Welcome to Monet cafe. I'm artist Susan Jenkins and yes art is better with friends So come join the fun subscribe to this channel and enjoy this lesson today where I will be sharing a tutorial of this Painting of an adorable bear. Oh my goodness.  So be careful And you know PMP is great because you're able to go to the site and find reference images of Images landscapes and things that may not be in your own backyard. So thanks again, Angeline for this beautiful photograph Also currently this original painting is available on my Etsy shop And I have prints and other products with this image on fine art America comm I'll share those links in the about section of this video The main topic of this video is what surface is the best for painting animals? And by far my favorite surface for painting animal portraits and wildlife paintings is Sennelier La carte pastel card I'll be sure to stay tuned to the end of the video because not only will you see me create this bear painting But I'm going to show you some examples of a flamingo doing feathers and also doing dog fur So that's my tricky way of getting you to watch to the end of the video And now let me show you my color palette for this painting Surprisingly, it wasn't as many pastels as you might think Some of these here are duplicates, but these were the basic colors and values that I used I'm going to show them to you right here. And also I have a clickable link I took a photo of these colors and in the about section of this video You can click the link and see the photograph of all of these colors if you'd like to look at it more closely in this first column going from dark to light are my cooler colors and This column here are my warmer colors again going from dark down to light Now I knew even though some of these colors look a little bright They looked a little bright when I was putting them on I realized I wanted this to look more realistic So I kind of neutralized some of those colors that look so bright. Those are actually really more for the back lighting of the bear So I'll talk about that a little as I paint now These are some greens and believe it or not the greens weren't just in some of the grasses around the rocks They were in the bear himself. One of those greens I put down was like the exact value of the brown paper I'm using so you can't even really see the mark that I made I also used some cooler and a little bit more of a teal color there. That was my little punchy color I don't use it a lot in the painting, but just a little bit for fun and impact I can't stress enough how important it is to get in an accurate sketch if you're doing an animal portrait I prefer using charcoal for this versus pencil because charcoal is made more of the same material as soft pastel and The application goes on to the senile a paper quite well too now back to accuracy with animal portraits I say this because I have done this wrong in the past Often and it just is so frustrating when you feel like you've gotten everything right about the painting or you're feeling good about it but something is just off and so often it is the eyes and I Notice if you look at the bear photo here that I have superimposed Look how dark the the bears eye is I mean it really looks like just a black area Now I had it zoomed in on my iPad So I could see that there was a little bit of the whites of the eye showing But guess what? It's not white. It it's like a really dark color where the little white of the eye was so I have to remember I've got to keep this whole I even darken it more after this I have to keep this whole area quite dark and then just so subtly Give the indication again. You can't see it zoomed in but he had his his eyelid is what made him look sad It's kind of drooping down over his eyeball and so I had to make sure I got that that to me His expression was what made this painting so sweet So I've got to make sure I get that so do what you have to to get an accurate Sketch I usually just put down some guidelines and then work from there as long as I have the proportions right I feel confident that I can begin my painting so often I do like to begin with the eyes and the general features of the animal that I'm painting and Also, you may notice I also will talk about this more at the very end of the video Like I said, I'll be doing some feathers of a flamingo and a little dog's ear to show you kind of the general idea of how to paint on this paper the Sennelier LeCart paper and you'll see in that example and here I typically will work dark to light and You know usually that's kind of the way you work with pastels anyway, but I find specifically with animal fur We have a tendency to want to paint the exact color and value that we see and often I say for me always I need to create it in layers and that's what gives that believability So often I'll lay down a darker layer I'll look for the kind of the darkest value that I see in that area and I'll lay down that darker layer and Then I will gradually layer upon it getting finally to the Values that I see Think of it more as you're working the underneath coat and Building the layers up to the the part that the light shines on very similar to landscape painting when we put our darks down We have to get some ground down before we can put grasses on top of it So it's kind of the same thing with animal fur So I'm now that I got a little bit of those values in of where my darkest darks are you know always if you can squint your eyes and look for your darkest values and Again, I like to work all over the painting So it helps me to get those darks in everywhere I see them and basically just start blocking in things from there then I can gradually get to other areas to work more Specifically, but another thing about this paper is if you've never used it It's surprisingly coarse. I remember the first time I got it. I thought oh, no how am I gonna work on this and When you first lay down your strokes as I did when I first began I had this tendency to want to blend everything in you know early on and it was in time and gradually that I realized No, no, no don't blend with a blending tool And I you'll see me sometimes tap things off with my finger a little bit I never used a blending tool except for my fingers sometimes just to soften a couple of areas But what we need to do is Let the pastels blend it themselves that Lends to that painterly look that we so often admire and so Often want to emulate So so let the pastels do the layering now getting in these toenails somebody commented on When I posted this on I think it was a group. Maybe the Monet cafe art group on Facebook It was I think they said I like her toenails I think of this bear as a boy, but it could be a girl Also, too, I get the toenails in later. You'll see I add the highlights to the toenails But I'm saying this now because I am going to I'm not going to talk for this entire process, but I Tone them down a little bit there They're kind of the value that they need to be right here because you don't want them to be the focus Getting value right is so important and also too I Knew the focal point was this bears face So keep that in mind as you see me work I'm getting things I'll get things kind of generally blocked in I've got to get something in all over And then I keep in mind that I don't want too much contrast in Other areas other than the bears face. I have a focal point video It has five strategies for creating a focal point and one of them a biggie is Contrast and if you want an area to be a focal point You want your lightest lights and your darkest darks to be in that area and then the rest of the painting can be a little bit less contrasty and That will immediately our eyes just have we're just made that way our eyes go to high contrast So as I finish up the painting, I keep that in mind. That's why I didn't want those toenails to be too bright You'll probably see a point where I have them a little lighter and then I tone them down because otherwise they're going to just be Too noticeable and you may have noticed I've sped this up just ever so slightly just to keep the video file smaller But notice now where the bear has the darkest values I know those color temperatures are cooler So notice that I'm using more violets and cooler colors to give the impression that it's in shadow Now I'm speeding this little section up here a bit more to get to another point that I'd like to talk about Here I'm still just kind of working over all and I try very hard I've learned over the years not to get too tied up in one area too quickly. What happens when you do that is You overwork an area usually it doesn't have the same Consistency as the rest of the painting and often you can get your values off Overall if you just hone in on one area So that's why I always try to say keep it loose work the general painting get your values in Block in the big shapes, but once again with animal portraits, you've got to get the features correct Or it's it's just going to be off and nobody wants that I wanted to keep the sweet bear looking the way that what drew me to the photo to begin with now you probably can notice there is quite a bit of backlighting happening in this bear and I Know that that's going to be one of the lightest values in the painting actually it is look at the photograph You can easily see the lightest value is that light that's shining from behind the bear So I know that gradually my values are going to get lighter as I move up And this is a point where I was playing around with some of these different colors and some of them weren't quite right But as I often say if you get value right, that's the more important choice Okay, so if you're limited with your pastel palette make sure you get value right and you can Be a bit creative with the color, but you may remember at the beginning of this I talked about how I wanted this to be a little bit more realistic of course colorful, you know I love color But that's why I end up kind of neutralizing some of these colors by layering some other colors on top of them But at this point, I am just kind of I know I got to get this accurate. So that's why I try to reestablish some things At this point, I'm still just blocking in getting the values right in areas and making sure I have an Accuracy to this bear now, that's the lightest value that I use right there We might have a tendency to go. Oh white or even not white just even a really really light value and I Resist the urge to do that until the very end and you see how subtle that is right there with just that That's actually kind of a really neutral green that I had just added now that orangey color It like I said some of this is a little bright that it did have the bear did have some beautiful orange colors in it But it was just like that. That's just a little too orange right there So I use it for the sake of value and then I neutralize it at the end and some of my patrons know if you're a patron of mine We actually had some really neat lessons on how to make your own Neutral colors. So again, if you have a limited palette You actually can Increase your palette by learning how to yes blend pastels a bit We can't blend pastels quite like oil paint water color or acrylic But they do have some blending ability and the way they play upon each other when you layer them So so that's a way to give yourself some neutrals when you don't have them But once again, that's a patron video that I had I think it was one of the story time episodes that I had in in one of the books we read So if you haven't become a patron and you'd like to it's Only $5 a month most people I would say probably more probably about half just Give to help this channel. It helps me to keep these videos coming But some people want the camaraderie we have neat connections on discord And it's a lot of fun and they like the extra lessons. So I get to know you guys a little bit better that way And now things are taking shape Starting to see things kind of evolve into despair. I'm working a little on the values that are Underneath his paws on that rock now. I want you to notice As I work in just a minute how I utilize the greens once again, I showed the pastels at the beginning of this video and I mentioned that there were greens in the bear and You don't necessarily see