the morning. You know I'm saying


Can you get closure from a narcissist? Can you get the feeling that the emotional or traumatic experience has been resolved? Can you get a sense of resolution and conclusion? Many victims try to get closure from the narcissist. They try to get a sense of understanding. They want answers from the narcissist. And there's nothing wrong with you wanting an understanding of what happened to you. There's nothing wrong with you wanting to know more about the situation. But I do not advise speaking to the narcissist. You may want answers. But if you go to the narcissist, you're going to get something different than what you may be expecting. Going to a narcissist for closure will only lead to gaslighting. They will manipulate you into doubting your own memory, perception and sanity, which will only cause you to become misled, disoriented and distressed. That's all that will happen if you go to the narcissist for closure because they're never going to take accountability for anything. If they were to give you closure, they would be letting you win, but the narcissist cannot let you have the advantage. They cannot let you have the superior position over them. You will never get an understanding from the narcissist because their mental characteristics do not function the same way as a normal person. They have a mental disorder. They process information differently, even if you try to talk to them and you explain that they're hurting you. You explain that you feel they have failed to show due concern for you and you feel sad and depressed. It's not going to get through to them.  But if you were to have that same conversation with a normal person, they would be able to understand. They would be able to feel your pain because normal people have empathy. But when you're dealing with someone who lacks empathy, it just results in confusion. When you express how you feel with a narcissist, they just see it as an attack, which causes them to become defensive. They become very anxious to challenge or avoid criticism. They deflect. They cause you to deviate from your intended purpose until you end up going in circles. Because the underlying support and foundation for their ideas, arguments and their justification for or reasoning behind something will have nothing to do with reality. Because they don't have the proper knowledge. They don't have the facts, information and skills acquired through experience or education. They lack the necessary skills and abilities to respond correctly, which means they don't have any insight. They don't have the capacity to gain an accurate understanding of you because they lack the necessary skills and abilities to do that. So they're led without understanding and without using their judgment. Which is why when you go to the narcissist and try to get closure, it's not going to make any sense to them and it's not going to make any sense to you. They will just use it for their own enjoyment rather than a serious or practical purpose. They will just take the opportunity to amuse themselves. You cannot get them to see sense. You cannot help someone who is disordered to that degree. It's not going to get through to them. They may look normal, but they are emotionally incapable. So you cannot ask them to understand how you feel. You cannot expect them to relate to what you're going through because they're not able to relate to the things that you have an issue with or to things that you are complaining about.  They lack emotional intelligence. You might think that they lack good sense or judgment, but they don't see it that way. To them it's normal. They might do something shocking and harmful to you, but they don't process what they're doing as an emotionally developed person. They're going to see it in a childlike way. It may even provide them with amusement and enjoyment, which may make you very worried and upset because you don't know why they can't understand. But this is why you cannot get closure from the narcissist because it's like you're asking a child, which is why you may find yourself playing the parental role when you're around them, trying to understand things for them, trying to correct the situation. They know what they're doing, but they don't understand the significance of it, which is why they act so immature. They have to inflict an injury or insult on you if they believe that they have been slighted. They're very envious and jealous. They're very competitive because they're emotionally underdeveloped. They're like children, so no matter how much you may want closure from the narcissist, that's something you're never going to get. You're never going to get a sensible answer because they are emotionally incapable. You just need to recognize what you're dealing with and then stop responding to them as if they are an efficient capable adult because there's no point arguing with them. There's no point trying to get an answer from someone who is emotionally incapable. You have to be emotionally developed to be empathic so they cannot relate to you. They cannot feel any sympathy for you. They can only mimic emotions.  They're never going to change because you have the ability to move on. That is an option to you while they don't have any options. So while they may have done all of these things to you, they didn't get away with it because it's a nightmare that they have to relive day after day for the rest of their lives. They don't have the ability to change so when you think of it like that, your feelings should become less intense. You should no longer feel the need to get revenge when you understand that they're never going to be happy. They're never going to find satisfaction in any area of their lives. They will always be miserable while you have the ability to move on and create a better life for yourself. Thank you for watching. I hope this video resonated with you. Please like, comment, share and subscribe. If you were a lighter than 8, my PayPal link is in the video description. Coaching Queries. You can email me at coaching at marxfiber.uk. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.


Mr. Masharia, what is the best way, the easiest way, you can define to somebody who is not very sure what toxic parenting actually is. Thank you. A toxic parent is any parent who has issues with themselves and they transfer them negatively to their siblings. That is the best thing, yes, to their children. Yes, it can be either from the mother to the daughter or vice-versa from the father to the son. And unfortunately we don't have what we call a perfect parent. All of our parents, including me, we have really messed up on one way or the other. What about when we all say, I have the best mom or ah, my dad is the best. It's a bubble and sooner it bursts and you are faced by the reality. For example, I thought my dad is the strongest guy and one day I realized now something is wrong. And that beat me and made me feel like I have lost a grip. Sometimes your parent may good on one area and frobs on the other. Now we are talking about the throbbing side, which affects you terribly. And that is what we are calling the toxic parent. Because if they are very good, we could have maybe a different name. But now this toxic is more like, it's not the X factor. The X factor is when a man loves the mother so much until his next relationship, we will look for the characteristics of our mothers. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about both parents or one parent who is toxic. One, they are either very controlling. They control everything from your phone.  She has just left. Who are you? Who am I talking to? Are you sure you should call this time round? And then you come in and, mom, what are you doing? Why are you picking my phone? She's like, wait a minute, hold on, she's here, but make sure it's only one minute. And you're like, mom, what? That's it. You feel constricted. You feel like you're shocked and you can't talk. Because one word to write, be a frat gate of verbal insults and a lot of groud work and groudings.  So that is a toxic parent. They control you and they have no boundaries. Yes, I was just going to say it seems like a toxic parent doesn't have a boundary. They keep crossing lines they shouldn't have crossed. They do things that they shouldn't have done. They don't know basically when to let go, when to stop. And that's interesting because I wanted to talk a little bit more about the characteristics and the symptoms that we may see in a toxic parent. Because now you've already said one of the things is the fact that they are controlling and the fact that they have no boundaries. And by the way, just in case you're wondering what toxic means, toxic is another word for poisonous. And so basically a parent that poisons their children both mentally, physically and verbally in every way. And so what are some of those other characteristics, please? Can we continue talking about some of the things we can pick out to see like, oh, this is a toxic parent. Okay, about the boundaries, we are all brought up by a parent and at some time they are supposed to let go. So if your parent cannot let go, that is a toxic parent. They will let go, yes, but you must be within their reach. And unfortunately when the boundary is not taken care of, it really affects us because, for example, they will come unannounced. You're supposed to report it at your work at very early.  There was no pre-arrangements, maybe even your fiancée is there and your mama's come with a roll of chicken and yams and he or she expects you to take time and sit down. And she'll ask you a very funny question. Now choose between your work and me, I am your parent. Now, honestly, what am I supposed to do?  A see-saw of confusion. Would you say it's similar to the kind of a parent that tries to come in between their child's marriage where they make you choose, it's either your wife or me. Because there are some moms who can be that way. And I know African moms can do this, it's either your wife or me and no, I was here before she was here. Now, there is another problem from a toxic parent. Very few parents will let you get married to the person you want. One, because they failed in their marriage and they want you to live their lives. So they want to see themselves living again in you.   