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This week Betsey & I answer some of your questions... at least that was the plan. We end up deep diving 2 issues that come up time & again in the questions we field:
- How long should my book be?
- How much editing should I do?
This is a hugely valuable show for anyone who has had a book on their 'to do' list. We focus on the purpose and benefits of writing a book to start a conversation with potential clients.
Transcript - Book More Show 015
Stuart: Hey welcome to another Book More Show. It's Stuart here with Betsy. Betsy Vaughn, how are you doing?
Betsey: Great Stuart, it's great to be here.
Stuart: Fantastic, this week as promised we've got another Q & A show. Through the support mailbox over here at 90-Minute Books we got quite a few questions. Some of them are obviously very specific to the program, not that interesting to other people, but there's quite a number of them that come through that are pretty generic or equally applicable to people in the 90-Minute Book program or people who are just writing book themselves. I thought it would be worth while to dive into a few of those. A couple of them are similar to ones we've answered before, but they're the ones that come up all the time so I think it's worth while running through the answers again. Maybe we'll address it in a slightly different way this time that might help a few more people. We'll run through those.
just a reminder for people that we've got some great interview shows coming up over the next couple weeks or couple of months rather by the time we release them into the feed. Keep an eye out for those. There is some great content in there for people talking about how they're actually using it at the moment. The reason I bring it up at the beginning of the show rather the end is although we're going to go through some of the details, some of the Q&A details that people have asked, the majority of the questions that we get are very much around specifics and execution rather than the broader strategy. The good thing about the interview shows is it's more about broader strategy and how people can actually use books within their business and really make a difference to the bottom line, rather than technical questions if whether answer A or answer B.
I'll try to keep those in mind as we go through, try to keep it more at the strategy level and remind people of how it should be implemented. How it can really be used rather than too much of the details, but obviously details are always good to answer. It should be a great show.
How do you want to play this? Take a guess if we start with a couple of questions and then we'll see how that goes? If we have enough time at the end we'll do a rapid fire round. I think some of these will get ... one question will lead to another. Do you want to give us a bit of ... you're actually dealing with quite a lot of the questions as they come in. Is there anything that ... what's thematically the ... Are you getting the same common questions coming through?
Betsey: We really do. When I go back and I'm talking to our potential clients before they come on board. They do typically ask the same questions. After I explain our process, the specific 90-Minute Book process, of the calls that we do, and the recordings and transcription and things like that. People get into things, one of the biggest questions is how long should my book be? Does it need to be 200 pages? On our end, from our standpoint, no it doesn't. We have great books that are 30 pages, but we have some excellent books that are 75 pages. It really ... As we explain it to a client that we're using their words for the 90-Minute Book process so how they speak and what they say is the book. If there are people who are great speakers and comfortable in this setting of recording then we tend to see a little bit longer book.
If it's somebody that is a little more on the quiet side and doesn't have as much to offer then the book might not be as long as someone who's is a little more confident in their abilities. There is no right or wrong answer for that one. It is what your content is and what your message is, as far as how many pages it should be. Obviously we need a minimum, there's a minimum technically, 24-25 pages to make the book look good, but other than that it's free range on what you're comfortable speaking about.
Stuart: I think it goes back to last point the technical question of ... or the tactic question of how big it should be versus the strategy of what you're trying to achieve with it. It always comes back to that. There was one of the shows we did near the beginning of the stream, I'll see if I can find it and put it into your notes, if not don't worry about it too much because we'll go through it again here.
The strategy of what you're trying to achieve is more important than the technicalities of whether it should be 37 pages or 52 pages. I think if people think in terms of where does this book sit in an overall engagement funnel, then that's a much more valuable way of looking at it than I've got this amount of content do I need more or is it sufficient. Where it sits in the funnel, what the funnel is trying to achieve, what the outcome, the next step that you're trying to get the reader to take all leads into how big it should be. It's not so much the size itself is important, it's more does it take the jump that was promised on the cover.
We've talked in the past and the Hot Profits book that I've mentioned before, which was written on the back of a conference we did earlier this year now, talks about the job of work… The next step it's trying to get the readers to take and the fact that answering one narrow question as deeply as possible is much better than trying to answer three or four questions but really just only brushing over the surface. I think if people think in terms of how deeply can you answer the one most pressing question from your audience that's relevant to the funnel that the book sits in. Who you are trying to engage, what are their questions, how big is the answer to make the answer as comprehensive as possible, and that gives the answer of how big the book should be.
Betsey: Yeah absolutely.
Stuart: Exactly. I think to your point on the physical dimensions of the books, we tend to print ... Anyone that seen one of the 90-Minute Books will recognize the eight by five format. Anything over about 40 pages starts to make that feel quite substantial, 60 pages really makes it sit quite nicely in terms of content. That physical weight and feel, as long as it's above that bare minimum so it doesn't feel like a pamphlet. The point is it really needs to answer the question that the title promises as comprehensibly as possible, and then give someone a very clear path to be able to get more information to follow up with the next question or the next logical step in the journey. That really is the much better way of thinking about it, rather that does it need to be, as I say 37 pages.
Betsey: I think people have this mindset that the book has to be this big, thick book, heavy, weighted in order to be informative. From our standpoint, again, all we're looking for is that call to action. Are they getting what the book said, an easy read, and a simple read. I think that's what most of our books are. They're simple, they're easy, you're not spending weeks reading a book. You're getting to the point rather quickly. That's hard to train someone's mindset when they're envisioning a book on the shelf. I do a lot of conversations ... I do have a lot of conversations about the ... how big the book should be and if they want these big, thick things. I think that if we just remember the call to action is important and as long as we're delivering, that they're deliveringwhat they've promised...
Stuart: I think this must of come up in show recently because the words I can hear them echoing back in my mind as I'm about to say them again. It's the psychological benefit of having a book and giving a physical book to someone to read. Publishing has all this smoke and mirrors and mystery around it and if someone has a physical book than the majority of people out there don't think that's something that's achievable for them. They attribute more value to it than it perhaps deserves and this day and age when printing and publishing is easier than it was even just five years ago. All that mystery around having something published means that something called a book in air quotes is this thing. The thing that they've thinking of is how they've interacted with it for the past 40 years of their life.
The risk that happens and this is what we see in this conversation, people come thinking that the physical dimensions of this thing, this lead generation piece that they're creating needs to be a certain amount and a certain size, is they're falling victim of exactly the same mental model. That is the benefit of having a book as the writer rather than the reader, so they come into it thinking it needs to be this big thing because publishing is this big mystical beast and all of these things happen in the background. It has to be this big chunk of effort and chunk of work and everyone says that writing a book is the biggest most pain in the neck thing that they've done in their life, and it was a long slog and a drag and all of those things that we get the benefit of as writers using a system that is much easier to create and gives us a scalable leverage. We automatically ...
The risk of people flicking into the readers perspective and thinking it needs to be this big thing because what I'm creating is this thing called book. It's really important I think that people understand that the job at work of a book as a lead generation piece, as an engagement piece in the way that we're discussing it, is that it gets in front of people and it makes invisible leads visible in a very non-confrontational way allowing people to raise their hand. If you want to write a huge thing, a big authority building piece that is a market leading, well researched, tome of a book that will cause a big crash on a desk that's all well and good. What you should weigh it up against is the time and cost to do that, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and how a traditional business is that going to create versus a smaller well thought out, well crafted piece that is quick to execute and that answers one specific question as deeply as possible. It can be the worlds leading resource on this one question.
It's not like you're trying to make money from this on Amazon, so it's not like you're charging for the book for the majority of used cases that we talk about. Yes people have it as Amazon because there's a credibility element to it, yes people have it on Amazon and charge an amount because they're physically receiving something then there is a print cost. The majority of the use cases we talk about is give away a digital copy in return for an email address so that you can start a conversation. Give away a physical copy in return for address details so that you can start a conversation. The job of work as it sits in the funnel is a cookie, to use the 8-Profit Activators term, it's a cookie to get people to raise their hand. To start a conversation with you, to start to be engaged. It's not that this is your once shot deal to have a publishing deal because you want to make tens of thousands of dollars back in book revenue.
Flicking those mental models around being mindful of on the one hand that the benefit that we get as writers because readers see it as authority piece or there's some magic that's associated with having a book, not letting ourselves then as the writer to fall into the same trap thinking it needs to be this big thing. Unless there is a use case for you to have that big thing, in which case the engagement, that kind of lead generation ideas that we're talking about here probably aren't the best fit. To be able to quickly create something that starts a conversation in the most engaging way possible means that you should really focus on the one question which is the most relevant to the funnel that you have in mind. To engage someone in the first place write something that really truly gives them value and answers that one particular thing, then gives them a way to continue the conversation and ask the next question or request the next piece of information.
Again, I put that Hot Topics book which really goes into the four stages of creating this outputs linked in the show notes just so people can get a copy. If people haven't read it already then there's a great breakdown of these four elements of identifying who you should be engaging. What the subject is that's the most interesting and relevant to them. The avatar with the person what their mindset is, what the situation is in which they're likely to consume the content so it sounds relevant at possible. The most important thing of course is the next step to lead on to the conversation, so how can you develop that new relationship that you've just started to lead someone towards the logical conclusion that working with you is the best decision to resolve whatever issue they're got. The show notes for this episode, we're on episode 15 now. So it's going to be 90minutebooks.com/podcast/015 and there should be a link there to the Hot Topics book.
Betsey: It's great. That's a lot of information, but that was fantastic. I hope the people will realize. Hopefully people will take ... I like the psychological benefit. I was thinking about that when you were talking about it and I'm going to use that in my ... when I'm talking to potential clients going forward.
Stuart: The thing that's often overlooked because we get so ... I think this is what happens with every business, which is why it's so easy to look at someone else's business and think about suggestions or ways of doing things. Your mind doesn't immediately jump to the challenges or the constraints around that, you can just focus entirely on the idealization, the creation of the opportunities rather than worry about the execution. For us when we're talking to customers or potential customers that phone us up. For people who are thinking about writing a book themselves. Because those individuals and us, in that scenario, are the ones that have to execute that and have to do the stuff, it's so easy to flick into execution mode rather than the slightly higher level thinking of the opportunities and strategy. It so often comes down to tactics and it's easy to forget that the psychological, I'm going to use the word tricks but I don't necessarily mean tricks, but cues maybe or the mental models are so ingrained in us.
We're brought up in the same way. It's very difficult unless you've got an external source to snap you out of that way of thinking. It's very easy just to fall into the same routine that everyone else has got, because we're so, for better or worse, we're all so programmed in the same way. We've got the same kind of, majority speaking, we've got the same kind of upbringing, the same kind of models of interacting with other people. It's very easy to forget or to slip into the same mode. I think we need to get better at sharing that idea with people that we talk to and people who are listening now. Snap out of the model in which everyone else consumes it and think, okay what am I trying to achieve?
I'm trying to get people who are potentially interested product or service to raise their hand. I can either do that by knocking of every door or putting Facebook ads in front of them or specifically asking someone to buy now, buy now or I can offer them something of value to them. Start the conversation by giving, giving them a very robust answer to a question that they're genuinely asking and start the conversation from there. Move forward from there, don't try and it's not kind of the Glen Garry Glen Ross 'always be closing' line, it's more like the one best selling book of check moves. At every opportunity there's a move to progress the conversation to the next level, it's a series of steps. It's not just trying to go for the kill straight away. A small engagement book like this is a great way of starting that conversation in a way that allows you to give something first. To offer value before asking for anything and in a very non-threatening way collect the leads of those people who are interested. Step one, collect the leads, then have the conversation.
Betsey: Right, absolutely.
Stuart: Sorry. That's sort of behind the scenes on the podcast recording. I tend to record at my end and so it always means I sound great because I'm effectively locally recording and that's just whoever is on the other end sounds ... We're at the mercy of their connections.
Betsey: Sounds horrible.
Stuart: Yeah. Hopefully it won't be too bad.
Today we had three or four questions that we were talking about before we started and we were wondering where...
Betsey: We do. I'm going to ask you about editing. That's a big question that we get a lot because typically with the traditional 90 Minute Book we do the 30 minute recording, the 60 minute recording and we send those and just clean up some on words. That's what we do. Our editing is on our end, people want to edit their book. They want to get ahold of it. From our standpoint our editors do a great job of cleaning it up, but someone ... The minute they get ahold of their content file they start to tear the book apart. We've found when we send the book to them before it's been printed they do all these editings and completely... I would almost say, I don't want to say destroy the book, but they really rip it apart. Whereas when we print the book ...
We really do, we see that and personally it increases the finish time, because they have it, they're letting grandma look at it, they've got the business partner looking at it, anybody they come in contact with. We hear that, my team, well it turns out the team is everybody sitting around the kitchen table. We have found that when we just print the book and send it, it ... there's probably a psychological effect there, but oh my goodness I have this book and I didn't get to edit it. They love it. For some reason when we send it back to them to do an edit then we get into all sorts of issues with it. It prolongs the print time, it prolongs the whole process, people start to doubt their words, they tend to have that moment.
