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How can you tell if the psychic or medium is real?
How can you tell if the psychic or medium is real? Let's face it, there are some not so good psychics and mediums out there. So, how can you tell if the psychic is actually psychic and not making things up?
- There should be some form of validation. With mediumship, the medium should be able to provide proof that they are connecting with the right loved one who has passed. Things such as, how they died, what there personality was like, occupation and hobbies etc. and then give a message from spirit. With angel readings and guidance readings, the medium should be able to validate things that are going on in the clients life now. Things such as, what has their emotional well being been like, situations that are troubling them, and even specifics such as what type of job or relationship they are in etc. Basically there should be a few pieces of concrete evidence to support the information they are providing.
- The information should make sense. The information should be understood by the client. If it is not making sense to you, then the medium is either making it up or not connecting properly.
- You may notice a change of the energy in the room. It may get colder, warmer, you may have tingling sensation or it may feel heavier or lighter than when you first came in. There should always be some change of energy because when you are connecting to spirit or higher beings the mediums energy has to change to connect in such a way. Although, not everyone may pick up on this and that's okay too.
- The information being said should be positive or said in a positive way. Anything scary or negative is either the mediums ego or a negative entity. Higher beings will never say anything negative such as when you or someone you know are going to die, that you are cursed in anyway, or that something bad is going to happen to you. Anything like that again, is the mediums ego or a negative entity and we don't want either of those!
- Use your common sense. Does this feel right? Am I being helped in anyway?
Sometimes you and the medium just aren't clicking and that is okay. The medium should recognize this and end the session. Most psychics and mediums are out there doing their best and a few people has given this type of work a bad name. Trust your gut when choosing medium/psychic to go to.
And no you are not cursed and no you do not need to pay $10,000 for the cursed to be lifted!
Elora Taylor: http://www.torontomedium.com
Tammy Taylor: http://www.oakvillemedium.com
Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/angelsinyourinbox
Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/angelsinbox


text: The New Jersey Water Supply Authority's Watershed Protection Programs Division was formed in 1999 to administer a systematic source water protection program for the watersheds that the Authority relies upon for its water supply. The Division's primary objectives include the development and implementation of projects that afford protection of the quantity and quality of the source water in the Raritan and Manasquan River Basins, and the Delaware & Raritan Canal and its tributaries for the benefit of the Authority and its customers. Guided by the results of the Raritan Basin and Manasquan Basin Watershed Protection Plans, the Division began developing more detailed protection plans for priority sub-watersheds. As each of these sub-watershed plans is completed, the Division works with a variety of organizations to implement the recommended strategies. The Division's core activities are funded by a dedicated Source Water Protection component of the regulated rate the Authority charges for the sale of its water. This dedicated rate, paid by our customers, allows the Authority to leverage these dollars to attract matching sources of state and federal funds. Additionally, Source Water Protection funds are used to finance the acquisition of critical water resource land through the NJ Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program.

subset: commoncrawl


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Painting with Alcohol Inks Workshop with Linda Wood Shotwell
9:00a – 2:30p, Saturday, March 11, 2017
Jaycee Center for the Arts, 1975 Puritan Dr., Irving
We will paint ceramic tiles and on yupo paper using alcohol inks. There will be a short 30 minute lunch break. You may bring a sack lunch or there are some fast food restaurants close by.
Price: $35.00
Supplies needed:
Alcohol Inks, blending solution and small paint brushes.
All other supplies will be furnished.
Minimum 5 students required to hold workshop.
REGISTER: email firstname.lastname@example.com with your name and email address if you are interested in the class.
You will receive an invoice which will need to be paid online in order to complete registration.


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"Bed mites" is a term that refers to two different organisms, bed bugs and dust mites. Both of these organisms can live in bedding, but they cause different problems and health issues.
Bed bugs live on a diet of blood. They hide in bedding during the day and come out at night to feed on humans. Bites leave visible rashes and cuts on the victim, and some people suffer from allergic reactions to the bites. It is possible that bed bugs carry disease. They are difficult to get rid of, and exterminating an infestation may require the destruction of all infested bedding.
Dust mites are often found in bedding and feed on dead skin flakes and hair. Most people can live with dust mites with no issues, but some have allergic reactions that may cause asthma, itching or hives. Washing bedding with hot water may decrease the number of dust mites, but they are generally difficult to get rid of.


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Find helpful employment resources for both job seekers and current Manpower employees.
View resources.
Manpower employment agencies will go the extra mile for you. We offer the best staffing and recruiting services available in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Florida.
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Home » Search Jobs » North America > USA > Wisconsin > Barron > Barron » $13.75/hr - Assembly Workers
Type: Permanent, Full-Time
Category: Manufacturing and Production
Pay: $12.50 - $13.75 / Hour
Apply for this position now. »
Are you looking for a light industrial position that requires no heavy lifting and full time hours? Have you worked previously within an industrial environment and looking to expand your experience and try something new? Manpower is NOW HIRING Assembly Workers for a local client in Rice Lake.
What's In It For You?
-Direct Hire Opportunity
-Sign-On Bonus offered
-1st and 2nd Shift Available
-Entry Level, No Prior Experience Required
-Competitive Starting Wage up to $13.75/hr
-Monday-Friday schedule
What You Bring to the Job?
-Must be able to pass a Background Check and Drug Screen
-Must be able to lift up to 25+ pounds
-Must have a great work attitude and ability to work in a team setting
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Collection of Duff Severe Salesman Sample-Size Display Saddles
Important collection of four Duff Severe salesman sample size display saddles. True half-scale saddles by the contemporary American master braider, leather tooler and saddlemaker. Four models are represented, complete with custom stands and lighted display case. All from the 1980s exhibition of the collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Provenance: From the Severe family.
a) Form Fitter - the classic Hamley saddle favored by rodeo cowboys. 6 3/4" seat and 2 1/4" cantle, natural rawhide braided borders and horn wrap. 7 1/2" sweeping swells, engraved silver slotted conchos. Numbered 2427 on the back of the cantle.
b) American Bronc - oak leaf tooling, rope edged cantle and gullet, leather rosettes under the 6 strings and tooled leather covered oxbow stirrups. 7 1/2" seat and 2 1/2" cantle. Numbered 2415.
c) Roper - black dyed rawhide borders and star designs. Rings attached with engraved silver conchos for the strings. 7 1/2" seat, low Cheyenne roll cantle. Numbered 2418.
d) Old Mexican – two-tone saddle with floral carving in brown over a dyed red stippled background. Natural rawhide braided borders, full double rigged. Rope edges gullet and cantle. 6 1/2" seat. Numbered 2423.
Lot 132, Brian Lebel's Old West Auction - January 20, 2017, Mesa, AZ.
Sold $26,550
Hide and Rawhide Braided Bottles/Decanters by Duff Severe
A truly unique set of 8 decorative bottles, covered in hair-on hide and braided rawhide, by the one and only, Duff Severe.
The tooled leather title plaque inside the custom wood display case reads: "These bottles are covered with the scrotums of / each of the North American big game animals: / Deer - Caribou - Antelope - Bighorn Sheep / Elk - Moose - Buffalo - Mt. Goat / The braiding work is genuine rawhide; hand-cut, / hand-colored, and hand-braided, requiring / over 600 hours of concentrated hand-crafting." The Severe Brothers cartouche appears on either side of the tooled plaque.
Each bottle has unique braiding patterns and colors, with dyed rawhide interwoven with natural colors. The Big Horn Sheep bottle alone has 23 separate rings of braided buttons along the body. The hair-on hides are natural. Each bottle has a leather nameplate identifying the animal; a separate leather title plate refers to them as "Liquor Decanters". The bottles range in size from 8 3/4" to 13" tall. They are in as-new condition, and have been well cared for and protected from fading or wear. Complete with their original lighted wood showcase, 16" tall x 48" wide x 12" deep, lined in cream colored leather. Glass sliding doors on the front. (images of the showcase are available online).
Provenance: From the Severe family.
Lot 133, Brian Lebel's Old West Auction - January 20, 2017, Mesa, AZ.
Sold $4,425
Duff Severe is known throughout the world as a master leather worker. He was a world renowned saddler, especially known for his work in perfecting rodeo contest Bronc Saddles. A majority of World Champions, from Casey Tibbs to the present, have ridden saddles made by Duff Severe of Pendleton, Oregon.
During World War II, Duff served in the Navy and was stationed in the San Francisco Bay area, not far from the saddle shop of Luis Ortega. Duff spent his free time watching Ortega work, then returning to the base to practice what he observed Ortega doing. In 1946, he apprenticed himself to the Hamley Saddle Company, where he spent 10 years learning his trade before going into business with his brother Bill, who had also worked at Hamley. Bill learned to build the trees, and Duff specialized in making the saddle on the tree.
Host and proprietor of the Severe Brothers "Hotel de Cowpunch" since 1948, this friend of the rodeo cowboy hosted hundreds of cowboys, from champions to rookies, at no cost, and occasionally was known to join in some good cowboy music on an old Martin guitar.
In 1982, Duff was one of the 15 original master craftsmen named National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment for the Arts, marking him as one of "America's Living Treasures." His leather and rawhide art has been exhibited and has traveled with the Smithsonian Institution Exhibition more times than any other artist in his field.
In 1991, Duff was featured in National Geographic Magazine and TV "Explorer" articles on his life and leather achievements.
In 1992, Duff was inducted into the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame. His efforts and influence on behalf of cowboys and rodeo, as well as many years dedication to producing fine trophy saddles, inspired this honor.
Duff Severe passed away in 2004 at the age of 84. He received a National Heritage Award for his unique artistry in making utilitarian and miniature saddles. He and his brother Bill both have saddles in the Smithsonian Institution's collection; and both passed on the tradition and their skills to their sons and nephews who now run the saddlery.
Sources: www.severebrothers.com; www.rexburgstandardjournal.com; www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/duff-severe
If you are interested in Duff Severe and his work, there are a number of great resources on the Internet. Of particular interest is the website for the Master of Traditional Arts, which focuses on the work of recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship: www.mastersoftraditionalarts.org. Included in their profile of Duff Severe are wonderful sound recordings of Duff, both interviews and speeches, in which he discusses his life and his craft.