them when you first look at the photo But they worked great for those lighter areas that are on the bear But they're kind of in shadow specifically on his nose and on his ears And if you look at the reference photo and kind of squint You can see the areas that are around his face that are lighter in value, but they're not in the sunshine So I thought this mossy kind of green worked and even a little bit on his nails so again I stress it all the time get value right and you can explore with color a little bit more and Have more interesting results. I think because our brains sometimes just say oh brown and red and tan and That's not always We'll make the best painting now I did I thought that kind of cooler green that I just used right there And there's a little bit more of that tealish kind of color. That's actually kind of a teal blue gray color And I added a little bit of that in the bear for just some interest in places where I thought there was some A little bit of darker values and again I'm gonna layer on top of this and it'll create some interesting Effects, it's so neat with pastels how we layer and I recommend to just have some fun first Don't dive into a serious painting. You don't figure all this stuff out until you do a lot of painting and don't get frustrated I was having a conversation with an artist the other day That I shared how frustrated I was at my beginning journey as a pastel artist and Oh gosh, this was years and years ago and I searched It's one of the reasons I create it is the reason I created this channel I searched I there weren't all the resources that we have now online and There weren't I don't remember any YouTube videos of pastel artists and I found one art for him And I almost gave up pastel painting because I I got some cheap pastels I didn't know what were the better pastels to use and by the way if you're gonna Scrimp on anything Don't scrimp on the pastels scrimp on the paper before you scrimp on the pastels because it really does make that much of a difference and But anyway, so I I almost gave up because I just had terrible results I was using just I don't know maybe even drawing paper I didn't know anything about anything with pastels I felt I felt like I always loved art and I had majored in graphic design I did have some some art classes not a lot But I really loved it and I always loved drawing when I was a kid So that's one of the reasons I started this channel is because I realized man There's a lot of information that people don't know as pastel artist and so I just started I always say I started bringing people along on my journey I still don't consider myself one of the best pastel artist, but I love teaching and I love sharing and so You know me I always go on these tangents when I get to talk into you guys but anyway, notice how I'm adding those interesting greens and See how much more lively the bears looking with some of the purpley magenta colors that I have in the shadow and the greens in the rock and the greens in his fur and You may be a bit puzzled at the beginning. That's one of the most common questions I get is how do you know to use that color? Well, I would say I break that down to two things first like I've mentioned before Value if I don't have the right color. I just go with what is the right value? Next I go with color temperature. So if you keep those two things in mind Oh and real quick. Let me mention. I actually did use a little blending tool there Just a little bit just to kind of it's a piece of pipe foam insulation And I'm just sort of blending in some of the areas that Still had the paper showing through so basically I was just using it to soften things and to kind of complete Things just kind of getting an overall coverage and because I was blessed to have kind of a quiet house Which is a little rare for me sometimes. I am able to keep the little scratchy sounds of the paper I didn't have a whole lot of background noise other than cars riding by on the road outside of my studio But that's why when I speed this up, you'll hear those scratchy sounds go really really fast now You can probably see how by blending a little bit It did soften things and it kind of got me more coverage of the complete bear And now you can probably see a little more clearly how that green on the nose and in the ears really does work Okay, it your brain doesn't read it as green. It just reads it as a value That I think works quite well much better than if I'd have used just a tan color So I am still just getting Trying to be very accurate with things such as the nose and I do apologize that this is I don't always work this way But sometimes it's nice where you can see my pastels laid out beside me a lot of you guys say you like this But sometimes it is a bit harder to see my strokes with my left hand and the way here I try to set up my camera when I'm working at the easel to where it's over to my right side a little bit You can kind of see my strokes better that way But there's advantages and disadvantages to both ways now you can see I'm going in you see I'm going over those dark values and just adding Little indications of some of that fur and how it grows just that little Chunkiness and things that are in the fur just ever so slightly for this little portion I'm gonna speed it up again. You the painting probably took about two hours So I didn't want to make this a two-hour video, but I'm highlighting points that I think will be good for teaching So I'm gonna add just a little bit of music here But stay tuned because I'm gonna come back when I get to some of the brighter highlights around the bear and the rock and the Background things coming together. Here's where I mentioned that I had put some highlights on the claws Nails I was calling them before claws. I guess is the better word And they were getting too much attention. So later you'll see how I tone those down add some shadows around them I thought I'd also share here how if you've watched my videos much You probably don't see me use pastel pencils very often But occasionally when I need a little sharper point or edge to something I will grab one This is just a darker pastel pencil and like I'd mentioned before that eye is mostly dark But I knew it had a little bit of a lid there and I just kind of wanted to accentuate that a little more now To the rock and the background Backgrounds can be tricky, especially when you've kind of worked on things you're feeling happy about it You're like, oh my gosh I really hope I get this background good because I don't want to mess up the whole painting with a bad background I knew one thing that I definitely wanted to do with this background is not give it too much detail once again What's one of the strategies of focal point? Well, one is contrast like I talked about and another is detail And your eyes going to go to where there's more detail So I'm keeping this really loose and using my pastels more in a directional stroke just focusing on value and Color temperature and once again the direction of how things are going and I know that front side of that rock was In shadow it the rocks kind of red But I didn't want to make it quite as red as the bear once again another focal point strategy I hope that bear I wanted to keep keep him as the warmest thing So all these little things may sound like a lot, but they're they really Get easier the more you do them and then before you know it you're sort of naturally doing it But I do recommend watch the focal point video That's something that I think has helped me more as an artist in my latter years as an artist is learning these strategies And here's where I'm toning down those nails a little bit more I know that there is a shadow underneath the the claws I should say and Also kind of there's some division between there with some darker values So I'm just kind of working on that and I think you'll notice that it definitely does Detract from the attention that they were getting before You can see how I focused on those highlights that was the back lighting and now I wanted to let you guys see where I'm using this Kind of a teal blue color. It's almost a it's got color, but it's not super bright And so I'm just strategically working this throughout the bear where I see there might be kind of like some Cooler shadowy areas that aren't too dark in value Even in the rock and that's another thing. It's good if you've got a color that can be incorporated throughout the painting It's going to give some consistency to your piece as a whole notice some in the nose of the bear I had also added some of that same color with that Really mossy green that I had and now I'm working on the rock area. That's behind the bear once again My strategy is to keep it very subtle not too much detail. This is a Harder One of the more gray or color is kind of like a blue gray or violet gray kind of and I'm just moving it and turning the pastel now. This one is a darker pastel. I know it's not going to stay that dark I'm a layer over a little bit, but I'm getting the Just a suggestion of where some of those Lines are in the rock some of those divots that were in the rock and again just gestural and subtle and keeping a painterly style notice the bear the The outline of the bear where I'm working now notice how I'm keeping it very painterly with a lost edge and That just means you don't need any hard edges, especially with his soft fur It's not going to be a hard edge and you want to just work in and around things and not create a line so to speak and Now I'll speed this up a bit more to finish out this painting and get to the other little lessons I want to share on painting animals on senile a la carte pastel card But also to apologize. I had to take the bear reference image away. I was so zoomed in before but now you can see how I'm just gradually working shapes and Values and I'm trying to keep the colors in the rock in the background not competing with the bear and It's amazing how much illusion you can create with just directional strokes and value and it really does give that impression of A rock in the background and here's the final like you saw at the beginning and as I shared I'm going to show you a couple more examples here. I thought let's do something besides fur on this senile a la carte pastel card Let's do some feathers. So here are my Selections of some of the colors actually in this flamingo. They were more purples and darker values than you might think So I'm using a little I think this was a sample piece of senile a card. I got with something And I've had it around forever. So Normally I buy it in the pads in two different sizes So I'm going to just do a little portion of this flamingo and this is just barely sped up a little bit here So what I'm doing first is kind of like with the bear, but I'm not working from a sketch here I'm just getting in the generalities shapes and forms and I'm using a little bit of a Middle value there to kind of start and I know if you look at the flamingo even though I'm cropping it I'm just doing a portion to kind of show you the feathers I see down at the bottom of his neck there see how dark that is we might have a tendency to just go Oh flamingo pink, but he's actually got a lot of orange and red in in there and some deep deep colors So again notice how grainy this looks as I'm applying it And if you're novice to this paper, you might be like, oh, I don't like this paper Look at all the space and look how textural but give it some time and remember that it is so Great for layering and you can really get a lot of layers even if you're using some soft pastels I zoomed in a bit here. Now this color was it. It's bright really that border between the shadow going towards his body It wasn't quite this bright, but I know that I can tone these things down So I'm just kind of working things up knowing that's what happens the more you use it You start to develop the confidence of knowing, okay I'm building upon things and I can gradually change and Work things as I go. So I'm now just getting the general gesture of some of those feathers and the direction that they're going in and Lightly, that's another thing you learn to control is your pressure It's one thing I guess I felt like I needed to do a video just on pressure often and how to hold the