Hello and welcome to another special episode of our series meeting all odds in this series We are speaking to leaders who despite major crisis that COVID-19 has put all of us into our standing tall And are keeping the business going with me today is one such leader. Mr. Chetan Mahajan founder and CEO mavericks India Welcome to the show. Mr. Mahajan Thank you so much. Yeah, it's good to be here And I hope everyone at home and at your work is safe and healthy And it's doing absolutely. Yeah. Yes. Yes, and we had actually, you know, shut our office 10 days ahead of the official lockdown. So we were Working from home even before the official lockdown started. So So you should in first question I want to understand how are you managing your work from home? Is it like Is it different difficult or it's doable? It's because we don't have a choice. I think it's doable. If you ask me if this is the most preferred way of Engaging with, you know, fellow colleagues and the clients. Of course not While within the times, I think we have adapted well in the last 40 days now But I guess, you know, most of our people including me we spend longer hours working It seems productive, but the collaborative spirit which comes while working together It just doesn't happen, you know, when you're all sitting on your own silos While technology has tried to bridge those gaps including zoom call and other calls and now hangouts and Facebook calls, but I think it's It's very difficult to bring in the creative the collective creative output on VCs, but yes, I think given the scenario most of our people have actually You know are putting much more time and are being more productive than ever before How is it for the communication industry because you know, you actually Your job is too much about, you know, going out putting up events meeting people So how much has it affected your business? So from a From a revenues kind of inertia, I think there has been a fairly I would say significant impact Because the businesses which were particularly in the space of travel hospitality they have zero revenues absolute zero and All those guys have either gone on a three to six months sabbatical or have completely We're drawn from the contracts. So the other businesses, you know, where the impact is Significant, but the revenues are not bottomed down to zero. So they continue to work with us. And Which are these businesses which are still using communications and are Interested in, you know, are still working with communication teams So there are many actually, you know, if you look at from our industry point of view So two industries which are doing really well amongst all this Chaos and crisis is one is the the healthcare industry, particularly the health tech industry And the second one is the education technology Companies so for these two companies, it's a watershed moment, you know I'm sure they didn't want it to come this way, but the the transition The digital transformation of these two industries Is this has been a tipping point for them? And you know, if you look at from from schools to colleges, everybody almost like overnight switched on In started, you know, delivering the classes and whatever online So it didn't take too much time for them to establish the infrastructure put up a technology It's so convenient. It was just about, you know, getting everybody together and Getting started. So I have a son who is in class six So he didn't miss, you know, initially a couple of weeks. I think through his school time They were just organizing and putting the structure in place making sure that all the teachers are available But then they have been online. The tuitions are happening online We work for I'm Calcutta as well. So they have also moved Everything online. So it's it's business as usual for both education companies and If you look at education technology companies, I think this is the best time of their business, you know It's a watershed moment for them And brands which are somewhere in between, you know, they're not as active like your education or healthcare and they're not completely shut like Travel or aviation. What kind of suggestions are you giving to them? So two things which are absolutely essential during these times one, of course you know This is a time when you really Call out your purpose and make sure that your stories are driven by your purpose and not by your product So the brands particularly the I'm talking about the ones which we are working with the the brands are very clearly Who have a very clearly articulated purpose They are not finding it difficult to engage with their stakeholders because they still have a lot of stories to tell Whereas the brands who are very transactional a very product-focused They don't have much to tell because they don't have any other story besides their product I will just give you one example of clay schools So clay schools of course is very clear with respect to the purpose the reason they exist and one of the biggest reasons is enabling women to go back to Work because there are multiple impediments for women, you know starting from marriage to child and Could be migration to other cities or countries and these barriers Don't allow women to go actually back to work and pursue their careers with equal amount of aggression as men would do So they are not finding it difficult to engage with their stakeholders because you know while the business is to enable Women through making sure that the kids are very well taken care of while they are working whether from office or from home through daycare and preschool But the the essential purpose the reason of their existence is you know enabling women to go back to work So they still have a lot of stories to tell they're able to keep their Ecosystem as well as the stakeholders meaningfully engaged and not trivially engaged Whereas you know some brands we work with Unfortunately, it's a very product oriented or product-centric or service-centric business. So they don't have much to go out and tell Another example, which of course is not a client. I would you know I would love to name is in a brand like a Xiaomi because they are again very purpose-driven brands So they don't have the earth of stories, you know when they go out and you know engaged with media They have enough stories which are revolving around their purpose and not Centered around their products those guys are not facing much challenges But others of course it is tough the second aspect is you know your internal communication crisis Now this is also the time you know when you know most of your employees You are not able to meet with them or purposefully engaged with them In many cases you're not even able to purposefully occupy them and that can be very very Frustrating for the the team members for the employees and that's where I think you know Communication agencies as well as the internal cop com leaders role become very very pivotal in making sure What the what the leadership is thinking how they are navigating these tough times because it's not just about the showlands Everybody is going through these uncertain times and it can be not just frustrating but very depressing as well and I would take the liberty we are still in the process of You know We we conducted a survey cross-centered professionals in the country At the millennial level as well as with the CXOs and some of the insights were very very interesting So for example while the companies may be pushed to get people to work from home because of the The crisis and the social distancing which they will have to maintain even in offices and the bigger challenges the commute How do how do you get people to travel to offices? But people are they're just looking forward to go to office. They have You know while most of us thought you know that people will love Working from home. It's actually very contrary to the general belief. You know, they're just itching They just want to go back to the office and that was I was actually surprised While, you know, some people did mention that you know going forward They would love to have some amount of flexibility with respect to work from home, but they don't want to Have work from home to become the new Normal, that's very scary. And also I think what happens, you know, when you are when you go to office, then Work-life balance becomes difficult when you're working from home, then life work balance becomes very very difficult There are no timings and And of course, I'm not getting into, you know, all of us are we are social animals, you know It's important that we meet people engage with people learn from people get inspired now, you know For a leader to inspire Their teams on I'm not saying it's not possible on zoom calls and all but you know, the inspiration which comes alongside Working together with the leader with your boss is very very different with the be a virtual engagement So another thing that everyone is talking about is there already a lot of There's a significant cut in all ad spends There are there's no production people are not spending on advertising How much do you think people would want to spend on communication? I mean even when we recover this entire recover from the current crisis as in the lockdown But the longer recovery will take much Time because you know economy has been hit and we still do not know how long it will take us to get out of this You think brands etc will continue to spend on communication or are you expecting some kind of See cut is I think Would be an understatement because if you look at a any crisis like this, you know, whether it was the you know the Lehman brothers crisis in 2008 which is the the sub crime crisis or dot-com bust 2000 Now some brands have a genuine problem and other brands will also take advantage of this crisis Right because it's an opportunity to negotiate and renegotiate all the contracts call for pitches and try and save as much as one can on various contracts because If revenues are not coming in then the only way to sustain yourself is By making sure that you're you're not spending too much. You're controlling your cost as much as possible So those things will definitely happen and I'm going again back to the insights we got from the survey most of the people expect the economy to To recover in no less than one year and definitely around two years. So it's a long long time you know, we're not looking at a v-shaped recovery anymore, which you know earlier many Economists were talking about that the recovery will be v-shaped, you know We go down and we bounce back But that's not likely to happen and one of the reasons it's not likely to happen is because there's a lot of uncertainty both from a business perspective and from The perspective incomes which people and companies will have And most of the people we surveyed in actually 50 percent said, you know, they are expecting to earn Less than what they earned in the previous year in the coming year and on the other hand There was a interesting insight, you know, they also expect to save more Because I think during these times they have realized that cash is not just the king It's it's being promoted to be an emperor now So you have to have either cash or liquid assets and not Assets which you can't immediately sell off or liquidate So what has happened is, you know, that all the discretionary spend That will take a significant hit people will not open up their pockets easily in the next six to 12 months The good thing about the PR industry is, you know that, you know, be it a small organization or a large organization Be it good times or bad times It's very important to communicate So, you know, whether you are talking to your people internally or other stakeholders because You're not here for the next quarter or the next year Businesses are made and built to be run till perpetuity And that's why it's very important to constantly keep your stakeholders engaged Not only let them know at how, you know, you will Recover and be equally relevant to them how you had left them in january or february of 2020 but even better What's the what's what's that one good reason why they should be loyal To that brand and that can only be communicated through You know, your organic channels and not through paid channels in particularly when you know, you're not looking at increasing the sales through spends Then it's only about building and protecting your reputation And I don't think any any brand which is serious about their business serious about building a brand and reputation for themselves. They will Really be You know putting a tight leash on the budgets for PR, of course, they will get reduced But the opportunity if