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Something ugly is going on in Afghanistan. I don't know who the perpetrator is, but that's up to your Congressman to find out. Here's what I can tell you; at FOB Gardez and Camp Phoenix (and I'm checking to see if this has happened elsewhere as well) there used to be MWR internet facilities, complete with computers for the Soldiers to use. "Permanent" residents of the FOB could buy monthly internet access for a fee from a private provider, usually a bunch of Indians with a satellite dish. The fee varied, and while it was high, it just got higher.
Now our Soldiers and Marines can buy internet by the hour, costing as much as $200 per month for pathetic speed. That is patently ridiculous! As I wrote when I was in country, my priorities for being a happy camper included internet in the top three. Most Soldiers don't send snail mail because you haven't seen a snail in your life as slow as mail to and from Afghanistan. We are the digital generation and we stay connected via electrons.
Will I pay $200/month to stay connected? Yes, I will. Will the private who makes a lot less pay it? Yes, he probably will.
This is a particular problem at Camp Phoenix, which each and every ETT/PMT has to process through on their way in and out of the country. Phoenix used to have an entire building full of phones and one that had internet computers and laptop drops in it. Now that building is full of phones. These "transients" who are trying to stay in touch with their families while they are coming into a new country, or whose families are trying to track their progress towards home, are now officially screwed.
What the hell, people?
First, the guy who made that decision was undoubtedly a Lieutenant Colonel or higher. Why he made that call is beyond me, but I can guarantee that he had no realistic idea, nor apparently did he care, how that type of expense impacted a young man with a family back home which he tried to stay in touch with via email and video chat. LTC's have jobs that provide internet-enabled computers, anyway, so what does he care? Doesn't affect him.
I cannot explain to you how much higher morale is when you can log on and get your email. I cannot explain to you how much more sustainable life is when you can log on the internet and see your child on the screen. Everyone wants to talk about the stress of deployment, but here is a morale killer and someone needs to look into it.
Someone is making a shitload of money from our deployed Soldiers, and those whose responsibility it is to safeguard those Soldiers and Marines are not only leaving them to the predations of crappy, overpriced service, but they actually had to change the existing system to do it! Now that the MWR rooms are gone, if those young men and women don't have a laptop, their access to this morale-saving technology is gone; or they can spend money that they weren't otherwise obligated to spend in order to buy a laptop and pay out the boowah for horrid service.
You want to take care of Soldiers? Provide free internet.
No, this the way that we take care of our deployed troops. We rape them for every dime we can so that they don't lose their freaking minds in a foreign country. Someone is making a lot of money on this, and it's on Joe's back.
Please get your Congressman interested in this. It's things like this that don't get solved when people are living by the "what happens in Afghanistan, stays in Afghanistan" moral code unless a Congressman starts asking what the hell they are thinking of.


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Dear Gracie,
This weekend we celebrated your birthday party. I spent three days shopping and crafting and generally making myself crazy. The night before, I was up past midnight trying to make sure everything was perfect.
It honestly didn't occur to me that all my preparation had gotten a little out of hand. This year, there were a couple of well-intended comments by friends, wondering when you would be "too old" to want that kind of themed family party. Shawn told me he had warned Vavo that I took your birthday parties "kind of seriously". Up until that moment, I didn't know that the event required a warning label.
It made me stop and think about exactly why it is that I lose my mind over planning parties for you.
I think it's because when it became just you and I, against the world…I felt like I had something to prove. I wanted the world to know that even when it may have seemed like I was totally and completely falling apart I could pull myself together and throw you an amazing, "pinterest worthy" party. I wanted people to believe I could do it all, alone.
But the thing is, Gracie…we were never really alone. Every year, Auntie has been right by my side; creating a plethora of all pink baked goods and staining her hands in the process, trying to stick cotton candy on top of pretzel sticks to make "truffula tree" cupcakes and close to burning her apartment down making blue candy for Elsa's castle. Without many complaints (but with demands for wine and red bull), she has spent countless hours helping to make you day as perfect as I dream it.
And then there are Mimi and Grampa. They open up their home and host. They scrub floors and clean the kitchen. They tolerate me snapping at them no less than 15 times in the three hours directly leading up to your party. Never mind just your birthday…it's the quiet ways they've been showing up for the past 6 years that count the most.
And now we have Shawn. Who didn't even flinch when I told him to just sit down and wait for me to need him to something this weekend. Who ran out late at night to replenish our supply of dum-dums for lollipop trees and knew not to take it personally when I repeatedly criticized his balloon placement. He has been so patient with me and with you, letting me figure out how to function as one half of a pair as opposed to "alone". And gently reminding me always that he wasn't going anywhere.
Every year, I think that this must be the year that there will be less people who come to your party. You're getting older (against my very clear and loud verbal wishes) and life has gotten busier and busier for the people that we love. And yet. They keep showing up. They carve precious time out of their weekend and they show up to celebrate you.
This year has been a big one for us. You started school. We moved to a new town, a new home. Our immediate family doubled, to include a dog and a Shawn. Our extended family grew too and they didn't hesitate one minute falling in love with you, enveloping you into their fold like you had always been there. This is something I don't have the words to express gratitude for.
I guess this is the one thing I'd like to share with you, at the very beginning of your 6th birthday. That there will be moments in your life when you feel like you're alone. Loneliness that feels so scary and so certain that it must be real. And the truth is, you need me less and less with each passing minute. You're reading on your own and riding your bike and rolling your eyes at me. You're walking up the stairs and into your kindergarten classroom hand in hand with your "bestie" while I linger dejectedly on the sidewalk, pretending like me watching you walk away is somehow keeping you safe.
You're doing so many things on your own already. But becoming capable of doing great things on your own isn't the same as being alone.
You're smarter than I could have imagined and you make me laugh every single day. You're sweet in the most surprising ways like insisting I use your special blanket when I'm sick. You are only the teeniest bit cautious and then completely fearless in the same moment. You love people to the tips of your toes and are kind to everyone that crosses your path.
So in the moments when life leaves you a little broken hearted (unless you allow me to lock you inside the house until you're 45 or so, this unfortunately will happen), when you feel like the world has totally given up on you…
The people who matter will keep showing up. In big huge ways and in teeny tiny ways. In nagging ways that seem like complete and totally annoyances but are really created from love.
And I'll be first in line.
Happy sixth birthday to the very best thing to ever happen to me.