pastel We just had that in one of the patreon storytime lessons as well But how hard you press and how you hold it and how you turn it I liked how Richard McKinley said that he uses his pastel He came from an oil painting background and he uses it like he uses his brush And if you can think of these little pastels as like your little brushes turning them and changing the pressure and changing the direction you can really really accomplish a lot and Maybe have an aha moment. So you see how I've just done some layers I mean this whole thing didn't take that long to do But now I'm just giving he has a little brighter side to the front of his neck there And I also knew there would probably be some cooler and darker tones in some areas So I'm just kind of working some of those and knowing that I can layer on top of them very similar to how I did the Bear I put darks down so that I could add those little highlights of Fur and in this case feathers on top of it and notice now here It's usually towards the end when you start adding more of your highlights And I noticed too underneath our brain would tell us those feathers like right over his leg are Pink and light pink like the ones at the top, but they're actually cooler in color temperature They're more in the shadow So that's why I went ahead and grabbed some of the purpley colors And this is a case to where I just grabbed what I had the legs are actually much darker than what I put down here And I darken them in a minute So our brains again tell us all those legs look like they're just lavender or a lighter color And then under his belly was darker than you might think so you're just constantly Looking at value comparing things and fortunately with this surface you can make changes, you know, it's not like you have to Freak out if you put the wrong thing down You've got a little bit of a leeway because of the ability to layer now That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get it right the first time But it's a gradual process and you learn that the more that you progress as an artist So let me finish this little guy up. I am going to speed it up a bit But I think hopefully you got the general idea I'll also notice how I was able to just kind of work in kind of negative painting some of the darks and how I used that purple and adding those Fluffy feathers that are just floating across his back like that and Again notice how much layering capability I was able to get with this using a lot of softer pastels. So Again, I don't mean to rave on this paper for animals, but I really do think it's great I love this paper for landscape painting too So, you know, you can kind of see how I was able to build up with value and color To get the impression of flamingo feathers and now let's move on to another subject this cute little puppy What is that like a little lab puppy? He is so cute. I love dogs And I'm just going to turn this paper and focus. I know it's kind of weird focus on his ear and Show you the same concepts now again. I'm speeding this one up this video I'm trying to keep it like around, you know, 35 minutes or so so I can get it uploaded into you guys But again, look how I put down quite a bit of dark I just focused on the shape and I'm focusing on the values kind of working dark to light I know that my The fur is going to have to have something to lay upon So just like with the bear you've got to get that underneath coat of fur Which is going to be darker to be able to layer the Fur or feathers or whatever it is whatever animal you might be working on so you can see again I noticed that one was just too light That's why you some saw me soften it with my fingers a lot of times We go too light too soon and I'm trying to neutralize it right there I was adding a little bit of that lavender and now I've got kind of a neutral Topey color you see how I'm able to get the idea of That fluffiness or the fur on his ears again. This is a little light So I tap it down there is a little backlighting on his ear, but and now I'm adding a little bit of that more gestural Hair or fur growing on top and finally at the end just like with the others is the lightest value At the final layering now, I got a little silly and decided to go ahead and Put where I thought his eye would be and it ends up right almost on top of the flamingo But I hope these things have been helpful for you. I hope you'll try some animals Remember accuracy with the sketch getting your values right Directional strokes focal point. Oh and don't forget to have fun and don't be too hard on yourselves These things take time. I hope you enjoyed that. Please like this video subscribe comment come back Become a patron if you like to help me keep producing these videos and as always happy painting


Hey, hey everybody joining us Tony Gaskins here, and I'm here with another one of our coaches from my mentor dot life And she's building her business building her brand as a coach. Her name is Carmen Nesbitt Carmen, how you doing today? I'm doing fine, Sonya. How are you? Awesome. Awesome. I thank you for joining me and I know this could be You know kind of tough if you don't always do interviews Do you this your first zoom interview? Yes first ever. Yes Awesome, awesome. That's good.  You already coach on one-on-one But this your first zoom interview so it's like a lot of times I know people look and they say oh Carmen. She's a coach and she on this site my mentor dot life And she getting booked for session. She already must be this superstar expert, you know And now you stepping out of your comfort zone again to just share your journey with others And so the first question I want to ask you is how long have you been coaching? professionally Like being paid and getting paid so believe it or not Tony Your site is the first site that I ever been on Your site is when and how I started getting paid from coaching now You want to go like back before I started getting paid? I can go there, but it's up to you. I See, wow. Okay. Well, that's great to know and That's another thing that you know, I'm curious about as I see coaches on my mentor dot life I'm always curious if you was already up and running and then saw my mentor dot life and join or if the site is helping launch Professional coaching career. So that's good to hear now The backstory how long do you feel you've been speaking in people's life and you know supporting? people as like a sister mentor type person So Tony, um It's it's crazy you asked that but guy has been using me from for many years all the way from a child all the way to adulthood and I didn't know that he was using me because a lot of times through my years I wasn't living to according to how I wanted me to live And I'm like, you know, how's he using me to speak into these people's life and I got mess going on But gosh on me. You don't tell me how and what to use you So how it started was like things that I would go through in life I would just talk to my friends about it thinks that nature and I'm a real I get along with a lot of people I'm like a people person. So when I meet people people feel welcome into talking to me they just happen from there and then now I want to say since like 2017 I'm Entrepreneur I started my own business to where I take people that don't have cars to work So I start off like three o'clock in the morning till like 12 p.m. And I'm taking people to work people that I don't know never seen a day of my life and It's times that they are in the car crying and telling me their stories and sometimes I'm crying and a lot of times I'm praying and you know, just turning them like we all is on this life journey Nobody knows the instructions to life, but the Bible, you know, I'm saying and we have to go to God's word But I also let them know like yeah, we know the guys By with the instruction to life, but we can also Use our testimonies to help others because a lot of people are afraid to tell that testimony But for me, I'm not that way and I do that because people are going through things in life And they don't have nobody to talk to you know, so that's how it started. So every day I'm getting up doing my little side hustle I'm talking to people. I'm helping them in ways that I can and it's it's amazing and then What happened was how I ended up to your site God put me to your site. Okay. I was going through whatever I was going through like trials and tribulations And God was getting me through And I kept questioning God. I was like God, why do you keep having me speaking to these people and you still ain't done with me?  Then I'll get to the people God said baby I ain't never gonna be done with you. I'm gonna be molding you every day of your life So my friend she was telling me like, um, you know, I think you'll be a good motivational speaker and I'm like, no I don't want to do that So during my time and I was fasting And I was humbly Violent to God in doing whatever he asked me to do And one day I was watching you and just laughing through the whole video And then you said something about my mentor to our life And then I was like, I wrote it down in my notes I'm like, okay. Maybe I think about doing it. Then my friend was like, you should just go ahead and do it. I'm like I want to wait until God have me perfect and God kept saying I'm going to continue to keep molding you. So do as I say So I did it And it's it's been amazing Tony It's been amazing. Wow. That's amazing. That's amazing to hear and I'm glad that you jumped out there And I saw you on the site and um You were on the home page when I first saw you Did you write in and request to be on the home page? No, and when I seen it, I was like, what am I doing on the home page? What's going on here? So so I'll be honest with you It it was like a glitch in the system, but I guess it was God I guess it had to be God because you know, I Authorize who goes on the home page and I had never authorized you to be on the home page And it's crazy because I have a quote that says God don't need anybody's permission to bless you so You ended up on the home page without my authorization. And so when I saw you I was like, okay, just leave it up. Thank you lord Yeah, I say, okay. Yeah, just leave it there And then so we alternate the coaches on the home page now We try to do it like every month even every week So it just kind of rotates but at the time that you ended up on the home page We weren't alternating the coaches So you were there for a good amount of time and it probably just keeps circling around But I say that to say it's interesting me because of what you said about just your journey and just you stepping out on faith And you believe in now your first client that you coached through my mentor dot live You know, how was your feeling and how Was the session was you super nervous? Did it turn out okay? Did you bomb it? So because I was just so used to doing it on a regular day Just to like normal people and going on a site And look at people that was different from me. So I was very nervous Listen, Tony. I had like a hundred questions. I'm going Eggs All that but then when I got on the phone with the person where for one, I pray I pray before all of my sessions because I want God to come through on these sessions. I want God to handle it all So I pray before I got on the session. It's got to give me the words to say, you know, use me And I'll put those questions to the side and it just happens so naturally You know, it was it just happened naturally, you know, to be honest by time I got the phone with her. She had Wanted me to book with another family member, you know, and a lot of times they get emotional and stuff But it it wasn't good, but I was I was scared at first. But then when I got on the phone, I was it was fine. I was like, it was a breeze Wow, that's awesome. So That means that you are a natural you're a natural at it and Now I used to when I started coaching I was not that good because I was just talk talk talk So it sounds like you've already learned to ask questions and to listen And then speak when it's appropriate to you know, drop a little question or a nugget of wisdom that you already have that flow So, yes, how I started I let them talk first, you know, I asked them a few questions, you know Like the name how old they are do they have children things of that nature little simple stuff? And then I get them the floor and I let them talk and then I respond Right, I see I see So You you say you start working on your other get your other stream of income driving people to work you start doing that at 3 a.m Yeah, because you have people so you I live I know you ain't asking yet, but I live in Detroit So we have a lot of factories here And people want to work two three o'clock in the morning So I start my shift for that job at 3 a.m And start taking people to work because factories Now you driving just your you driving a car My vehicle. Yes. Yes Wow, okay. Now If you wanted to get you like a 12 passenger van and pick up A lot of people that's going to the same factory Could you do that or would you have to get like a special transportation license in Detroit? So I won't have to get no type of license But I do have a few clients to where their friends come into my vehicle to go to the same place but a lot of times like People not gonna want to feel like they on a bus and they got a way to this person get dropped off That person get dropped off So when I get to depending on the factory and they have like a lot of people this a lot of my clients They come at the same time Then I'll take them to work by themselves Right. I see I see and so coaching you um What made you want to become a coach like a professional coach like, you know really start Doing it seriously. What made you want to do that? Like I told you it was God. It was not in my plans.  