you ask me relatively, it's going to be much much bigger for the PR industry This this unprecedented times has, you know, taught us a lot of things and you've been talking about You you're quite aware that the road ahead is really difficult. How are you keeping yourself motivated and how are you keeping your employees motivated? So it's it's a two ways trees You know, uh, I think uh, I'm fortunate because you know, we just started about two years ago Actually, we just completed two years this week So we have a relatively smaller team. Uh, and when you work with a relatively smaller team, you know, you have one-on-one connect with every single Individual every single team member and it's the belief in the leader and the ability of the leader to Be the best bet during these tough times And once people believe that that's good enough for motivation If they know that they are they are with somebody who is Perhaps most suited amongst the ecosystem. We are Working in to help navigate negotiate and emerge as a winner from here That's that's I think uh, nothing can motivate you more than that because in the Un you know in the challenging times in the time of crisis All you need is that one hope that yes I have a good chance of not just surviving this crisis, but perhaps thriving from this crisis Any measures that you You're in the business of communication. Have you communicated to your employees, you know some kind of exchanges you have had So which we all can also benefit from you know, our viewers can also benefit. How do you? Be motivated in these times So we do quite a few things to just keep ourselves One purposefully engaged The highest amount of motivation for creative people comes from having enough work, which is creative Because nothing can replace that right so if you have enough work And you have you are able to you know exhaust your creative energies Then you're bound to be happy the second aspect is you know When people are missing each other or they are not able to live Their lives as they used to two months ago Then you need to provide extra care. You need to be more than transparent.  So I'll tell you, you know that you know, we have taken some tough decisions Internally Because for us, you know, it's not too much of a loss of a revenue Of course, we have lost revenue because of some of the clients who have Cut the retainers or have completely gone on sabbatical and we completely understand and we stand strong with them because this is the time to be together Right So what is very very important naja is you know, you you have a very transparent Engagement with your people.  This is what is happening Consequently with us and let's let's find the best way to navigate and negotiate this So collectively we have taken some decisions which are actually harsh on the people But since they are part of this decision They are part of this process and they know why these decisions are being taken It doesn't affect them at all. In fact, it motivates them and charges them up that yes, we will fight together And only if we fight together, we have a chance to win Because unfortunately everybody's going through a crisis. Yeah So before we close, I would want you to Suggest what you think is the way forward for the entire industry, you know How can each stakeholder come together and find a way to come out of this situation? So I think first thing first This is the time to stand together And so many clients will come back and say, you know that you know, our business has suffered So we would want to reduce the retainer or the project fee for the next three to six months And it has happened to us and what we have done is, you know, we have actually increased the deliverables by 20 to 100 percent during these times Because you know in the routine course of business, it's of course, you know We always do our best like most of the agencies During these times it is even more important that you're going out of the way and making Sure that everything that is possible is done both from external communication point of view And internal communication point of view Second thing which is again very very critical is, you know, that your people Have to be with you all the while when you're navigating and negotiating this crisis because crisis will eventually be over And if it is not over then it becomes a new normal, right? So it's here to stay Which means that you know people will find a way to You know to live their lives around it And that's the time, you know people You know, if you if you have those right people They will help you move to the next level and I strongly believe that you know, particularly for You know mid-sized agencies and relatively smaller agencies It's going to be a huge opportunity And i'm i'm not saying this because large brands and mid-sized brands will be cutting budgets and looking for opportunities With mid-tier agencies rather than larger agencies because larger agencies unfortunately have Significant fixed costs and they can't do much about it because we Agency like us, you know, today we don't have an office and we don't have to pay for any either And when we go back, you know, we can we can we can go into walk into any office So we don't have those kind of Cost associated with our business So it makes much easier if you are if you have if you have flexibility with respect to your Overheads it's much much easier for you to bounce back in an ecosystem like this and my recommendation for people Across agencies across platforms is that I think just be transparent Everybody's going through a tough time If you are engaging with your stakeholders In a transparent manner if you're keeping them informed on if not on a weekly basis Now on a fortnightly basis what is happening and how You are able to support them whether it's your people or your clients come up with newer ideas Explore newer avenues of engagement see what's happened isn't if you look at the print media particularly It has shrunk significantly. There has been a huge amount of transformation from print to digital Now clients cannot on their own achieve this, right? But if the agency is is smart enough They will Help the client to make sure that you know They are transforming along with this journey and not trailing behind I think it's very very important to Unlearn many things and learn new things. This is also the time to Make sure that if you have any spare time and I'm sure many people have it these days So get on to online courses, you know, whether it is from Yudhami or Coursera, I think some of the best courses in the world are available Just just retrain yourself, you know, make sure that you know, you are one step ahead of the Client and client doesn't get an opportunity to tell you what needs to be done because that's the That's the worst case scenario You can face as a agency be the PR agency Integrated comms agency or an advertising agency doesn't really matter Thank you so much for speaking to us. I before I close I really want to repeat what mr Hajjan has said that let if this crisis becomes the new normal Then we have to learn to tackle it and I think in a way it has become the lockdown has become a normal thing for us Now if you all have been sitting at home and trying to find our ways to work And thank you so much for speaking to us. There's there's a lot that we have learned and I'm sure this interview will inspire many Thanks. Stay at home and stay. It was pleasure Nazian, thanks for having me with you. Thank you Stay safe. Also, I would request you to share the survey with us the survey that you've carried Oh, sure, of course So we just in the process of compiling the final report and by when a stage should expect the report I really am very interested in going through the findings of the survey. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good. Love to do that Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Stay safe. Nazia. Take care


here we go finally succulent duck finally they put out duck after after several weeks of no duck the duck is out of luck but not me I'm in luck finally comment or Jeff's also Bishop Ryan the exorcist Bishop I know I remember you making duck that time we're mentioning with duck and geese it's a good idea to defrost it and let it dry out in the refrigerator for one week before roasting it look at that oh beautiful oh succulent duck no duck I think it's been over a month since I have partaken all right beautiful beautiful beautiful sight it's gonna be a marvelous surf and turf I'll tell you that much oh no hardcore sushi yet they got all the sushi for sissies Nambi Pambis look at that oh Mongolian barbecue is a little not no action no action what do we got here beef kebab the old bullion balls everything is covered nicely that looks like tilapia filet what's this here beef kebab beef kebab oh geez the steam cause it to literally almost slide onto the floor I anticipate something bad happening because I had to grab that sucker Commodore Jeff Sambello but I'm gonna get some of this you just have to be careful not to get all that liquid all over my duck get some some I guess they're little neck clams they're not quail hogs there's some calamari and shrimp in there spoon at least one spoon with holes I want to get seafood broth all over my succulent duck you know what I mean get another cherry stone saturate my duck in clam water hey look what just came flounder filet with a shrimp in the middle bless their hearts bless their hearts all right you did it good I almost knocked it right off because of the steam it went went sliding and I had go reach lunch for it all right yeah all right I think that's an ample plate see what we got here oh couscous very nice teriyaki chicken there you go most chicken asparagus green spinachparagus it's wonderful that makes your year instinct to high heavens but you know as much as I see chicken as much as I see chicken everywhere they have outstanding buffalo wings here the Royal Hibachi buffet on rule 46 West and Saddlebook New Jersey and there goes them there's the man goes let me see they got lemons over there no they got lines my waitress was nice enough to bring me lemons that's a aesthetically attractive cake so is this orange colored cake you got some brownies this sort of looks like a German chocolate cake what do you think all right oh here is the special Turkish baklava excellent excellent cantaloupe fresh pineapple all right hey there's the ice cream hard ice cream there you go hard ice cream I don't see any 500 pound kids letting all the freezer that know the cold out not not yet at least no little fatty off buckle Chris Christie's all right here we got a nice surf and turf succulent rose duck some mussels some calamar and I guess cherry stone clams cooked in a white bouillabaisse type of sauce okay here I am at the Mongolian barbecue all right all right I was gonna get something different but I mean I could get beef I could get marinated chicken again King Kong Cameroon what do you think Commodore Jeff Sambelle and Exorcist Bishop Brian what do you think that enough shrimp I want to play maybe but then again if I put more of my fall off oh I love cabbage I'm gonna have to do something because I'm gonna have a problem I know it I know it I'm gonna have to put put the fish or meat on one plate when he's my head this time then put the veggies on a second plate knowing how much I usually select for the Mongolian barbecue that definitely I got to put onions on that right I love it love cabbage very high in nutritional value very high the whole cabbage family is really the best Ong Yom as Justin Wilson used to say from from the Cajun cook Ong Yoms remember him guy with the red suspenders and when he laughed his belly used to shake yeah I don't know what do you think some broccoli a little more Ong Yom alright you know what you know what I think I'm gonna have it I think I'm gonna have a problem what do you think people think I'm gonna have a problem you think I'm gonna have a problem I think so here I thought I was I was solving a problem and it turns out that I really was not now I have no room okay but this is alright hmm what am I gonna do now you know what I'll come back for maybe rice noodles with beef or maybe rice noodles with marinated chicken okay this is what I'm gonna do this is what I'm gonna do I have decided this is what I'm gonna get man there's the vegetables broccoli onions and lots of cabbage and here is lots of clean shrimp Cameroons all right now number one number two yeah because otherwise I'm gonna drop it on the floor yeah that's the problem a lot of garlic a muy picante and a little sesame dark sesame oil all right here we go now you're gonna see the king oh look at