Resorting to one, you have no freedom even during your holidays. I know people who rather than going to their parents, they'll go and camp at a village near their home with their friends. Because they feel like those friends have better mamas, they have better fathers, they have better understanding. You're so free with their other parents, but when you're like going home, you only pass there for 10 minutes. Hi, Mom, I was around, I came yesterday, it was very late, I knew you were already asleep, but it's a lie. And you love them, yes, but you don't like them. And that is the confusion, the balance. Oh, that's very, very important. And it's very important. You love them, but you don't like them. I love my parents, but I don't like everything they do. But I cannot face them and tell them that I don't like what you think or what you do. Because of the culture and also because of the respect. I love him completely, but there are so many things I don't like about him. But now we need to have the balance of after loving them so much. What am I supposed to do? I don't have to change them. I need to change my perception so that I'm able to handle a toxic parent. If that one does not happen, we are in trouble. And I'm so glad that you brought that up because actually I hope we're working on it. One of our videos includes exactly what you said. Yes. A parent who has to reach a point where they're saying, you know what? I have an issue and I don't know what it is. I just simply can't control whatever it is that's making me this way. That's going to be one of the videos we're watching and I trust that our people are working on it. And they shall let us know when it's ready. So thank you for bringing that up. It's alright. But let's continue talking about some of these characteristics because I'm finding this quite interesting. And there's something I guess we've all heard, whether you're Christian or not, to mischia that saying, spread the rod, spoil the child. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Basically if you don't beat the kid up, you're going to completely spoil them. Right. And we've had things like those. And sometimes our parents use this as a means of punishment or abuse. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I want you to slowly think about the difference between an abusive parent and a toxic parent as we finish up on the characteristics. Right. Yes. There is the normal dispring from a normal parent. Until you feel, tch. Anyway, I hope that didn't make you say that. And why don't you just sit down and talk to your mother? That's a perfect relationship. Until you are ready.   Even if there was an issue, at least the best thing is wait for your daughter or for your son before you go crushing on their fiancés, vehicles, and relationships, and phones, and shouting, and tantrums. And as I said earlier, most of our problems and most of our inherited problems are from the toxic parents. They had issues with their relationship and they couldn't move. They couldn't enjoy the freedom we have today. And they were stuck. And they think you're heading that direction. And rather than confronting their fears, they direct their anger to you. And that is where now the toxic, the poison starts spearing. And when the poison is so spilled, you cannot hide it any longer.  And now she will be one, very angry. And the worst thing you can do is to try to reason with a toxic parent. Really? How do you reason with someone who is... Actually, that's true. How do you reason with a parent who, for the first time, they look at you as their baby? They have never seen you grow. They don't believe you even... An adult. An adult? Yeah. They look at you from the time you were young, the diapers. You steal my baby. You steal my baby, right? And then, how do you reason with a parent who has a mental state of depression and what they have been going through? So the best thing you can do, if you happen to have a toxic parent, don't try to reason. I find that interesting. Don't try to reason at all. Wow, wow. Make boundaries, set them and be very firm. You love them, yes, but don't take their nonsense. That is what I can say. And that's interesting because the second video that we're going to be watching touches on that because as they continue to bring it up, I'm talking about the videos because they are a part of this discussion. They are definitely a part of this discussion. And so what you find in one of the videos, the girl tries to draw a boundary. And you know, she's like, either she keeps quiet too much, she tries to go the other way, she's trying to face the other way. She's doing everything she can to avoid the confrontation that is coming from her mom, like hellfire.   She did it. To her own mom. And that's something most of us would like, say to your mom, talk to your mom. Let me tell you, we are living in a world of discovery and an open dialogue like we are doing. As I said, we don't have perfect parents. There's nothing like that, it's a bubble. Parents have made mistakes and we cannot blame them because of what they have done. But we can set ourselves, we can change our way of thinking. We can set boundaries and let them know, as long as I will get joy pushed to this far, this is what she will do. She will withdraw and she will not talk. And that makes them realize that unless I want to, unless I stop this, I will not get joy talking to me. And that's why you see this lady, after being pushed completely, she felt like she tried to take her cool, she tried to keep quiet, but the mother is still firing and abusive language and everything. And you know what? They push you to the edge until you bro out and you even kid what you're holding.  And now you're left, you don't know who to throw out and who to keep.  So you end up in like, okay, fine. Which is the better or the rest are evil? And definitely to be there, the parent. And some feel so bad when you choose your mate. Of course. Instead of them, of them. And that is not the way. Yeah, because they think I've invested my whole life in you and I've paid your university, everything, every day of your life it was me.  When a parent talks like that, it's toxic behavior. It's manipulating. It's manipulative to say there is. Because now, when my dad says, I'm using him an example because he's okay. When he says, young boy, I've taught you from zero to where you are. Even what you have actually should be mine. That means the check should be written. My paycheck should read my dad. Maybe he will feel better. But you know what? That is manipulative. And they make you feel guilty so that you don't realize that there is life out there. It's so controlling, it's manipulative. And it spoils you because it's a poison that has been thrown to you. And unless you change your way, don't try to change the parents. And don't try to sit down and reason to them and with them. They will not hear because some are even abusive.  So there's no time for like an adult kind of a conversation or a grown up conversation. Everything is haywire. You so like should even move a shoe and throw it at you. You know now, when that happens...  A grown woman. And she has a child of her own. And they are watching that. Yes, you cannot be throwing shoes at a grown woman just because she's your daughter. But that happens. Some even slam the door. They say, you're not going with that man. That date is cancelled. You're grounded. You're grounding someone who is already working. But they are there and she will threaten. If you dare move out of this house, I'm going to curse you. Sorry about that. And that is what is happening all the time. We have people who are controlling and doing crazy stuff in the name of love. These parents love you, yes. These parents are very good. The only issue is one. They don't know when to back up. You don't know when to back up from your parents or they don't know when to back up from you.  So anything should pass to them or through them. Your relationship should be verified by their commission. And that one now makes you feel you cannot move. You're grounded. And your relationship out there, even your job is compromised. That's very true. Yes. So we've come across characteristics. Now we've reached manipulation. Yes. Toxic parents are manipulative as well. They try to find ways to manipulate you. Yes. To, I guess, get something out of you in a way that they shouldn't. Yes. And it's interesting this characteristics. I'm wondering if you have any more. Because the one I was thinking about was, again, in the same video where it's a mother fighting a grown woman. Yes. There's something she said that piqued my interest. The mother, she was shouting at this girl. And that's exactly what she was shouting.  Who took care of you? Who put clothes on your back? Yes. Who did all that for you? Yes. What is wrong with that kind of talk? Because I can tell you for one, I've never had that from my parents. My mother has never come and says, what are you talking about? And I'm finding, I'm thinking my parents are okay, like you said. I think my parents are okay. So I'm just wondering to myself, apart from manipulating a child that way, what does it make a child do? And secondly, does that child have any, should she even be giving back the way the mom wants? The mom wants a car. She wants a mansion of her own, which the child can provide. But does she have to do it just because the mom took care of her, especially if the mom is abusing her? Well, Joey, it's sad. One, every parent has the seed they plant to their children. When they become controlling, when they become very angry and outbursts and they are not able to behave, we pick that and transfer it to our lives. We feel guilty. And we feel like we are not giving enough. We also need to have a way of knowing when to give and what and for how wrong. And now that requires not the toxic parent, it requires you as Joey, it requires you as the viewer to know this is my boundary and I will not bed more and this is it. If I'm giving this, it's from my heart. If I don't have, I don't have to borrow. I have to set boundaries and stick to them and let them know this is my stop. This is where I bed and this is where the cookie crumbles. Thank you for that. Yes.