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A Creetown paedophile who abused two young girls will now appear at the High Court for sentencing after a local sheriff deemed the case too serious for local disposal.
Richard Tattam, 45, appeared before Sheriff Kenneth Robb at Stranraer Court on Tuesday to be told the case will be passed to higher powers.
Sheriff Robb said: "Having heard the details in depth and considered all the victim impact statements, I have taken the decision to pass this case to the High Court for sentencing."
Sheriff Court sentencing powers are limited to imposing a maximum jail term of five years, unlike the High Court which has unlimited terms available. Sheriffs have the right to pass a case up if they feel it merits heavier punishment than the court can impose.
Tattam admitted in February to a string of sexual assaults on the girls, starting when one was aged just nine years old and living in Creetown.
The abuse continued for many years on both youngsters.
One of the girls attempted to call Childline five times during the period of abuse but was too scared to admit the truth, which was only revealed after one started seeing a boyfriend.
A source closely involved in the case said after Tattam's initial appearance at Stranraer Sheriff Court: "The impact of his sexual abuse and serious assaults have devastated the lives of these children.
"The effects on their childhoods, education, friendships and relationships, self-confidence and self-worth has been immense. He has stolen their childhoods.
"They have been extremely brave in helping the police bring him to justice and I hope that the fact that this paedophile is now in custody will help them rebuild their lives.
"It has been a very hard year since the investigation began but they were assured by the police that this was a very strong case, and they have been helped through the ordeal by incredible kindness and support from many decent people."
Tattam will now appear for sentencing before a judge at a later date.


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What to do in Connecticut?
Try these itinerary samples including Connecticut's unique fall foliage stops, or visit the many attractions along the state's highways and byways. See several examples for a full day of activities or feel free to pick and choose your own custom day in Connecticut.
Southern New England Tour
This tour features the popular spots in Connecticut from Yale University to Yankee Candle and everything in between. Highlighted are historic, entertaining, and cultural stops in Central and Eastern Connecticut, as well as some the favorite wine and beer trail destinations too.
Explore Connecticut by Highways and Byways
Don't miss these wonderful sites along the major interstates and routes while traveling around Connecticut. These "must sees" include great museums, historic sites, dining options and some of the best-kept secrets for you to experience.
Fall Foliage Tour in Connecticut
Autumn foliage in New England is an attraction all in itself, but the Connecticut experience features unique historic stops and one of a kind picturesque views. See the many colors of "the nutmeg state" while riding a turn of the century steam train, or while hiking on the footsteps of the Appalachian Trail, or take in the scenic views from a castle on the mighty Connecticut River.
Maritime - Coastal Connecticut
Explore Coastal Connecticut from Western Norwalk to Eastern Mystic, highlighting many stops that include legendary lighthouses, island cruises, and maritime museums.


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Strange sliced layer, hided, missing, shifted?
I'm trying to print a .stl but when i try to slice with Slic3r from Repetier-Host always make a strange layer in the same place, in the preview and in the finish printed piece. When i sliced with Slic3r and Cura preview it's perfect but Repetier-Host shows this defect that print in the finish object.
Repair .stl or changing layer height, etc. not works.
It's a piece from Thingiverse and i see perfect prints from other users.
How can i solve this issue?
Thanks in advance.
P.D.: Please a new Mac Version!!!
Result depends on SLic3r and model and is independent of mac version!Is this a manifold model? Non manifold models can lead to strange results when sliced, so they need to be repaired. Apart from that I can not say what goes wrong. SLic3r is just the bundled original current slic3r version whcih is not developed by us.
Hi, first thanks for the fast answer.Yes, this is a manifold model, anyway i try to repair with online netfabb repair but nothing changes. Anyway i think that is a Slic3r problem, with the offical Slic3r prints ok but with Slic3r Prusa Edition i have this problem.Here the .stl:Regards.
What version of slic3r are you using, it slices fine with 1.2.9
Hi MartinH,The last Slic3r version for OS X and prints ok, looks like i have the problem with the Slic3r Prusa Edition.
Ok, the problem was with Slic3r 1.31.2. Finally searching a new version of Slic3r Prusa Edition i find Slic3r-1.31.6 and works fine.[SOLVED]Bye.


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List of all Bollywood Comedy Movies with starcast, confirmed release date, reviews, genre, duration and other details.
125 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Release date: 25th August 2006
Sher Singh lives with his mother and handicapped sister in Punjab but moves to Mumbai, changes his name to Shekhar, meets Nisha and falls in love. When his mother asks him to return, he explains to Nisha that if he takes her before they are married the people would make an issue of it and promises to return in 4 days. ...
Director: Anees Bazmee
145 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Release date: 10th November 2006
Kishan is a young man from Goa whose brain is full of every conceivable trick to make a quick buck. He cons people by slipping into different outfits and by assuming many guises. Julie, is a sexy club dancer with quite a local reputation, but behind her raunchy exterior is a compassionate, kind-hearted woman who goes o...
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
130 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Release date: 25th January 2008
A dead body found floating in a lake, Unexplained scratch marks on her neck. Supari killers out to kill her, A taxi driver who yells ˜bhoot, bhoot" every time he sees her......
Director: Rohit Shetty
Genre: Comedy
Release date: 4th September 2009
Aage Se Right is the story of chance, co-incidence and real life humor based in the present day Mumbai. The film spans over five days of panic, chaos and mayhem!!!...
Director: Indrajit Nattooji
138 min
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Release date: 2nd October 2009
Wake Up Sid! is the story of a lazy Mumbai college student who does absolutely nothing, with a turn of events will Sid realize his potential in this world and become a success in the fast-paced life of Mumbai....
Director: Karan Johar
156 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Release date: 11th December 2009
Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year is the sometimes thoughtless, sometimes thoughtful story of a fresh graduate trying to find a balance between the maddening demands of the professional way, and the way of his heart - and stumbling upon a crazy way which turned his world upside down, and his career right side up. Wel...
Director: Shimit Amin
143 minutes
Genre: Action, Comedy
Release date: 22nd July 2011
A Bollywood classic directed by Rodit Shetty. Singham tells the story of sub-inspector Durai Singan who uncovers a scam run by extortionist Vaaganam in which kidnaps children from wealthy families and holds them for ransom. With Singam on his tracks Vaaganam starts to target people dearest to him including his fianc�...
Director: Rohit Shetty
Genre: Comedy,Satire
Release date: 8th March 2013
Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga is a 2013 Bollywood satire film directed by Anshul Sharma starring Sanjay Mishra and Pragati Pandey. Written by Rupesh Thapliyal and Vijay Manral, the film also has Ranjan Chhabra, Disha, Vishwa Mohan Badola, Pramod Pathak, Zakir Hussain and Sitaram Panchal. Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga..., produced by...
Director: Anshul Sharma
Genre: Political Satire, Comedy, Drama
Release date: 10th October 2014
Two sons set out to get their father what he dreamt of all through his life –the ultimate sign of respect. High on thrill and laughter, this film takes the audience through the unbelievable attempt of Shekhar and Subhash Joshi to provide their father an Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami. Purushotam Joshi is a common man who f...
Director: Ravindra Gautam
Product of VGB IT Solution, made with ❤ in India


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"It is important for artists to remain calm and aware in the midst of change."
Born Taiyuan, Shanxi, 1980
Born four years after China's "opening-up" began, Wang Duo has known nothing but chaotic change, yet even she finds its pace "not only rapid but shocking. My beautiful memories of hutongs and big trees have all been replaced by modern buildings now," she says. "I can never find them again." Her video installation Old Brands Made New (2011) is a witty meditation on modernity, on change, and on the changing meanings of modernity in China. It recreates old advertising posters and calendars from the 1930s, when Shanghai was the emerging nation's most Western city, centre of all that was new and exciting and chic. Using the latest photo and video technology, Wang Duo reinvents herself as a series of elegant models from that lost time, stylishly coiffed and made up, and wearing qipao, the narrow, slit-seamed dresses that were then the height of fashion. Audacious and provocative in their day, these (moving) figures now seem sweetly old-fashioned, their poses almost demure. The products they originally promoted, meanwhile, have been replaced by up-to-the-minute counterparts: Estée Lauder cosmetics, Louis Vuitton handbags, cigarettes, an iPad. The advertising slogans bridge the two eras: some are quaint, some contemporary. "White skin and rosy cheeks makes you unique"; "Smoking harms your health." The idea of modernity that entranced 1930s Shanghai was erased by Mao's revolution. What fate awaits the 21st century version?