those look at those papers of life tomato chestambell look at that beautiful the king of all Mongolian barbecue look at look at that this is a wonderful work of art cabbage onions broccoli shrimp hot and spicy with lots of garlic and some dark sesame oil unfortunately the sesame oil is all the way over there by the sushi guy now this guy's got to go all the way over here about walk for about 20 seconds or 10 seconds grab the sesame oil and he's got to come back over here this guy is the Mongolian barbecue chef in the world look at that best of the best which is no asbestos all right we picante the garlic and now we got the dark sesame oil from there we go the best adoya some like that you got to be kidding looks like like a truck like a little chorizo artificial chorizo coming out finger we're gonna put some some of that on there oh here we go we get another Mongolian barbecue another one of course mine is like mine is unbelievable look at that now doing two waters simultaneously mine being on the right hand side mine is on the right of course beautiful cabbage is very healthy vegetable very high nutrition and you got broccoli and you got onions and you got shrimp, Cameroons, right, well look at the sesame yeah sesame oil is there any left or no more oh okay there we go nice dark sesame oil from Japan adoya all right beautiful beautiful wonderful look at that the vapors of life unbelievable beautiful it's good for marinating when you're marinating yeah like like an hour or overnight you're gonna map yeah you're gonna marinate yeah it's sweet it's the sugar in it ginger sugar soy sauce mine is condensing nicely it's shrinking into a culinary delight a very tasty culinary delight especially with that dark Japanese sesame oil lots of hot pepper and wheat pecan they end a lot of garlic put a lot of garlic right yeah good good very good all right and then we got another one oh he's gonna he's gonna be cooking he's gonna be cooking three now this guy's better than those than the Bennett Benihana of Tokyo you know the Japanese Steakhouse where they do the acrobatics flipping things around and and you've got to share your food with other people that you don't even know strangers you know and you don't even get that much food for the money he's flipping like like the Benihana yeah those places they don't give you much food the Japanese Steakhouse you know the guy is throwing the knife and the spatula in the air yeah yeah and then you got to sit with people you don't know everybody you know everybody gets like a little bit now like mine forget it Commodore Jeff Sambell I'm telling you yeah spice it up get that hot pepper in there beautiful sight nice and hot and spicy like the food from Sichuan province Chengdu the city of Chengdu the only difference is I got I think extra dark sesame oil and of course I got good soy sauce there beautiful look at that it's going right on the dish what a beautiful sight what a beautiful set yeah all right wonderful thanks much of grassy bye bye thank you I'm gonna go to my seat and I'm gonna eat this it's a truly a work of art in any buffet here we got yellow net yellow crook neck squash with zucchini I call it squish squash anything new over here no not really I can smell the sesame oil it's fantastic beautiful what a beautiful sight look at it here we have Royal Hibachi buffet rule 46 West Saddlebrook New Jersey okay Royal Hibachi buffet rule 46 West Saddlebrook New Jersey I'm gonna have some sushi I love this though I love this white tuna sashimi right it's some regular tuna some regular tuna there some raw salmon we have white tuna I'm assuming bluefin tuna I don't see any unagi I like unagi but I don't see it raw octopus and squid is a little chewy the shrimp is all right I'm not sure what that is it's like it's someone's birthday you know what let me take one more one more white tuna and some wasabi some soy sauce no unagi so I can't use the where is it you you're not no or not you saw I have to use soy some of this wasabi in there and mix it up okay so you have a nice picturesque is my limes for my ice refreshing lime water and there we go white tuna bluefin tuna some salmon and now I'm going to I'm going to mix the wasabi in here mix it up and then use this okay I'm trying to decide there's two kind of baklava's here the Turkish one and the standard one you know what I'm gonna have one of these there's trade ledger Spanish trade let your cake I eat that all the time you a buckle buckle a box and see what I'm gonna do here in one chocolate we're not too much icing because I don't like sweets but then again why am I eating this right okay there we go two chocolate cakes what do you think Commodore Jeff Sanbella and superstar from the travel channel the exorcist Bishop Brian what do you think baklava and dark chocolate cake but this this other baklava is interesting you know the owner says it's Turkish style it's a different style but it's very good now now we have ice cream ice cream if I had to start an ice cream company I would have an Eskimo screaming and call it the ice cream ice cream company it's an utter delight alright okay isn't that good look at that all right look at that not bad this has been a mega live 21 production


So let's begin reading here in Revelation 11 at verse one. We'll read verses one and two. Like I said, I'm going to give you Pretty much the same thing I gave you last time adding a couple of details and we would I should probably say good morning to those of you who are right now wearing your bunny slippers and pajamas our Online viewers and I'm talking about the men the women. I don't know but It's good to have you with us and we look forward to having you with us live as soon as you're able So Revelation chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 then we'll move into verse 3 and conclude up to verse 14 And John writes I was given a read like a measuring rod and The angel stood saying rise and measure the temple of God the altar and Those who worship there But leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the Gentiles and They will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months for three and a half years and So again, I shared much of this with you. Please to bear with me. Perhaps we need to say it twice I don't know But as we're looking at this passage John has been commanded To take the little book out of the hand of the mighty angel. We had seen that in chapter 10 and this little book contained information concerning the future that awaiting believers and Remember as he had taken that book from the angel. He was commanded to take it and Eat it so taking and eating was speaking of assimilating and absorbing the word of God He had been told that the book would be sweet to the taste but bitter to the stomach So the word first would be sweet to the taste For believers There's nothing to be more greatly desired than the word of God We realize that God's word is pure We know that it is beloved and we also know that it instructs us and we're to follow its command Even as Psalm 119 verse 140 says your word is very pure. Therefore your servant loves it So God's word is valued God's word is valued by the Christian and God's word is to be desired above all material things Psalm 19 verse 10 says more to be desired. Are they then gold? Yeah, they're much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb in Job 23 verse 12 Job said I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread So as believers we know that God's word is sweet to the taste We know that there are benefits in loving and keeping God's word like it says in 9th Psalm 19 verse 11 moreover by them your servant is warned and in keeping them. There is great reward So Jesus made it clear that God's word was of immense importance and value Again, he'd said in Matthew 4 verse 4 man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God So for the Christian God's word is sweet God's word is to be desired His word will be sweet to you because you desire God to act and you desire God to be honored But verse 9 says it'll also be bitter because a future that awaits and believers is going to cause you pain Having concern for others will always cause pain when you understand their future. See that's the thing that drives somebody in Ministry that's what drives you in life. It's a concern for people's future That's what drove me to tell my mom and my dad my sisters my brother and those that I encountered That's what drove me to tell them. I was teaching a Bible study a young lady shows up in that Bible study Here's the word of God had never heard a Bible study before and two or three weeks later She comes to faith in Christ and I ended up marrying her the word is of great value It changes lives and God is able through his word to put together his plans for us And so his God God's word shall always be desired It should always be acted upon it should always be honored But for those who reject it the future that awaits and believers will head on a cause pain to us Having concern for others will always cause pain when you understand their future in Romans 9 verse 3 Paul said it like this Paul said I could wish that I myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh I'd give up my salvation for them to be saved in Romans 10 verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved So in in obeying God's word in direction There is there is a great reward But on the other hand for those who refuse to do that there is great penalty in John 1248 Jesus said he who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day So the more you hear the more you have to account for Somebody who was raised in a Christian home and rejects the word of God has a great amount to account for Because the word that you've heard is going to be used as the judgment Because you rejected Christ In John 15 verse 22 if I had not come and spoken to them They would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin And so John had been told Prophecy Prophecy again about many people's nations and tongues Continue writing out the prophecies that you're delivering to the people these prophecies relate to everyone Everywhere and bring them warning of judgment And so that's what we had seen in chapter 10 So beginning in Chapter 11 at verse 1. He says I was given a read like a measuring rod So John is given a measuring rod and a command rise and measure the temple of God Measure the altar and those who worship there Now this event takes place during the last half of the tribulation called the great tribulation In Matthew 24 21 Jesus said then there will be great tribulation Such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No nor shall ever be In revelation 7 verse 14 we had seen how he's how it says I said to him sir, you know So he said to me these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation wash their robes and made them white In the blood of the lamb So during this time God is going to raise up two bright lights in the midst of great darkness And we're going to see that in just a moment But again, I'm going to revisit some of the things that we've already seen in verses 1 and 2 So when he said in verse 1 rise and measure the temple of God the altar and those who worship there These events that are being mentioned take place in Jerusalem Now when you read your bible the word Jerusalem the city of Jerusalem is is found some 806 times And the word Jerusalem can actually be translated city of or habitation of peace Even though it's called the habitation of peace More wars have been fought in Jerusalem than any other city in the world The city of Jerusalem has been burned to the ground no less than five times And in recent history has been the center of no less than four concentrated wars The temple that is being referred to here Speaks of the fact that that Jerusalem is once again under the authority of the jews Now we know that israel was reestablished as a nation in 1948 In 1967 after the sixth day war, Jerusalem came under jewish authority On december 6 2017 president trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of israel And the american embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on may 14th 2018 That would make it clear that the temple which does not yet exist must be rebuilt Now jesus had told his men that the temple would be destroyed in matthew 24 verses 1 and 2 It says jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple And jesus said to them do you not see all these things assuredly i say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another That shall not be thrown down That particular Destruction that he's speaking of was fulfilled in ad 70 under the roman general titus