And that's what I did. I was being obedient, you know to God, but it was not It was not my idea Wow, so you kind of just stumbled upon it and and it started working out you got favor out the gate You know, so you you come out of the gate I don't recall ever talking to you personally So what you bumped into me some kind of way had we ever spoke personally like on a coaching session or at an event or in an email Tony I have never met you a day of my life Never I met you through the website. I've never seen you never met you Yeah, but I took some of your classes though a lot of your courses Okay, okay. Well Wow, so you just came out and now that that right there is something because some some of the coaches that I see I have seen them before I or I've met them at an event But for you to come and take the course to get on the site And then get featured on the site by you know happenstance by you know God's intervention and then start getting booked on the site That right there that you know, what kind of feeling does it give you? Like when you see how it's working out and how how it's happening. What kind of feeling does it give you? or is it like shocky humbling It's humbling but I also I would say it's a god like god. What is you doing? Like I was not expecting none of this, you know, I was not expecting an email from you I was not expecting Nobody to contact me to be honest.  I can use this 20 dollars for this I can use this 20 hours for that Like no, I'm not gonna do this because it's 20. That's to go towards this And I'm like, no, I I can't afford it right now And god said listen You ain't gonna be no broker than what you is From that 20 dollars. So go and pay that 20 dollars. So I paid that 20 dollars And I told god I said god If you give me one person To cover my 20 dollars To spread your word I will be perfectly fine with it. Just one person to cover that 20 dollars for that month Tony I cannot count how many times I got that 20 dollars in one day That 20 dollars in one day and I just wanted to I said god, I just want to touch one person I just want to help one person that month to cover that and I'm fine I can't count how many times in one day In one day Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That is something everybody watching this You can book a session with karmine. You hear her heart You could click the link in the description It'll take you to her page if you want to talk to her and just feel her spirit and hear more about her journey Because your journey may be similar You can book a session with her the link is in the description karmine. That is something that is that is it's really that's It lets me know and I always say this. I don't believe in coincidence. I only believe in the evidence that god sits high and looks low and A lot of time people don't believe but when you see stuff fall into place like that right there, you know that that If if you were struggling with your belief, that'll make you go ahead and all right lord. I know you're real Because I was like I ain't spending this 20 dollars. I was like, you know, I just can go to work somewhere Listen god god is amazing. It's nothing god orchestrated things. Like you said, you don't believe in coincidence I don't even none of this. I didn't play none of this god did all of this that me being here on this interview me being taking sessions And getting paid for it. It's all god's doing and it's a blessing Amazing and you know what I was um I was now when you got on my mentor and you first started out On there when you signed up, what did you make your coaching rate? Like what did you say? I'm on a charge I started out with the lowest was 25 dollars an hour. Wow. Okay. That's good. That's good. That's smart It's very humbling and that's the perfect place. I tell people that all the time don't be afraid to start there And just climb because it's like when you look at it You're doing what you love to do and you live in your purpose and you're doing something that you're passionate about And it's not like you've got to try to break the bank off of one client The other thing that you confirmed in my spirit Is what I heard when I was creating the site Is when I was creating the site the developers Who were coding the site building the site On the sign up page where coaches sign up. They had it set at 200 they had it set at $250 a month Because they were thinking So now if it was if you went and seen that 250 What you would have said Listen, I was complaining about $20. Okay, Tony and I shouldn't even been complaining I I had no business complaining about that 20. That's because it's it's nothing. We spend that on junk food or A shirt a t-shirt we spending on things is not even important don't even matter But to pay $20 a month To let God use me to help people through this life journey Is is is nothing. No, you can't put no price on that. You cannot You said the key words right there is really priceless but me being a coach and me coming from you know that situation of Like we go through everybody goes through being scarcity minded, you know And we all go through that and I see even with the certification, you know Some people they'll say like oh, you know, I thought it was gonna be 800 but now it's 850 and and I will and they really would be hung up On that $50 And and I'm thinking like man if they only knew what'll happen when they stretch their mind and not just look at The price but look at the opportunity and look at the purpose And that's what you coach yourself through because the reason why I made it 1999 is because I know As a successful entrepreneur There have been times in my life that I got tired of seeing a four dollar and 99 cent monthly charge on my statement So I would like hey, I know people you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day I'm canceling this, you know, I knew it So I'm glad you joined and are you glad that you went ahead and took that step You know, if you could do it all over again, would you would you make the same decision? I would and also I took your other courses that's more than 20 dollars. I think I believe I took At least four of your courses, but outside of your courses, you know I have some other people I follow and I took some of their courses at the end of the day Is for your life, you know Either you want to grow and evolve or you want to stay stuck where you at And you know for me as an adult that's trying to grow and evolve you got to put in that work And if that includes money do it because we have spent money on something else that we want Why not put it on your growth? That's a powerful shield. That's a powerful shield that if you don't mind me asking how old are you right now? I'm very youthful So you one of them, you know, we're in that don't ask my age so But I ask you your age because it might inspire somebody I'm young and youthful So And you know, they say black don't cry so we cannot tell I do not know if you are I can't tell if you are young You know in your 30s or if you actually the age that you look because Today you could be 19 you could be 25 But you could also be 35 or 40 it's just like a person can't tell but I could tell like what you say You're young and you're youthful And you look really young to me. So that speaks to me in another way because it's like to be young And to jump out there and have success when I know sometimes people be in their 50s and 60s And scared to jump out there. So, you know, you took that step Did you have to talk to anybody that kind of push you to say hey go ahead and do it Or was it just something you came to within yourself? Well, as I told you God instructed me, but then I also had a friend who was telling me I should be a motivational coach as well But I will say this as far as when it comes to my age I have been coaching people this double my age, you know, so I tell people all the time Do not put wisdom and age together You think that someone is much older than you has a lot of wisdom. You would think that's how it goes But it does not always work like that, you know, God can use children to speak to you You know, so never put age or wisdom, but I've been coaching people that's old enough to be my grandmother You know, you're not gonna have to be one of my kids possibly You know, so I'll see a you said something right there now because You said a mouthful right there because I became a professional coach at the age of 23 And I wrote a book at 22 and I remember people saying that to me then but then I look at certain statistics and a lot of people Who became millionaires it didn't happen until their 50s or 60s And so it kind of is this lesson to where You're never too young to get started and you're never too old to get started And I think that's what I'm pulling from what you're saying is you're starting young But yet you're still able to help people and I and I bet the people that's old enough to be your grandmother I bet a part of why they're hiring you too is Inspiration they probably like if this young lady out here Stepping up and doing this I can be doing it. I can be Believing in myself and stepping in my dream. So I bet a part of it is just seeing you, you know on there In that position as a life coach a professional coach And just curious to say let me see how this worked. Let me see how she got the confidence to get out here and do it Now what are your Three categories on my mentor dot life that you coach in Well, I have been changing them up because I can like specialize in many different ones But I've been doing relationships this functional families healing and breakup Now I would I would like for you to change it to four That would be nice Okay, okay. So you want a fourth one now see I made it three but Four probably is possible if it won't throw the alignment of the site off But I made it three because when we first started testing it out with some coaches People was doing exactly what? I didn't want them to do and they people were selecting 30 categories And so it's like if somebody select 30 categories A person and I didn't want coaches to mess themselves up To be a jack of all trades, but for I think that's something I could really, you know, sit down and think about So if you did four, what would the four be? um Relationships dysfunctional families healing and breakups Hmm. Okay. Now dysfunctional families that was Probably a request from one of the coaches who signed up And I don't know if that was your request or somebody else had requested it And it was already there when you went to sign up, but that is one that I see a lot of people struggle with Have you been booked for that topic? Yes, many times. I've been um You know what it's been like equal with as far as when it comes to the breakup and relationships and dysfunctional families I've been