You are here for crafting the perfect proposal. My name is Melanie Adcock. I live in Noonan, Georgia about 45 minutes from downtown here and I appreciate you all showing up and just to let you know remember that my talk rocks I appreciate the feedback and my Twitter is MGA creative and I'll have the slide link and My email and everything at the end So if I don't it, I'm not able to answer your question because they're going to be doing the closing remarks at four So feel free to reach out to me in person Okay, I'm not doing too great with the clicker. There we go Who am I? I'm a coder of adcock creative group with my husband. I've been a full-time freelancer for nine years I wish I could say I decided to quit the corporate world and become a freelancer. I got laid off in 2010 and Yeah, and the great thing about that I actually say the happiest day of my life was November 16th 2010 the day I got laid off because I would have never had the courage to do this and I Haven't looked back and I'm glad to say that last year. I earned four times what I was making in my last job and Just got rid of that client the that client that laid me off, of course Didn't realize that they needed an IT person and a web person when they laid me off so they hired me back and I gave them a price because I didn't want to work for them anymore and they took it so But they are actually as of last night no longer my client Ironically, I'm working now with their competitor I am the then a speaker at WordCamp Atlanta many times WordCamp Miami and WordCamp Birmingham Just a little plug for WordCamp Birmingham. That's in August. It's a smaller WordCamp But the quality of speakers is like Atlanta But only on a smaller scale My there's my email address Melanie at adcock creative group and I'm also the organizer of the new meetup in Newton So we've just started having meetups our next one will be at the end of May So join go to meetup.com and join our list If you feel like driving to Newton Okay, why this session? You should always do a session on things you hate doing So you get better at it.  I've always hated right But I love you you're getting off the phone.  You know, they're going to choose you They've set it over the phone. It sounds perfect. Send me a proposal You get off the phone and now you got to write the proposal And that is why This talk I hate writing proposals. I Avoid it. Oh, well really I need to do laundry Well, I really need to do these client tasks. I Really need to do fill in the blank because I hate it But I always give my client you will have a proposal by This date because I have to do that So I'll write it and I don't keep putting it off So when I hate doing something I try to figure out how to make it faster and how to automate it So that is what I worked on the last year. So I'm here to share what I've learned Okay, a proposal versus a quote if you're send sending a Sheet of paper with a bunch of lines with all the things you're going to do with with prices next to it That's a quote That's a laundry list that they can get out their red pens. Say well, I really don't need this much I really don't need that and they they actually set a lower price for themselves a Proposal Positions you as an expert. It is going to be a General outline of everything that you're going to do not how you're going to do it but what you're going to do and It presents the value of the service that you're providing Because you're not the technician to do exactly what they want You're you're there to do the best for what the goal they want to reach and What's not included? Avoid technical terms. I mentioned WordPress One time that's in my contract that I'm using the WordPress content management system to do that I'm not listing the plugins. I'm going to use I may say I'm going to set up a membership system but I'm not saying I'm using Minbarium or I'm setting up an online learning system I'm not saying I'm going to use learn-dash because what what happens if you figure out they they have a change request and Now you figured the best way to handle that change request is not to use learn-dash But to use WooCom or Sensei, but you already said in the proposal that you were going to use this so I keep things of what I'm going to do not how I'm going to do it and And don't you like don't list plugins by name Don't itemize costs unless you're breaking the project down into phases and you can send say this is the proposal for phase one The price this is for phase two. We're going to do this phase three. We're going to do this and That way they can see what the total price is, but you're not giving them the option of crossing things out Okay, what to include now? This is just Suggestions a lot of this comes from WP elevation. I'm a member of WP elevation. I have been for four to five years If you don't know what WP elevation is run by Troy Dean. It is a Online course and support system for WordPress Freelancers basically it teaches you how to run your business and I learned so much on that I also have a personal business coach and a lot of you probably watched Nathan Ingram's talk on taming the whirlwind Nathan is my Coach my business coach. So he's my one-on-one business coach and So I've taken what I've learned from Nathan. I've taken what I've learned from WP elevation I've taken from what I've learned from webinars here and there word camps and kind of put it all into one place. I Do a business app snapshot this tells me I actually listen to the client when they told me about their business I Listen, I ask all the questions that I need the answers to to write the proposal So I say tell me about your business. Tell me about your ideal client Tell me about the client that you get the most of it's an online store. You know, what's your demographic? I do a lot of churches. I'm known as the church lady So I do a lot of churches. So one of my questions for churches will tell me about your congregation. What's the demographic? What demographic are you trying to reach with this website? You know, we'll come up with a plan for that So I actually take what they've told me and I write it up in the business snapshot that says I listen to them Business needs and target audience needs. What are they looking to get out of the website? And that's like two or three bullet points usually. It's not like an essay It is just are they getting more leads? Do they want to get more website visitors? Do they want more? Butts in the pews, you know, if it's a church, what are they looking for? What is the target audience needs if it if it is a church website or if it's a retirement community website? What are what are they providing on that homepage of the website to get people to choose that retirement community? What are we? What are we focusing the website on? Who's that ideal client? So I just it's just two or three bullet points Usually unless it's that you know a huge project then I go into the scope of work. Some people call a statement at work You know, this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to show you an example of this This is basically Just a breakdown of all the tasks that I'm going to do For the website am I going to add an event system and I'm going to add WooCommerce I'm going to do an email Sign up am I going to do basic on-page SEO just Simple a simple description of everything I'm going to do On the project then I call it an investment. I don't call it price Don't call it fees because they are making investment in their business So this is what they are investing in and that's where I just lift out the prices and the optional upgrades So I'll say okay. This project is this I offer premium WordPress hosting with WP engine or liquid web That's this much a year Then I say okay. Well, I have monthly maintenance plans. They start at ninety nine dollars a month At ninety nine dollars you get this much at one ninety nine you get this much at four ninety nine you get this and I so this they're not hearing weight maintenance plans after launch Well, you have to pay me money to take care of your website. I've talked to them about that from day one Then also include a copy of my contract. You're not using a contract shame on you Steal mine start using it make it your own. You've got to protect yourself Okay, let's go ahead and This is why I talk about let the client write it if you know what you're going to be putting and how your proposal is written You know the questions to ask Because you're going to ask them all the questions So you'll have all the answers and you can whip out a proposal You don't have to sit there and think about it because they've given you all the information So I have an interview list before I meet but I have a cheat sheet one I use for retirement communities I've done a lot of retirement communities. So I have a whole list for that I do a lot of churches. So I have my church list and then I have my regular one They've cold called me or I've gotten a referral then I do a little research then I write up a list and What so when I talk to them on the phone for the first time I have a list of questions That's going to help me write that proposal. I Also have a website worksheet on my website It's actually straight from WP elevation. I really haven't changed it all that much But it it's I've actually had people Go right to my website fill that thing out and the first contact I've ever had with them was all the information I needed to write the proposal and I get on their contact information and call them After I've gone through it made my list of questions Set a time to talk to them call them and we take it from there. I get that mostly from churches I only write a proposal if I have a chance I asked them used to scare the Bajibis out of me to ask people their budget It how many people still afraid to ask how much they're willing to spend? Okay, that's like my third question What's your budget for this project? Sometimes I'm surprised when they say well, we're only able to spend, you know, eight to ten thousand dollars for this website You know like doing the little happy dance, you know when it's just a little church website Or you you do, you know What is the budget?  Now if I hadn't asked that I probably would have totally underbid that that Job, but you also get to handle it for people who have unrealistic expectations. I Only have a budget of five hundred dollars well my base site my base price for a church site is around five thousand dollars, so Let's go ahead and talk about your project and what you need and then I'm going to give you some suggestions of How you can accomplish that task or at least get started with that budget Nine times out of the ten I still get that project because I'm willing to talk to them willing to at least point them in the right direction and They're like when they go say, oh, well, I have to go do it all myself, you know at wicks or Squarespace or I'm I don't really want to do that But you know, I know how much it's probably going to cost Because I she's given me a ballpark around five thousand dollars. We'll just go back.  