And that means that the temple had already been destroyed by the time of the writing of revelation That makes it clear that the temple spoken of would be a future temple Now in matthew 24 jesus spoke of events that would transpire during the great tribulation And he made it clear that the temple would be in existence at that time In matthew 24 15 he said when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation Spoken up through the prophet daniel let the reader understand that tells us that the temple is rebuilt And that the holy place is once again in existence Now jesus was speaking in matthew 24 specifically to the jews We see that in matthew 24 20 when he said to them pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath So we know he's speaking to the jewish nation And later on we're going to see This is the place where antichrist is exposed for who he is Now paul spoke of that when he was writing to the thessalonians in second thessalonians 2 3 and 4 He had said don't let anyone deceive you in any way For that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness Which is another name for antichrist the man of lawlessness is revealed The man doomed to destruction He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called god or worship So that he sets himself up in god's temple proclaiming himself to be god So we know the temple is going to be rebuilt We know antichrist will be exposed for who he is because he's going to be in that temple proclaiming himself to be god And so This is going to take place in the last half of the tribulation, but how will it happen again? I mentioned this to you last week Daniel gave what is called the 70 weeks prophecy And when he gave that prophecy it reveals that antichrist is going to make a treaty with the nation of israel In daniel 9 27 it says he'll confirm a covenant with many for one seven speaking of seven years In the middle of the seven he will put an end to sacrifice an offering And on the wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation Until the end that is decreed is poured out on him He's going to have a covenant a covenant. It's simply another way of speaking of a treaty The antichrist is going to have a treaty And in that treaty Undoubtedly that treaty will include resuming temple sacrifice in a rebuilt temple So the jewish temple has to be rebuilt jesus spoke concerning that pal prophesied concerning that The jewish temple has to be rebuilt Now i mentioned that when we go to jerusalem we go to the temple institute And the institutes activities include education and research Development the temple institutes ultimate goal is to see israel rebuild the holy temple on mount mariah in jerusalem In accordance with the biblical commandments. That's what they say of themselves And so again the problem with rebuilding is islam islam has two important buildings on the temple mount It has the al aksa mosque It has the dome of the rock The dome of the rock is where many muslims believe muhammad ascended to heaven So how can you have a temple built on a muslim holy site without world jihad? Well, the biblical archaeological review states that the actual place of the temple is 26 meters from the dome of the rock When you look at diagrams of the temple, it's divided the temple area is divided into four court Four courtyards. You have the court of the gentiles and court of the women court of israel and the court of the priests As part of the agreement A section could be left for muslims and the dome of the rock Ezekiel indicates that there will be a wall separating the temple From a place and it could be the mosque in ezekiel 42 verse 20 It says he measured the area on all four sides It had a wall around it 500 cubits long and 500 cubits wide to separate the holy from the common Now I mentioned that the dome of the tablets and the dome of the spirits It's also called is lined up with the eastern gate The eastern gate is where messiah is to enter into the temple The eastern gate is one of eight gates that was built into the wall surrounding the temple It provides the only entrance from the east and it faces the mount of olives So the prophet Ezekiel wrote in Ezekiel 43 verses one and two Afterward he brought me to the gate the gate that faces toward the east And behold the glory of the god of israel came from the way of the east In chapter 43 verse 4 of Ezekiel the glory of the lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east Well as Ezekiel went on to prophesy in chapter 44 verses 1 and 2 He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east. It was shut And the lord said to me this gate shall be shut It shall not be opened no man shall enter by it Because the lord god of israel has entered by it. Therefore it shall be shut Well in ad 70 the gate was destroyed But between the sixth and seventh century or so it was rebuilt In 1541 Suleiman the first sealed the gate Because Suleiman had heard messiah was to enter it If you go to israel now you have a sealed gate you can see just the the crown of it But right in front of The the gate when you're looking from the mount of olives towards the dome of the rock Right in front of it is a muslim cemetery So they've been burying people there in front of the eastern gate for many years They believed that if they built a cemetery That a jewish holy man would never defile himself by going amongst the dead And that's why they have this cemetery and when we're there on the In and the garden of guess gethsemane We will actually be looking from the garden of gethsemane right towards the eastern gate And as we are looking down there i'll point out there is the cemetery Because they thought that by building the cemetery it would prevent messiah from entering in the eastern gate And when you're there on the on the uh in the garden area Looking towards You'll see the towards the west you'll see the dome of the rock But you'll also see that the eastern gate is not lined up with the dome of the rock. It's actually off to the side And that's because that's where they would actually go in To temple worship and so it appears that they're going to be able to have in the covenant The ability to build or rebuild the temple and re-institute temple sacrifice Well being able to continue to have the dome of the rock And in doing so that covenant will allow both jew and and muslim to have their sites without a war In verse one john is to measure the temple the altar those who worship there So when he speaks of temple that word temple is a is a word neos it speaks of Of the inner temple it speaks of what is called the holy place and that would be also leading to the holy of holies So the temple speaks of that inner temple the altar speaks of the brazen altar Which is the altar of sacrifice which is outside the holy place. It's in the courtyard Then he speaks concerning the people the people would speak of the jews who have been saved who are there worshiping Now the days are increasingly growing darker judgment is falling upon the world In the midst of the judgment god has witnesses that declare his grace Remember the 144 000 jewish evangelists that are protected by god during this time, but they're not alone in their witness Notice how he says leave out the court, which is outside the temple.  They're going to be speaking of the judgment of god They're going to preach judgment in hell And we'll call people to receive the gospel and to repent And he says in verse four these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands When you when you look at the book of Zechariah The book of Zechariah symbolizes these these lamp stands symbolize the source of light as well as revival In Zechariah 4 verses 2 and 3 it says he asked me what do you see? I answered I see a solid gold lamp stand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it with seven channels to the lights Also, there are two olive trees by it One on the right of the bowl And the other on its left in verse 11 of chapter 4 He says I asked the angel. What are these two olive asked the angel? What are these two olive trees on the right and left of the lamp stand? And in verse 14 he said these are the two who are anointed to serve the lord of all the earth So these two prophets Are going to lead a spiritual movement in israel Their testimony and their preaching is going to produce conversions many conversions And so as they're preaching god is going to divinely protect them notice verse 5 If anyone wants to harm them fire proceeds from their mouth and devours Their enemies now I wouldn't mind that but Such a ministry Is going to cause many To desire to shut them up I want to talk to you about that for just a moment. We'll take a Few moments to look at this portion again if anyone wants to harm them fire proceeds from the mouth devours the enemy If anyone wants to harm them he must be killed in this manner We all know this we're seeing it more today We see a lot of it in other countries There's more persecution going on now than almost in any time in history In various countries people are beheaded for the faith in christ imprisoned for their faith in christ there Their their churches are burned down Sometimes the churches are burned down with believers inside These things are taking place even as I speak and and and we americans up to this point Have have been very very protected by the lord. I think we can all say that Even though we're seeing movement now made against the church to silence our voice It is being done right now Again, all of us see that all of us know that if we don't know that we ought to A friend of mine don mcclure's son marcus Not marcus a michael is the pastor up in calvary chapel san jose And the state of california has been coming against him for some time He he is now being fined a million dollars. They want to put him in jail for five days for preaching the gospel This is taking place right now. It's taking place in the calvary chapel family. It's taking place right now right now We just don't see it. We're not aware of it. It's not always reported. You don't read it in the newspapers, do you? Do you see it on the news? No, why not because many times the news won't report those kinds of things But we're aware of it. We know what's taking place. I'm aware of it right now That's taking place.  Jesus promised it to us. It's going to happen And so here in the book of revelation, we see it unfolding We have two witnesses and and when the two witnesses are preaching you need christ You need the gospel you'll get peace if you do and god's grace They don't want to hear that message and so what they do is they're going to be opposed And and that's because people can become violent when they hear a message that calls for a change of life See a lot of people want to have christ and their sin too.   Everybody thinks that Everybody thinks all you need to do is die and you'll go to heaven by the bible didn't teach that but american culture does And a lot of people believe in christianity at least intellectually that's why on christmas We still celebrate it even though people say don't say merry christmas. Say happy holidays There are still many many americans who will use the word christmas because they realize that christmas is a celebration of jesus christ So we live in a in a uh a society that acknowledges certain things, but will not acknowledge repentance And that's the problem guys Is we want our sin and salvation too you can't have both And when these ministers are preaching They will want to harm them They want to harm them the bible says in psalm 37 12 the wicked plots against the just And gnashes at him with his teeth They don't like hearing it So they'll pass laws shut up. They'll ban you from from social media. Don't write your posts We don't want to hear about prayer. We don't want and they really don't and it doesn't take a whole lot of people It doesn't have to take millions it takes one person with power to pull the plug It's all it takes just one person and a committee of people who are saying oh, you shouldn't say this You know, we're reading your posts and we think that goes against our standards We're living in that right now And and americans don't seem to understand what's going on.  