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Ep051: Leadership Advice from America's Top Banker & CEO with John Allison/
Before he was named a recent contender for Secretary of Treasury, John Allison served as CEO of BB&T, America's 10th largest bank for almost 20 years during which time he led the company to grow from $4.5B to $152B in assets. The Harvard Business Review has recognized John as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs. In today's episode of the TalentGrow Show, John shares his incredible insights on seizing the opportunity in front of you, choosing character over genius when hiring, and handling low performers in an organization. He discusses his personal philosophy of success that led him from bank teller to CEO and an in-depth look at how Allison built important core values into the BB&T organization from the ground up. John talks about how to triple employee productivity, the biggest mistake leaders make today, and how he has discovered the most critical factor in motivating human action.
What you'll learn:
- The goal John Allison set that enabled him to become a CEO (Hint: It wasn't to become a CEO or make a lot of money) (7:12)
- Who Allison believes is the most important person in an organization to lead and why (8:54)
- You need to identify this one thing in your life in order to make the world a better place (9:20)
- The most precious thing you have and how to respect it (10:00)
- What Allison believes is required to accomplish your purpose (10:20)
- Allison discusses the purpose of values and why they are important in your life (10:30)
- How John Allison instilled new values into BB&T early on in his career (12:11)
- The value and business evaluation process at BB&T (13:58)
- When Allison would and would not help his employees improve (14:15)
- Allison and BB&T were merciless on this one thing (15:00)
- Why Allison will take character over genius any day (15:20)
- How BB&T tested for ethics in the hiring process (16:20)
- What inevitably happens when there is a disconnect between an employee's values and the company's values (16:30)
- What employees want in their evaluations (17:50)
- How BB&T achieved a 20% compound growth rate while spending a fraction of what competitors spent on their advertising (18:45)
- The advice Allison gives to college students and young leaders today (20:40)
- How Allison gives front line employees a grand sense of purpose (21:15)
- A leader's responsibility for setting expectations and standards (22:45)
- The biggest mistake leaders make today (23:20)
- Allison's strategy to get triple the productivity from employees (23:50)
- What you should NEVER tolerate in yourself or others (24:54)
- The type of worker Allison has never met (25:14)
- What's on the horizon for Allison (27:31)
- A piece of actionable advice you can take today to avoid what Allison considers the ultimate psychological sin (29:40)
- How to stay in touch with Allison (34:00)
- Get John Allison's books: The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy's Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
- Leadership and Values talk
- Big Think Interview On Financial Crisis
- Allison on his meeting with Donald Trump
- Check out the TalentGrow Show on C-Suite Radio
- Like the new Facebook page of The TalentGrow Show!
- Join the new Facebook group – The TalentGrowers Community! Share your advice, your progress, your successes and your challenges and questions. Interact with other listeners and with me. Let's support each other in becoming the kind of leader that people *want* to follow!
- Download the 10 Mistakes Leaders Make and How to Avoid Them free tool
- Intro/outro music for The TalentGrow Show: "Why-Y" by Esta - a great band of exquisitely talented musicians, and good friends of mine
About John Allison:
John Allison is an Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business. He is a member of the Cato Institute's Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Allison was president and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.
Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Banker. He is the author of The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy's Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In addition, he is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He received his master's degree in management from Duke University and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Allison is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees.
Announcer: Welcome to the TalentGrow Show, where you can get actionable results-oriented insight and advice on how to take your leadership, communication and people skills to the next level and become the kind of leader people want to follow. And now, your host and leadership development strategist, Halelly Azulay.
Halelly: Hey there, Talent Growers. This is Halelly Azulay, your leadership development strategist. I'm really excited this week and I think I probably always say that because I am always very excited about my show. I love doing this podcast and sharing information with you that I think will be very useful to you, and sharing some great thought leaders with you. This week there's someone who is special, I think in a class by himself. My guest is John Allison and it's not every day you get to interview someone that was considered to be Treasury of Secretary for the United States of America. Someone who was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs of the last 10 years. I mean, this guy is just a legend, and someone that I've really admired and looked up to and so to have him share his wisdom on this show is something that is really special. And I think that you'll enjoy it. We talk about a wide ranging list of topics that are all related to leadership, but we go to philosophy to psychology to how to triple your employee's productivity, how to hire, when to fire and what's most important is how John integrates values and clarity around values with how he leads. And he teaches that, I think, really succinctly in this short podcast. I hope that you'll enjoy it.
Before we get in, I just wanted to quickly mention something to you – sometimes I say this at the end, but I thought I'd say it at the beginning. This show has been going on for two years and we have thousands and thousands of downloads, but every few iTunes reviews. I know that there are people that are getting consistent value from the show, but are not really chiming in and saying anything about it. I want to ask you to do me a favor. I'm trying to get 60 new reviews in the next 60 days and you can help. It takes really literally a few moments of your time. I just got a review in this morning, or actually yesterday, that says, "I've listened to so many of Halelly's podcasts for a while now. She's super bright and cheery and it puts me in a positive mood immediately just to listen to her. Her podcast guests are super accomplished and aspiring and Halelly asks just the right questions to draw out their unique insights. I learned so much from Halelly and her guests during each podcast and I also feel refreshed and motivated after listening. I've actually started listening in the mornings for these reasons so that I begin my day in high spirits. Thank you Halelly. To anyone reading, I strongly encourage you to listen. It has made my days so much better to include the TalentGrow Show podcast episodes." That's just amazing. But the point of the review is not to make me feel good – which it does, it really, really does – and it really actually helps iTunes pop up my show in search results. The more reviews you have, the more that your show is considered by iTunes a good show to recommend to others. So when someone is searching for a good podcast to listen to and they've never heard of the TalentGrow Show, they're much more likely to discover it if there's more reviews. So, if you're listening and you're getting value, and I do create this show for free. I share it widely. I love to share it with you. It would be such a small token of your appreciation if you would take the time to put in a review on iTunes. It doesn't take a long time, you can use a pseudonym if you don't want to use your full name and it's something that's just going to make a huge difference. So a few moments of your time will make a huge difference and I am asking you to do it. Please, when you get back to your computer, just go into iTunes, search the TalentGrow Show, go to put in a rating and a review and it'll take you just a couple of seconds. I have a tutorial on my website that will help you do it if you're not sure how to do it with screenshots of the screen and where to click. Thank you for listening to this and thank you for considering my request.
All right, so now, we are ready to listen to John Allison and his amazing insights on the TalentGrow Show. Thanks for listening. Welcome back to the TalentGrow Show, I'm Halelly Azulay, your leadership development strategist and I am really excited this week to host John Allison on the show. I can't wait for you to hear his ideas. He is someone that I've actually looked up to for many years, so I am very honored, John, that you're on the show. Let me tell people who you are a little bit in case they haven't heard. John Allison is an executive in residence at the Wake Forrest School of Business. He's a member of the Cato Institute board of directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. John was the President and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015, and prior to joining Cato, John was Chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO for almost 20 years, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets, and John was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade. He has received numerous awards. He is the author of two books – Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy's Only Hope, and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. He is also the holder of six honorary doctorate degrees and his bio is so impressive. I can keep reading it at you forever and ever, but it'll be on the show notes page. In the meantime, welcome John. Thank you for agreeing to join us on the TalentGrow Show.
John: It's a pleasure to be with you.
Halelly: It is such an honor. I always start by asking my guests to tell us about their professional journey. I think it's always interesting to think about how did you get to where you are today, and where did you start? Would you give us a very brief, high-level overview of your professional journey please?
John: Sure. I was born in what I call classic traditional, modern income family. I was the first person in my family to actually graduate from college. I joined BB&T when it was a really small farm bank in the early 1970s. I started out as a small business lender and worked my way up through the organization and became President in 1987 and CEO in 1989. Basically doing pretty much every job that was in the bank. We had a great run, as you heard in that biography in terms of the growth of the bank, mostly because I think we had a really clear sense of values and a clear sense of purpose and great people. I think we're motivated by that energy. Now, people ask me about my goals. I never really thought much about becoming CEO or making a lot of money, although I liked being CEO and I liked making a lot of money. But my goal was always to do every job that I had better than anybody that had ever done it. And many organizations, that's how you get to be successful. So I think a lot of people focus more on what's the next opportunity instead of the opportunity they have that day and to maximize what opportunity you have in terms of performance of that job and understanding how that relates to the rest of the organization. That kind of mindset was critical to me in my career.
I made a transition from running a bank to running a Libertarian think tank. That was an interesting and educational experience, one that was very challenging at first. It turned out to be very rewarding and I found the same basic leadership principles applied in that kind of environment that it did in running a for-profit organization.
Halelly: Interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing more about these leadership principles. In fact, you have spoken frequently about this idea of what you call principle leadership, and I've heard you describe that everyone is a leader, when we lead ourselves, and some of us also lead others. For our listeners, who are either already leading others or getting ready for it, within organizations, talk to us more about what you mean by leading with purpose and values and what you think the role of philosophy is in leadership. Not that many people talk about that.
John: I think that's a great set of questions. I think the most important person to lead is yourself. Most failures in leadership are failures of self-leadership. Very difficult to inspire a sense of purpose in other people if you don't have a purpose in yourself. I think the number one organizing principle, what motivates and integrates human action, is a sense of purpose. I think that has two components – you need to believe that what you're doing is making the world a better place to live for almost everybody. Not quite everybody, but almost everybody wants to make the world a better place to live. There are lots of ways to do that. You don't have to feed hungry children in Bangladesh. Business has made the world a better place to live and that's really important for business people to understand. Businesses provide the products and improve the quality of life, the services improve the quality of life. Business is the act of production and production is noble work. Good doctors, good teachers, good homemakers make the world a better place to live, but you need to have a sense of purpose in yourself and then inspire that in the rest of your team that you're making the world a better place to live.
The second component of purpose is under-discussed. You need to make the world a better place doing something you want to do. Because you have a fundamental right to your own life. And if you were to make the world a better place to live and you didn't enjoy doing it, you've wasted the most precious thin you have which is you. So, the beginning point for self-leadership and leadership of others is getting clarity about purpose. And then accomplish a purpose, you've got to have a clearly defined, integrated set of values. A lot of people play lip service to values. They don't understand that the real purpose of values is to provide us the principles that improve the probability of staying alive, being successful and being happy. Today's aren't arbitrary. They're not capricious, they don't just fall out of the sky. We have to think about what principles will lead to our success and happiness. And the fundamental underlying principle is what I call rationality, making logical decisions based on the facts towards the purpose of promoting my own life, i.e. my own happiness, in the context of not taking advantage of other people, but living my own life and pursuing a life well-lived. So you have to have a set of values consistent with your nature as a human being and Mother Nature and in order to be successful, in order to be happy. These are really philosophical ideas. They're ideas that you have a philosophy, whether you think about it or not. But if you get clear about your philosophy, you're going to improve the probability of being able to use the right set of values for the end purpose of being happy, in the deep Aristotelian sense of the word.
Halelly: I love it. When you came into BB&T, when you came into the top leadership I guess of BB&T, because you were there for a while as one of the team members, did you feel like the values that you believed were the right values for that organization were already in place or did you feel like there needed to be some kind of more of just stating them explicitly or naming the unnamed, or did you feel like you needed to change the values of the organization once you took the helm?
John: It's kind of some of all of the above. I had an interesting experience. When I joined the bank, it was a really small bank, and they didn't have a training program so I was a teller, I was a bookkeeper, I mean, I wasn't training those jobs, I was doing those jobs. Then early on in my career I was asked to develop a training program for the new college graduates we were hiring. I was able to, in that training program, put in the values that I had, which came a lot from, I'm a big fan of Atlas Shrugged, written by Ayn Rand, and the ethics in her books. We incorporated a lot of those principles into our training program. By the time I got to be CEO, a pretty big chunk of the organization's leadership had been educated in those principles. That didn't mean that everybody totally agreed with them, but if they weren't in agreement with them, they probably had decided to leave in a big sense. They probably had decided to leave by then. So, in a certain sense I changed the values, but I kind of did it from the bottom up. I'd taken a training program in a small organization and as it got bigger, attracting people that found these values attractive to them, that they liked these ideas in that regard. Then when I got to actually be CEO, we concretized them in a way, actually, we had a BB&T philosophy. We had a booklet that was written and we had 10 core values that we discuss in that philosophy book. Everybody in the organization reads it and I reinforce it. I did videos, DVD type things once a quarter. I did an annual presentation to all of our employees that they all saw, and I spent about half the time talking about what I'd call business and half the time talking about values.
And even our performance evaluation, which we did for everybody in the organization, all the way tellers up to the top of the organization, twice a year, half of your evaluation was based on values. And half was based on results. And what I found, if somebody had a value issue, if they had an honesty issue, they didn't act rationally, they weren't productive, they weren't an independent thinker, if they didn't have those kind of values, that's when they had performance problems in the long-term. Somebody was getting good results in the short-term, but wasn't acting consistent with our values, they probably were doing something you wouldn't be proud of and they would get in trouble and the organization could get in trouble in the long term. So we would work with people on performance, trying to figure out ways to get them to be better. At some point, you can't tolerate poor performance, but on ethics, we were merciless. I don't care how long you'd been there, if you violated our fundamental ethics, then we fired you. And people understood that. They understood that for me, for our organization, ethics was really critical and the people that thought that was important stayed and the people that didn't left, and I do believe that people that have really clear set of ethics and are consistent with their ethics are much more likely to be successful in the long term. I'll take character over genius any day. Not that genius doesn't matter, I'm not diminishing the role of genius, but character is really critical. Not many people are geniuses.
Halelly: Yeah, and you don't need a whole organization full of geniuses.
John: You're not going to get it anyway!
Halelly: Interesting. I tend to agree with you. So I wonder, did you have some sort of screening mechanism as you hired new people into the organization to ensure that they held the right values that are aligned? Is this something that you hire for or is it something you think can be taught?
John: You have to hire to some degree and if people's values can't be improved … if their values are so inconsistent with yours and they're a grown-up, it's unlikely to move them too far. But you can move people a fairly long way. We did have a very intense selection process. We had scripted interviews. We had logic tests and we had psychological profile tests and we had an ethics test, as best as you can test that. We actually can test for ethics pretty well. So we were very careful in our selection process. The other thing we were just straightforward. We said, "Look, these are the values at BB&T. We really believe these values. This is not bromides and cliché. This is not something … a lot of companies say this stuff and they don't really mean it and you know that. You try to figure out what the real values are. Here are ours. Ours are here, they're written and we believe them and we're going to act consistent with them. If this doesn't fit you, that's fine. Then you shouldn't work here. If you want to be happy here and you want to be successful here, it won't work out in the long-term." We used a lot of testing and profiling, but we also were very explicit about what our values were.
Now, the difference in our values and a lot of businesses, we didn't have any bromides and clichés. We were very much an objective performance organization. We believe strongly in justice. Those that contributed the most got the most, and both psychological rewards, economic rewards. Measuring justice is tough, but the idea was clear. We were not altruists and we rejected the whole idea of egalitarianism. We found that people have different levels of performance and make different levels of contributions. Everybody needs to be treated right as a human being, but people have different attributes and have different outcomes. So we were very much a justice organization. And good people like that, right? They want to be evaluated objectively and rewarded for their performance. And it improves the performance of the person. Because if there's no reward for extra effort and extra productivity, there's no reward for being ethical. Then of course people don't act ethically.
Halelly: Makes sense. So as you developed leaders to help them make sure that the people on their teams are aligned to the values, what were some of the things that you taught them as you – it sounds like you had them in training, even before you were the CEO – that helped tool them up for this kind of work?
John: Well, two things. BB&T created its own university. We took, we made a strategic – this was something, as I was becoming CEO, decision that we made – we took our advertising budget or most of it and invested in employee education. We believed if we had better trained employees that understand our values and could take those ideas and benefit our clients, do the right thing for our clients, that we would be more successful and we would grow by word of mouth. We had a 20-percent compound growth rate over 20 years. Anybody who's good with mathematics, those are amazing numbers, and yet we spent 10 percent on advertising of what our competitors did. But we spent 10 times as much on employee education and ideas, and we combined technical education – you've got to be really good at what you do at your job – and integrated that with our value system. So every education program that our university had, it taught the technical skills, which are critical, but it also reinforced how these skills were consistent with our values.
Interestingly enough too, we were very passionate about helping our clients. We strongly believed in win-win relationships in everything we do. We were committed [inaudible] to being economically successful and financial secure and we stood to make a profit doing it. And we were straightforward. We told our clients that. We said, "Look, we're going to help you, and we stand to make a profit." And so this whole idea and same thing with our employees of trying to create win-win relationships was very, very critical to our success. So a lot of the thing was investing in our employees and their ability to provide better products and services to our clients.
Halelly: So as we are talking to the leaders and aspiring leaders that are listening, what do you think is going to be one of those keys that really differentiates their future success if they apply it, given what you've just described?
John: My beginning advice, and I do a lot of speaking on college campuses is to be clear about your own sense of purpose. What it is, how you make a difference through your work and what makes that enjoyable to you. And then think about how you can inspire that in your employees and obviously it depends on your job, but I find that the most important way to inspire people, generally, is to help them see their job as bigger than the mechanics of the job, and I'll concretize that. A teller, it's less important today than it is now, everybody has gone to using the internet, but tellers were huge in the banking business for a long time. A teller can either view her job as cashing checks, which is pretty boring, or they can have a sense of "I'm helping my clients, providing them financial advice that improves the quality of their lives. Therefore I have to know a lot about them, I've got to be friends with them, I've got to really think about them." And that is hugely job enriching and of course is the responsibility of the manager to then make that good in a concrete way for the teller. So the teller that does a really good job helping her clients, she can either get economic rewards if the manager has control of that, or at least psychological awards. A pat on the back and whatnot. Having a sense of purpose in yourself, inspiring that in your employees and one of the best ways to do that is to help them understand the significance of their work. I would get our managers to take our entry-level employees – customer service representatives – they'd take them to lunch on Wednesday and go by some of our customers. Go by this manufacturing plant or this agricultural operation and say, "The work you do makes this business possible. Because we provide financing to that business." Help them connect to a bigger sense of purpose in their work if at all practical.
And then you've got to be ethical yourself. One thing I told our senior leaders, you cannot expect your employees to be more ethical than you are and be more consistent with your values than you are. Honesty is a really important value, and I think it's the foundational value, that you have to be the most honest person in the room, including when it's not so much fun to be honest. You can't expect other people to be more honest than you are.
Halelly: That's great advice. I love it. What do you think is the biggest mistake that leaders are making today? Is there something you're seeing clearly that can be either just totally avoided or solved in some way?
John: I think unfortunately a lot of leaders try to be politically correct because that's what sounds like the rewards system in our environment, particularly become altruistic. And in that sense, almost encourage mediocrity. When I was at BB&T, we acquired over, about 150 different companies. We didn't buy many bad companies and we didn't really buy many high performers. We bought a lot of mediocre companies that had good people, but people that were underperforming well under their potential. What we saw in those organizations was what I call paternalism. There was a little bit of differences between the best performers and the worst performers, but not much. And what we did, we came in and we said, "Look, if you do a really good job well, you're going to do better. You'll get more money but you're also going to get more rewards, more opportunity. If you don't do your job well, we're going to give you every effort we can to help you get better, but if you don't, if you aren't committed to doing your job better, then you really ought to leave. And over time, three things happen. The people with high performance potential became far more motivated and radically more productive – I mean, double and triple their productivity. A lot of the people in the middle got better, and then the people that didn't want to get better that were lazy, frankly, in many cases, left. And that was good. And the people that were there were glad those people left, because they were drags on the team.
The whole idea is about not tolerating mediocrity in yourself or in others. I talk about justice being a two-edged sword. Justice requires that we reward superior performance. If we don't, they'll leave and we'll be worse off. And most business people at least pay lip service to that, even though in society it's rejected. But it also requires that we deal with non-performance. Failing to deal with non-performance is an injustice. It's a moral error, not just a technical error. It's a moral error for two reasons. One, it's unfair to the team because non-performers hurt the team, and secondly, it's actually unfair to the non-performer. Because I've never found a happy non-performer. People that aren't doing the job well are not happy. They'll be better off trying to do something else. Even if they are, you still have the obligation to the team to weed out the people that aren't carrying their share of the load. It's important to demand in yourself and in your team high performance.
Halelly: I agree. It's something that I try to help those, those that feel like maybe their motivation is compassion for the low performers or sometimes maybe just fear of confrontation, to think of the disservice that they're doing to the others. That they just so often are focused on that one person and feeling bad for that one person, well, if you care so much about that one person, why are you throwing away the rest of your team? Why are you not upholding the standards that you expect of them and showing them that having high standards and protecting them from someone dragging them down is something that you care about?
John: You're absolutely right about that. Plus I believe very strongly, it's not fair to the non-performer. You're actually hurting them by being … now, there can be special short-term circumstances. Somebody can be sick. That's a different kind of issue. For somebody that's a long-term non-performer, trying to coddle them is actually destructive to the team, but it's destructive to them and it's destructive to you. It brings you down.
Halelly: And it ends up eating up the manager's time and energy so much. It is such a drag. So, I don't want to talk about that, that's just depressing, so let's talk about something on the opposite end of the spectrum. First of all, you were in the news recently as one of the top contenders to have the Treasury Secretary position on the new administration and I know that didn't pan out for whatever reason, but what is new and exciting on your horizon? What's got you most energized these days?
John: I have a passion for defending the principles that underlie our free society. I believe that you can't have successful organizations, successful businesses, unless we have freedom. We have recognition of individual rights, free markets, limited government, and I spend a lot of my time now speaking on college campuses, trying to defend the principles that underlie free society. I'm very outnumbered on college campuses. Most college campuses are extremely left wing, which I think is very bad for our society and very bad for the students. So, I teach in the graduate business school at Wake Forrest, but I spend more time at other universities, defending the ideas that underlie what I call a free and prosperous society. I talk a lot about what I consider to be the philosophical fight for the future of America, where those of us in the classical/liberal tradition, the defenders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we're on the defensive against people that want to go to the kind of societies that have failed. I mean, it's kind of like they don't look around and see that, hey, socialism hasn't worked. Communism hasn't worked. Freedom works! And they wouldn't even want to live in the kind of societies that they defend if they were thrust into those kind of societies. So it's interesting. I find that many students haven't ever even heard the ideas that underlie free societies and that's kind of discouraging.
Halelly: Yeah. Well, thank you for that work. I appreciate that you're doing that. That's really important. Before we wrap up, and before we tell our listeners how they can stay in touch with you or follow what you're doing, what would you say is – I always like to have one really specific, very actionable tip at the end that everyone listening can take the same day that they're listening, or the same week, that you thing can ratchet up their leadership effectiveness. What would you suggest?
John: I am a really strong believer in something called self-awareness, being aware of your subconscious, often emotional beliefs, that hinder you being successful, particularly hinder you in being happy. I would challenge everybody to really, the next time you get mad at something, the next time let's say you evade – you don't want to face a fact, and you evade from that, that is really the usual cause of really destructive behavior. You see that often in small businesses, the leader evades. Next time you see yourself doing that, have the courage to reflect on what believe is driving that behavior. Why are you mad? You could be mad for good reasons, or you could be mad because of some crazy subconscious belief you had. You can't ever evade for a good reason, because evasion is when you don't face the fact and that's when you get in trouble. So the next time you hear something that you've heard before, usually in some form of negative feedback from family or your manager, take an objective look at it. Be willing to say, "What is causing me to behave in this way?" That other people perceive, it's probably the reality, but at least other people perceive this is a kind of behavior. Don't evade, because evasion I believe is the ultimate psychological sin. The people that evade less and stay in focus more are the people that are the most successful in the long term.
Halelly: So evasion means not facing the reality, right? Or not admitting the reality? So as people are reflecting, they're becoming maybe aware that you're saying to try to understand the source of an emotion that they're having or to try to seek out places where they might be evading?
John: Yes.
Halelly: And then what?
John: The classic case is maybe your parents, maybe your spouse, maybe your friends, then your manager, start giving you feedback about a certain kind of behavior. And you've been defensive about that. You kind of said, "I don't have that kind of behavior. It's not a real problem." And you are evading, I believe, some deeper psychological cause. If you want to concretize – I mean, I can concretize that in myself – I used to believe that I was not loveable because my relationship with my mother, it's not my mother's fault, but my relationship, and I felt like I wasn't good enough. And that's why I wasn't lovable. I'd get all A's and one B and my mother would focus on the B. What I found is, and in looking objectively at that, my mother didn't really have a problem, it's just the wrong set of focus, and I was drawing the wrong conclusion as a very young person. When I brought down the intensity on that subconscious belief, I was able to think more objectively. Because a lot of times we rationalize that we're thinking objectively when our premise is some subconscious belief that we developed in a relationship with our parents when we were three years old, five years old, that really doesn't objectively make sense. And having the courage to kind of take a look at the layers that are driving those subconscious beliefs can profoundly improve the quality of your decision-making and the quality of your life.
Halelly: I see. So it sounds like just the awareness itself, bringing it into your conscious awareness, helps you reduce the intensity?
John: And you have to do it over and over again, because you've written that program pretty intensively at a young age, so you have to see when you're behaving in a dysfunctional way. You kind of intuitively know there's something happening here that doesn't make sense and you keep asking yourself, "Why, why, why?" If you do that over and over again, you will bring down the energy around that negative belief that is kind of what's called a negative ground of being, that will actually help you think more objectively.
Halelly: Great, wonderful. This should be helping a lot of different people in so many different ways, so thank you for that. John, I really appreciate that you've spent some time with us on the TalentGrow Show. How can people follow more of what you're doing, stay in touch with you?
John: You know, I think objectively I'd recommend my books, particularly the one on the leadership crisis. It really deals very clearly with the kind of issues we've talked about, about having a clear sense of purpose and a rational set of behaviors. It explains how I was able to use those in leading BB&T and Cato, so if somebody is interested in these ideas, I hope they'll take the time and read that book.
Halelly: I will link to it on the show notes for sure.
John: Okay, thank you.
Halelly: Great. And any place else you'd like to send them to read more or see what you're doing? Are you active on social media at all?
John: I turned up on Facebook a lot, just those people, I speak a lot at universities and a lot of that is recorded, so if anybody is interested, I'm sure they can from Facebook or You Tube, they can find lectures that I've done. The one that I'm doing right now, it's called the Philosophical Fight for Future America, as I mentioned earlier. If they're interested in that, it's gotten a lot of positive feedback from students and business leaders, so if they're interested in that kind of subject, and it does relate to leadership. I would recommend that.
Halelly: Great. Well, I will dig up a couple and I will link to those as well. Thank you again. I appreciate your time and your wisdom and you sharing it with my audience. Thank you John.
John: Thank you. Have a great day.
Halelly: You as well. Amazing, right? What did I tell you? So remember, your to-dos are, what John has suggested you do which is start by making sure you're very clear on your purpose because it's very hard to lead others towards a purpose if you're not clear about your own purpose yourself. The second thing he suggested you do is search for those underlying beliefs that you might have that are holding you back that may cause you to evade. And then the third to-do you have, remember from the beginning, is to go to iTunes and to leave a rating, a five-star rating would be really nice but whatever you feel, and a review. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be as long as the review I read at the beginning. It can be one sentence, it can be two sentences. Just say something, because again, it helps us show up in search results. I really appreciate you listening. I really appreciate the review that you're about to leave for the show. I'm Halelly Azulay, your leadership development strategist and I hope that you make today great.
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This FAQ (frequented asked questions) page is dedicated to the questions submitted to the Las Vegas Central Office relevant to website navigation, upcoming events, schedules, etc. If you are looking for District committee or other service related meetings, please review the calendar portion of the website.
1) Why are there not any more and/or convenient AA meetings located on Las Vegas Blvd. (the Strip)?
ANSWER: Very few local AA members actually live near the Strip and any proposed rent would be too cost prohibitive to lease space. The local AA community is fortunate to have been 'grandfathered' in several meetings originally designed to support casino employees.
The Rivieria Hotel had quite a few meetings but the building was demolished in June of 2016 and all meetings have been terminated at the Rivieria Hotel. We recommend you call the HOTLINE for meetings located on the Las Vegas Strip. (702) 598-1888
2) Will someone come and pick me up to an AA meeting?
ANSWER: Probably not. We get millions of tourists every year and it would place too much of a burden on the local AA community to provide that service. There is ample ground transportation via taxicab, bus or limousine. It is not guaranteed, but many times if you can find your way to a meeting, you might be able to ask for a ride back – but do not expect it. Budget between $20-$40 per meeting for transportation.
3) I am new in sobriety and concerned that Las Vegas might be dangerous to my sobriety. What should I do?
ANSWER: The AA program (the Steps and Traditions) ensure us we can go anywhere if we are in fit spiritual condition and have a purpose. If your sobriety does not meet that criteria, you should be concerned; whether in Las Vegas, Honolulu or Manhattan.
4) The Courts (Drug court or any other) have mandated I attend x-amount of AA meetings per week. How will my meeting attendance be validated?
ANSWER: AA has absolutely no affiliation with any of the courts or outside entities. Many meetings as a courtesy will sign a provided court slip but it is not required by the AA group or the AA meeting chairperson. Court slips are signed with a first name and last initial only and each member does not represent AA.
5) I am a student and required to attend one or several AA meetings. What meeting would you recommend?
ANSWER: If you are not a self-proclaimed AA member you should attend an OPEN meeting as defined on the HOME page. Also, it is inappropriate to take notes during the meeting and certainly document anything that is shared in the meeting.
6) I have a friend, a spouse, a family member or co-worker that might have a drinking problem. What can I do to help?
ANSWER: Our experience, albeit as difficult as it might seem is for the concerned person to attend Al-Anon. The alcoholic seems to need to hit absolute bottom before recovery is a viable option and folks working a successful Al-Anon program have discovered that good intentions of enabling the practicing alcoholic could actually be detrimental. Please visit NEVADA Al-Anon or the national Al-Anon .
The Las Vegas Al-Anon phone is (702) 615-9494.


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Historically, Transatlantic Cruises were the main cruise routes offered by the cruise lines in the early days of ocean cruising. Today this itinerary is used in the Spring and late Fall as ships are moved from the Caribbean to European waters for the summer season. Weather is good for either time period, though it should be noted that it will likely be cool out on deck on sea days.
In the recent past the cruise lines have cut down on the overall transatlantic offers by keeping a ship they might be bringing into service in Spring or Summer in Europe for the entire season, thus having to run a Transatlantic itinerary only at the end of the season to bring the ship back to the warmer water of the Caribbean.
This is one itinerary that is perfect for Seniors or couple traveling who enjoy lots of sea days as they will be plentiful. The ports visited usually include possible stops in the Caribbean and then at the end visiting ports such as the Canary Islands on the way to the Mediterranean or Baltic home ports. Because there are so many less port stops on a Transatlantic cruise vacation the prices can be especially attractive. This is a trip for travelers who have time to spend, enjoy the ambience and diverse on board activities, and/or are looking for an exceptional value.
All the major cruise lines including Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Lines will have ships sailing this type of itinerary, because they will all be moving their ships around to spend the summer months sailing the magnificent waters of the Baltic, General Mediterranean and Greek Isles. Now more than ever before the major lines are also supporting this itinerary with not only their large ships, but their small ship products.
More luxury cruise lines such as Regent Seven Seas, Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises, and Azamara Cruises, Silverseas and Seabourn will also be represented in this itinerary offer to a lesser extent , as many times they incorporate it into an itinerary that allows for some very unique stops along the way, so it is not a Transatlantic cruise in the classic sense.
This is definitely an early Spring and late Fall cruise vacation option, because that is when the ships are moved between North America and Europe. The sailings over to Europe in Spring have remained the same date range for the most part in the cruise calendar for the cruise lines, however, the return trips have definitely been pushed to later in the Fall than historically. The season in the Mediterranean has become longer as more and more passengers have embraced the idea of a Fall cruise vacation to the Mediterranean. This is a good move as there are less crowds in the Fall, the weather, while cooler, is not as humid, and the prices are definitely a value at that time.
When we research this trip for you we will look at ALL the cruise lines that meet your established criteria which saves you an ENORMOUS amount of time. It is extremely important to have a professional agent working for you to identify which of the routes offered will best suite your needs as well as which ship is the best match for your cruising preferences. We also compare the amount of port time on each itinerary to make sure you are getting the most for your purchase and it goes without saying that VALUE is a priority when assisting with a Transatlantic Cruise vacation. We have countless dates that we have negotiated our own pricing with each cruise line, plus added our own special value benefits.
We'll work on custom pricing and a perfect package deal based on the details that you provide in your request!
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Prime Minister John Key has said he's not against gay marriage, on the same day US President Barack Obama announced his support for it.
In a statement by his press secretary today, Key said he is "not personally opposed to gay marriage.'' He previously declined to publicly state a position.
Obama became the first US president to publicly announce he is in favour of same-sex marriage today, in a high-stake intervention in a pre-election debate in American politics.
Key said the issue may come up again in New Zealand.
"It is possible Parliament may consider a members bill at some stage," Key said.
Labour leader David Shearer said he "fully" supported marriage equality in principle but would like to see the detail of any legislation before giving it formal support.
Labour's justice spokesman Charles Chauvel was more direct in his support for same-sex marriage.
"It was Labour policy in the last election to support the right of same-sex couples to marry."
Labour was looking at a private members bill to make it legal for same-sex couples to marry this term.
"I think the great thing about the President's announcement is it helps to highlight the issue of equality and keep it on the agenda and more and more New Zealanders are saying it's a no-brainer, people should have these rights," he said.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said she would support same-sex marriage on the basis that individuals and whanau had the right to choose for themselves whether or not to marry.
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said she was pleased Mr Obama had taken a stand on what was a very difficult moral issue in the US.
"The US is very morally conservative on issues like sexual reproductive health, gay and lesbian rights and it's about time that the President took a strong stand in favour of the community and their right to be treated equally."
She said the Green party supported same-sex marriage in New Zealand and had argued for it when the Civil Union Bill was being progressed.
"The Civil Union bill was a negotiated agreement that everybody could live with," said Mrs Turei.
Their policy is that same legal rights and responsibilities should apply to all couples regardless of whether that couple is gay, lesbian, transgender or heterosexual, she said.
United Future leader Peter Dunne declined to comment, Act leader John Banks did not respond to questions, and Mana party leader Hone Harawira said he was undecided.
Mr Obama announced his change of position this week in an interview with ABC.
"I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said.
His announcement closed a process that had been years in the making and reflected changing views among Americans. Polls indicate a rising number of Americans - more than 39 per cent in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll - favour allowing same-sex marriage.


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Amid the state budget crunch, Corey Stapleton, the combative Secretary of State, remodeled his office with $58,000 of furniture and amenities from a local high-end interior design outfit called KR Office Interiors, according to the state transparency website that reveals all expenditures. I would encourage everyone to go through them in their entirety for the Secretary of State's office for 2017. The interior remodeling and all other expenses be found in the checkbook accounts payable and the checkbook credit card.
You might think that $58K in interior upgrades is a grotesque extravagance for a state official to make in his first months in office, until you see the bigger number which is far worse: Stapleton in 2017 is on pace to spend $1 million more than Linda McCulloch spent in 2016 to run the Secretary of State's office, which would be more than a 100% increase in the operating budget for the Secretary of State's office. The expenditures are a litany of sushi restaurants, food for parties, cars, trucks, tires, five star hotels, a foreign trip, coffee stops, and lord knows what else.
Left unsaid in these documents is the exact purpose for some of these expenditures. Given Stapleton's refusal to take press calls, I doubt we'll ever truly get to the bottom of why, for example, he spent $1600 at the Hampton Inn one night or tens of thousands on airline tickets, hotels and innumerable travel related expenses and restaurant feasts, when you add them all up. And refreshment is an important thing to him and his staff. A tiny example, repeated dozens of times in similar ways, is $78 at Gloria Jeans coffee in Sky City, New Zealand. Why are taxpayers paying for coffee overseas when a strict per diem reimbursement is supposed to be made to any state employee on travel? As to the opulent furnishings from not only K R Office Interiors (a vendor that does not appear as a payee for any other state agency) but also tens of thousand more from Home Depot and Staples, I'm sure Stapleton will have a ready reason as to why they were necessary taxpayer expenditures.
Stapleton has spent his time in office accusing Montana voters and election workers of "fraud" but the fraud is entirely in his office. For he has taken the fees that business owners send his way to register their companies, and he has spent the money like a drunken sailor.