I Don't want to be the cheapest person. I'm going to show you samples Right now I use better proposals when I first started using an online system. I used bid sketch And then I switched over to better proposals because they had a lifetime deal on app sumo for thirty nine dollars and that was about two three years ago and So I jumped on that and I really really really like it like it a lot better than bid sketch But there's proposed a thigh. There's so many different systems For that and I'll have a list for you later on I'm going to go ahead and show you let me escape from here and Show you better proposals. Let me get this make a bigger here Now what I do because I do a lot of retirement communities and I do a lot of churches I actually have I I did a Proposal and then I created a template out of it and just made everything generic So when I go to do a retirement community, I just spin up a copy of it and make the changes Added subtract things and I could do a Proposal in about 20 minutes The fastest one I've done was the one I just did for a church in South, Florida. I Actually timed myself seven minutes from start to finish $8,000 job, so And So let's go ahead and get into oh, sorry, I can't see There we go. Here's an example. This is a retirement community example You put your branding in you can pick a background image load up anything that you want and I put the title who it's written written by and Then they start reading it. I'm going to show you the What the client sees first? It basically takes them in and you can see all the things I did the snapshot The business needs and target needs solution I actually even put a project timeline in there Because I that's one of the questions I get a lot is well, how long is this going to take? I want to make it very clear to the client that once we get to a certain point and I need stuff from them content images Then it's in their ballpark. So if they delay in that it's going to delay in the timeline the investment the mutual agreement which is the contract and Then how do they sign? So this one, you know, I just generically name of community That is energetic carefree independent retirement lifestyle blah blah blah and this is stuff that they told me So I wrote it up or you could get it off their current website If they have one then I go on to the business and target audience needs. I List the the business needs now. They actually had they have a really really really old website like we're talking 10 years old and They needed a lot of new features and these these are the things that they wanted to be added to their website And then the target audience is only five bullet points It's got to be easy to navigate because most of their clients are like over 70 Improved experience in mobile because right now they don't have that at all Accessed information about services just very generic of what we're going to solve and then the solution The scope of work This is what we're going to do. There's my wordpress right there. I Mentioned wordpress there and I mentioned it in my contract But it's just a list of what we're going to do. We're going to do a custom web design We're going to make it mobile friendly. We're going to add a social media stack. We're going to do an email sign-up system I'm not talking about how I'm just talking about what we're going to do Basic search engine optimization I mean I do that on every site that I do But I also make them understand what the difference is between when I walk through this with them that basic Search engine optimization is it's going to if they search for that Website they're going to find it. It is not competitive keyword advanced SEO and They don't know the difference. So you have to educate them on it Additional things that we're going to do the the you know Google search console Google analytics stuff that you're going to Connect the site maps all that stuff So then I go into the project timeline. I let them know that it's going to take two weeks to do the design It's going to take four weeks of development one week of revisions one week of testing That's kind of a general guideline that I walk through now. I made this very very generic for this sample and then the investment How much is the the website? What is the? Hosting going to cost them. What is the monthly pair? Well, what's the recommended monthly care plan to pick depending on what I talk? They just need Me to keep the website updated WordPress plugins and they're going to add everything I would recommend my $99 a month plan if they need me to be actively involved That starts at the 299 if they want a webmaster at their back and call that starts at 499 a month and goes up If they have more than one website, then you know, they may be spending $1,000 a month $2,500 a month It all depends on their needs, you know, if they want that priority Access to me they want to be able to pick up the phone and call me instead of sending me an email That's not a $99 a month plan That's a that's an email me support ticket plan If they want to be able to call me they're going at any time during regular business hours they need to pay a little bit extra for that and then my contract is What my proposal kind of bait breaks everything down. I hear some key things to actually keep adding to it It's a ever-changing thing because you always meet that client that makes you think I need to put that in my contract To kind of keep them in your box that you set out for them. What's my proposal? What's the time frame? Do they want a rush job? Well, you're going to pay 45 percent more if you want like it done in two weeks Because that's a rush job Now this used to be I Actually have one of these. It's an abandoned project. It's like four years old a Rabbit farm in Ohio. I think they just wanted a website because they Wanted to sell the farm, but they just kind of disappeared so if you ever have clients that disappear then have a suspended and banded Project clause in your proposal if you don't hear you email them an update like every Friday open projects I email them on Friday. Let them know what I've done And I don't hear back from them for a month. So if I don't hear back from them for from Month, you know, it's considered or actually say I say paid. I have a different want different Let's see within 30 days. I don't hear you know crickets nothing For 30 days then it's a suspended project for me to pick that back up They pay the other half because I asked for half up front on Most projects really big projects we do with 30 30, you know 33 33 34 But if I don't hear from them They pay the other half before we pick it back up because I want to make sure I'm going to eventually get paid for that Project if they're going to go go dark again If I don't hear from them in 120 days, it's abandoned done over You know do not pass go do not collect it's basically a new job. I Talk about development revisions You have the people that never want the website to be done because they have one more change So I have two rounds of revisions After that we go live if you're on a care plan. We can do some tweaks for 30 days. So What's going to happen at launch? Okay compatibility Current current browser versions, so if the company happens to be running, you know Internet Explorer 10 and Windows XP, you know, we're we're designing it for the latest, you know the latest version of PHP the latest version of My sequel the latest browsers Because you might have a client that needs it to be supported in an older browser. It does happen every once in a while What what if they need changes after launch? Well, I give them a 30-day you kind of a 30-day grace period before the monthly care plan kicks in that we do Simple changes things that take less than 30 minutes or if you can set it as 15 minutes It's not, you know, well, I want a membership system. No, no, that's not going to happen That's not a that is not in the scope of work. We're going to make tweaks change images tweet text things like that just because it's not working the clant the way the client expected as far as a System on there does not make it a bug. So I actually define what a bug is A bug is when something is not working.  I had recently with buddy press. So That isn't that is an error that needs to be fixed You have issues after updates to WordPress third-party codes, you know different things like that now here's a big one Use of third-party images and photography If you are not asking your clients where they got the images that they sent you Shame on you. You need to ask them what the providence is. Where did you get this image? And if they start with it, well, I looked on Google I did a search I did a search for copyright free images on Google and I got all these from here No, I won't touch them with a 10-foot pole. I actually offer stock photography as part of my price of one image per page because I have a subscription to iStock and I get the credits on AppSumo and The different deals they have with deposit photos So I have a wide selection plus I've been doing this for 15 years. So I have quite a stock photography library And I much rather use a stock photography. I don't know Where they got that image and that happened just this week I had a client send me a picture of a park where they wanted to have me use it for an event And I'm like, oh, and I just happened because they're there a retainer client. Where'd you get the picture? This is a great picture. Where'd you who took the picture? We got it off their website And I'm like, I can't use it and this oh, well, it's a public website And I said well all websites are public if you can get to them. Does it mean you can use the picture? Well, we really want to use this picture. I said well then get on the phone and call Call them it was a local park get on the phone the column and ask them for permission and get it in writing And then I'll use it Well, you know, it's on their website. They kept saying I'm like, I am not going to do it If you really really really want me to put it on there.  It is not on me Well, you know, don't just tell us to take it down. I said well, not if it's a Getty image they're going to send you a bill and They don't do a cease and desist which is the normal train of thing They just send you a bill from some random random amount like two thousand ten thousand whatever and you get on the phone You're going to pay something I'm not going to pay anything. So why I said well, it's like two miles from where you are Why at lunch? Do you not just drive down to the park with your iPhone and take a picture and then send it to me? Well, that's a great idea So I'm like, I'm not going to deal with that So that is probably one of the biggest thing if you have not heard of the Getty letter Google that write a little note Google the Getty letter because Getty is like ruthless when it comes to people using their images and not having Which is I stock photo with ironically which I have a subscription to Yes, it's in there It's in there Yes, it's in there, but they're a they're a client They're like my biggest retainer client, but I I'm after them all the time churches are like the worst stealing stuff I Think there's a church in the middle of nowhere that comes up with all these original ideas and all the other churches copy it So I see it all the time. I'm a member of Facebook groups with churches and I don't know at least once a week. I'm like, you can't do that Well, they don't mind no word nonprofit Yeah, it just means that they're just going to go after you and you can you afford a hundred and fifty thousand dollar fine per image No, I actually even I actually was the photographer on a project of HOA in Florida Hardly to build them a website. I built the website. It was done and then I waited Well, they changed management companies like the month I finished the website. Well, I had gone to their Community and I took all the pictures because they couldn't provide they didn't have their logo So I'd recreated their logo. I did All the pictures well, they decided that That they were just gonna let them use the management company because they were gonna give them a free website I'm like, well, you still have to pay me and they're like, yeah, well, we'll pay it but this gives us this and this and this and and I'm like, okay, and they were like, well We want to use all your pictures And I'm like Well, I took them so I just can't give them to you. I'll sell them to you Because they actually and so I went through this I actually gave them a documentation that gave them the right to use my pictures because I took them and that way I actually went on and read copyrighted them So they're just like general some general Florida pictures because if somebody else starts using them, you know They're my pictures. I took them And then you get into some terms of use and other league who owns it. I mean wordpress is general license So they don't own the code Plug-in license and updates. Okay. I use a lot of premium plugins and this is how I do it if it's if it's a Unlimited license for instance, I have gravity forms. It goes on every side. I build I Do not charge the clients for it because I have a developer license. I put it on every side same with beaver builder But if it's a specific Plug-in that has a renewal of every year that's specific to their website Then if they're on a care plan, that is included I will pay it if they choose not to They get to use that for a year. That's part of the fee because I count that in when I do the The amount but after a year they got to get their own license And I spell that out and I actually tell them when it comes comes time I figured out which ones it's going to be it might be a Woo-Commerce plugins. We know how affordable those are and Or it might be events ticket plus or it might be something that that is it's fairly significant plug-in or a big membership plug-in Then I don't want to keep eating that cost if they are not a care plan So if they're care plan then on the care plan even 99 I'll pick up the cost because that's part of them working with me and then on website security You cannot guarantee that site isn't ever going to get hacked I've had one site hacked and that was The owner's password It was a very very simple password when he had me set up the password. I told him it's too simple Well, it's easy for me to remember. I'm like Okay, but when it gets hacked It's going to be extra for me to clean this off and of course. Yeah, it got hacked It took about three years, but it got hacked and I knew right away because I was using WordFence and It it immediately told me went in I changed his password something about that long and cleaned it all off send him a bill and Then it do reinforce the extra and now he knows the importance of strong passwords hosting I Like to work with a set of reliable hosts If you've got Bob's hosting And I actually had a church that had a local hosting company who had absolutely no idea what they were doing and They didn't have half the PHP libraries they had in there and it was just a mess It was a pain to deal with it's like dealing with uploading to go daddy I always have issues when I try to put it on go daddy. So I Actually list these are my recommended hosts if you're using something I'm not familiar with I'm not going to guarantee that the site's going to run the way it does in development Because I have no idea What that host provides? Ups ups site updates and backups if you're not on care plan It's up to you to be responsible. Then I go into what is a car care plan Here's my offer basic business and priority care You know, how do you pay for it? Cancellation at any time Third-party services if you get some Marketing company you go in there and do stuff to the website and they screw it up I'm not responsible to fix that that is going to that's beyond the care care plan Email deliverability. I'm not getting my contact form information. It's going to my spam box My users aren't getting the information Well, one of the things I do for almost all my clients is I set up mail gun I do a third-party email service and I work with them to set up an account and that way when they get somebody that says They're not receiving the emails you can actually go on the mail gun and I said well, yeah, they got it. They opened it at 938 a.m so they did get it and They're like you can tell that I'm like here. Let me show you how you do that and It stops all the email deliverability issues Pretty easy to set up. They have a free level. They're one of the few third-party email services that still have a free level Yeah, if you're in trouble with the law, I'm going to give them what they need Domain names It's their responsibility if they don't renew their domain name I always ask for them to make me an admin on their domain lit if they have their own domain name I prefer them to be responsible for their domain name, but I want to get emailed when things are Getting close to renewing just a reminder that this is coming up for renewal So when you get the bill from go daddy to pay it and this also gives me a chance to say, okay About six months out from your domain name renewing. You're going to start getting eat getting real snail mail From the domain registry of America or one of those other scammy things where they send you a bill for a domain name They don't you're not registered with I actually tell my clients about that So I said whenever you get something that requires your attention about your domain name Take two seconds pick up the phone call me and ask me if it's real and Nine times out of ten if it came in the mail, it's not real go daddy Isn't if you're registered at go daddy go daddy's never going to send you snail mail to tell you that your domain is expiring now They'll send you 10,000 emails starting six months out, but they're not going to send you a letter and Even about the attribution link Indentification if they're going to sue me they're coming to noon in Georgia I'm not going to Frederick, Pennsylvania. I'm not going to well I would go to Hawaii. I have a client Hawaii I'm not going to Texas. They're coming to me if they have a dispute and My limitations of damages or liability Servability headings.  Don't go to a lawyer and have them draw it up Take something that's already written have them tweak it for you that fits your business model This is kind of the dashboard or better proposals you have You have it Outstanding accepted lost. I don't really deal with the lost part But you they have a template marketplace, which is awesome So if you do multiple things like SEO and stuff They have a template marketplace so you can just bring in any kind of template They even have the WP elevation template in here So you can use that as a starting point copyright and consulting marketing It gives you a great stop and what I like about these online systems is Every time they the client opens the proposal you get an email to let them know You get to see how much time they spend on each section So if they only spent 37 seconds on the contract part of it, you know, you kind of need to go over that with them I've had clients like read and read your read and And then the ones that just click through and sign And then let's see go here and the next steps is where they can sign You get the option of whether or not you take payments online now Depending on the client. I'll ask them. Do they want to pay online? Do they want to send me a check? So if they say they're gonna because they have to do paperwork and they have to send a check which is fine I just don't add the payment option. They sign it online and once I get that then I give them their welcome I set up their welcome package send it to them. This is everything I need to start the project So let me go back to Here Now if you're just starting out Don't get all shiny object syndrome and start buying stuff. Okay, I Have a PDF version of this Use that and just create PDF versions of it until you've got enough Recurring income coming in monthly to pay for the tools because you can go broke buying all these tools Project management I use Trello. It's free But I love better proposals I don't know if I would use it if I had to pay the $39 every month I probably would now because I'm doing very well on the monthly income, but You know that monthly paying things out don't like doing that So just use PDFs and send it out You may even want to split the the proposal out from the contract So they sign the proposal then you send them the contract to sign The nice thing about a PDF is you can put that in the corner for them to initial every page that they've read it That has that's one of the things I've requested from better proposals that they they do that Tools do it more Better proposals. There's a link to that Bid sketch is another one proposed by 17 hats 17 hats. It's kind of neat. They're pricey, but they have great deals at Black Friday Plutio is one I bought on AppSumo last year or probably even two years ago. I'm waiting They don't they they've got their API and beta right now, but Plutio is actually like Trello and better proposals and a CRM all rolled into one and But I can't get it to integrate with everything So I want something that I can do something and send it to Trello Send it to this send it to that and right now they didn't have an API So I'm just kind of holding on to that, but the API is in beta. So they'll probably have another AppSumo deal coming up in the next year Guide the client get on the phone go over the proposal with them So you can answer their questions right right then and there if they have anything And then get money before you do any work. You may be excited about the project, but Get get the money before you do any work Now stop stressing about proposals You have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them next slide has links to everything Any questions Dave Excellent suggestion. I'm so gonna steal that What Dave said is what he does is he records a video of going through the proposal includes that in the proposal So he doesn't it saves that step of having a phone call and that's an excellent idea use Loom use loom.com for recording the videos I'm gonna like start doing that this week. Yes No, I pay the fee. I'm connected to strike. Yes, it ends up being you know 2030 some dollars, but in the grand scheme of things for an eight thousand dollar website, you know Now for a twenty three thousand dollar website Send me a check Because I really don't want to pay that 200 or fee. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I need to remove that because I stopped doing that and That's like it needs to be updated so thanks for pointing that out because I didn't catch it the last time I went for it Any other questions Dave I have the I have the care plans. I just say that any additional work is up my currently hourly rate, which I Told them on verbally. Yeah Yes, yes Well, eventually, you know, my prices for care plans will go up, but at that point It's just like any other client That it's going to increase Like you would do for any legacy client when you're raising prices I don't have a timeline line, but that's a good suggestion Okay, I'll ask that because I'm going to actually take this to the to the lawyer here in Georgia because this is kind of left over from Florida when I live And I haven't been to those But I'll make a note of that I'll send you an email. Let you know the answer Any other questions? Thank you very much


Now, talking about another challenging work setting, which is criminal justice system. So, we will be talking about the ethical issues in criminal justice system. As you all know that different mental health practitioners are being hired in correctional settings where we see that the concept of forensic psychology comes in. We see that forensic psychologists are working in criminal justice system. They are working in AC rehabilitation services, where the inmates, the caddies, to improve their behaviors, their skillset, to work on them, a correctional setting is created where they can be improved. So, in this situation, a lot of expertise is required by forensic psychologists. Their duties are designed in a very different way, which they have to perform. What they have to do basically is the range of duties which include evaluating and classifying inmates. Now, how do you classify the caddies? You classify them according to their degree of nature of crime.  Some will be criminals of moderate level and some will be criminals of high level. Classifying them on the basis of their nature of crime is one assignment which is being given to the forensic psychologist. Then they further evaluate them. Do they have any shame and guilt after doing that act? Do they consider themselves just and righteous after doing that act? Do they have brutally killed someone? How much heinous crime they have committed and what level of brutality they can commit. That is something which basically gives you an idea about the human psyche. If they are released, what level of murder they can expect from the individual. So, these evaluations are done by forensic psychologists and their evaluations determine that although law is important, it also determines how much punishment they should be given. The forensic psychologist's report also contributes a very important detail in the entire profile. Along with the law, it is also seen what is the action of the human being after that crime. Conducting psychotherapy and crisis intervention. A lot of people come to different cases. Some need psychotherapy, some need intervention. This is also done by forensic psychologists. Participating in the personal selection process. After that, you have to put different people in rehabilitation centres. Forensic psychologists also give them training and they also give their input in hiring. Then providing the employee assistant services. How to deal with the inmates in jail? What should be the system for their education? Which people are interested in further studies? Do they need a better environment? Do they feel that there is still a way to be a good human being? Do they need to work? Are there any skills that should be put into such skill training programmes? Forensic psychologists also assist in this work. Serving as consultant for institutional decisions and policies related to the correctional climate. There is a very strange climate in jail. How to make the climate a good reform centre? Do they need to be reformed in order to improve the behaviour of people? All these work are done by forensic psychologists with the help of their administration. The key ethical issues involve the degree to which a mental health professional's ethical standards and professional roles become accompanied by given any correctional setting. For example, if we look at this case, a psychologist works at a prison as a correctional counsellor. During an individual treatment session, a new inmate reports that an escape attempt involving taking hostages will soon take place. In a one-to-one session, a new inmate reports that a hostage will take place within a few days. He reports that he will not leak this information because it will be very dangerous for him. The rest of the fellow inmates will kill me or my security will be in danger. In this situation, what should a correctional counsellor do? Of course, in those conditions, confidentiality is important, but we just cannot do it to hide that information. That information will be given to relevant authorities and to protect that individual, it will be separated from the rest of the inmates. So this is how the setting of the correctional centre works. A forensic psychologist plays his role here in this way. Then, a mental health professional facing such decision might have an obligation to warn certain potential victims. Of course, as I said, it is important to tell them that a hostage is planned to be stopped here. As a psychologist, his responsibility is to protect that inmate, to separate the rights and welfare of the inmates. So to deal with such issues, a mental health prediction should clarify their professional and legal obligation with prison authorities relative to their expectations. Whenever any inmate gets confidential information from a forensic psychologist, it is obligatory for them to tell their prison authorities about whether such an act or a special class inmate is planning these things against the authorities or to damage other people. Or a scene like this can be created to benefit them. And simultaneously, they should clarify the limits of their role and nature of their relationship as well. And wherever an inmate needs sympathy or empathy, they have to give it duelly. But it is right to use the information from that inmate. If he has any irrelevant information, it is not necessary that he should tell the authorities. But if he is the kind of person to which the state or the law might be in danger, then it is very important to reveal the information there. And they should never surrender their professional integrity to competing pressure of work sites. Or a forensic psychologist like any other psychologist should never compromise on their competence just because they are being under pressure and they have a lot of work to do. Anyhow, their competence cannot be undermined by their professional work because in all the roles, ethical issues are important. In all the roles, services are important. But when we talk about forensic psychologists, this even becomes more important. And the specific character of a forensic psychologist, because he is directly attached to the law, becomes more important.


I really couldn't find it. Just really didn't have my command and control. So yeah, I think all in all, it wasn't a good day. Looking back, can you put your finger on why you didn't have that command or control that you normally have? Well, the answer I always have is that when it comes to mechanics, there's a difference in the balance and the balance is bad. The thing that comes to my mind is that I'm trying to turn it around in a few points. So I really want to use that in the next part of the game as much as I can. I want to use that time Yeah, I know I always say this, but everything kind of always come down to my mechanics. If that sound everything kind of falls into place, but it was out of sync today and I feel like I was off balance all night. So I'll definitely need to clean this up until my next start. In your mind, is it a quick fix in between starts? I see what I was doing wrong and I have some ideas of what I need to do in order to fix them. So yes, if I can, I should be able to make the adjustments until my next start. Thank you, Shingo. Thank you, Masahiro. Thank you. Eric Boland, you have the next question. Masahiro, you said you didn't feel like you had command or control. Is that something that you felt right away in the first inning or maybe in the fourth when they broke through against you? Well, I did feel like I had a little bit of control in terms of command and control but in the first inning I felt like I was off balance and in the third inning and in the fourth inning I felt like I was off balance in terms of command and control. From the very beginning I felt that. So from the very beginning I felt like I had to do something on my own. It was from the beginning, Eric. I knew it right off, right away that something was off and like I said earlier, I was trying to fix that and adjust that throughout the game.


Let's bump it. Section 8a volleyball semi-finals at BSU, Boston, Red Lake County Central. And the Greyhounds brought their A games. Lily Maniki set up in the middle. She puts it down. They take the first 25-16. Then in the second, Libero Rebecca Olson, A-C-E Ace. She'll finally opening. They roll in the set by 14. Then finally in the third, this time some defense. Maniki and Taylor Croning, the wall at the net and they get the stuff. All Boston in three straight. They play Aida Borg, Norman County West tomorrow night in Bagley. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


cell phone, prepaid cell phone minutes is used as currency in a lot of parts of Africa. Do you know when the white paper for A-coin will be released? That's a great question because it's actually being released today. What's up YouTube? My name is Jackson. Today I'm joined by musician turned crypto entrepreneur A-Con. How are you doing today A-Con? What's up big man? Cool. So you are a world famous musician with two number one billboard hits, four triple platinum songs and numerous music and entertainment awards including five Grammy nominations. Where and when did you first hear the words cryptocurrency and blockchain? It was 2008. I went out of office in Atlanta. I flew out to New York and through a guy named Ken Wilkowski. I met a guy named Block Pierce who was selling me on the idea. That's how far back I go with it. Yeah. So you were there right from the beginning then? Yeah, I was there from the beginning for sure. That's cool. So why have you decided to put some of your energy into cryptocurrency? I mean was there a specific moment where you realized the opportunity and power of crypto? I don't think it was a specific moment but it was some specific moments that motivated me to want to do it even more and like really focus on it. But I think it was more so about me just understanding that the digital, like digital is the future because I saw how digital had to conform in the music business, how we went from analog into the digital world in music and I saw the drastic, you could say impact of the labels not being prepared for it and the impact that it hit because they weren't prepared for it. So when you look at the currency side of it, it's pretty much the same. It's going all digital and we're clearly not prepared for it but we've been slowly kind of moving into it. But in Africa we've been doing mobile exchanges and mobile monies and transactions for years. So it was something that I was pretty familiar with. Which people or companies do you admire within the space? From where have you drawn inspiration? I think, you know, me pretty much, we kind of partnered with a lot of the companies that we really did admire in the space and felt, you know, that they were doing great things and kind of aligned with our, you know, agenda, you know, like bit minutes for instance, who's doing great things in Africa, you know, on the cell phone devices and transferring of, you know, currencies and of that nature. I mean, you also have Stella who has built amazing platforms for the crypto world who's really concentrated also in Africa as well. You know what I mean? Outside of course, of the Bitcoin system itself and how blockchain actually works, but those are like two companies that we really did admire and that's why we partnered with them. What about them did you admire so much?  And these are the kind of things that we needed for our platform because that's what we cater to was developing markets that can actually work in the developing world. So you yourself have been developing your own cryptocurrency called Acoyne for a couple of years now. And which as far as I understand, this is a utility token that will tokenize cell phone prepaid minutes. How did you come up with the idea for Acoyne? Well, see, a lot of people don't really understand how Africa itself works. This is why a lot of our platforms built on Africans and how they live on a day-to-day basis, because there we have so many currencies in Africa and a lot of them are unstable and most of them are untrusted. We got to the point where the day-to-day African people didn't even use the currency anymore. They were using their cell phone minutes and credits as a way of currency trading cell phone minutes and credits for basic goods like produce, fish, fruits and things on the market. So that came with a crazy idea that allowed us to even build what you call the atomic swap on the Acoyne platform where you can utilize your credits and turn those into Acorns, which will give you the actual currencies that you can spend them in any market. So would you say that these prepaid cell phone minutes, are they like a sort of universal currency in Africa? Yeah. I mean, prepaid cell phone minutes is used as currency in a lot of parts of Africa. That was one of the things that propelled us to realize, man, Acoyne is going to be very needed because ultimately, outside of the villages, you really can't trade cell phone minutes for anything. So we want to be able to utilize that same mindset to take advantage of that mechanism outside of Africa. So even when they leave the continent, they can be able to utilize all their credits and really be able to purchase real things. And do you know when the whitepaper for Acoyne will be released? That's a great question because it's actually being released today. So yeah, happy to see you, man. You know, you can look it up and get all the information you need on it. And I thought it was a great thing because most people do have a lot of questions. So the whitepaper really clear up a lot of those questions. And of course, I've been in a lot of events and blockchain summits and stuff like that to be able to answer any questions after the whitepapers read. Awesome. I can't wait to take a look at it. And so why exactly did you choose the Stellar blockchain to issue your token on? Well, I always felt Stellar was really, I love the way that their system is set up. And they're really set up to really conform within these underdeveloped markets, especially specifically in Africa. They've been doing a lot of great things. They teamed up and partnered with thousands and thousands of banks, you know. And of course, you know, they think a little bit outside of the box. And I always felt that, you know, they will be a great partner for us to have for sure. So you've said in the past that you would like Africa to become the United States of Africa or essentially unify Africa. The only way Africa can evolve in that way is that we have to be united. There has to be a united Africa. How do you see Acoyne and cryptocurrency being used to unite Africa? Well, you know, my currency is really set up for empowering the entrepreneurs all throughout Africa, you know. And then when you look at the, you know, the population in Africa, you know, like literally between 65 and 75% of the African population is under 21, who's all very digitally savvy and understand the world of the digitized future. And I thought that ultimately that having that and having that specific audience personally will clearly unite us. And I think the way to unite nations is through money. You know, I think when the money is set up and it's well-trusted and people can trade it amongst each other and utilize their gifts and have all their, you know, you can say, products that they can tokenize and be able to sell it amongst each other, that alone creates a unity that can fulfill the whole future of what Africa can become. And on top of this cryptocurrency, you're also planning to build an entire city powered by transactions with your cryptocurrency. The city will be called Acoyne City and it will be located on 2000 acres of land that the President of Senegal recently signed over to you. At what stage of development is this city project currently at? Oh, no, it's actually at the very, very beginning. We just acquired the land and now we have, you know, technicians on the ground doing all the feasibility studies on it. We also have the master plan being built out. So within the next month and a half, two months, we'll be able to, you know, really launch it and let everyone know exactly how the city is going to look before it's fully built. We also have a streaming rendering of it. So you can be able to go on YouTube and see it in real time and go through, you know, the city itself and see exactly how it's going to look when it's done. So we're really at the very early stages, but I'm super excited because things are moving really fast. Do you have a target date for when you think this might be completed? Right now it's set to be done within five years, but we're building it within five to 10 depending on the technologies that might exist as we're building because we want to make sure that it's really, you know, fueled with all the top latest technologies that's not anywhere. We want to be the first in everything we can see. How do you see this crypto-powered city advancing your goal of a united Africa? Yeah, because, you know, this city is really more so a model that we want to be at a copy and paste throughout the continent. You know, every major African country we want to be able to have an ACON city there. We're currently working on the ACON city in Kenya as we speak right now. And then, of course, we're going to do Gambia, Senegal, that we're currently starting with, and then we want to go into, you know, Nigeria, in Ghana, Ethiopia, you know, where we have the land as well. I mean, it's going to be moving out pretty fast. I think once we get the first city going, it will definitely help to align all the other partners to be able to invest in all the other countries that we want to do it. Where are you getting the funding for all of these projects? A lot of funding is all private funding, partly funding from the government because they also partners within the city itself. But I think we're going to get a lot of more, we're going to get more private funding than anything. Of course, the government will hold the initial funding and get the first phase of funding going because it will be the ones building the basic infrastructure, you know, like the streets and roads and, you know, the things like that that you have to have actually. But I think once we start moving on, I think the crypto world itself is going to be in the digital world and younger generation. I think we're going to kind of, I think we're going to bring in a lot of funding for that.


Okay, so hi again The next talk is starting now. We have Ralph Hainke here. I've started using Python in 1998 no 80 18 18 98 you're right for Started Python developing 1998 and mainly for biocomputing and biocomputing and nowadays he's working as a Freelance Python DevOps and he's going to talk about how you can use Python and are for statistical analysis.  Okay, so most of you guys as far as I can see For those who don't know what are is are is basically a huge package or a tool for doing statistical analysis and Calculating graphical representation of your data. It's open source runs on all major platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac and The language of are itself is my opinion not so great Python is much better language to program in but are the real power of are I think comes from the huge library of packages That's available around it and you can most download most of those packages from the CRUN network The situation we have faced when I started this project was that Python and are we're Basically completely separate ecosystems and when we wanted to do a Statistical analysis with data from Python. We had to basically pack it into a CSV files Transport them over to pi to are do the analysis and put them back into Python and that was not really very convenient for us So there are packages which solve that problem like at that time there was our pie Now there's our pie to and these are basically extension packages for are in Python so you compile are into a module you import it and Then this our pie to module provides functionality to access our do evaluation And get your results directly in Python It has a slight disadvantage which was a disadvantage for us that are runs in the same process as Python or even on the same machine So when Python in our case was running a web application server and we wanted to do analysis in our And that was a heavy analysis that was really slowing down our web server So we had to spread out are on a different machine and that was the approach we were taking That's what I'm going to talk about We wanted to build a bridge between Python and are and to be able to run are on a different computer or on a form of computers even and The first piece of that bridge the first socket is our surf Our surf is a TCP I server for our developed by Simon urban egg It allows for multiple simultaneous connections from arbitrary number of clients arbitrary as long as the machine can take it of course and Every client that connects to that are server via TCP IP Has its own namespace so all calculations are really done without side effects Clients by default are available besides the Python one for Java C++ C sharp and so on and there's a growing number of clients for our surf Part of them come with the are surf package directly other clients. You can learn a load a download as third-party packages from the our forge server and install them So the second Piece of that bridge is pie are surfs. That's the part that I have been writing It's a pure client adapter for connecting via TCP IP to our surf What it does? It serializes Python data objects over the network sends them to our R can do some calculation with it and the serialized result data is serialized or parsed on the Python side no, sir and native Python result objects are created by that it allows to To evaluate arbitrary R commands on the R side on the R server you can trigger functions Function calls in R. You can set and get variables in the our namespace and a latest addition To PyR surface that it allows our code to trigger commands in your Python interpreter from the R side And I will show that later the missing piece of that bridge is the protocol which these two sockets are talking to each other. That's the QAP1 protocol, quite attributes protocol which sounds much bigger than it is. It's I think it's invented by Simon Just for the purpose of letting our clients talk to our server It's a little bit of protocol like maybe pickle in Python But it allows to exchange serialized objects between R and Python not just within the Python ecosphere and it doesn't only allow to Serialized data. It also contains Commands so that the R server side knows what to do with the data that you're sending to the R side It's a synchronous protocol So you send off a command and they send off your data to the R server and you have to wait until what you get back Even if it's just a non-object You have to wait until the R connection really has finished the calculation So you cannot send off a second command to the same connection if you want to do parallel computing You have to do you have to open multiple connections on the R serve which is possible from the R from the Python side and Yeah installation is quite easy you download R from the R server from the from the Source server It's not possible to use the pre-compiled packages because for running our serve You need to compile and link our with a special flag these enable our shared lips Otherwise our surf cannot be loaded into this and under the execution space of our Our surf can be done directly compiled by our so there's our brings its own compiler for packages it's our command install and then your packages which you have downloaded before and Finally the missing piece on the Python side is just a Python package downloadable from Pi Pi server it runs on all major modern Python versions from two point six six on to three point four It needs lump pie if numpies installed. It's fine. Otherwise it will install numpy on the fly Starting is also easy the server side is just started with this R command our surf opens a connection on the Network and by default it only listens to a local host. That's a security feature Because in the older times our surf didn't have a way to protect access to it. So there was no Password check. It's now built in on the R serve side. It's not yet built in the pie R serve side So that's why by default they only listen to private IP addresses on the local host When you connect to our serve So we're running on your local machine. It's enough to call pi surf power surf connect Goes to local host on by default if you want to connect to a remote machine just provide a host name and Provide a port if you're running on a need non-default port on the server side The connection itself has some attributes so you can see where we're connecting to it That's especially interesting if you have multiple parallel connections on Open on your Python side so you can see where which connection is connecting to where you can close the connection You can see if the connection is closed on the on So now we come to the first real steps. What can you do? With such a Python With such a connection to our surf the connector itself provides a Method called eval that allows you to send arbitrary our Expressions our commands to the R side Let it let R evaluate that string expression and receive the result back as a native Python object on the Python side So here I just run a just summing up two numbers You can also call functions in our the C operator in our creates an area an numeric a array on the on the R side and Since either returns the result of that expression. What you get is that a numeric that array There's something popping up here all the time you get that connected in an umpire array on the Python side Sometimes it's not Always you want to return the result back from our so when you assign a very complex data structure to a variable on The R side, that's nothing you want to see on the Python side because it would have to be serialized from our Pass through the network and deserialize in the Python side And if you just want to assign it to a variable you want to avoid that so for that case there's an Variant of the eval command called void eval which just executes The expression on the R side and just doesn't return anything to Python if you still want to see the Value of the variable a bar you just can use the eval command Some more examples of string evaluations like here. You can even define a function on the R side So here you create a function call times two which takes one argument and the second eval command just provides Executes that function and the result is returned back to Python you can even Evaluate multi-line scripts which you can define Python you store them in in a string or whatever Send them over execute them and they get the result back. I think that's pretty well straightforward so the Using e-mail is very sort of the basic usage of Connecting to our or communicating with our Connector provides a much more interesting Attribute called R which represents the namespace of your R interpreter running on the remote side So why are these absolute are you can access? variables and set variables in the R interpreter you can make function calls and You have to watch out namespaces are separate as I said before for every connection But they are also getting deleted once your connection is closed So you have to make sure either you save your workspace and in our or you just lose whatever is in there so just to see The difference between string evaluation and using real namespace approach is these two commands do basically the same thing a variable a bar is instantiated on the R side with a string ABC and The first approach is the string evaluation part the second one is doing exactly the same same thing just Very pythonic, so it looks like ABC is assigned to a local variable in R but it's actually serialized and sent over to R and Set in that namespace it's even possible to Set more complex data, so that's an example where I create a numpy array in Python give it a shape and assign that that array to a variable called a matrix or an attribute and Also that numpy array is serialized sent over to R and a native R array is Created on the R side and the last call with con eval dim a matrix shows you that you can access that area in R and get the dimension as a as a result How are functions called in that pythonic way using the R namespace I'm creating here just to demonstrate that I'm creating three very simple functions The first one doesn't take an argument chest returns a static string the second one takes one argument doubles the value and returns it and The last one takes keyword arguments so that what you can do in R looks very pythonic already And now that's the way you call it. You just use your R namespace call function zero its string provide a Argument and provide a keyboard Keyword value to the last one and get the list back. I think that's very easy to see and to understand A more complex thing is our Some our functions allow to Accept another function as an argument maybe like the map functions in Python It accepts the data structure and the function you can map it against as apply in R. That's basically the same thing just the arguments are the other different order so it takes an array and Allows you to pass a function in R to be applied to it So that's also possible. You can refer you can refer to a function that's sitting on the R side from Python Con R times 2 It's important not to pass References to Python functions. That doesn't make sense. So like the double is a here I define a function in Python and if you try to refer to that function, of course, it's not possible to serialize functions from Python into R. You can serious data, but not function. So that gives you non a name error because Double is just not defined on the R side This example also shows you that Pi R surf can handle errors errors that are Raised on the R side. So I'm also when an expression is evaluated I'm looking at the result and I can see if there's an error raised and I can drag over the error message from R into Python and raise a exception Providing that the message that R sends to me So the name double is not defined. It's basically what R tells me This example shows you That things can be rather inefficient if you don't do it right. So here what I'm doing I'm creating a number area and Assign it to a variable our ARR on R side and then I make a function call with a supply where provide that area as an argument and Referring to the times to function which can apply to every argument in the array So why is that inefficient what that really does is? That it's assigning in the first line the array on the R side Then I'm pulling the array back over the network into Python and the last line pushes the array back to R And so the array is sent back and forth three times and to avoid that There is this additional attribute or this additional namespace Attribute that I reference before which is called ref Which that allows you to reference a data object in our without actually pulling it over so it just provides you a proxy to that and Here in that example now you use that to reference an array which exists in our and Supply that as an argument to the s apply function. So that avoids that data is sent in back and forth three times Out of bound measures messages, that's one of the latest additions that allows our code to Send messages interior Python interpreter, which on the Python side Trigger the call of a callback function that you can define In order to make that work, you need to start our surf with a special flag enabled in a config config file so that's the OOB enable which you can see here in that example and You have to start our surf to use that config file with the RS conf command line option That starts up the additional code in our surf for callback messages The way it's set up. It's very easy. You define a callback function in Python That takes two arguments message is basically the message you want to see from R. It's the payload of the actual Callback and message code is an additional Qualifier that helps it to interpret what you have received in message and that can be defined when the callback is triggered And you see that in a moment in order to make that callback Accepted it has to be assigned to a special attribute in the connector called OOB callback So it just assigned that to it and whenever PyR surf receives a out-of-bound message that method will then be called So that's a two simple examples The to trigger a callback from R. You have to call the self OOB send Call the self has nothing to do with Python self. It's just a namespace thingy in R I Don't really understand why Simon has implemented that way, but it's done. So that's the way to call it So the first call you see I just send a message no message code And when I print out what I receive in the callback, you see the message code is always zero by default the second call here I can override the zero send a More qualified Message code and the next example will show other than one of the next example will show you why you should want to do that One possible application of doing Callbacks is provider Feedback message for your progress So here you see a fake Dummy big job function, which has intermittent callbacks OOB send since how far your calculation has been done I'm setting up a primitive callback methods in Python You just print it for for that case and then when I call the big job You see the callbacks are they the callback messages are printed out While the R function is still running and then at the end you get the result back and can do anything with it Another very nice Application with that is to have a method dispatcher so you can make a callback from our and Control which kind of callback method is then actually called for doing that. I'm defining three constants on the R side and the Python side I'm setting up a dictionary in Python and Assigning three different Functions to be called depending on what kind of message code I receive Very small dispatcher method is created as a callback function, which just accepts the message code looks up the appropriate function in the function dictionary and calls it with a message I receive and Here you can see I make a callback Provide the argument foo and I want to see the C store method called which actually just appends the message that I receive into the List called store and when they print the list it has one argument. So that's a very nice feature and Try try it out if you haven't seen it I'm coming to the end small discussion of this network approach So the a good thing about compared to the RPI approaches when multiple people in your group and your team and all They they are all doing Calculations and you want to make sure everybody runs on the exact our version and the exact versions of all our packages they're using having one single installation on the server is much easier to maintain and As when every team member has to maintain and to ensure that all run the same versions and What you can do for What it allows you if you have three compute compute intensive stuff to set up a real our compute farm and Have a load balancer which distributes CPU intensive jobs to different our service The con side of course you have to serialize all your data that you're sending back and forth if you're sending huge amount of data That can be really a Bottleneck for you. So it's always a thing. You have to balance out yourself Security aspect is the last thing as I said before and the our serve side now nowadays allows to Have credential things so you can log in log out Pire ourselves doesn't have that so in the moment. It's best to just use it in-house So that's the talk for now. Thank you for your attention and if you have questions Any questions anyone? Okay, so thanks for the talk very interesting approach First question is did I get it right you have one session per connection which keeps the state? Yeah, that's one of one name space one session per case. Okay, so it's suitable for multiple users Exactly. Yeah, and can you say anything more about the serialization of the data you're using? You mean the protocol what I'm doing. Yeah, okay. It's a it's a binary format invented by Simon and there's a documentary very elaborate documentation on his website. It's It's basically working the same way as pickled us So it recurses into your data and goes down the the tree for a simple data That's simple but for nested dictionaries lists and tables all that can be serialized and it basically has the same approach just that this Serialization protocol is not Python specific, but it's our service specific. So all clients and all service can interact with that I mean Going into a technical details would just be too much for that talk But it everything can be looked up on the website. Have you considered to implement any other clients? Other languages other than Python client or no Ruby or just other languages Because once you're using serializing data, so it doesn't matter, you know what you use as a client. I Mean a Ruby client already exists You mean that we can exchange binary data between different languages. So have a network of connections Oh, okay. Yeah, that's maybe an interesting approach. I haven't thought about that It could be useful as a general way to exchange binary data between different Languages of different systems. Yeah, that's a very interesting idea. Okay. Thank you very much Okay, then there are no more questions. Any other questions? No, okay. Yeah, so thanks very much to all for the talk