I'm not complaining against them. That's the reality of life. I'm simply identifying the reality That's what happens. That's what happens You don't find a lot of people who are willing to come and hear about repentance There are a lot of people who will go to a church if they're entertained Or informed But they don't want to hear actual gospel. They don't want to hear that. Why because it calls for a change of life Change that they don't want to have You see sometimes the fear of man's response may tempt Us to refrain from speaking And this is common in what is today called the the uh cancel culture. We're all hearing that term It's simply a way of shutting you up If I don't approve of what you're saying, I don't want you to say it and now I was just listening to the news and I won't draw too much of that into my study today other than to make this observation Where I heard several people saying we need to reprogram the way these people think I heard several people say that Several news broadcasters from various organizations saying the same line because a lot of times They're just fed lines and they all repeat that that's how people's minds are brainwashed. That's how everybody's saying this We we learned that I learned that when I was nine years old About how to sell something and I learned that in school when I was in the fourth grade They said there are various ways for you to be able to get your opinion made and part of the propaganda is simply to say Everybody believes this I learned that in 1959 And it is true now as as it was then a lot of people have never been taught that They just been victimized by it. So if every news program you hear says the same thing You begin to believe that that is true because you don't go to another source to discover whether or not there are facts behind it It's simply emotions. And by the way, we don't like Facts, right? We like our feelings and americans are filled with feelings. And so if someone feels offended They will say don't say this. It's called cancel culture. Not only do they not want you to say it But they want to reprogram you like in 1984. So you don't believe it anymore That's a fact Don't say anything that I don't approve of is now American way of thinking which makes it more difficult by the way to preach a gospel message When Jeremiah was called the prophet Jeremiah He was hesitant He was hesitant to accept the call He even tried to evade it When you look at the book of Jeremiah in the old testament in chapter one verses four through eight It says the word of the lord came to me saying Before I formed you in the womb. I knew you Before you were born I sanctified you I ordained you a prophet to the nations Then said I lord god Behold I cannot speak i'm a youth But the lord said to me do not say i'm a youth For you shall go to all to whom I send you and whatever I command you you shall speak Listen do not be afraid of their faces for i'm with you to deliver you saith the lord Jeremiah didn't want to speak Many of us in this room don't either many who are watching right now online don't either I don't want to cause problems. I don't want to have arguments. I don't want to start a fight So we just keep our mouth shut And somebody begins to speak to us and somebody's sharing with us and it's that person in you alone that person in me alone And they're speaking and the holy spirit's prompting your heart to say tell them about the love of god Tell them how god forgives sin Tell them how good god is Oh no, if I do I'll get in trouble If I do they may reject me if I do and that's what's going on. There's so much Canceled culture that christians are being silenced by threats And now laws that are passed called hate speech laws So if I preach the whole gospel and actually go through the book of romans and read chapter one and give you what paul actually said You're speaking hate speech. There are there are already countries you can be put in jail For preaching the gospel that you wouldn't think Go to canada Go to canada and preach romans one which speaks of various sins And your your your teaching will be confiscated by the government You can be fined They don't allow it Surprise, but it's true And perhaps that's where we're moving right now. It's going to come to a time I'm going to preach you who preaches the whole council Can be put in jail. That's why i'm going to hand the church to john But i'll visit you I will I promise you That's that that time is coming it it's very much now I mean churches already have been successfully shut down Many churches you may or may not be aware of this have folded Because of the um the requirements through covet in all The voice of the church is being silenced and we're not even aware of it But it's taking place even right now. That's why I made a decision That's why back in march when they said you're gonna shut down I am willing to do whatever it is to protect this church But I got to the point where I said, you know what? I want to protect their spiritual life too. We're gonna meet again. We're gonna talk about Jesus as a group That's what we're going to do. That's what we did You know and and and so that's that's what that's what ministers do And but the time has come Where we're beginning to see this unfold you see we have a message people need to hear it We speak of the grace of god. We speak of god's forgiveness We warn people of the judgment to come And people need to hear there's hope People need to hear there's forgiveness But not all people appreciate it and and violent responses do occur We need to be wise When we share But we need to share when we're led to And that's what's taking place in verse 6 It says they have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy They have power over waters to turn them to blood And to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire Now this has led some to speculating That these two prophets being spoken of here. This is all speculation Could very well be elisha and moses Why is that? Well The old testament states that elisha returns before messiah In malachi 4 verse 5 i will send you elisha the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord So they say that sounds like elisha It also they also speak of it sounding like moses Because in deuteronomy 18 verse 15 it says the lord your god will raise up for you a prophet like me From your midst from your brethren him you shall hear So they say these are characteristics of both elisha and moses in the old testament But also the miracles that are performed are like the works that moses and elisha performed when they were on earth Notice how fire proceeds from their mouth That's reminiscent of elisha In first kings 18 verses 20 through 40 those verses reveal elisha calling down fire from heaven In first king 17 verse 1 as well as james 5 verses 17 and 18 elisha caused the rain to stop falling for three and a half years When you look at moses while moses brought the plagues which included water turning to blood You see that in the book of exodus so Both were with jesus and both of them were on with jesus on the mount transfiguration in matthew 17 So these are the things that cause people to wonder if perhaps they could very well be elisha And moses again scripture doesn't give their names. We can only speculate and wonder But notice in verse 7 when they finish their testimony the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit Will make war against him overcome their notice and kill them Now when it says the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit, that's the first of 36 references Of one that is referred to as the beast He is antichrist. We're going to see him more closely in chapters 13 and 17 But we see that the beast is a man and we see that his power is derived from satan And this is what john means when he says he comes up from the abyss You see in chapter 12 satan is portrayed as a dragon. He's not called the beast But chapter 13 reveals that the beast is a world ruler and is called Antichrist He portrays himself the antichrist portrays himself as messiah. You see We use the word anti very much to speak of being in opposition He's anti this or anti that but the word anti could also mean instead of And the word antichrist is presenting himself instead of Jesus who is messiah and he portrays himself as messiah And he rules and we'll see this he rules over people and he demands worship And it's the beast who overcomes the two witnesses So notice it says in verse 7 That he will make war against him overcome them and kill them And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the city, which is spiritually called saddam and egypt Where also our lord was crucified that would be the city of jerusalem One of the things i was thinking of just before walking up to teach is Is the fact that these men these witnesses are Invulnerable until the lord's gives permission for them to die It's appointed unto men to die once and after this is judgment And god determines the moment of their death Now without i didn't prepare a lot of thoughts about this is just something i was thinking about That's one of the things for me in my own life that i That's one of the rules of my own life is that and and and i don't mean this in In the way it can it can appear but I'm invulnerable until god says it's time When the lord says it's time to go no matter what i do i'm going To die But you can't take my life from me If i'm not presumptuous if i'm not Leaping from the pinnacle of the temple and shortening my life voluntarily A person can't take my life from me until god says it's time for you So don't live in fear Don't be living in fear You know there are things i don't want to have happened to me god knows those secret things But one of the things i'm not afraid of is death itself I'm not afraid of that because my name is written in the lambs book of life Because when i close my eyes here it's only to be looking at him face to face Why would i be afraid of that i've been preparing myself for that since the day i got saved And one of these days and it's not that long now I'll be looking at him face to face Why would that cause me fear So the fear of death doesn't reside in me Not because i'm stupid and not because i am so faithful No, because he's faithful He has promised and these two witnesses are Invulnerable when people wanted to come and take them fire came out of their mouth These people became crispy critters because they burned them And then the lord says now i'm going to let you You die and they do And notice what happens Their dead bodies verse 8 will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom in Egypt Or also our lord was crucified What happens is Jerusalem has become terribly evil. It is the seat of antichrist rule So the people dishonor them They leave them to decay without burial In israel it's it's appropriate to bury quickly But they leave their bodies there to begin to decay And notice verse 9 then those from the people's tribes tongues and nations will see their dead bodies Three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies to be put in the grave How is it that everybody and notice Those from the people's tribes tongues and nations speaks of the world How is it that the world will see their dead bodies seems obvious satellite broadcasting And verse 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them make merry send gifts to one another Because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth If you want to see how wickedness reacts to righteousness here is a clear picture The people who had been convicted by their preaching party They give gifts to one another their consciences were tormented These prophets are dead.   