Let's talk a little bit from your perspective on maybe why we shouldn't ... I've given my reasons but I know originally when this whole process came about there was no editing of books by clients. Give me your thoughts on that.
Stuart: It's interesting isn't it? There's so many individual little things that play into this. We've seen, we're up to ... I think we're approaching almost 300 books now that we've created, and almost to a fault, every single one that we've passed back to people before getting a physical copy in their hands, it has just disappeared into a black hole of months and months and months of chasing. Where people feel the need to, as you say, get the opinion of everyone or there's a kind of a fear of closure type issue, where people just don't get out of the door.
A couple of kind of anecdotal insights from the two and a half years now that we've been doing this for. First of our early stage process that would, again, capture all the content from people, make it the best version of their words and then send it out to people before getting anything in print. The challenge with that is that as soon as you send something back to someone and say okay here's your opportunity to make some changes, they feel compelled or urged to make changes.
Because of a couple of things. One, maybe there's the feeling that well if I don't do it now, this is my only chance. That goes back to an old world publishing thing. If you're going to do a print run of 10,000 books then you want to make sure that it's checked by everyone and his dog first, and everyone signs off. Print on demand isn't like that, it's not quite as flexible as a digital file, but making updates is far more straight forward than it would be in a traditional publishing sense. There isn't the issue as it was before of it needs to be perfect the first time, otherwise the ship's sailed.
The second thing is that sometimes the expectation if okay if I don't make any changes, either I'm not giving it enough time and attention or people might think that I'm not intelligent enough to make changes. As you say to someone, here's something you can make changes. If you don't there's kind of psychological baggage of okay I haven't responded to this in the most considered way. I used to for ... In London, I used to work for Goldman's and there was a guy I used to sit next to, Amish. He wasn't Amish, his name was Amish. We had joke whereby we would count the number of replies where people would just say, kind of like I concur, or me too, or thanks for that. So ... Do you remember the movie "Catch me if you can"? The...
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: The bit in the movie where he pretends to be the doctor and goes in and he's been watching some TV shows. When the other doctors made some medical comment, he would just say yes, I concur. So it was almost like that. A group email would go out saying, I'm sure this isn't specific to that office, I'm sure it happens everywhere. A group email would go out where someone would make a point and then because everyone else needed to be seen to be answering, even if they didn't have anything valuable to add. They just had to reply to everyone saying I agree, or thanks for that, or good work keep it up. Because they needed to be seen to be making a change or to contribute to the conversation even if there wasn't actually an contribution there.
Same with editing. As soon as you go back to someone saying here's an opportunity to make changes, if they don't contribute something, even if that something is of low value then there's a perception that okay you haven't contributed therefore it's an inferior interaction with what you're trying to do. That leads into you don't have anything valuable to contribute then it just goes into this big, not quite analysis, paralysis, kind of black hole of that's something that I need to get to. I need to get to. The time frame can really drag on and on and on.
Likewise the reason that the majority people don't just go and write books by themselves is because it's not a core discipline. You're core discipline is in your business, you know your business very well inside out. You've been doing it for years, all of the specialized knowledge is your head, but you're not a writer or an editor. It's foolish to then think that giving you a document or taking a document and needing to make changes to it, it's foolish to think that's going to be done in anything like an efficient time frame. It's just going to be this thing that sat on the desk there and there's a kind of guilt associated with it. Every time you look in that direction this things looking back at you saying oh you should be doing this, you should be doing this. In the end you just stop looking in that direction.
The last point, which is the one around ... I've just passed this out to a couple of people to get some feedback. Is the kind of death by committee type problem. Everyone then falls into exactly the same trap as the first point we've asked. All you've done is shared your problem with five other people, now they feel like they've got to contribute to it or they can't be seen to be ... You should just send it out with a form with a tic box saying I concur, and everyone can just tic that and return it, then your job will be done. Everyone else feels the need to make a change, and then you're dealing with five opinions of five different people. None of whom potentially are experts in this area. It just falls into the death by committee type of challenge of everyone's got an opinion.
Remember that saying that, I don't know where it came from, but it's a man with one watch is confident of the time, a man with two watches is never confident of the time. Because more opinions aren't necessarily going to make it any better. Then there's the old strategic coach term of be careful of valuing the opinions of those who don't write checks to you of those that you write checks to. Getting the opinion of employees or people who aren't actually paying for the service is far less valuable then getting the first version of the book out there, collecting real feedback from real customers.
At the end of the day, it could be the leading type approach to business. You could write something were actually you entirely missed the point, missed the actual question. You think that you're answering something that's really valuable, but all of the feedback that you might get within the first six months leads you to realize that actually there's other points. This point that is slightly to the side of the one you were initially answering is the one that was more valuable. Feedback from people who aren't writing those checks, who aren't actually real customers, you might never uncover that.
There's always this risk, and we've seen it time and time again, of how much editing should I do. It should read well, or correct. I can't speak well or correct now, but it should read as well as it can read. There is a slight inherit difference in taking a transcript of a conversation, editing that to be the best possible version of the words that are actually spoken, which is what we do in the most basic iteration of a 90 Minute Book, and then reading that back. It does read differently, again going back to the mental model that we talked about in the first question.
There is a perception of how a book should read, so the balance that we strike is to create a book that is conversational in nature where personality comes across. Where it's engaging and concise and to the point and gives people a warm feeling of getting some insider knowledge from an industry expert, from someone who really knows their stuff. Not writing something that is technical and stand-offish and definitely not writing something where it's trying to be - look at me, look how clever I am, I can answer all of these questions in peak technical terms. You're not trying to show off to the reader, you're trying to engage them. By having this conversational approach, yes it reads slightly different in some cases from what you might call a traditional book because the language is different.
That's because the job of work is different. You're not writing a book here in order to sell on Amazon and retire to a beach because you're now an author. You're writing a book as a valuable lead generation piece to give value to potential customers, to allow them to raise their hand to start that conversation in a way that makes them feel good, and gives them the answer.
the amount of editing that should be done is enough to make it read correctly. Enough to make sure that the actually ... The points you're making are actually technically correct. It would be foolish to send something that had actual mistakes in it. Above and beyond that, you run into a diminishing return scenario of every minute that you take to edit, every minute that it's not out there collecting leads is a potential customer that is going elsewhere. What I would advise people to do is be very careful about striking the right balance. It needs to be correct, it needs to read as well as it can, but the fact that it's not structured in the way that a traditional book is structured, absolutely fine. The fact that it's only addressing one particular point, absolutely fine. The fact that your personality comes out in it and the words that you use whilst talking might be different than words that you use if you were just to write an email to someone, absolutely fine.
The job of work of this is so you engage with someone, collect the lead and start that relationship, not to win a Pulitzer Prize for a book that's read and critically acclaimed. If you want to do that, that's fine, but that's a separate job of work. Be very careful, don't allow your own kind of mental bias or the model constraints that you've got in your head to derail the actual project that you're trying to achieve, which is engaging and collecting leads.
Editing is definitely one of those things, it's very very easy for people to get derailed on and sink a whole load of time which is effectively wasted efforts. It would be interesting to, for people to ... if they haven't, to make sure they get a copy of their 90 Minute Book from 90minutebooks.com. That book, we've done as I said, we're closing in on 300 books now, we've been doing this for two and a half years. The first version of the book, we've edited it again recently, so we've done reiteration on it, but for the first two years we intentionally left it at the very roughly edited first version of the book that came straight from that transcript.
The point that we were trying to make is that the title is the thing that captures peoples attention. The cover design of the book is the eye catching piece that draws an eye towards it in the first place. The sub heading and the back cover copy are the things that allow people all the ... if not a back cover copy if they don't have a physical copy, then the sub heading on the landing page, natural copy on the landing page, is the thing to get people to raise their hand. No one turns around and says okay I'm not going to give you my email address details to get a copy of this until I've seen every page of the content. The content just needs to be good enough to create that relationship and take it on to the next stage.
It's always interesting, people will come back to us and say okay, what about this, what about that. These are actual customers, actual customers that have paid us money. We'll say well it's exact ally the same way in the 90 Minute Book or the question you're asking is in the 90 Minute Book. The point you are trying to make, we had a great discussion about it in the 90 Minute Book. If you read that first, that's probably going to answer your question. The amount of people that come back and say actually I haven't read it, I haven't read it, I haven't read it is really going to prove the point that the content needs to be compelling enough and valuable enough to move the conversation on to the subset of people who read it. It is the minority of people who read it though not the majority. The main point is the cover and the title, the promise of answering a problem that someone's got rather than some award winning critically acclaimed content.
That was my very brief two cents.
Betsey: You mentioned ... Talking about editing leads into one of the questions we need to answer about how long the process takes. The typical process is very simple. If we stick to the process we're looking at four to six weeks without any hiccups. When we send the book to be edited by the client, that process usually goes somewhere like twelve weeks. That's a big difference when you're...
Stuart: If not even more than that, because we've got months and months and months books disappear for because of this whole problem that we've just described. I'm sure in all of those there are legitimate ones where some change in business or change in direction or perhaps people have realised that they actually were too ... they were trying to do too much in the book and this point of trying to answer one question as deeply as possible maybe they feel ... But the majority of it is this analysis paralysis issue.
I've just noticed the time and we are running ... We've just blown past thirty minutes.
Betsey: Way over.
Stuart: Yeah yeah. Having started by saying that we'll get to some rapid fire stuff at the end, we didn't even get through the list of the ones that...
Betsey: No we didn't.
Stuart: Just answer that point and then we'll close on how long should the process take. Four to six weeks we should be able to have a conversation with you to outline it in the first place. Make sure that you're message is dialed in as laser focused as you can be in order to achieve the outcome that you're trying to achieve. We can take the steps necessary to get the content out, usually we've got that captured. Edited it so that it can be the best possible version of your words and then print it so that first run can get out there and collect leads within four to six weeks.
All those things are tactics, those are the nuts and bolts of how the process works. The strategy, the benefit is that efficiency and speed to market. Imagine in four to six weeks from now, so we recorded on the 20th of August so that would be, four to six weeks would be mid to end September. So by the time the kids have been back in school for a couple of weeks, the book can be out there collecting leads. If you need to iterate on it afterwards, if you need to make changes to it, the benefits of digital publishing, on demand publishing means that's not a problem at all. It's easy to update. The speed at which you can get there. By the time that someone else has even considered what their book might be about, or gone back and forth getting the opinion of a couple of people to say I'm thinking about doing this or I'm thinking about doing that. This can be out there collecting leads.
It only needs to take 90 minutes of your time, we have a conversation to outline it in the first place. We take about an hour to capture all of the content. You have got the option to get involved at various stages of the design process for the cover, but obviously our designers have done ... approaching 300 covers now, so they've really dialed in on the types of things you need. You don't need to put any more effort into it. It can be out there collecting leads, again feedback. Getting new business, and then if you want worry about editing it and making some changes and tweaking it based on real life feedback. Just as the leading start up model would suggest, get something out there and test it in the real world. Get some money in, get some business in and then make some changes. Rather than just hypothesizing about what might be the best thing. Six months goes by and nothing happens. There we go. I think talking about it so efficiently got it out there.
Betsey: That's it.
Stuart: That's probably a good place to leave it.
Betsey: Getting it out there. That's one of the things we say to people all the time. Let's just get it out there and you start growing your business, growing those leads. We can tweak later. Otherwise it is, it's just sitting there and you're not growing your business, but you're not editing your book either. It's sitting somewhere.
Stuart: I think that's a good place to wrap. We've got, I'm not sure whether it'll be in next weeks episode or the week after, just getting the schedule lined up for the next couple of shows. The interview that we've got with previous authors is really going to underline what we've just talked about today. The difference that getting it out there, collecting, engaging with potential customers. The difference that can make to your business. Definitely keep an ear out over the next couple of episodes for that. I think that will really give people some insight into what a difference it can make to the bottom line, rather that just kind of talking about the production process itself.
As I said before this show is episode 015, episode 15. So head across to 90minutebooks.com/podcast/015 and it'll take you straight to this episode or just to the podcast page and it'll be the top in the list. If you're ready to get started now, if you want to reach out to us then head straight across to 90minutebooks.com/start to get started or if you still have some questions after what we've talked about today just shoot us a note at hello@90minutebooks and we'll get back to you and be happy to answer any of those questions.
Upcoming shows over the next couple of weeks if there's anything that you want us to specifically address then drop us an email to podcast@90minutebooks and we'll try to build that into a future show. Always happy to feedback to people directly so reach out to us those ways and look forward to seeing what your book's about.
Any closing words from your side?
Betsey: No I think we're good. It was great, got most of our questions answered and these podcasts are great. People love listening to them and they do peak some interest. I get a lot of calls once these go through. I look forward to speaking to everybody once they've heard this and have other questions.
Stuart: Fantastic that sounds great. Thanks everyone and we'll catch you next time.


text:
Dear Redeemer,
I've never learned so much.
The last 18 months I have been surrounded by the energy and pace of Redeemer Church London. I've seen everything behind the scenes; the hard work, the passionate hearts and all the fun! From leaflets to videos, from the prayer ministry to the connections team, from organising huge events like Carols to just having a coffee with one of God's precious kids. It's been a blast.
I've never seen a Church that has such a urgency to reach out; Redeemer is hungry to impact people, to grow, host and bring others into a relationship with Jesus. The events like Little Fish, Carols, the Running Meet-up and an all year round Alpha aren't just for fun - they are all charged by the desire to show people that Jesus is for you and wants to live in your heart. This church provides such a warm, welcoming open door to those who have never experienced Jesus before.
There is a rich foundation of community and love amongst the people of Redeemer that just oozes family. There is a solid bridge between the diverse generations and a beautiful mix of cultures and ethnicities that feels like peace, sounds like a friend and surely is a taste of heaven.
Megan and I have felt part of something huge, something that has a long and strong destiny. At only five years old I just know that Redeemer has loads more in store, this is merely the beginning.
Some of my own highlights from the last year and a half:
- Leading the 'Activating a Supernatural Culture' Meetup in our living room, developing deep relationships that we will never forget.
- Preaching my first ever sermon about my story and how God speaks.
- The giant temporary office at Exchange Plaza! Hilarious space given to us by God.
- Learning from Pete and the Advance Church Planting team down in Cornwall for a week.
- Organising the 2018 Carols; a beautiful looking, great sounding event despite the busy period.
- Baptising so many, including my friends Mak, Sunny and Brooksy.
- Moving the Redeemer staff into the new office on Bond Street - pop in for a cup of tea with Pete and Rach anytime! I love those guys!
Of course there is loads loads more. But my true number one highlight is the time I've spent doing life with my brothers in Christ - I've got to know them so well, prayed with them, cried with them and journeyed with them. We've taken huge steps toward the heart of the Father and learn't about who we are in Christ, that's called church. Thanks lads, you know who you are!
Finally I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for being so lovely, so kind, so full of the joy of Jesus. Pursue that intimate, raw and vulnerable relationship with your best friend, Holy Spirit. Walk closely with each other as you do, share the blessings and share the struggles, hug each other and feed each other. Shine like Jesus shines.
Let's go change the world,
Joseph x
To follow what Joseph and Megan get up to as they move to Brighton subscribe here: www.youtube.com/josephthedreamer

subset: commoncrawl


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by Jessica Monty Schreiber
Watching people use their hands and bodies to create shapes, I am only now becoming aware of the importance and significance of the mudras. A mudra is a gesture one specifically makes with one's hands and arms. In India, these mudras aim to connect the yoga practice to divine and cosmic energy.
Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us. ~ Laurie Anderson, his loving wife and eternal friend.


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Would you like to work on a landmark London development?
Do you have experience of delivering high specification mixed use projects?
Would you like to join a highly motivated team focused on successful project delivery?
This role as Construction Manager will see you take responsibility for managing and delivering the installation and commissioning of fire alarms on this highly prestigious residential and commercial fit out project.
The chosen Construction Manager must have the ability to work efficiently, safely and professionally to ensure that the project is completed within budget and on time. The successful individual will be highly motivated and possess excellent communication skills as well as have experience with the fire alarm sector and ideally have some controls exposure as well.
Please only apply if you have experience at this level.
Essential criteria:
• Construction Management experience
• Installation and Commissioning of Fire Alarms
If you would like to hear more about this role please contact Bill Gray on 020 8655 4931, Mobile 07703 324213 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Melrose House, 42 Dingwall Road, Croydon, CR0 2NE
020 8655 1600 (Fax: 020 8655 1588)
Copyright © 2019 CALCO SERVICES LIMITED


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3" stainless steel blade, 4" wood/plastic composite handle, belt clip, and gift box. Engraved KENWORTH wordmark. Wood Tone/Silver. play; pause; stop; mute; unmute; max volume. repeat; repeat off. Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash..
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PGT Scholarships
There is limited funding available for postgraduate taught students, with a number of funding sources having been reduced over recent years. The scholarships team works to source new funding opportunities and work with departments to bid for new funding sources. Information about all scholarships available for PGT students can be found on this webpage.
Some of the key scholarships to be aware of are:
Warwick Taught Masters Scholarships
The Warwick Taught Masters Scholarships Scheme (WTMSS) offering £500,000 of scholarships to support eligible postgraduate students for 2017/18 entry. 100 awards of £5000 per student will be available to eligible Home/EU students from under-represented groups who wish to start a postgraduate taught masters course in 2017-18.
Commonwealth Shared Scholarships
The Commonwealth Shared scholarships are co-funded by departments who fund the stipend element of the award. The Graduate School coordinates an annual bid for these awards which is normally submitted around June of each year, with notification of results being received later in October. The Graduate School coordinates these awards.
Chevening Scholarships
The University receives a number of Chevening awards each year, departments are asked to offer a 20% fee reduction for these awards with Chevening covering the rest. Students apply directly through Chevening, with the University receiveing notifcation of awards in the summer term each year.
Marshall/ Fulbright Scholarship
The University has an agreement with the Fulbright commission to welcome one scholar each year to study on a one-year master's degree at the University. Applications are normally submitted in October each year and are submitted by the student to the Fulbright Commission, however the application will normally require letters of support by both the department and University. Further information about the awards can be found on this webpage.
The prestigious Marshall Scholarship scheme is open to US citizens wishing to pursue a one or two year masters in the UK. Applications are submitted by the student's current US institution, with the University providing letters of endorsement to be submitted as part of the application. Further details about the Marshall Scholarship scheme can be found here.


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Redesigned By: SAGAR SAPKOTA (contact)
(Original design by sparkfun.com)
This easy to assemble kit gives you all the parts necessary to assemble a serial 16×2 character LCD display. By sending commands over a serial port from your computer or microcontroller, you can display basic text on the included LCD display. The main controller IC comes preprogrammed with both the Arduino bootloader and the serial LCD firmware; all it needs is assembly. Once assembled you can send it commands right away. The kit comes with a white on blue 16×2 LCD display and everything shown in the pictures.
We've also broken out all of the ATmega328 pins so you can even use the kit as an Arduino compatible microcontroller. In order to upload new code to the LCD Kit via bootloader you'll need an FTDI Basic Breakout and have the Board setting in Arduino on 'Arduino UNO'.
You can purchase this kit at buildcircuit.net


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The Single Parent's Guide to Financial Planning
Life is unpredictable and a number of events could lead to you becoming a single parent and sole provider. It can be quite a challenge to balance the cost of raising your child with your own financial and career goals. A little forward planning can help steer you through the financial hurdles that might pop up. We've put together a short guide to help you when you're drawing up a financial plan for you and your child.
Have a plan
It's always a good idea to set financial goals for yourself and your child. What type of lifestyle do you want to live? How can you change financial habits now to help you live the life you want to live? The very first step is to put all this down and develop an action plan.
The back up plan is estate planning. Make sure that your child is taken care of should you die. Draw up a will, go through important financial documents with your planner and have a solid plan in place. Your financial planner will help you to identify anything you may have overlooked and challenge assumptions you've made so that your plan doesn't cause chaos in the event of your death. It's also a good idea to involve the people you're considering as guardians and/or executors of your estate in your current financial plan so that they know what's up. Keep them in the loop should anything change too.
Invest in education
Start as early as possible investing in your child's education. Have a good look at the schools you're considering, what the current fees are and then forecast. Usually school fees go up about 10% – 12% per annum, so sit down with your calculations and work out how much you'll need and then work backwards. Again, your financial planner should be able to help you out with any complex calculations (to determine the minimum amount you need to be putting aside monthly). Remember that there are 4 schooling stages: pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary. Find an investment plan or product(s) that will allow you to access monies during these times.
You should also look at opening a tax free savings account for your child or children. This can either be used for paying for their education or you can hand it over to them to manage when they're older.
Invest in your own education. Your education means career advancement and the potential to earn a higher salary which will benefit both you and your child. Neglecting your own advancement is not healthy.
Get into the habit of budgeting
Budgeting is important to help you control your cash flow. Again, this ties in with your financial plan. Apart from your monthly expenses, you have short and long term goals that you need to save for. Think about retirement, big purchases like a home and car. Your budget should
- Account for monthly expenses
- factor in medium to long term lifestyle goals (like retirement and travel)
- cater for emergencies
- and (if there's still some money left over) treating yourselves.
You'll have to employ a lot of discipline in order to make sure that you make ends meet. Not only is that important, it's necessary because without a second person's income to fall on, an emergency that could've been sorted by prior planning will become a chaotic, drawn out affair. Read about the 50/20/30 rule and check our budgeting guidelines out to help you out. Don't neglect your own personal goals (like travel). It might mean having to wait a little longer, but include them in your plan as well
Retirement Planning
This is important and should not be left out of your financial planning. The last thing you want is to be a burden to your child or children because you have no money and therefore cannot take care of yourself after retiring. You should also make sure that what you're putting aside will be enough. Retirement planning will be easier for you if your employer offers a retirement package. Remember not to withdraw finds when you change jobs. Leave your retirement fund and let the power of time and compound interest work for you. It's also a good idea to save on the side. Take advantage of tax-free offerings, with a long term view and let that work in your favour as well.
Manage your debt
If possible have no debt or have as little as possible. Debt can hinder your financial plan and progress, especially bad consumer debt. If you have too many credit cards and store accounts, your monthly obligations will become burdensome and you'll struggle to keep up. A healthy debt:income ratio also increases your chances of qualifying for a home loan. Don't let debt and poor financial decisions get in the way of you and your goals and dreams. If you need assistance with getting our of debt you can check out Part 1 and Part 2 of out debt elimination series.
Set up an emergency fund
Anything could happen at anytime, you should be prepared for something as small as your child losing their sports kit to something big like losing your job. Most people recommend having three to six months worth of living expenses set aside in a not-so-easy-to-access account for big changes (like losing your job) and having another stash for smaller emergencies like a leaking geyser or that tog bag that might grow legs and walk away with R3000 worth of cricket gear.
Medical Aid
Another important one. Children get sick, they climb trees, fall off and break limbs. You need to have adequate medical cover for you and your child so that you can be taken care of properly. Private medical care can get ridiculously expensive and coughing up cash can leave a huge and very difficult to fix dent in your savings. Do your research properly when you're choosing a medical aid. Look at cos and what value you're getting for the money you're paying. Pay special attention to restrictions.
Cover yourself adequately
Life cover and disability cover should not be left out of your financial plan. Life cover should be an intimate part of your estate planning. You need to insure that your child or children will be taken care of if you die and that the money will be enough. Don't go for cheap, because it's cheap for a reason. Shop around and ask your financial planner to help you. Remember, you want to make sure that life will be as comfortable as possible without you around, so choose your life cover wisely. It's also a good idea to get disability cover should you lose your capacity to work and earn a salary due to a disability. Your disability cover will come in handy and you can at least commit to your financial obligations.
Teach your child(ren) about money
Do this as soon as possible. Be open about money and sit down with your child when you're doing your weekly and monthly budgeting so that they know where money is going and how you run the household. You should also let them manage their own money and draw up their own budget. This could be especially fun with children who are older as you can both be accountable to each other because they'll ask questions and you'll be forced to explain yourself. Encourage your child's entrepreneurial spirit by letting them come up with ideas to make extra money.
Don't walk alone
Ask for help. Ask family, friends or Google. You don't have to walk this journey alone and a great support system is most welcome when you have a lot to deal with and need a helping hand. Don't be stuck in Superparent mode, you're just making things difficult for yourself and your family.


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Texans for Public Justice
Influence Texas has partnered with the liberal nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, which obtains contribution and expenditure data dutifully filed with the Texas Ethics Commission by all candidates, political committees, and political parties and processes the information through a proprietary database.
The state of Texas requires contribution and expenditure disclosure reports to be filed every six months with additional reporting required 30 days and 10 days prior to an election. TPJ assigns a unique "identification number" to each individual donor who has contributed an aggregate amount of $2,500 or more. Political action committees (PACs) are assigned a "unique filer" number by the Ethics Commission when they register as required under Texas law. TPJ enhances the basic donor data provided through the Ethics Commission by researching/confirming the donor's occupation and employer and assigning the donor one of 120 economic interest codes allowing users to analyze campaign contribution activity by various industries and interest groups. TPJ processes and appends approximately 5 million campaign contribution records into its master dataset each year. Data can be verified by direct links to each public records filed with the Ethics Commission.
Become a Partner
If you would like to partner with us, let us know.


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The time has come to announce the winner of One Hundred Great Books in Haiku: Sue from Books, Books, the Magical Fruit. Congrats, Sue!
I'm sorry for the rest of you disappointed folks; don't blame me – blame your luck. Clearly, you need to save some soggy homeless kittens, soon, to give karma a nudge. But because I adore each and every one of you, I'll throw in a haiku as a bit of a consolation prize:
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Act I. 'It's hopeless.
My boots don't fit. Where is God?'
Act II. The same thing.
(Note: My only experience with this play comes from an annoying classmate who insisted on pontificating about it for the entire semester. One Hundred Great Books in Haiku sure would have come in handy back then…)
So a sincere thank you is in order for all your entries and book recommendations. And for those of you that suffer from habitual curiosity, or have a particular love of stats, I made a pie chart of the most popular suggestions:
Apparently I'm supposed to read Wuthering Heights next, but this depends on how masochistic I'm feeling in the near future.
Also, a special shout out to Todd Pack for writing me a haiku in the comments here!
Considering this post is all about winning things, I should mention that the lovely Callista and the equally lovely Zee each awarded me with a Versatile Blogger Award a few days ago. For those of you keeping track at home, you'd know that this brings my grand total up to three awards. (It's so exciting, that I had to brag a little bit!)
If you do want to read seven things about me, or, more likely, check out the fifteen bloggers that I passed the award onto – as per the instructions – go here.
Edit: Hey, whaddya know? Apparently I'm a nice person after all; I was drawn as second prize winner for Martha's Bookshelf's Got Books? Event giveaway.
A sensational weekend, my sweet chinchillas, and I hope you had the same.


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Submitting demo/alpha version to game jam
I submitted the current version to a game jam. I was hoping to add more content before doing so, but because of stuff going on with my day job, I won't have time.
Nevertheless, there are several long arcs accessible.
Get Manna for our Malices
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We'd like to say a HUGE thank you to…
Access – Foundation for Social Investment – Impact Management Programme Grant to assist us in our reach and impact work.
All Churches Trust supporting our work with very young children in the nursery
Age UK North Tyneside
Partnership work with our intergeneration projects.
Barbour Foundation supporting our core work
BBC Children in Need Supporting our work with young people in the area through after-school clubs and youth clubs.
Beatrice Laing Trust supporting our work with very young children in the nursery.
Big Local Central Jarrow Supporting detached youth work in Jarrow.
Blakemore Foundation supporting Sleep Easy 2018
BIG – Lottery Fund Helping us develop our community work in Teesdale.
Community Foundation Serving – Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. Supporting our work with young people in supported accommodation.[Charles Robert Bell Fund]
Councillor Cath Davis MBE, Chair North Tyneside Council 2017-2018 for making us one of her chosen charities to support in her year in office.
County Durham Community Foundation
Douglas Wood Fund
European ERASMUS & Programme Commission Supporting our international Youth Work.
Garfield Weston Foundation Supporting our reception and café redevelopment.
Greggs Foundation Supporting our work with homeless young people.
Hadrian Trust Supporting our work with young people.
Heart Research UK and Subway Healthy Heart Grant funding our Grow, Cook, Train and Eat project.
Heritage Lottery Fund Supporting 'What's for Dinner Mam?' and 'Hands Across the Tyne'.
Homes and Communities Agency Supporting supported accommodation. Now known as Homes England.
JGS Consulting supporting SleepEasy 2018
JTF Mega Discount Warehouse Supporting SleepEasy 2018
Karbon Homes Supporting Leaders for Life programme.
LandAid Charitable Trust Supporting our supported accommodation work.
Learning Through Landscapes Trust Supporting our community orchard and allotment via the Fruit-Full Communities Project.
Lloyds Foundation Supporting our supported accommodation work
Nandos Supporting our supported accommodation work
North East Regional Trust
North Shields Chamber of Trade & Commerce
North Shields Victorian Christmas Market–
Northstar Ventures Fresh Ideas Fund – Supporting our micro enterprises.
North Tyneside Music Education Hub – Support to establish the Standing Upright Project
Northumberland Village Homes Trust supporting the training of young people in supported accommodation.
Rockcliffe First School
Partnership work with our inter-generational projects.
Royal British Legion Supporting our micro enterprises an employability training project.
RW Mann Trust
Supporting our work with young people
Percy A. Hudson Ltd for supporting our SleepEasy event 2018
Proper Food and Drinks Festivals for sponsoring our SleepEasy event 2018
Royal British Legion Supporting our micro enterprises an employability training project.
Sage Foundation UK for providing us with volunteers who have helped with the development of STEAM Digital Studios
Sainsbury's Waste Less, Save More Grant – supporting our community fridge
Santander Foundation – Supporting our young person led enterprise project
Savoy Educational Trust Supporting our training café project.
Sir James Knott Trust
Supporting our work with young people.
Skills Funding Agency Supporting our YMCA Foundations project via LA7 funding.
Social Concern
Southlands School
Supporting our work with young people in the area of disability sports activities.
Sport England
Supporting our work to transform the gym by making us an inspired facility grant holder.
Stop Loan Sharks Community Funding (Proceeds of Crime Act Funding)
St Cuthbert's RC Primary School for hosting our SleepEasy event 2018 and supporting our charitable work
St Hilda's Trust Supporting our work with homeless young people.
St Marys Church of England Church
The Schofield Trust Supporting our music studio project.
Teesdale Neighbourhood Budget
Thomas Cook Children's Charity for helping fund the development of our sensory room in our nursery
Trusthouse Charitable Foundation Grant towards nursery developments
Tynemouth Coffee Company for their ongoimng support with our SleepEasy event and with our learners in our café
Tyne Metropolitan College Supporting our work with young people in the areas of music.
Tyne and Wear Sport – Sportivate programme – supporting our health and wellbeing work with young people.
UK YouthSupporting our work with young people in the area of music.
Virgin Money Foundation Supporting our work with homeless young people.
Wallsend Action For YouthSupporting our work with young people.
Warburtons For product donations, supporting our events and for providing valuable volunteers for our allotment.
Whitehouse Primary SchoolPartnering with us on after school clubs.
YMCA England & YMCA North East Discretionary Trust
Supporting our work with young people.
Youth Music Supporting our work with young people in the area of music.
Zapatista for providing our food for our SleepEasy event 2018


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Tonight Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine face off in the first, and only, Vice Presidential debate.
The nominees themselves, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, hold their second debate this weekend.
And some of the nation's top analysts say either candidate could still win the election.
Renowned analyst Nate Silver, editor in chief of the website FiveThirtyEight, estimates Trump has a one-in-three chance of winning at the moment.
But Silver tells WDET's Quinn Klinefelter much of the outcome will be determined by Clinton and Trump's performance in the Midwest.


text: I've been trying to put more effort into the motion/film/tv/commercial side of the business lately and when my good friend Steph Rodrigues asked if I wanted to be the lead in the next video for Sound Of Legend that was to be shot in LA, it was an easy choice. Steph was already a reoccurring character in this series of videos shot around the world and I had to be a part of it. We made our way to the desert for a day full of shooting aka doing burnouts and racing cars all day long. Great to be a part of this one!


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Hawley Mountain Ranch Wellness Retreat
It only took me a month, but here's a little sneak peak at one of the most memorable and rejuvenating weeks of my wellness career.
Hawley Mountain Guest Ranch Wellness Retreat 2017
(say that 10 times fast...I dare you).
I'm mostly going to let the pics speak for themselves. I like to answer when asked about this experience and place, "You know that serene, perfect image you have in your head when you think of a horse ranch in Montana, owned by amazing, down-to-earth people, food that fills and comforts you, all with the air of 'family' to it? Well, this place is exactly that place."
The theme of this year's retreat was HOME. I'm currently and have been pretty obsessed with the idea of home - how do we feel it? How is it created? What makes a place feel like 'home?' Etc.
I think Hawley worked so perfectly for this feeling, because there is a certain healing and safety you feel when you step onto the ranch, are around the cowboys, the cooks, the horses, the mountains and streams... you feel like you're home.
This is the almighty goddess of all culinary heaven, Nancy. She made the most AMAZING meals every.single.freaking.day. We couldn't get over how beautiful and thoughtful each meal was.
Meet Cowboy Ron. He and his phenomenal wife Phyllis own and run Hawley. Ron is, again, exactly what you would hope he would be - hardworking, old school, chivalrous, tough as nails cowboy. He makes you feel like you are one of the family instantly. I seriously hope to be as badass as Ron is when I'm even 40 years-old. He helps you remember something true, raw, and freeing about life in the mountains. It's not easy, but it seems so right when you're with him.
Cowboy coffee after each meal, as demonstrated by Ranch manager Eric.
I was THIS happy to have Amanda (Valenti Acupuncture) join me for this retreat. She is such a gift to me and my top choice for partner in wellness crime (oxy moron?). She took pictures and kept me sane while working like a mad woman and constantly making plans to quit my life and move to the ranch permanently.
Cowgirls just getting sh*t done. Always.
Retreat ladies getting introduced to their horses for the week. To say that they were a fun-filled handful would be a dramatic understatement.
Gorgeous rides everyday, twice a day if you should so choose.
Steve, our accidental retreat wellness warrior. He ended up being one of the biggest advocates for wellness during the week. I love getting people involved that are initially hesitant to try wellness activities. He kept us laughing and the horses pissed off ;).
Nightly campfire cookouts
The full day ride up the mountain in this ol beast was SUCH a hilariously fun adventure. We laughed the whole time.
We ended up at the top of a gorgeous mountain. Ruca, the team mascot was in her element.
Oh, and so was Ron, a kid at heart. Any excuse to bust out the chainsaw. And he had about 40 massive excuses.
Webster's definition of "Cowboy" = Ron
A full day's ride lead us up to the most serene places I've seen in all of my life. We ate, rested our riding legs and had a beautiful yoga session
Having this adorable woman join me on my wellness retreat adventures has been the biggest gift to me. She not only helps me a ridiculous amount, she's just so much darn fun. She ends up being everyone's favorite guest. I don't even mind that she attacks me ;)
Fly-tying and fly fishing lessons.
Lasso lessons
Celebrating their 10-year work anniversary together. Not a shabby way to celebrate, if I do say so myself.
Boloties made by my amazingly talented friend Aja Martin - https://sagehenjewelry.com
One of the many activities retreat guests participated in - Smudge Stick creation from Utah and Montana plants
One of the favorite among guests was mala making. They learned not only to make their own mala, but how to use it for meditation and intention setting. Many guests have really taken this to heart and have made malas on their own since.
Walking meditation instruction
Every morning started with meditation, mindful movement, and intention setting. I can't adequately express how it feels to wake up every morning, as the sun comes up over the mountains and the horses are herded back into their grazing field, full of inner stillness and physical ease as Nancy makes another amazing meal and we all create mindful, loving intentions together. It's just doesn't make sense that every day isn't this way, right?
One of the guest cabins.
One of the one-on-one locations. Views for self-care did not suck, not even once.
Moral of the story, I'm in love with Hawley Mountain Guest Ranch and I'm stupidly obsessed with what I do. I believe SO much in seeing health as a whole-person perspective. Being in the mountains, away from our regular distractions is not always bliss. Retreat guests all worked through some difficult things internally and physically. We were held in this discomfort in one of the most beautiful places surrounded by grounding, loving people. I believe that HOME is a perfect combination of growth and discomfort mixed with the right amount of foundation and support.
H - Haven - we need to have a safe haven to feel at home in. I hope to have created not only a haven of the ranch, but of our bodies, our minds, and our experience.
O - Own it. We have to own our present experience. We can't get where we're going unless we are where we're at. Retreat guests were inspiring in their ability to own all of their experience.
M - Mindfulness - the malas, smudge sticks, meditations, movement, intention setting, all of this was practice in creating a mindfulness tool-kit to help better sit and create a 'home' within self.
E - Expansiveness - We have to be brave enough to expand beyond our comfort zones and experience the bigger experience all around us. I'm so proud of all my guests that took this leap, came to a new place and felt the healing, euphoric growth that comes with that courage.
To all that came on this adventure, wow. I didn't know what I was hoping this retreat would be, but it surpassed all expectation.
To those of you who see this and can tell it is meant for you, somewhere in your bones you hear Montana calling like I always have, I hope to see you next year :).


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by Max Factor III and Scott Van Soye
One mechanism by which people decide whether to trust strangers is the interplay between the stranger's initial appearance and the observer's intuitive biases. So, when entering a negotiation with opposing counsel who you have never met or meeting an opposing litigant for the first time at mediation, be aware that you may initially make a social judgment about the other person's trustworthiness, which is based on your past biases. The result can be unnecessary misunderstandings resulting in delays or missed opportunities.
Secondly, and perhaps more significant than the fact that first impressions may temporarily mislead one as to trustworthiness of another, is that the natural reaction to discovering one is misled by one's own bias is to attach a "penalty" to the innocently observed participant who is then deemed less likely to be worthy of your trust! To protect our clients, we must be aware of both of these counterproductive tendencies.
In "Judging a Book by its Cover: Beauty and Expectations in the Trust Game," Rick W. Wilson (Rice Univ.) and Catherine C. Eckel (Univ. of Texas, Dallas) created a game to measure the extent to which individual strangers may trust each other. The Trust Game involves two persons – a first mover who we will call Jane and a second mover who we will call Lev. Both Jane and Lev are told that each may keep whatever amount of money that each possess at the end of the Trust Game. The laboratory experimenter will then give an initial endowment of a specific sum of money, say $10 each to Jane and Lev.
Jane is then told that she may invest anywhere from $1 to $10 of her money with Lev. Once Jane chooses how much she wishes to give to Lev, then the laboratory experimenter will triple that amount and give the tripled sum to Lev. So Lev will have his initial endowment of $10 and he will have received an additional $30 from Jane and the lab experimenter's supplement. Lev is then asked to consider giving anywhere from nothing up to all of his $40 to Jane, the first mover. For Jane, the first-mover, her transfer or investment in Lev is interpreted as a manifestation of trust; and for Lev, the second-mover, his transfers are interpreted as a manifestation of trustworthiness.
The experimenters discovered that "attractive" participants received a "beauty premium" (i.e., they were disproportionately trusted during the first round of the game and given a higher proportion of the initial $10 start up monies). Thereafter, in those situations in which the "attractive" person did not reciprocate to the satisfaction of the initial donor, the feelings of the original participant switched rapidly to a "beauty penalty," in which the attractive person then received disproportionately less the next round of the Trust Game. When the positions were switched and the "attractive" person was placed as an initiator of the Trust Game, the person who had previously offered a "beauty premium" compared to the others, now gave back disproportionately less to the "attractive person."
Similar results have occurred playing the Trust Game when participants appear facially to be of similar ethnicity or otherwise kindred in culture or religion. An initial "premium" of trust is awarded, which when not reciprocated leads to a "penalty" response toward the "deceiver."
It 's easy to think to ourselves: "I'm a smart, educated person; I don't have such kneejerk biases." The trouble with this idea is that our brains are hard-wired to distrust those not like us. Professor Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard University found that viewing photographs of those who are "different" automatically activates the brain's fear center, and that we are slower to think of them as having "good" qualities when we are required to react reflexively rather than consciously. (Cromie. William J., Harvard Gazette "Brain shows unconscious prejudices: Fear center is activated." (visited 3/12/10).
The good news? Professor Banaji reports that if given time to be thoughtful about our actions toward those unlike us, and to interact before making decisions, we can overcome our biases.
Think of how easily we may betray our own client's trust by making initial judgments based on such first impressions, and then over-reacting in a punishing fashion just because our initial judgment was hasty, based on fear, and not informed by any facts other than appearance.
The lesson here? Negotiate thoughtfully, not reflexively. Ask yourself: "Am I responding based on bias, or punishing a "traitor" who was supposed to behave favorably toward me?" Take some time to know your opponent, especially if he or she is unlike you in some important way. If you make the effort to be mindful, you will overcome the biases that get in the way of successful negotiating.


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Monday, January 4, 2010
BECHTLER MUSEUM OF MODERN ART | European Modern Art | Opened 01.02.10
CHARLOTTE, NC.- The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the only museum dedicated to the exhibition of mid 20th-century European modern art in the southeast, opened to the public Saturday, January 2, 2010 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The building, designed by world renowned Swiss architect Mario Botta, is destined to become an iconic structure with its boldly cantilevered fourth floor exhibition gallery, soaring glass and steel atrium and terra cotta exterior. Only a handful of the artworks in the Bechtler collection have been on public view in the United States. Until now, the collection was privately held by the Bechtler family and has since been committed to the city of Charlotte.
The museum is named after the family of Andreas Bechtler, a Charlotte resident and native of Switzerland who assembled and inherited a collection of more than 1,400 artworks created by major figures of 20th-century modernism and donated it to the public trust. The Bechtler collection reflects most of the important art movements and schools from the 20th century with a deep holding of the School of Paris after World War II.
For more, click HERE.
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I cannot really decide what I love most about this charming little town. Unless you are a mall-rat, or someone who sees shopping is a must do in all your travels, Malang has lots to offer: charming places populated with lovely colonial buildings, a variety of local food – from those in restaurants to those sold by street food hawkers, beautiful little parks, shady boulevard and little streets, and lots of nature oriented tourist destinations. We did not go to all those places, and certainly did not go to Bromo. But each place that we visited, we just loved it.
My highlights of our 4 days visit to this town are not long. Let's start with food.
Inggil. I knew nothing of a society called Inggil Heritage Society. Came to know about it when we went to this restaurant for dinner. A lovely restaurant – with lots of antique, including fossils, around the main dining area which is also a place of a stage where on certain nights they hold performances like wayang or Javanese gamelan. You can almost trace back the history of Java in this place alone – with lots of artefacts as the restaurant's decoration. Food is nice, too. We loved its variety of sambal, or ground chili mixed with other spices.
The main dining room
Some of their antique collection
Toko Oen. A famous old restaurant. This pattiserie, ice cream parlor, and restaurant has been standing on the corner where it still stands now since 1930s. It has a nice olden days ambience. They still keep everything intact – its furniture is the same ones as those used in the old days. Its ice cream is superb, and I tried its oxtongue steak which was splendidly cooked, melted on my tongue. And the ice cream was great. My husband tried Corn Ice Cream – which will give you a different taste experience.
The corn ice cream - really tasty and different
Toko Oen
Melati Restaurant, in Tugu Hotel. If you are familiar with Shanghai Blue, Dapoer Babah or Loro Djonggrang, three of the renowned restaurants in Jakarta owned by the group that owns all Tugu Hotels in Indonesia, you will perhaps be more fascinated with the quality of food at Melati. I actually almost always got disappointed when going to all those three restaurants – they are so overpriced, and the taste, to me, has been tamed too much to the likes of a local food lover. But Melati was different. It has the same exquisite service that this group of hotels and restaurants has, lovely ambience, and the food was just excellent. I chose a very simple dish for a purpose, to see how far they have gone to 'tame' its taste. I chose Pecel Pincuk Madiun (Indonesian's style of salad with peanut sauce), and the taste was just the same with the one I tried in one of the small restaurant off Gondangdia street in Jakarta. Still had the same level of spiciness – no 'tameness' at all though this restaurant is visited by foreigners. And, the price was still reasonable, Rp 25,000 (or around US$ 2), for a restaurant under the wing of Tugu Group, is excellent to me. I do not think I have seen such price in Shanghai Blue, Dapoer Babah or Loro Djonggrang – I guess being in Malang or Jakarta makes that huge difference.
Pecel pincuk Madiun - still retains its really spicy and tasty feel, albeit in a restaurant frequented by foreigners. Thumbs up for Melati!
And with the restaurant located in Tugu Hotel – which for some people is known to be spooky, you may as well go around. I guess the existence of so many antique stuff in this hotel does give it a rather spooky feel. And the 'spookiest' of them all is the painting of a princess – which my husband said there was a great sadness in her expression. I still get goosebumps when I look at it.
The spooky photograph - do you feel it? I do!
Bakso Gun – you can find them almost at every corner in Malang. It is the kind of 'bakso' or meatball, that is so loved by most Indonesians. My husband went there and according to him, "It is worth to export those bakso to Jakarta, they are excellent!". I tried the fried one and it was really tasty – not one of those bakso that seemed to 'fight back' when you bite into it as it gets cold. It was still soft, and very tasty, not too oily.
After food - then let's go sightseeing. We only went to very few places...but they all left an impression to us.
Candi (or temples). Unfortunately we could not visit all temples in Malang – it is always tricky to do these types of things when you have a little child. We visited 2 of the most important ones: Candi Singosari and Candi Jawi.
Candi Singosari is actually one of the most important site - one of the very important kingdom of Java in ancient times. The location itself is actually scattered - there are two huge statues which seem to 'guard' the way into the area, which is now very much a residential area.
Candi Singosari
One of the statue
Candi Jawi is actually the tallest temple in the Eastern part of Java – and it is one beautiful temple, very 'feminine' to some extent. And I must say the backdrop is even more stunning – Mount Penanggungan is there at the back of this temple and in clear weather, I bet the view is really stunning. It was raining when we got there and still, it looked just as lovely, very serene, and peaceful though located right by the road.
Candi Jawi - feminine beauty
The main stairs of Candi Jawi
Niagara Hotel – on the road towards Pandaan. This was the first high rise building in Indonesia!. A very well-preserved building with art nouveau details, with all the panels still intact. Unfortunately the old elevator that they had no longer functioned, it would be such a great treat to get on it!. We only stopped and ate at its restaurants so we could have a look around. Service and food were not great, their food list was rather sad, but not far from it within walking distance you could find a nice restaurant – Mungil (or petite, as one would say in French). A renowned chain of restaurants in Malang known for good food with good price. You can also find local chips and crackers to bring back with you, if you'd like.
So, staying at this hotel will not give you any trouble in terms of food. Not sure in terms of a peaceful sleep – heard from friends that it is haunted. But I guess, every old building will have its own story, which makes it fascinating if we could have stayed there for a night. We fell in love with the façade, all the glass windows, wood and ceramic panels, its stairs, its balconies. Each floor has its own charming looking living room, though unfortunately the furniture is lacking in taste but still the ambience is really nice.
The facade and balconies of Niagara Hotel
The well preserved art nouveau tiles
The well preserved glass windows with its artistic art nouveau details
Sendang Biru. About 2 hours from Malang, Sendang Biru is a fishing village. The journey to this place is quite interesting – the trees around are still pretty thick, and you must go through hills and winding roads which can be pretty sickening if you are prone to motion sickness (Tara actually vomitted half way through), but the view is really stunning at some places. Unfortunately there is no place to stop and take pictures as roads are pretty narrow. Right in front of the beach where there are colourful fishing boats, there is an island, called Sempu. This island is a nature conservancy – it is said that there are still tigers in its thick forest. In the middle of the island there is a lake – that is believed by the locals the water is sacred. One can go to the island by getting on one of the many boats from the beach, it only takes about 5 – 10 minutes to get on the island, a hundred thousand rupiah per boat (or approximately US$ 9). And within a 2 hours walk, you can reach the lake in the middle of the island. The sea is very calm – because it is actually a strait.
We got on a boat – to go closer to the island not to try getting off and going to see the lake (with much difficulty as Tara just would not get on the boat, until, mommy found the power of bribery that she knew would work all the time: get on the boat and you'll get an ice cream. Did wonders…not good to do, but well, we were desperate!). It was very refreshing to see the beautiful beaches on this island from the boat – the sand was very soft, and creamy in colour. The water was also very clear. It looked really tempting to get off one of the open beaches of the island and played in the water. Unfortunately our daughter just would not hear of the idea.
Sendang Biru
Fishing boats at one of Sempu island's beach
Tamban Indah is another beach around forty five minutes drive from Sendang Biru. This is where one can play with the sand, which is also soft and creamy coloured, but, no swimming because there is a very strong under current. It actually looked like a desolated beach – we only saw fishermen getting ready to go off to the sea, no visitors. But thanks to no visitors, the beach was very, very, clean!. Really worth a visit to this place though maybe, after sometime, it can get pretty boring to see the sea in front of you without being able to plunge into it. Nevertheless, a peaceful place where you can just watch life goes by.
A lone child playing on the beach :-)
A stretch of clean, soft sand to play with. But do not get fooled by the calm sea - its under current can easily take you off somewhere else!
So…not a very long list as we only had a short time there – only four days and three nights, but as I said, every place we visited has spoken for itself. Right now we just forget about Bali – the next destination will be Malang, again, especially Mount Bromo. Then off to Madura…..I think I have this one for over a year now!.
Anyway….there is a lot to see outside Bali (not that I have anything against Bali) – so why must we always think of that one when wanting to have a holiday?. Explore more! – and Malang is definitely worth your exploring time, believe me.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Malang - A Gem in the East of Java
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Stay Organized with the Booq Mamba Shift
The Mamba Shift sports a glimpse of bright red fabric under its black exterior. That's a fashion choice rather than a practical one – part of a pattern that keeps the Mamba Shift from being a great product. It's a solid choice in the laptop backpack market, but it sacrifices too much function for style. Construction The Mamba Shift is about as well-constructed a laptop backpack as you'll find. We slung it around on a weekend hike and a cross-country flight without so much as a loose thread. The isolated laptop pocket should become standard in this product line –[...]


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"Paddleboards coming into the market gave us all a bit of a boost, something new to put our arms around, and it gave the paddling community something new to go out and try," Malfait said.
WMUR's Chronicle pays Contoocook a visit
Contoocook River Canoe Co. received a visit from the crew at WMUR's chronicle to talk about kayaking and stand up paddleboarding. We talk with Erin Fehlau about what a day on the Contoocook looks like. Always a good time being on the river and a blast to share it with more folks than usual on this particular day.


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Technical information
- Size
- 60 x 30 x 6 mm (2.4 x 1.2 x 0.2 in)
- Weight
- 12 g (0.42 oz)
- Connectivity
- Micro USB connector for connecting to the computer or mobile phone.
- Safety and certifications
- The TREZOR is CE and RoHS certified, so it meets all quality, reliability and environmental standards. Its fine to take your TREZOR with you on the airplane. Like all modern electronics, the X-Rays won't hurt it.
- Operating temperature
- -20°C to +60°C (-4°F - +140°F)
- 120 MHz embedded ARM processor (Cortex M3) running a custom developed system.
- Screen
- Bright OLED - 128x64 pixels. Enough to hold six lines of text. Can display all the details needed to verify a transaction in a single screenfull.