getting equal requests on that But with the dysfunctional families, I've been getting like whole families. So I have the session Break it out in days and I'm coaching whole entire families. So but yes, I have Wow. Wow. That is something and You learn about this some dysfunctional families from experiencing it yourself From being in a dysfunctional family. Yes Yes Right and see it's it's and see that's the thing It's people that are going through these things and dealing with these things And don't realize that for every one step you take You one step ahead of somebody else that you could be looking back and reaching back to help them and say, hey Okay, this is what I just did You know, I cut off contact with this family member for a week and they came back and apologized And people don't realize that lesson could be talked to somebody That's in that mess struggling So Is that kind of do you do that? Like do you share some personal experiences that you went through or just the lesson that come from the experience when you coaching? Believe it or not Tony and this is why I said God is orchestrating this even your whole website because each person Last every last person including the man They reach out to me. I have experienced the situation I've been there and I've done that or it's it's just it's it's crazy because it scared me sometime. It's like I've been through the same thing So I'm able to share that and then not only that, you know When me going through the same thing well what they have been going When we have been going through the same thing that they have been going through They didn't have bring family members that's experiencing the same thing So I'm able to coach them through this and coach them through that but it's I've been through Whether it be a man whether it be a woman whether it be a kid You know child they bring for coaching. I'm able to use my experience and that's one thing I tell people Never be afraid to tell your testimony Never we all are learning in this life And if God going to use you to tell your story tell it and never be ashamed of it, you know, nobody is perfect We all have had trials and tribulations, you know, and I'm very Transparent when I'm talking to them and I get on details Because I'm not afraid to tell my story and I don't care what anybody think About my story because the only person I have to answer to is the man above Mm-hmm Now do some of your clients hire now you said they tell family members.  I do. I have some weekly ones some monthly, you know some every two weeks It just depends and then sometimes you have that person that just needed somebody to talk to And then that'd be like it it'd be like that they have booked one time But I will say and I'ma just throw this in there I've been constantly from Africa from London all over the world And that's amazing and it's like how do we have the same?  That's powerful. That's powerful and you know um, I don't know how my Personal brand kind of spread around the world But I've been hearing that because right now the main promotion for my mentor that life is me I'm promoting it through the this on the wall on my videos And it on my t-shirt and me just driving people there and so they coming from around the world But I didn't think international like london and africa would be booked in coaches But I've heard that from several coaches that they didn't book from people outside of the country What was your feeling the first time someone outside of the country booked you? I was surprised. I was amazed I I was like I was taking back because it's like you want me to coach you you want me So I was taking back and also different races white black Indians All different colors. It's it's amazing tony.  It's like wow It's it's it's amazing Interesting that's interesting and so you learning and you're growing yourself as you meet in these people and hearing these stories And that's the crazy part how you kind of learn some things while you People think as a coach you're just a teacher, you know, but as a coach on your sessions You're actually kind of learning Different things about life that you didn't know is has that been your experience as well? So, um What has happened with your site? Now I will say your site Tony, it's amazing. I know you I said that a million times, but it is because your site has came An accountability partner for me And I know you saying how does the internet or site becomes an accountability partner for somebody? And this is how now Even though the internet is not a person to hold me accountable to my actions It's like I'm on the site Given my story my testimony preaching to these people And no, they cannot see me physically But I'm trying to live according to God's word, but God can see me So it's like I can't be preaching to these people telling them my testimony Then I'm doing the same thing or keep back sliding in my mess So your website where your, um, mentor in life has came accountability partner for me It really has Wow. Wow.  So it encouraged you and pushes you And that's what you've experienced Exactly it has so there's a lot of times when I'm talking to them. It's like I needed that encouragement myself I'm telling this person be strong. You can do it. You can get through it You know, we all been there, you know, let this go release this and this is how you heal And this is how you in this and this is how you in that And there are a lot of times I'd be encouraging myself When I'm speaking to others, but It's it's good.  Um, I I think I've been on your site for six months If I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong for six months and I think I got booked my first week I got booked my first my first week. I was on there. Hmm. Wow. So that worked out for you Now, what would you say to the coaches they've been on there?  Is it any Tips or anything that you've learned or that you would say to them about, you know, their profile or how they're using the site Well, I got tips for them and people that want to do it So for the people that's trying to get booked on their site, I would just say be genuine Let it come from the heart like I use you and like Tony said, don't do no, uh pictures in your car Because I was going to do one. No, I wasn't.  Don't worry about it. Just get on on that site and just use it as a testimony that I'm not that person no more Um, that's powerful. That's powerful And I think that's a lesson that so many people need to hear because We need so many more servants because it's like you got a group of clients that you're coaching But it's over 300 million people in america. So it's like, you know, I've probably worked with At this point Two times three six times four 24 people a month and so If I'm only working with 24 people a month It leaves so many more people that can't book a session with me and needs a coach and then You getting booked and the other coaches getting booked, but it's so many mentors that's afraid to jump out So carmen, I want to encourage you to keep doing what you're doing keep pushing yourself Keep being an inspiration And I hope you do more. I hope you You didn't mention if you wrote a book yet if you haven't I hope you do. Are you gonna write a book? so You know, I was fasting And this is the time god introduced me to my mentor that life And um, I started writing a book And then I took one II took your birth your book Which was very helpful to me. So now I have more to do. I need like Some assistance like a little assistance and assistance in the certain area, but I I'm writing my book I have two books. I'm writing Awesome. Awesome. Keep going keep going. I feel like coaches, you know need to write that book Need to do one-on-one sessions and then eventually after doing the book Then your your first course will come where your clients after they do a session or do a few sessions You say hey, you can take this online course that they can go through and if they can't afford coaching They just can keep watching them videos over and over.  Keep pushing yourself keep growing Thank you so much for taking out your time to do this interview with me And to anybody watching This who anybody who sees this you can book a session with carmen in the description under the video You'll find her link. You can click there and book a session with her To meet her to hear from her to get some feedback in your life in your situation Carmen any last words that you have? Yes, how many minutes I got left? You know, just flow from the spirit. Okay, so I want to um It's my facebook. It's my first and last name and my instagram is my first and last name too But if they go on there, I have not been on there. I've been passing away from social media So but you can go ahead on there, but I haven't been on there But I wanted to say to you, Tony I want to say like even though I don't know you personally I've never met you a day in my life But I feel like in my heart that what you portrayed to be is who you are And I want to say thank you because it's hard to find in the black community.  You can be holy and still enjoy life And also put these men in a place And helping and helping us women, you know When it comes to the issues of life in men, but I'm proud of you. Awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate that, you know, it's good to hear that Some people, you know going from it or getting something from it So that means a lot and I thank you and I wish you the best on your journey And um, I'll try to remember to put your instagram and facebook in the description too So anybody watching this you just can click that so thank y'all so much For joining us and getting to meet miss karman And I want to encourage you on your journey if you're ready to become a coach or you're ready to hire a coach take that leap today. God bless you and we'll talk soon Thank you


Well, let's get a bit more now on the US-led initiative on how to defend democracy and fight autocracy. It's also part of a year-long drive to combat corruption. Joining me now to discuss this is Dr Kevin Casas-Amora, he's Secretary-General of International Idea and that's the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Well, thanks for taking time to speak to us here on the programme. It's quite timely this conference coming after recent studies suggest there's been a dramatic decline in democracy. Why is that? Is that just because of how governments have been reacting to the pandemic? Democracy is facing severe headwinds now but has been facing severe headwinds before the pandemic. What the pandemic has done is really turbocharge those trends and affect in particular those countries where democracy and the rule of law were ailing even before the pandemic. So, as in many other things, the pandemic has been a force to magnify, to amplify, to accelerate trends that were already in place. So, can we reverse this trend or do we have to, if you like to coin a phrase, build back better with a new model? I mean, we should be very mindful of the plight of democracy but we should also see this situation with a sense of opportunity because the fact of the matter is that what we're seeing over the past two years suggests that very important elements of the democratic construct are in good shape. I mean, there's something to work with.  So, we have something to work with towards a better future for democratic systems. One final question before we let you go. It's a noble cause, this drive for greater democracy around the world. But does the United States have the moral authority to host this? It's a valid question. I think that what is more important rather than asking who is the host is what's the spirit with which the discussion is conducted. And inevitably, in light of what's happening certainly in the United States and not just there also in some very proud members of the European Union, I think it is essential to have this discussion with a spirit of humility and in a way in which we learn that no democratic model is hegemonic and that we can have a pluralistic conversation about democracy where all the different countries can learn from each other. There's no such a thing as a perfect democracy and that has become painfully evident in the recent past. I mean, we're all trying to cope with the same forces that are weakening democracy globally.


It was on like Donkey Kong comes out of the womb and they're like I get stuff done being this badass productivity machine if you don't feel like you're disciplined right now you're not starting behind the eight ball today we're going to talk about the five steps to be more disciplined today now I get it discipline doesn't sound sexy there's nothing nothing sexy about the word discipline or making yourself be more disciplined but it's not the discipline that's sexy it's the results of the discipline that is sexy it's the results of the discipline which creates the life that you truly want and we're going to talk about how to build your discipline and this is important because discipline isn't something that you're born with there's no person that just comes out of the womb and they're like oh my gosh I'm just a disciplined person no discipline is actually a muscle discipline is a habit it's something that you build and it's something that you create in yourself the same way that you go to the gym over and over and over again and start lifting heavier and heavier weights your muscles will start to grow up same thing exact same thing happens with discipline you might start off and not be a very disciplined person I used to be extremely undisciplined I used to just be lazy not do anything that I needed to not get anything done super late to everything that I did never accomplish any of my tasks and then slowly but surely I had little tiny wins and it wasn't like my whole life just shifted and I had this I went from completely not disciplined to the most disciplined person in the world there was never that shift it was years and years and years of just working on myself and realizing after five years after 10 years oh my god I'm a different person because I've developed this discipline muscle I've developed this discipline habit so for anybody who's watching this or listening to this realize if you don't feel like you're disciplined right now you're not starting behind the eight ball nobody is disciplined nobody's born with it it's something that you have to develop in yourself and the funny thing about discipline is that we don't need discipline for all of the easy things in life we don't need discipline to eat a pizza we don't need discipline to take a nap we don't need discipline to sleep in we don't need discipline to do any of those things what we need discipline for is the hard things not the easy things the hard things the things that you know you should be doing let that sing in for a second you don't need discipline for pizza you need discipline for you know a salad one of pizzas in front of you you need discipline to say no to that pizza and say yes this out you need discipline to wake up early and do your morning routine you need discipline to force yourself to go to the gym wouldn't be a lot easier just go to the bar and get a beer wouldn't it but going to the bar and getting a beer isn't going to build the life that you want the discipline is going to build the life that you want so once again it's not sexy but it's necessary in the results of discipline is sexy it's the life that you want the money that you want the freedom that you want the business that you want the relationships that you want but before we dive into my five tips on how to actually be more disciplined discipline is not about being perfect or being this badass productivity machine and you're just like I get stuff done you know it's not about that it's about winning more than you lose in this battle every single day right you're going to mess up it's okay we're going to talk about that later you're going to screw stuff up no big deal but it's about winning more battles than you lose on the discipline side it's about creating more than you don't and what happens is if you slowly start winning more than losing it kind of gets addicting you're like I'm going in the right path this is fun this is something I want to continue doing and you get a little bit better and a little bit better so I'm going to give you my five tips to help you be more disciplined and to build this discipline the first tip is this is I want you to challenge yourself to finish everything you may have heard the phrase or you may have heard me say it I say it all the time because I'm a firm believer in it the way you do one thing is the way you do everything and so I want you to challenge yourself not just to finish the big things not to get the reports done that your boss needs by the time that you need it I want you to actually focus on challenging yourself to finish the small things in life when you eat something instead of taking the plate and putting it inside of the sink can you take that plate wash it off by hand or wash it put it inside of the dishwasher because you went from the act of eating how do you close out the act of eating making sure the plate is clean that's a win okay that's just a little thing it's not sexy but the way you do one thing is the way you do everything so if you're not doing the little things and you're not finishing the little tasks and creating just the little tiny things that need to be done you're definitely not doing and finishing the big things so if you can have discipline to do the things that are almost minuscule almost don't even mean anything it makes it so much easier to start doing the heavy objects to lift the heavy objects later on down the road right so do the dishes you've heard me say this one before after you get done sleeping just make your bed listen I I'm being honest with you I hate making the bed I think it's I've always thought that making the bed is stupid if I'm being honest because I'm like I don't ever spend any time in my room the only thing that I do in my room is brush my teeth brush my brush my teeth after I get up I sleep I go and shower in the bathroom and then I leave and I never come back so I brush my teeth I shower and I wake up for my for my sleeping those are things that I do when I'm awake inside of my bedroom other than that it's just eight hours of sleeping every single night so to make my bed doesn't make a whole lot of sense but I'm in it for the act of discipline when I wake up in the morning I go okay I have almost finished the act of sleeping if I want to finish the act of sleeping I need to now make my bed it's about doing the little things because when you do the little things and you have discipline on the little things like doing the dish washing the cup making the bed then when you start to develop that little muscle of discipline it makes it easier to go you know what I need to go to the gym I'm going to force myself to go to the gym you know what I need to wake up at 5 a.m. I'm gonna start waking up it's about building you can't go in and just automatically start curling 75 pounds in the gym you know the 75 pound dumbbells you have to start with the smaller ones so why not start and have the discipline and to start to challenge yourself to finish everything finish the small things finish what you start don't allow yourself to stop anything early because one of the things that I see with most I've coached tens of thousands of people is that so many people are excited to start but they're terrible at finishing whatever it is that they want they're excited about their New Year's resolutions they do really well for the first week and they start to fall off in the second week and the third week basically they're completely off and they're back in their old routines so I want you to get the discipline of finishing what you start do not allow yourself to stop early or to give an excuse as to why you're going to stop okay so that's tip number one tip number two plan ahead and ask yourself this question how can I make what I need to have discipline and easier on myself so let me give you an example let's say that you want to start eating healthier okay you can eat healthier that is great that's a beautiful thing but then you ask yourself how can I make this easier on myself well one thing I could do is I could take Sunday and take two hours on Sunday and plan and create every single meal and if I do meal plans it makes it easier to stay on track to eat the stuff that I need to and therefore I don't go five hours without eating and then I find myself with really low blood sugar and then I just want to freaking eat a bag of chips and a bag of skittles right plan ahead for everything that requires the most discipline for you how can I make this easier on myself how can I make eating healthier easier myself why don't I take two hours of meal plan on Sunday perfect cool how can I make working out easier on myself I've done this before I've done this many times I forced myself to go to the gym and I get to the gym and I'm like well what the hell should I do and I'm kind of like just wandering all of the gym and picking up a couple things and doing a couple things and then I'm like I don't feel like I did anything in the past 45 minutes so maybe if you plan on working out four times a week five times a week maybe you actually have your workouts planned so all you have to do is show up so there's less resistance because what we're trying to do is we're trying to remove resistance in our brain when we know there's more stuff that we need to do like creating a meal we're less likely to create that meal because we're freaking busy let's be honest right but if I've already got the meal done it makes it easier because I'm like all I got to do is just take this food and put it in my mouth that's it right if I know that I've got to go to the gym and I and now I as I'm at the gym have to figure out the workout there's resistance that because it's going to require more of me so if I just plan I say okay it's today Sunday I'm going to work out Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday and I'm going to do chest and back this day I'm going to do biceps and triceps this day I'm going to do legs this day and I'm going to do full body the next day and I have my exact workout plans done makes it so much easier all I got to do is just show up right so plan ahead how can you make this easier on yourself I gave you a couple of examples with meal plans with eating healthier with working out but with anything that you're trying to get better at anything that you need to work at how can you figure out a way to make it easier on yourself and to plan ahead okay the next thing number three is to design your environment to help you let me give a couple of examples of how to how to do this remove temptation right so like if for me I'll be honest with you I am like a crackhead when it comes to sugar I know that when I have sugar when I actually have a bag of a couple of skittles if I have a couple skittles I want to crush the entire bag of skittles and I want to crush as many skittles that I could possibly get my hands on I'm like a crackhead when it comes to sugar so what I do is there's no sugar inside of my house that contempt me there's no candy there's no popsicles there's none of that stuff I remove the temptation I design my environment to help me be more disciplined right if I want to start eating healthier I don't have any crappy food that's in the kitchen I don't have any crappy food that's in the pantry I remove all of that stuff if you want to stop drinking alcohol for 30 days can you let's say you have a you even you even you even have alcohol in your house you have a bar set up can you take that alcohol and put it out of sight lock it inside of a closet somewhere right out of sight out of mind can you design your environment to support this discipline that you're trying to build ah think about that what about the people that you hang out with hmm okay if I want to you know let me just think back to the Super Bowl it just happened right I had friends over for the Super Bowl and I had friends over and and they were all drinking and I wasn't drinking at the time and so you know I had them over and it made it really hard not to drink because I wanted to drink just to have a drink with my friends but if I wanted to make that even easier on myself what I could have done is gone you know what I'm not even going to be around people who could possibly talk me into drinking now luckily my friends know that I rarely drink anyway so they don't try to talk me into it but when I stopped drinking when I first started getting out of it when I went from hardcore partying Rob to actually serious business owner and creating the life I want to Rob I got so much crap for my friends so much peer pressure and that was hard and I did well sometimes and I failed sometimes but what would make it easier is to not be around people who can't help me actually make this whole thing who can't support me who want to make it harder for me who wanted me to if I want to stop drinking who want me to drink right so design your environment if you're trying to be more positive and you're being disciplined to think of every single thought to make sure that every thought that comes through your head that happens to be positive you celebrate every thought that comes through your head that's negative you fix with a couple positive thoughts then it'd be really dumb for me to be around somebody who's constantly negative right so how can you design your environment you're in control of this don't act like it's someone else's fault that they're negative no you got around that negative person take responsibility for design your environment to get it done if you're like you know what I need to crank out two hours of hardcore work maybe what you do is you clear all of the crap off your bed or not if you're better off your desk you put it all away and the only thing that's on your desk is your computer your phone is in another room whatever it is you have to do to design the environment to make sure that you can be ultra productive at that moment right turn off all your notifications drop the notifications when you get a text message on your computer if you have an app you know a macbook turn off all of your email notification turn out everything that could distract you from the one thing that you need to do which is get stuff done you have two hours to work get it done don't allow yourself to slip into oh i've got my phone right here oh i got a text oh look i got a somebody sent me a facebook message no design your environment to support you in building up this discipline so that's number three is to design your environment number four this is super important for everybody realize it's not about being perfect it's about progress not perfection okay you're going to mess up you're not going to be perfect i promise you this you're going to mess up quite a lot in your life and so what you have to realize is this when you mess up don't judge yourself don't guilt yourself don't get emotional about how you messed up because you will mess up but when you mess up make adjustments right if i if i'm sitting down to be ultra productive like the example i just gave and i happen to find myself going down the rabbit hole of instagram when i'm supposed to be working i go oh crap that's right i'm supposed to be working right now what can i do what adjustments can i make well next time i could take my phone i could put it in the other room that's what i'm going to do right if i notice that i'm in the middle of my ultra productive time or what's supposed to be milk productive time and i happen to notice oh man i'm i'm in the middle of doing all these emails and that's not what i wanted to do how can i make adjustments to make sure i don't have this happening again i can turn off the notifications on this right when you mess up make adjustments don't judge yourself don't be hard on yourself don't talk trash to yourself don't make it harder on yourself than you need to you screwed up okay it is what it is it happened don't resist it it is the way it is but how can i make adjustments you know if you were planning on not drinking and you wake up with a big hangover well you probably need to make some adjustments as to you know maybe you have alcohol out or maybe you were stressed out or maybe your friends called you and there's certain people that you when you're not drinking maybe you shouldn't spend much time around or spend time around them during the day and not at night when they're going to get you wasted whatever it is it's going to happen you're going to mess up you're going to fall in your face that is life that's the way that it goes but when it happens when you mess up make adjustments it's about progress not perfection am i still going in the direction that i want to if i happen to screw up and take a step back am i at least taking two steps forward for every step back that i take progress not perfection take a deep breath and realize you're not perfect you never will be perfect and you're going to mess up a lot of stuff that's okay though it's about progress not perfection and then tip number five is to reward yourself reward yourself give yourself some sort of reward if you want to be super healthy for the entire day have one day where you have a cheat meal like when i was when i used to literally when i was hardcore and to be like really hardcore meal planning working out eating the stuff that i need to like i'm not anywhere near as hardcore as i used to be but i would be so hardcore for the entire week saturday night it was on like donkey kong you knew that i was about to destroy some food i get an entire freaking cheese and pepperoni pizza i'd eat the entire thing by myself then i would go to this place called amy's ice cream here in austin and i would order a big ol freaking ice cream and i would basically go into a food coma and pass out because i ate so much but that i ate so much and i was so rewarded that it really like the next week was actually easy for me to be disciplined because i was like holy crap i kind of went off the hinges there and also i ate so much i don't feel like i need to eat that again at least not until next saturday afternoons saturday evening well i'm gonna crush it again right another thing i used to do when i was uh when i was a salesperson is i would sit down and go okay i've got to make a hundred phone calls and so i would i would figure out a way to reward myself and so what i would do is i would set up with a called dopamine reward systems i didn't know i was doing this now i know the actual neurology behind what i was doing but what i would do is i would go okay every ten phone calls i can eat three skittles right so i'd have a bag of skittles and i would have them in front of me so i could see it and i was like oh my god i want the freaking skittles right because i told you i'm like a crackhead with skittles and sugar so like okay i can have three skittles after i get done my first ten phone calls i can have three skittles after my next ten phone calls and when i get done with my 100 phone calls which was my goal i can eat the rest of the skittles and so what i would do is i would reward myself and set up small rewards to get me excited to do what i needed to do versus just eating the entire bag of skittles you know having a massive sugar rush and then falling asleep after right so can you set up your life where you reward yourself for the discipline that you need one thing that i'm going to tell you this is something that really helps me out when i was younger i remember reading a book that changed my life that talked about this but what i used to do is i used to think to myself if i'm not where i want to be in my life yet i don't deserve a day off i don't deserve free time i used to live my life that way and i used to think that but then i came to realize i read a book called the one thing by gary keller and j popaz on and i read the book and i realized that i needed to actually start to set up my life where i had free time planned because when i go and have my free time it allows me that reward of free time allows me to go back into the work time the hardcore time and get the stuff done that i need to and to be focused on it but i'm the type of person and you're probably like this as well my goals are like the horizon i'll never catch them every time i get closer to them i push them just a little bit further away and a little bit further away because i want i keep thinking bigger and bigger and bigger so if i set up my entire life not to be rewarded until i hit a specific massive goal in my life i'll probably never hit that goal because i constantly keep pushing it further and further away and so you have to set up reward systems to reward yourself reward yourself with a cheap meal reward yourself with a day off and not having to work out reward yourself with you know a bag of skittles after you make 100 phone calls set up reward systems to start to help you out and to start to make you more disciplined hey thanks so much for watching this video if you want to learn even more about master your mind click right here and watch this video as well stop lying to yourself you need to first admit that you are a lazy person if you don't do anything and you're too lazy your life is not going to be what you want it to be


often imitated but never duplicated. Comic and TV is the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides.


Your response to somebody's sin can also be a sin.  Pick up a mirror and look at yourself. People who can throw stones shouldn't be throwing stones because if you have a sin in your life, you have no right to throw stones at somebody.  But to all of us, quick to judge, quick to come to conclusions, Jesus says, hold on, hold on, let me give you a mirror. Yes, but there is something about believers falling into sin that we shouldn't rush to throw stones at, but begin to cover them in prayer, say, God, bring conviction, go into that person, say, hey, this is not right, this is what the Bible teaches. But when we begin to expose everybody else's sin, we have to be very careful because we might be contributing to our own personal faults. So as Christians, let's learn to pick up a mirror when we're tempted to throw a stone.


everybody forced tier ripping 2022 tops chrome update series baseball hobby six box number two random team style check out the results anytime of late in sports cards calm there's a link in chat for you as well good luck everybody what's up me that has been a while how are you got purple joe Perez rookie astros verlander all-star game purple stock rookie fillies pepiot rookie purple Dodgers melendez debut purple kory seager thomas william woods rookie purple for the braves purple rookie croissant giants watch a lot of calves basketball calves are good this year man really good stott debut purple fillies is anybody for the holidays go brisky rookie purple tigers seriously mike that's kind of insane though pop count on those is going to be crazy purple rookie kato for the blue jays got a hit coming up here yankies jp sears rookie auto non-numbered there you go yanks got purple rookie kulsans twins purple rookie lavastita guardians kwan debut debut purple mckinsey gore padres zimmer purple purple brennan donovan ricky cardinals roice lewis hunter-renfro it's crazy someone would pay that much for that card though mike in my opinion purple rookie debut on neil cruise pirates i mean you could just wait to own it there's going to be a bunch more 2022 prism world cup messy base psa 10s coming out purple chassin wander debut josh winder rookie purple reverdo pares it's very high for any modern base card debut shane bas even a messy melendez hunter dozier chris bassett purple stanton castellanos anybody getting cards for christmas or giving cards for christmas purple rookie joey wentz tigers purple josh rojas purple cesar hernandez bobby with jr generation now purple sunday gray yeah lane's been given lots of stuff pain your debut astros pepiott you gotta switch oh led for christmas lane really purple chris archer hulia rodriguez debut purple montero rookie rockies purple rookie torkelson tigers purple rookie arias guardians debut if you guys need a last minute gift idea we do sell gift cards lane sports cards dot com abram's base rachela lane sports cards gift card for your uh for your collectors purple rookie debut spencer torkelson aqua rookie tigers bobrisky number 157 out of 250 oston nola lane is here are you just going to open up an arcade now these arcade games nico gudrum redsox legend nico gudrum eliot ramos purple rookie giants there's the star brad miller purple rookie rois lewis for the twins he's gonna put it in the front of the storyline or he like on the on the back on the back end area up the front of shop that was people there yeah jeremy penyer rookie five bucks ago though yeah exactly i'm gonna give you money like yeah you can buy a pokemon pack or you can play pacman dude there's gonna be so much trash talk if there's a pacman game in the front of the store paying your rookie purple astros everyone's gonna show up 15 minutes earlier shifts like all right that's it one v one me and pacman one v one me on rust pacman comes down to the debut purple abram's high score dude i'll be there till like five a.m after i break i won't stop seya sezuki connor pilkington rookie purple guardians now we just gotta get ski ball for the store how many games do you need to be called an arcade bobbywood junior purple debut pretty freeman marinaccio purple rookie yankees mccutchen luke williams rookie purple marlins adam engel purple rookie lucius fox nationals lucius purple taylor walls purple erin savalli blue refractor taylor walls rays numbered 161 of 199 lorenzen kintana matt olson hunter green jaco de rizzi steven kwan base for the guardians connor joe all star of lad junior purple shamanaya rich hill purple alex thomas purple rookie diamondbacks col irvin elli ramos steven matt's wonder franco debut purple musiati fillies engel cabrera trevor story purple alex phyato rookie purple tigers peña debut purple rookie debut kirby mariners j-rod debut purple rookie abrams for the padres hunter green jose maranda rookie purple twins louise giorme seya sezuki purple debut cubs abrams base eohenio suarez mckinsey gore rookie purple padres elando arcia elliott ramos tony gonselin guardians ritchie policyos on the rookie auto not numbered purple rookie rylan bannon orials bobby wit jr all-star shoreborough purple christian pashay purple rookie debut jeremy peña astros astrata policyos purple rookie guardians cj abrams kray kimbrill steven kwan debut purple rookie debut hulia radriga's mariners swinsky judge all-star hazel sanchez purple jeremy peña base alex thomas purple azucar rookie padres hunter green rookie purple reds ryan debut uh brujan purple debut rays an oan miller purple just football efforts and everybody who got um break starting at 10 a.m on the baseball channel and 11 a.m on the main channel tomorrow with matt and sam so get your spots uh for tomorrow everybody looking for more baseball purple brice elder braves swanson purple eduardo redriga's go check out the new video we have up on youtube steven kwan rookie the meat the staff one yeah that's a good one too uh dunano rookie or dunnans dunano dunand purple rookie marlins bobbywood jr yeah there's a new um meat like the lsc employees video on youtube guys it's pretty good shawn's in it let's go makes it great taylor walls kenzie gore charlie marty purple michael lorenzen otani all-star erin savalli purple matt olson purple kintana purple connor joe purple vladi jr odarizzi purple danie young mariners on the rookie base auto non-numbered purple rookie matt gaevich astros purple chris bryant purple debut matt brash mariners jonathan vr purple purple rookie nick plumber metz yeah i know lane he fell off big time he got sent home of fort rican league because he was hitting like 140 like they released him from the team redemers uh debut purple uh panada purple it was him verdugo and i forget the third for vets yeah purple payante rookie cardinals purple andrelin simons purple batista orials purple nester cortez with some damage on it there's like some glue globs or something on it i'll send a boxin wrapper out to the yankee spots the red sox think dude they're terrible poverty franchise make some of the most money out of any team in the league and just can't can't pay players purple angel mccuchan julia radriguez all-star mariners purple ronmaru nachio yankees adam engel the weird thing about jeter downs is he came in to the red sox organization being a really good hitter luke williams ricky purple marlins really good hitter hit like 300 had decent power like his entire minor league career he won he was first with the red sox he just had to get better defense he got better defense and it became like a seven two hundred hitter it makes like no sense lucius fox rookie purple nationals you guys just forgot how to hit sergio aromo purple harper all-star kirby purple rookie mariners a good web corrie cluber miranda debut guardians sasa zuki miradriguez on the insert yon gomes let's go yeah i was shaking my head at that part it's a star in the making surprised you didn't say go dolphins at all in the video it's kind of kind of shocking obviously didn't watch it all what did you say did you taylor walls refractor rays another number walls to 299 i did watch the whole thing but i was setting up at the same time i thought i did purple rookie alex thomas for the debacks i understand you get bored with everybody else i was like man why do i got to listen to donnie purple jerry pain your ricky ashos dude last night was so funny oh man last night about the pizza i was that is true stories i was so entertained unbelievable everybody gave good answers i thought sasa zuki debut rookie purple debut cj abrams padres zack granke coolie rodriguez base purple pilkington guardians rookie topia purple and purple debut bobby wedge junior royals it's a really quick recap here got full case coming up next you had more baseball breaks tomorrow a bunch of different breaks bowman draft five star and chrome update we had a few autos here we had dany young for the mariners you had palacio scardians and jp sears yankies thanks everybody the full case coming up


Hi everyone, I'm glad to kick off the first in person lightning talk. This is by far the largest room I've ever given a talk in and yeah. So my name is Kevin Hannon. I'm an open source software developer at G research and my goal is to get G research to contribute support and also help provide help in the open source community. We also have an open source project called Armada and happy to stay in 2022. We are part of the cloud native computing foundation and generally the topic of my talk is how we can combine another open source project like airflow with our project Armada, which is a multi cluster Kubernetes solution. So what is G research? Well, G research is a financial trading firm based out of London. It is not Google research as sometimes some people say, but we are they are a trading company that uses math sorry, as an American, that's hard to say and computers to try and predict how the stock market is going to behave. Now, what does that really mean? It means they're running a lot of data engineering workloads, machine learning, spark really anything you can think of. It's running in our farm. We use a lot. We are heavy users of Kubernetes and unfortunately, I hate to say it, but Kubernetes is not perfect. There are cases where it can be improved, especially around batch compute and generally our users that G research love to submit lots of jobs like I'm talking in the order of millions of jobs per per day is what we're supporting. And if you try to do that on top of a single cluster Kubernetes, you can be in kind of a bad day. Some cases we have as a former grad student, I remember cases where if you don't have any kind of queuing solution in your cluster, you can have one guy just take over the entire cluster for months on end and you're hosed if you're a grad student trying to get time on your on your computing. And that's the same thing at G research. We have some quants that really want to do their research. And if you don't penalize them for using all the compute or using all of it, then you are kind of leaving other people in the there. You're they're struggling a little bit. So generally, what is Armada? Well, Armada tries to take this approach of of horizontally scaling Kubernetes by adding we can we can add new clusters to our our farm by just adding what we call Kubernetes worker clusters or executors and generally users interface with an API that goes to what we call the Armada server. And then that leases pods to Kubernetes worker clusters.  I like to think of Armada as a serverless platform for running large scale really any kind of job. So our users don't really need to know about things like Kubernetes or what cluster they're actually running their jobs on. They just want to point it at a CLI and say run. And also for the API's, we made we know that our users love all different kinds of programming languages. We have support for .net, Python and go. And that's and these are a proto defined API so we can generate clients in other languages. Why do we build a Python API? Well, for one, Python's great. The other other the other reason is we wanted to start using workflow engines like Apache Airflow. Like you can think of Armada runs compute. It runs a single container or a single pod. And then you want to couple that with a workflow scheduler. You want to build DAGs. You want to and so for those of you that are not familiar with Airflow, Airflow is kind of like this workflows as code. You define a Python file where you have a series of execution tasks that you want your jobs to run in like in this code snippet. I have a hello world followed by an Armada job and Airflow really thought long and hard about what it's like to extend their platform. And they have a lot of they have hundreds of providers that you can do. And one of the reasons why we even we looked at Airflow is because we don't run like we really like Kubernetes, but there are cases where Kubernetes may not make sense. You may want to run on a SQL server somewhere where in there might be cases where we had want to point Airflow to run on a database and then feed it back somewhere else and run Armada and vice versa. So generally, Airflow is pretty cool. Armada is pretty cool. And we want to combine them and be able to get our users to use more open source tooling help contribute to the open source projects and really start trying to think about how we can really make our users lives better. And fortunately, that is the end of my talk. If anyone is interested in this, we are as part of the CNCF fan box. And in general, we have a booth in the solutions showcase in hall five booth K 21. Please stop by. We have a nice I created a nice demo for anyone to have any questions about Airflow. Thank you.