They begin to exchange gifts It says that they were tormented and they think they are now safe The call to repentance the warning of further judgment Ultimate judgment is cease and the response is relief and they party. I didn't want to hear that You bothered me when you brought it up. You'd say these things to me and now that voice is silent I don't have to hear it anymore It's dead, but verse 11 after three and a half days the breath of life From god entered him god breathed life into them Even as he breathed life into the first man adam And in verse 12 it says Verse 11 it says great fear fell on all those who saw them. They heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them come up here They ascended to heaven in a cloud Their enemies saw them A huge amount of the population Is now about to be killed by an earthquake in the same hour There was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed the rest were afraid and gave glory to the god of heaven The second woe is past behold The third woe is coming quickly Fear begins to strike Some even gave glory to god, which is usually a phrase to speak of people actually Believing in him It seems that some come to faith Through these judgments in romans chapter 4 verses 20 through 22 It says abraham didn't waver at the promise of god through unbelief But was strengthened in faith giving glory to god And being fully convinced That what he had promised he was also able to perform therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness So it appears that many who are giving glory to the god of heaven are actually being converted Coming to faith because they believed and they saw and it drew them But he says finally verse 14 the second woe is past behold The third woe is coming quickly This is the end of what is called the sixth trumpet judgment. It's leading now to the seventh The seventh trumpet judgment introduces the final series of judgments. We'll be looking at called the bowl judgments The bowl judgments lead to the return of jesus recorded in chapter 19 He says the second woe is past Behold the third woe is coming quickly. It's coming soon Behold the bowl judgments are about to hit As I mentioned to you and we'll close with this thought there are a series of judgments that began with the break End of the seals moved to the trumpets and now It's about to see the worst of the worst We have seen bad things up to this point where the earth is devastated natural disasters plagues and death But it's going to get worse and that's why he's saying and now it's going to move more quickly than it has up to this point Be aware he says the bowl judgments are about to fall on the earth You know one of the things that we need to as christians today is we need to take seriously the word of god to believe that god's word is true Prophecy has been called pre-written history. These are words that are most surely going to take place And if you haven't come to faith in christ yet and speak to those also online If you haven't come to faith in jesus christ if you haven't received his grace if you haven't repented God's word is true heaven and earth will pass away. Jesus said about my word shall never pass away God's word is a sure word. It's a pure word. It will definitely come to pass And if you have yet to receive christ, you need to receive them You need to turn from your wicked ways and you need to say god be merciful to me I turn from them and I turn to you lord save me forgive me wash me cleanse me make me new Because lord, I know these things are taking place. I know they're about to We're seeing them begin to unfold even in our day. We're seeing how people can believe a lie even in our day And it's going to be even worse The church is going to be removed and all hell is going to break loose And as we're looking at this we're seeing actually heaven's going to break loose on earth The wrath of the lamb will fall on those who rejected him. So why reject him? God will forgive you. God loves you. He'll wash you cleanse you give you brand new life No, we need to receive him and if you haven't done that yet you need to do that today


Hello, this is Distinguished Toastmaster Prasila Dayes, welcome to Koei Challengers Toastmasters Club. Today we have with us International Director, Distinguished Toastmaster Ali Shabaz Ali. I would like you to share with us your experience as a Toastmaster. Well it's been 20 years, I'm enjoying the Toastmasters program and every time I go take some role I feel like a better version of myself, provided if I do good in that role. Now what matters is there will be good days, there will be bad days and that's absolutely fine. You can't go very constant on different roles or even on the same roles you take but what makes a difference is you just keep going and that's what I'm doing from past 20 years. From what we understand most of us join Toastmasters to develop our communication skills and we also know that Toastmasters, the tagline of Toastmasters is where leaders are made but at this point I've noticed that including myself we do hesitate to take up leadership roles and you have been the epitome of leadership in Toastmasters being the International Director. What advice would you give to members, to Toastmasters on how to initiate, how to take that first step into taking up leadership roles? That's a very important question and need of the hour to understand leadership in Toastmasters. When I started Toastmasters, when I logged or got into the program 20 years back from now I didn't even imagine that I would be going to any leadership track, it was purely for communication but then the club approached me, told me to become the surgeon at Amps. This was way back and I said okay, I didn't realize that I'm already transforming as a leader just by taking one role in the XCOM and then the next one, then the next one from area governor, those there used to be governor, not director, then the division governor and then the district trial and region advisor and here I am as your International Director. With all my experience I can only say few things to people who are new in Toastmasters. You can have a road map for leadership but in our organization it's all about personal transformation. I know people who have taken positions but a very little change what I have seen and I know people who have taken just one or two roles and I see a huge change. So it's what you put into that role. One more message is that leadership roles is not only when you take it in the club XCOM, district XCOM or beyond district, even being a timer it's a leadership role and that's what I tell people when you are the timer of a club, you are leading the whole club when it comes to timing. How many timers do we see tell the club president or give a signal when the president has crossed his or her time. So as a timer, as a grammarian, as a counter there is leadership essence in every role we take. We wait for that label but that's not true. Every role we take that's a leadership essence we are talking about. Now today you are leading this question answers session. So you are the leader of the date and there is leadership essence in everything. Our DTM Kajaton here who is managing the setup, he is leading the setup today. So he is the leader in that domain. So there is leadership essence in everything we do in Toastmasters, whatever role we take. Thank you, Distinguished Toastmasters, Alisha Baz that just gave me an insight on what leadership is. It's not about title but in every role that we perform, be it a timer's role, be it an XCOM role, everything that we bring to Toastmasters is in a form leadership role. It's not just about communication. So thank you very much for that insight on leadership. My idea of leadership was being on the top of the chart but I have now understood now when I do a timer's role I would know that I am actually doing a leadership role and that goes for all of us Toastmasters to understand that leadership is not just about the title, it's about how much we put into the roles that we perform and do it diligently. That makes you a leader. Thank you Distinguished Toastmasters, Alisha Baz once again and I wish you a pleasant stay. Enjoy the 300 meeting. Also wishing DTM Toastmasters Club congratulations and all the best on your 300 meeting. Thank you so much. Thank you.


As Tennessee prepares to play in Jacksonville, what could Mike Vrabel say to get his team's attention? You're in the last quarter of the season. You are in the hunt to win this division. This is a division game against a team that's 1-11, has zero to lose but has everything to gain by derailing the Titans today. The Titans have come to Jacksonville and played a very dominant game and won very impressively. Big division win. Hey, we got another game at home next week and we got to lock back in, get focused man. How come to the Mike Vrabel show presented by Coca-Cola from the Bet MGM studio? With the head coach, I'm Mike Keith, glad to have you with us and glad to be back from Jacksonville with a victory. Lots of Titans fans made the trip down. We were on the plane coming and going with lots of Titans fans to see this win. It was Titan football at its best. When they're doing what they do, Coach Mike Vrabel and company are playing complimentary football. We bring in the head coach and congratulations on the victory. You talk a lot about complimentary football. Can you give a quick explanation of what you want to see in that way? I think it's when each unit is building off each other and feeding off each other has the ability to lift the other unit up or take advantage of a play that they may create. Turnover results in a score. A punt inside the ten yard line results in a three and out and great field position that we turn into points. Being able to stop them at the end of the half and get the ball back and use our timeouts, taking the ball and scoring coming out of the second half and getting a stop. Those are all things that we talk about and the players understand that. I want to show you some examples of complimentary football in tonight's six pack that we begin. Right off the bat, Jacksonville takes the ball. They have a nice drive going. They try a 53 yard field goal with Altric Rosas, who is a really good kicker, but in this instance, the Titans get the better of him, Mike. Well, the entire day, you know, we went out and we warmed up and the field was soft. It was soft and slick. It didn't have much grip to it. You can see him here with a long kick. It goes down. We also got good push and we want to make sure we're staying away from this ball. We're not going to go and do anything silly and try to pick it up and return it. You know, that's a big momentum change and we had an opportunity to come back and we're going to see here and score some points off of it. So Nick Dazubnar, really smart staying away from the football. Titans take over at the 43 yard line and drive down for a touchdown, which we'll see later on. And take a seven to nothing lead.  Derek Henry for 22. Derek Henry for eight. Derek Henry for five. Derek Henry for four. And then Derek Henry for 36, Mike. Yeah, it was just, you know, I felt like we were starting to lean on him. I felt we were coming off the ball. We were finishing. A lot of scrimmage was going the other way. You know, you, you see a good job there. Good operation.  And, you know, usually he's going to win a lot of those matchups. Titans take a 14 to three lead at that moment with 44 seconds left in the half. And then a fabulous job by the defense, a three and out forcing a punt. Nice punt return for the Titans. They started their own 37. Let's take it home from there, Mike. Absolutely. Ryan, you know, plants and throws and Corey's able to get into this route and push the corner off and they're playing a little soft.  So we're sitting there with five seconds with two timeouts and we go with the down, down timeout. And now you can throw it anywhere you want because you're in a timeout situation. You've got a quarterback who knows where to go with it and a tight end who knows what to do.  If you see this from the coaches copy, there's a lot of guys calling timeout. You know, are we right there? You can see everybody signaling and we're all one tune and we're all seeing it through the same set eyes. So the Titans started at their own 37 and now after John Smith's catch, they're all the way to the 35 of the Jaguars. They've used a total two seconds remain on the clock and they have set up this Stephen Gaskowski who is money from outside of 50. Well, it was right down the middle.  You know, I talked to him about his footing. He said, hey, coach, I feel good. I'm fine. And, you know, that was, it was a great kick. Stephen Gaskowski, good from 53. So you get it in the final 44 seconds of the half, the Tennessee Titans tally 10 points and it goes from a seven to three game to a 17 to three game. Tennessee would go down and score in the first possession of the second half in just two minutes and 36 seconds. Suddenly it's 24 to three and the nail in the coffin ends up being a defensive play from a guy who had an outstanding day, Malcolm Butler. Yep, absolutely. You know, that's great recognition here, staying on top of the post, not letting them get a big play. And we got to do a better job putting the football away and trying to block, set a direct in traffic. But, you know, some of these DBs, they all think that they're returners and, you know, Harold gets into the middle of the pocket and enforces a throw. So, you know, that's just good complimentary football. And even by the defense, you know, Harold's coming up in the middle of the pocket on play action and enforces the quarterback to get rid of the football. Complimentary football at its best for the Titans all day long. The offense sets up the defense that sets up the special teams and on and on and on, a primary example getting the Titans to nine and four on the season. Later on, the Mike Vrabel show presented by Coca-Cola will have the wrackly roofing tough Titan. But coming up next, it's the Bridgestone performance play of the game. And it was something else. It came early, gave the Titans a lead. They would never relinquish. Stay with us. We're in the Bet MGM studio. This is the Mike Vrabel show presented by Coca-Cola. And it's time for our Bridgestone performance clutch play of the game. You might have noticed we left this one out in the first segment because it was pretty. It's a handoff to Henry. No, it's a return to sender coach. You love that return to center.  