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In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, nuclear expert James Acton suggests that China may be changing its nuclear doctrine. The principal basis for his argument is the absence of a specific repetition of China's "no first-use" policy in the latest edition of Beijing's bi-annual white paper on defense. Acton, however, misreads the recent white paper and draws the wrong conclusion about China's approach to nuclear weapons.
First, no first use has been a core feature of Chinese defense policy for decades, having been decided by Mao himself in 1964. If China abandoned or altered this policy position, it would reflect a major change in China's approach to nuclear weapons – and a major change in China's international image. This would not be a casual decision by China's top leaders but rather a radical change precipitated by a major shift in China's security environment. Although China's concerns about U.S. missile defense policies that Acton notes are real, these concerns have existed since the mid-1990s and shape China's current efforts to reduce the vulnerability of its nuclear forces.
To date, China has focused on building a small but potent nuclear force with the ability to launch a secure second strike if attacked with nuclear weapons – what I call "assured retaliation." The relatively small size of China's nuclear arsenal and the doctrinal emphasis on survivability and reliability are consistent with a pledge to not use nuclear weapons first. Moreover, if China were to abandon or alter the no first-use policy, it would surely want to reap a clear deterrent effect from such an action and likely do so clearly and publicly, not indirectly and quietly through an omission in a report.Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.
Second, the absence of the no first-use policy in the 2012 white paper does not support Acton's contention that China is changing its nuclear doctrine. Here, Acton overlooks that this edition of China's bi-annual defense white papers is different from past volumes in one important respect.
According to Major General Chen Zhou, one of the white paper's drafters and a researcher at the PLA's Academy of Military Science, the 2012 white paper uses a thematic model (zhuanti xing) and not a comprehensive one. In the past, the comprehensively-oriented white papers all had the same title, such China's National Defense in 2010. The title of the 2012 edition, however, reflects the new thematic focus: Diversified Employment of China Armed Forces. By discussing in more detail the structure and missions of China's armed forces, the 2012 white paper dropped a chapter found in all previous ones entitled "National Defense Policy." In the past editions, this chapter contained the references to China's no first-use policy (as well as many other defense policies). Applying Occam's razor, the lack of a chapter on China's national defense policies can account for the absence of a reference to the no first-use policy.
In addition, the white paper's discussion of the use of nuclear weapons is consistent with the no first-use policy. The white paper refers to "the principle of building a lean and effective force," repeating language from the 2006 white paper that officially detailed China's nuclear strategy for the first time. Second, it states that China's nuclear weapons will only be used under one condition: "If China comes under a nuclear attack, the nuclear missile force of the [Second Artillery] will use nuclear missiles to launch a resolute counterattack (jianjue fanji)." Here, the 2012 white paper uses the exact same sentence as the 2008 white paper, which did contain a reference to the no first-use policy. More generally, a nuclear counterattack is the only campaign for China's nuclear forces that has been described in authoritative Chinese doctrinal texts, starting with the 1987 edition of the Science of Strategy (Zhanlue Xue).


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Detaildepot needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 235 designs submitted by 80 freelance designers.
River City Auto LLC
Used Car dealer,We will stock very clean and reliable vehicles,
i would like a classy,clean ,sophisticated look.something that would brand.another words when the public sees it they will remember it.the logo should be able to transfer from sighn to card , to maybe a sticker for the back of car. ez to read . im open to anything.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Nisei League
Sundays 1:00-3:00pm
This league is for anyone who is of Japanese descent, or is married to someone who is. This league is full year after year and has a family atmosphere on and off the ice.
League Contact
Danny Kimoto Email: email@example.com Phone: 604-599-9363
Click Here for the Nisei League Website: http://bcniseicurling.ca/vancouver/
Click here for the Nisei Bonspiel Page: http://bcniseicurling.ca/bonspiels/50th-bonspiel/
Click on the following link to see the updated results on ScoreiX: http://scoreix.com/org/nPzFCiEedfXoBymoB/event/TmyxQgxJvfHf8cAg4/standings


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Context and PurposePosted on October 22, 2007 | 7 CommentsFriends, On Friday I had two MSU freshmen on my radio show. They were graduates of a marvelous middle and high school program called the Art of Leadership.* One facet of that program is that the young people write a personal life vision statement. The […]


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Foo Fighters ride into Westboro Baptist Church protest with a Rickroll
Westboro Baptist Church targeted a Foo Fighters concert at Kansas City's Sprint Center on Friday, Aug. 21, and the band fired back -- with a Rickroll.
Foo Fighters' 'Learn to Fly': Watch 1,000 Italians Perform It Live
The band arrived on the scene via a pickup truck, blasting Rick Astley's 1987 single "Never Gonna Give You Up" and holding up signs that read "You Got Rick Roll'd Again" and "Keep It Clean." Dave Grohl enthusiastically clapped along to "Never Gonna Give You Up" as fans cheered.
See Gallery
The song's video has been used as an Internet meme in which people fool others into watching Astley's clip since 2007, when the phrase "Rickrolling" was born.
Watch the band's applauded stunt in the video clips below.
This isn't the first time Grohl and Co. have trolled Westboro picketers. Back in September 2011, the band uploaded a video of themselves rolling in on a flatbed truck, singing a country song with lyrics like "Think I'm in the mood for some hot-man muffins" in front of the Westboro group of protestors outside their show in Kansas City that August.
Foo Fighters' Self-Titled Debut at 20: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review
At the time, Grohl gave a speech: "God bless America! It takes all kinds. I don't care if you're black or white or purple or green, whether you're Pennsylvanian or Transylvanian, Lady Gaga or Lady Antebellum, men loving women and women loving men and men loving men and women loving women -- you all know we like to watch that. But what I'd like to say is, God bless America, y'all!"


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Reflection by Rev. Diane Rollert, 6 June 2017
This month we are exploring the theme of tradition. Now and then, over the years, I encounter someone who asks me why we Unitarians — who have liberated ourselves from the chains of rigid dogma — why would we celebrate traditions of any kind? "Do you do anything the same way from week to week or year to year?" they ask. "Do you even have worship services?"
Over the years, I've encountered a few people who argue that Unitarians should have no traditions, but that's a pretty hard and rare line. Personally, I cherish our freedom of thought and the way we invite each other to responsibly search for our own truth and meaning and sense of the sacred. But I also love tradition, and I believe we humans need traditions to help us make sense of our lives.
Continue reading The Flower Communion 95 Years Later