I said, man, what are you talking about?  You can see the great protection in the middle of pocket. That's really the key to our passing game is that great protection in the middle of pocket. And then, you know, AJ goes up there, holds the guy off body control and makes a heck of a play. AJ Brown tipping it to himself for a score on the day seven catches for 112 yards. You wanted to come with that early in the ball game.  It wouldn't be aggressive. You know, we work those things in practice. And, you know, when they look good in practice, you have confidence running them in the game. And, you know, Monty did a great job. The entire punt team did. I wish we could have gone down and turned that into points. But we had wrapped the play there offensively and just felt like something that we could do to take advantage of what we've done. Love that Bridgestone performance clutch play of the game from AJ Brown on the flea flicker or return to center. Whatever you call it. I'm from Tennessee. That's Elvis Presley, man. You're going to say return to center. Anyway, all right, time now for something we can all agree on. The Delta Dental, guess the Titan. We can, you're hot. You're rolling. You got this. We got a lot more coming up from the Bet MGM studio. The Mike Vrable show presented by Coca Cola. Can you guess this Titan? Mike Vrable is the only person who that question really matters to. Can you guess this Titan presented by Delta Dental? We will find out. I have not been around this player for long, but I do think that if you look in the eyes, I think that that's Desmond King. Desmond King. He's a winner. Desmond King the second is the right. Well done, sir. Desmond King. I mean, what a blessing it's been to get this guy in the football team with the trade that you made with the Chargers. First of all, you've needed him with all the injuries you've had in the secondary and he really fits Titan football.  He gets after it. We saw him do it Sunday in Jacksonville again. He just keeps coming. Even if a play doesn't go his way, he's back for more on the next play. Yeah, and that's what you have to do. We just have to continue to build that communication and build our knowledge of our system. There's a lot of stuff in there that guys have had a lot of time practicing and Des hasn't been with us. So there's still some things that come up that we have to work through. But he's been in there. He's been tough. He blitzes for us and works in a slot. So that's tough duty and he's come in and he's been up for the challenge. AJ Brown, seven catches, 112 yards in a touchdown, keeps making things happen for you.  He's a different sort of player than the Titans have had in a long, long time. What does it mean to have this guy on your football team as the head coach? He's got a great attitude. He loves football. He loves coming to work. It's hard building relationships with everybody on the team, especially now with where we are with the space that we're keeping and the virtual setting that we're doing a lot of these meetings over. But I think we all continue to build a relationship with AJ. He does with Ryan. He does with his position coach, Rob Moore. Rob does a great job with both he and Corey and the young guys that are with them. He's a fun guy to coach. He continues to improve and has high expectations for himself. And I know that he'd like to complete to get that eighth catch, the one there on third down to keep that drive going. So we're going to have to fix some of those things. You set it up perfectly though. AJ Brown is this week's Rackley Roofing Tough Titan. And he's more than a great receiver. He's a great teammate. You'll see as Amy Wells visits with number 11. Jim Henry, Pitchback Tannehill. Throw right side going for Brown in the end zone. One hand. Touchdown Titans. Oh, man. Oh, that's crazy. Arthur won. AJ, it seems like when this offense is working the way that it's supposed to, you guys are having a lot of fun. What do you like about playing in this particular style of offense? It's both a blow. It's body side, body side. They come in knockouts. These are on a deep bottom. Me or Corey or Derek just imposing it on everybody and then on the court. During the touchdown, I think the first touchdown Derek scored me and Corey like running side by side like that. We knew it was coming and we started pointing at each other. It's definitely fine. We see him doing his thing because he gives us a lot of energy and momentum. It seems like Arthur Smith is really skilled at finding ways to utilize everybody's individual skill set. Why do you like playing in that style of offense so much? I feel like you have to. I feel like you've got to have something here and there. Keep the defenders on their toes. He's definitely doing a good job this year. We believe him. We trust him. We call our number and we try to make a play for him. You had over 100 receiving yards on Sunday. That makes eight in your career. Do you expect to have more than 100 receiving yards every time you play? I feel like I'm out there long enough to have 100 yards. Regardless of how many opportunities I get, how many targets I get, I just try to make the most. I'm not seeing one man at the end of the game. Most of the time I don't even check because that stuff doesn't matter. I'm really trying to keep winning. That's all the thing that matters. Get to the playoffs man and that's what it's about. Your Instagram handle is 1k always open. So I guess I have to ask, has the expectation always been to have 1,000 yards? The nickname comes from high school and it just kind of just followed me. It just kind of correlates with getting 1,000 yards every year. If Corey Davis is also able to hit that 1,000 yard mark, what would it mean to you to be able to do that with a teammate? No, he's definitely going to do it. It'll mean a lot man. He goes to show you how hard a worker he is, the time we put in. A lot of people are probably going to think like we're really trying to get wins. They bring it to us like we got to get a 1k, we got to get 1k yards. We're really just trying to get the win and make these plays and let the chips fall where they make. There's three games left in the regular season. How hard is it for you to focus on the task at hand and not peek into what the possibilities could be like in January and beyond? To me that's kind of easy because like I said earlier, it's week to week.  It's the NFL. This is not a video game where you can come back. You play bad in the first half and you come back in the fourth quarter. You have to come to play every game. So we just got to lock back in and focus on our new opponent this week. AJ, thank you so much for being our rackly roofing tough Titan. Guys, we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to talk about one of the Titans' biggest off-season challenges. That was making Nissan Stadium safe for fans. Check out how we do it on the other side of the spring. As we return to the Mike Grapple Show presented by Coca-Cola, it's time to go inside the Titans presented by Xfinity. And one of the most important things that happened in this 2020 season had nothing to do with football. And that was getting you, the Titans fans, back here to Nissan Stadium. Because we wanted you to have that NFL experience that you've always loved here in 20-plus years, but also to feel safe with your family and friends. How did it happen? A lot of people put in a lot of work to make you feel safe at a game. My name is Jenny Needham. My everyday role with the Titans is Stadium Events Manager. But my 2020 role has adapted a little bit to be the Stadium Infectious Control Officer, or ICO, to focus on all of our health and safety for our staff and fans. We handle things like all of the proper COVID-19 testing for our staff, as well as for some of the key roles that are on the field for our coaches, the staff that helps them support the game day experience. We honestly do a little bit of everything when it pertains to being in the Events Department, being in the Guest Services Department, because every aspect of an event day touches something else. And it's in the little details of the things that I'm always looking for and preparing for on a game day. For this year on game days, you know, I pretty much go around and I'm kind of a mask enforcement police. I walk around trying to make sure everybody's trying to follow the rules of the stadium with saying six feet apart wearing your mask. In March, the Safe Stadium plans started to come to fruition when the stadium started working on all the elements that would keep our staff and fans safe for events at Nissan Stadium. We landed on sort of creating this task force, a group of people that were coming together to really start generating concrete ideas and processes and procedures to make sure that we are making the stadium as safe as possible. So today is game day and on the service level we go through all the protocols and processes for getting the visiting team and the home team in in a safe manner over onto the service level to the locker rooms before we kick off the game. These basically over sized sneeze guards which protects the fan and also the concessionaire behind it. It promotes safety. We've got our six foot marks for people to walk up and maintain social distancing. This year has taught us so much about the fan experience and what we want to continue to do to grow that in years to come. One of those things would be seeing the fan experience at a granular level to be able to go back to step one. What is it like to come into a stadium and experience a game day in the best way with safety and health as a priority? I think the most positive thing we've done with this is we've worked well with the health department. They've been here at every event and they've helped us improve our practices but they've also been overly happy with what we were doing here. While it is a Titans game day in COVID, you're still having the best time ever. One of the most impressive things the Titans have done this year is to continue to cultivate community for the fans and staff around the football season in a year of 2021. There's not a lot of exciting things to come in the news. What I think is also going to be positive around here is that with our safe practices we've had other stadiums in the arena come by here and just watch what we're doing because with health department's approval, Bridge Zone Arena and the sounds have been watching what we're doing and they're going to follow pretty much our protocols. So it's going to be good for the entertainment of Nashville to follow our safe stadium practices. Welcome back to the Mike Vrable Show presented by Coca-Cola from the Bet MGM Studio. Time now for the Nissan Keys to Success Against Detroit. Let's start with turnovers, Mike. You've got to win there. Yeah, we've got to be better with football. We put one on the ground there and we've got to get some more of these defensively. The fans are minus two but the offense, their offense has been really good with it. It's going to be a challenge for us to get turnovers. I think they've only fumbled the ball four times and we're going to have to try to find ways to strip it out of there and take care of it on offense. Red zone defense, key number two. Yeah, I think that that's just something that we're going to have to stand up to these guys. They're top 10 in the league and we're going to have to get some stops down there. It's hard to think that they're not going to get down there and you can see the difference that it makes when you force teams to kick field goals. And for the offense, continue doing what you've done all year and that's finished drives in the end zone. Yep, these third downs are getting to be huge. Keeping them on our terms, that third and short, third and five or less and when you can do that and you can get into those drives and convert third downs that it gives you opportunities to go down there and score points. Let's meet back here next Tuesday and talk about a 10 and four football team. I would love that, Mike. Sounds good. For Mike Vrabo, I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us and reminding you, you can listen to us this Sunday on 104.5 The Zone. Titan's radio coverage begins with Titan's countdown. Have a great night, everybody.


Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. Today's video is going to be back to school themed related because I feel like I made this video a really, really long time ago, probably like in 2016, just talking about like school and everything leading up to my decision to stop going to UCF. But obviously I didn't have the audience or like anyone who really cared to listen. So I felt like remaking the video and especially now given the fact that I have a bigger audience and stuff. And I don't know, I just thought you guys might be interested in this. So this video is going to be why I quit UCF or dropped out of college. I do have a degree for those wondering. It's an AS in digital media, video and motion graphics. So it was really like heavily focused on like after effects and design, like all of those programs. But I have taken a lot of college courses in my life, a really wide diverse curriculum that I've taken. So yeah, I guess we're just gonna jump right into it. If you guys are new here, make sure you are subscribed because I talk about my life, share my life. Also make sure to give this video a thumbs up and follow me on Instagram because it really helps me out. So starting off, I graduated high school around 2014 and then I applied to colleges and stuff and tried to apply for scholarships. I did get one scholarship I think. So I start going to UCF because it was closer to home. Like me and my friend always talked about like going to UF or whatever because my goal was to become a doctor. Like I, that was my end all be all. I wanted to stay super focused. I didn't want any like relationships or anything because I needed to focus on becoming a doctor. And I was very serious about that. I then thought that I wanted to go to UF with my friend who actually did end up going to UF and stuff. And that's kind of funny. But I also loved USF. I wanted to go there because I really liked the campus and also to my high school friends were going there, which actually they became really close in college which was just really cool. But I'm like, oh, I miss my friends. But I decided on going to UCF and it was really good at first. My classes were okay and they were still like challenging but they were fine. I was doing good. I had some good friends. I was still like really lonely and like lost. That's probably the saddest. One of the times I've been like the most sad in my life just because I loved my high school experience and like I had the good friends. So I would say UCF wasn't bad but it was not like, oh, the best years of your life for in college. No, that wasn't really for me. I was always studying, trying to do my best on tests and everything. I will make a separate video about this maybe in the near future, but I wasn't the best test taker. So it took me a lot more work than maybe, you know, one of my classmates. If you know what I mean. So I just like really just put my head down and like focused only on school. I didn't have a big social life and I was just like really alone. I did have like nice people around me. It's like not like anything horrible. So I do really well there. I get good grades.  I actually lost a bunch of weight just probably because I was like not the happiest and I walked everywhere. It was chill and I don't know. I was just like really lonely and sad. And I made these like YouTube videos in my dorm room because senior year of high school I really got into watching YouTube. And I know that we were in the process of moving from our house. So we were in this little apartment while this place was getting built and I would make YouTube videos but nothing really like lasted. So all of those videos are non-existent. But in around 2015, around that time I turned 18 and my parents got me a camera, which was so cool. I think I actually gave it away. I don't know what happened to the camera. I might have to look for that. It didn't have a flip out viewfinder which made me really upset. I didn't really think it through but all I wanted was a camera so I could film videos. And I actually do have some up on my channel if you go and sort by oldest videos. I'm sure you can find videos that I did in my dorm room. They're a little cringe when I look back but it was like one thing that was making me so happy. So I made a little YouTube videos. I did well in school and I was in a club. So that's good. It was called pre-professional medical society and it was really nice and all the people there were so cool and really smart. And my experience there was really good too. But then, I don't know. I feel like I just got out of the swing of things and I was still doing fine in school. I made Dean's List for biomedical sciences for my second year, I think. So I was going into my third year or ending my second year. I don't know. I don't really know the chronological timeframe but I just remember my mom was saying because Chem 2 was really hard for me. And there was a lot of my peers and classmates that actually didn't pass Chem 2 so they needed to take it again. But I was passing, I say passing loosely because it was a C. And honestly, I started to make Bs and As. I knew that my parents were like, oh, something's up because her grade in this class isn't good so we were in the parking lot of Hooters, actually. And it was funny because my mom was like, okay, so what's going on? All of this stuff. And I honestly don't remember the nitty gritty details of the conversation but it was like I confessed that I wanted to do videography and photography and that I loved that stuff. And she was like, well, you know, we never pushed you to be a doctor. That was kind of all on you. And I'm like, I know that. So I was in this position where I was like, I like both things, you know? And they were like, okay, well, we'll talk about it and stuff so I don't know. I kind of let loose about how only I studied. I didn't really like, I was really lonely. I didn't really like it there. I really didn't. It was a weird feeling that I had towards like my experience at UCF. I don't wanna say it was horrible, but like I wasn't happy. It was like a odd feeling that I had. So fast forward, I start to pursue and look into things dealing with photography. And we found this really cool program. It's probably still around, but it's a photography bachelor's degree at Daytona State College. It was, it has some relationship to UCF. I was gonna move down to Daytona Beach and get an apartment and do photography. And then someone that my mom knew said, well, you know, if you have so many credits in a Florida State school or something, you are going to have to pay double.  So then we looked into that. So just in case you guys are wanting to know like all about this, if you take too many class credits, like if you have too many credits, the state will like charge you a lot more. So obviously that wasn't gonna work out. So we found a program at Valencia that had everything I wanted to learn and study. I start and learn about digital media, video and motion graphics, and you learn about video, photography, cameras and like different graphics. So how to write things on the screen and how to move objects in After Effects, like all of that sort of stuff. So that seemed to really fit what I wanted to do, which was obviously like YouTube and video and everything. So it was a really good fit. And I still like my goal was I wanted to get some type of degree in 2018 because I knew this is a bad reason, but I knew that my peers would be graduating and I'm like, I want to graduate too. So we made it and I did graduate in 2018 and I wanted to make sure I had like a good job and I did, yeah, that's kind of the story. I don't know if I missed anything because I'm honestly just talking like how I would talk to a friend telling you the story. And now we're here and now I almost have 40,000 subscribers and I'm averaging like four to 600 views on my YouTube videos, which is like insane. And again, I just want to thank you guys so much. I get paid to do this, which is another thing that I never ever thought was possible. I mean, I still am interested in the medical field. No opportunities and choices are closed off for me. But also too, I just want to throw in that like rule about class credits and stuff is just freaking ridiculous. And I might go off on a tangent. I'm sorry guys, but like that's ridiculous. People should be encouraged to like learn what they want to learn and do what they want to do. Like I wish you could create your own major, you know what if someone loves science and they also love history? Like they should be able to take classes like that. I don't know why. And then for a job, you should just be able to get the training you need to do that sort of job. Obviously doctor surgeons like really like professional like certain professions that wouldn't work, but some professions it would work. So I think we need to be a little bit more flexible and let people take the classes they want to take so they can, I don't know, learn what they want to learn. I love photography, I love videography and I also love anatomy and like chemistry. And like I've always wanted to take an organic chemistry class. And I know that sounds crazy, but I mean that's just another topic I'm interested in and I like it. But honestly though, Kim too is like really hard to because the professor wasn't that good. And I know that you shouldn't like blame a professor, but still. Anyway, I'm kind of going off on a tangent now. I am sorry, but I just wanted to get that off of my chest. So yeah, that's pretty much why I dropped out of UCF. I found and wanted to pursue my passion and everything. And it was kind of late in the game to change my major. Like I was like kind of halfway and then I decided to do that. So we didn't want to like spend like triple quadruple amount of money for that because that's just a lot of money. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Make sure to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye.