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Biden administration releases previously classified JFK assassination documents
Watch ABC7 Originals documentary 'JFK Unsolved: The Real Conspiracies,' streaming now on Hulu, for more.
JFK Unsolved: The Real Conspiracies | Trailer
WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration has released a tranche of secret documents that some historians -- and conspiracy theorists -- hope might shed light on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
You can read the documents here.
The release still leaves some thousands of documents either partially redacted or withheld entirely. It is expected to prolong the bitter debate between the federal government and JFK researchers, who have argued that the CIA, the FBI and other national security agencies have continually stonewalled a congressionally mandated release.
JFK UNSOLVED: The Real Conspiracies examines assassination, who really shot President Kennedy
The ABC7 Original documentary "JFK Unsolved: The Real Conspiracies" breaks down the startling conclusion from a renowned JFK researcher about who actually killed President Kennedy.
Longtime JFK researchers say the release likely does not include a smoking gun that would substantively change the public understanding of the circumstances surrounding Kennedy's death -- nor, historians argue, does one likely exist elsewhere.
But for many lawmakers and transparency advocates, releasing all of the remaining documents, as mandated by Congress in 1992, is about restoring faith in the functioning of government. Public polling has long shown that a majority of Americans do not believe the Warren Commission's official finding that Kennedy was killed by a single man, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.
"Because it has taken (the government) so long to get these records out, no matter what comes out, no one is going to believe that that's it," said one official familiar with the classification concerns related to the documents.
In October President Joe Biden delayed a scheduled release to "protect against identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in the immediate disclosure."
He set two deadlines: Wednesday, for any documents that national security agencies have not proposed be withheld, and Dec. 15, 2022, to allow for the remaining documents to undergo a rigorous security review and then be released.
Some transparency advocates argue that another filing the government is expected to make on Wednesday will be more significant than the documents release -- and, in fact, is a significant step toward transparency.
Agencies that wish to continue to withhold particular documents past December 2022 are scheduled to provide to the White House "an unclassified index identifying for each such record the reasons for which the agency is proposing continued postponement of information in such record," according to Biden's October order. That order dictated that those indexes should be made public along with the remaining documents in 2022.
"President Biden's memo reinforces the strict standards established by Congress and holds agencies to a strict timeline and well-structured process," Ezra Cohen, the chairman of the Public Interest Declassification Board, a bipartisan advisory panel whose members are appointed by the president and Congress, said in a statement.
"The PIDB's expectation is that, a year from now, most of the records currently withheld will be declassified and available to the public."
Researchers frustrated with Biden administration approach
But even before Wednesday's release, longtime assassination researchers expressed frustrated with the Biden administration's piecemeal approach. Larry Schnapf, a lawyer and assassination researcher, announced on Tuesday night his intention to sue Biden for failing to release the records in full.
Schnapf has previously sued for internal government communications underpinning the decision behind successive postponements by both former President Donald Trump and Biden.
"We will be seeking a court order instructing the President to release the remaining records or to disclose the specific identifiable harm posed by each document sought to be postponed and how such alleged harm outweighs the strong public interest in the release of these records -- which were supposed to have been released by October 26, 2017," Schnapf wrote in an email to reporters on Tuesday.
Since many of the documents in question involve covert Cold War intelligence activities, there are theoretically legitimate reasons why classified information dating to the 1960s should be withheld, said former CIA officer David Priess, the author of "The President's Book of Secrets."
It is "increasingly unlikely" but "possible" that a CIA source from that era could still be alive and at risk from disclosure, Priess said.
"It could be that there's a source out there who is still in power or still connected directly to someone that would be dangerous for today's intelligence collection," Priess said. "Now, you have to balance that against the historical interest and the compelling public interest here."
In 1992, Congress passed the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, in part prompted by furor caused by the conspiratorial Oliver Stone film "JFK."
The act dictated that all assassination records should be publicly disclosed by October 2017, but Trump and now Biden have allowed multiple postponements on the advice of the FBI, the CIA and other national security agencies. Trump ultimately released tens of thousands of documents, the majority of which include at least some redactions.
Going into Wednesday, more than 90% of the records had been released, according to the National Archives -- 15,834 documents that had been previously released but include redactions and 520 documents that had been withheld in full. The majority of those documents are tax records, according to the Archives, including Oswald's tax returns. Those records are specifically exempted from the JFK records act.
(The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)
societykennedy familyjohn f. kennedysocietyhistoryjacqueline kennedy onassisu.s. & worldassassinationinvestigation
There's already been a 'virtual' debate - 60 years ago
Obama tops list of Americans' favorite presidents: Survey


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O UFC 196 foi um evento de artes marciais mistas que aconteceu em 5 de março de 2016 no MGM Grand Garden Arena em Las Vegas, Nevada.

O evento seria realizado em 6 de fevereiro de 2016, e teria como confronto principal a luta entre Fabricio Werdum e Cain Velasquez. No entanto, devido a lesão dos dois, o pay-per-view se tornou no UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson, realizado neste mesmo dia. Então, o UFC 197, que teria uma luta entre Rafael dos Anjos e Conor McGregor, virou o UFC 196.

Background
O evento teria como luta principal a revanche pelo Cinturão Peso Pesado do UFC entre o campeão Fabrício Werdum e o desafiante e ex-campeão Cain Velasquez.

Porém em 24 de janeiro de 2016 o presidente do UFC, Dana White, anunciou que Cain Velasquez está fora da disputa pelo cinturão dos pesados. O norte-americano será substituído por Stipe Miocic, que enfrentaria o brasileiro Fabrício Werdum no UFC 196, dia 6 de fevereiro, em Las Vegas (EUA).

No dia seguinte Fabrício Werdum, também anuncia lesão e está fora do card.

O UFC anunciou, no dia 26, que Johny Hendricks x Stephen Thompson será a nova luta principal do UFC 196. Contudo, o evento deixou de ser um pay-per-view e será transmitido pelo canal Fox Sports 1, na TV fechada americana.

Após Fabrício Werdum sentir seus ombros, e abandonar a luta do UFC 196, o evento ficou sem disputa de cinturão e passou a ser UFC Fight Night, deixando como 196 a superluta entre: Rafael dos Anjos x Conor McGregor

O novo UFC 196, então, receberia a superluta entre o atual Campeão Peso Leve Rafael dos Anjos e o atual Campeão Peso Pena Conor McGregor na disputa pelo  Cinturão Peso Leve do UFC , mas o brasileiro se machucou dias antes da luta , não tendo condições de se manter no evento. O Co Main Event será a disputa do Cinturão Peso Galo Feminino do UFC entre a atual campeã Holly Holm e a desafiante Miesha Tate..

Card oficial
{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 85%; "
! colspan="8" style="background-color: #ccf; color: #000080; text-align: center;" | Card Principal
|-
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" | Categoria
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" |
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" |
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" |
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" | Método
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" | Round
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" | Tempo
! colspan="1" style="background-color: #E6E8FA; color: #000000; text-align: center;" | Notas
|-

|-
! colspan="8" style="background-color: #ccf; color: #000080; text-align: center;" | Card preliminar (Fox Sports 1)
|-

|-
! colspan="8" style="background-color: #ccf; color: #000080; text-align: center;" | Card Preliminar (UFC Fight Pass)
|-

|} Pelo Cinturão Peso Galo Feminino do UFC.

 Bônus da Noite
Os lutadores receberam $50.000 de bônusLuta da Noite:  Conor McGregor vs.   Nate Diaz
Performance da Noite:  Nate Diaz e  Miesha Tate

Ligações Externas

2016 nas artes marciais mistas
Desporto nos Estados Unidos em 2016
Eventos do UFC
MGM Grand Garden Arena

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It is not very difficult these days to become worried about planet Earth's perspectives. "Shifting Horizons" was this year's theme at the fifth edition of Agri Vision, held 16-18 June in Noordwijk-aan-Zee, the Netherlands, and organised by global animal nutrition company Nutreco. It has become evident that heavy challenges are ahead when it comes to feeding mankind.
Nutreco CEO Wout Dekker began by providing a few figures. He put the cat among the pigeons, quoting United Nations data, which prospect 9.2 billion people living on the earth in the year 2050, in comparison to 6.9 billion in 2010. Taking into account that there will be a greater number of wealthier people, the demand for proteins for consumption will rise tremendously. In other words, he said, quoting FAO, "More food will have to be produced over the next decades than has been produced during the past 10,000 years combined". So, basically, four extra 'earths' would be needed at that time in order to feed the world's population. How can we prepare for that, preferably in a sustainable way?
A range of scientists and captains of the industry shared their vision on this question, all from their own angle. Professor of energy system analysis at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, Dr. André Faaij, studies how the world's energy sources can be used in a more efficient way and hence claims that 'the world can produce food for 40 billion people, more than meeting our 2050 needs'. Key to this, in his view, is the link between agriculture and poverty as approx. 70% of the world's poor are living in a rural setting. Hence, he said, investment in agriculture is essential, with increased water use efficiency, less land, protection of soils and better incomes. Bioenergy can get the money and sustainable economic activity into the rural regions. Governance is key.
The 'forgotten' continent Africa may soon become very important in that sense. Several speakers mentioned Africa as the place in the world not to be forgotten for future generations.
The continent, however, contains many different countries in various stages of political and economic development. Thorleif Enger, chairman of the Yara Foundation and former CEO of Yara International, emphasised the need for investments in Africa to make progress sustainable. "Foreign aid leads to corruption and dependency. We have to make Africans believe in their future, make more investments in agriculture, and encourage entrepreneurship."
'Sustainable precision livestock farming' was introduced by Prof. Dr. Leo den Hartog, Director agriculture R&D and Quality Affairs at Nutreco. This, in his view, is a synergy of improving all potentials in both animals and animal production. Elements such as nutrigenomics, full system control and farm automation play a large part in order to create a situation in which animals make the most of their genetic potential by growing more efficiently on better crops.
It would be good to take a critical look at the way crops are produced not only for improving livestock performance efficiency. Using genetically modified (GM) crops for animal feed allows producers to harvest more grains from every square km anywhere in the world, meaning that production will become more efficient. Robert Berendes, member of the executive committee and global head of development at Syngenta International, explained and re-emphasised the necessity for the European Union to stop blocking the use of GM feeds.
Reinforcing the GM lobby even came from an unexpected corner as the World Wide Fund also launched a plea in favour of the cultivation of GM crops. Dr. Jason Clay, senior Vice President with the WWF, mentioned regions like Africa, potentially suffering from the ever-increasing demand for area for crop cultivation. Clay reminded the audience of the amount of wildlife still existing. If the world needs more surface to cultivate its 'ordinary' crops, areas for nature and animals in the wild will decrease sharply. "If we don't do anything," he said, "by 2050 no wildlife will be left on this planet."
Good projections. But the only solution for sustainable existance of mankind and eco system on our mother earth lies in restricting the human population. Resources are fixed and are not going to expand. Improving efficiencies is an effort, not a permanent solution.


Floor Sanding Epsom, KT19 - Affordable Wood Floor Resurface, Professional Restoration.
For an accurate quotation please submit at least one photograph of the floor.
Wooden floors have retained their popularity for centuries - with qualities enduring beyond their obvious durability. No other floor surface developed since combines natural beauty with versatile looks - and sheer ease of maintenance.
And they can be a valuable asset: when well cared for, wooden floors can add value to all kind of domestic and commercial properties: from home and office to galleries, bars, shops and restaurants.
So make sure that your floors - whether hardwood boards or parquet blocks - are making a positive contribution to their environment. If they are underperforming - from a shabby look to digs, marks and damage - the solution is at hand.
Floor Sanding Epsom are your choice for all floor repairs and restoration..
Wood floor restoration is a skilled job. So make use of our twenty years in the business. You'll get the best advice - whether it's to create a floor to impress guests and customers or for practical hard wear in busy areas.
to last longer and offer superb long term value.
natural oil, hard wax or lacquer.
And if you need a new look to match a modern interior, leave it to us.
a pale washed look such as Scandinavian white.
All with minimal mess and disruption. Our cylinder machines are so efficient that sanding is virtually dust free. And efficiency is the key to our mode of working: adjusting to your domestic or business schedule if you so desire - at weekends or even overnight.
Your new floor awaits. So call us today for your free assessment.
Floor Sanding Epsom - for all your flooring needs in KT17.
Wider planks have been an on-trend flooring style for a while now. It's partly down to practicality, as the wider plank width means you're installing fewer boards, and very much down to the aesthetics because the wider wood widths can create a beautiful and unique effect.
If you've been ahead of the trend and your wide plank flooring could now do with a refresh, here's how to sand and seal your planks for a beautiful finish.
If you have any obvious knot holes, seal them with a wood filler that matches the colour of the original then sand smooth with a hand sander when the putty is dry. If you're sanding in a room like a kitchen where you can't remove the furniture, mask everything well to minimise the effect of dust. Hiring a dust free floor sanding machine will also make clean up quicker and easier.
To remove signs of general wear and tear from your wide plank flooring, choose a 60-80-100 sequence. Don't skip any grits or you run the risk of creating swirl marks that will ruin the finish. Work slowly and steadily, moving with the grain and never starting or stopping the machine when it's in contact with the floorboards.
Once you've finished floor sanding and the boards are stripped back to the raw wood, you're ready for finishing. You'll need to vacuum thoroughly, even if you've used dust free sanding equipment, and then run a tack cloth over the floor to get rid of every last trace of dust - attach the cloth to a broom for ease of use.
First, you'll need to apply a sealer, which helps the finishing coat to adhere much more evenly for the best finish. Use a lambswool applicator and mop the sealer on in thin rows - you'll need to work fast as this product dries quickly.
Whether you use oil or water based polyurethane, the basic principles are the same - apply as you did the sealer, and allow to dry thoroughly before applying the next coat. You'll need to sand between coats with a fine grit mask and then clean up every speck of dust by vacuuming and with a tack cloth before you apply the next one. Whichever finish you choose, if you follow these simple steps your wide plank flooring will continue to create the wow factor in your home for years to come.
With over 25 years of sanding experience, we're dedicated to making sure that your wooden floors always get the best possible restoration service.


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FENDOR REVOLUTIONISES SECURE FENESTRATION AT RAMPTON
Specialist Glazing System company Fendor, working in close cooperation with the consultants and main contractor, has developed a window system that offers a revolution in terms of both performance and the living environment for a new secure unit at Rampton high secure Hospital.
The new High Security Learning Disability Unit at RamptonHospital in Nottinghamshire has been built by Laing O'Rourke with Gilling Dod Architects being the architectural practice leading the design team. Knowing Fendor's expertise in relation to supplying window systems meeting the highest standards of security, the main contractor approached the company to take a radical approach to meeting the facility's needs.
As a result, Fendor has supplied double glazed curtain walling for communal areas, as well as double glazed windows to patients' rooms and other vulnerable locations, offering a wide range of attributes. These include full anti-ligature protection and patient control over ventilation, as well as high levels of natural light and resistance to attack.
Project Architect Mark Cowpland from Gilling Dod, comments: "In recent years at RamptonHospitalthey have used a polycarbonate glazed window, which meant there were no thermal properties and there were also condensation issues. So with the Learning Disability Unit we were re-introducing glass into the facility for the first time in over 30 years.
"Although it was not clear exactly what the client wanted at the beginning, we were given the brief that there was to be natural ventilation, operated by the service user themselves, and as much daylight as possible; while it should also meet Part L2 of the Building Regulations. Laing O'Rourke brought Fendor on board early and the manufacturer helped us work up a design, supplying numerous window sections and samples of glazing for testing.
"Fendor was therefore an integral part of the design team and has performed very well, while the windows themselves meet all of our aspirations on safety, security and energy as well as natural light and ventilation."
For the Therapeutic Core building there were 27 areas of AlphaLine Aluminium curtain walling installed with SwingVent opening windows on actuators. Fendor also supplied steel glazed doors and 26 Steel SwingVent windows incorporating anti escape top hung vents.
In Houses A, B, C & D, the manufacturer fitted 22 high security SwingVent bedroom windows that were fully anti ligature and anti-pass. These windows are a special composite steel and aluminium frame. They were triple glazed with a laminated glass centre pane protected by a 'sacrificial' polycarbonate inner layer. The opening vents are operated by the patient via an internal anti ligature control knob, which is on a continuous turn mechanism to prevent potential damage to the operating gear by the patients. Fendor further supplied nine steel entrances for each building, incorporating doors and anti-escape top hung SwingVents.
The installation teams had to be fully vetted for working in secure areas, and were trained by Fendor to ensure quality standards were maintained throughout the contract.
View Crittall Fendor's profile:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Last year, sports bettors wagered $98,534,732 on the Super Bowl. I have been hearing that gamblers who make only a couple of bets per year usually have a friendly bet on the big game, and the Kentucky Derby. Now I won't call this a problem, or something out of the ordinary. People love the big events, and nothing makes it more exciting than to have a few bucks thrown down.
Wagering is one of the most exciting forms of entertainment you'll ever run across. But there is wagering, and impulse playing. The latter is what I was doing at River Downs long ago, and it doesn't end pretty. Betting just for the sake of action can be bad way to start the day. You find yourself going against your money management plans, and at the end of the day you will wonder how you didn't turn a better profit.
There is a bevy of racing action that awaits this weekend. If you are preparing in your usual way and want to make a few random action wagers. I would seek a professional. Someone who knows what is happening on the circuit, and handicaps it every day it runs. Well as luck would have it, you don't have to look to far. The E-Z Win Forms on Winning Ponies are one of the best weapons you can use to make random plays a part of your winning formula. I have used the data when I play in multi-track contests where there are ovals I am not as familiar. Betting for the sake of betting can be a dangerous and costly endeavor. Stick to your guns, and leave the guesswork out of any plays. Not only will you find them valuable, but I am sure you will want to make them a key piece of your wagering arsenal.


Find out how to fill out Premium Tax Credit Form 8962, the form for reporting ObamaCare Tax Credits. We'll review MAGI, FPL, and Adjusting credits. The information on the 8962 Premium Tax Credit form below is updated for 2018 plans and 2019 tax filing.
The form can seem daunting at first, but by understanding what all the fields mean, you'll be able to report and adjust your Tax Credits like a pro.
IMPORTANT: To file the form correctly you'll need a completed 1095-A (click that link to learn more).
NOTE: Below are forms for 2018 plans and 2019 tax filing. New forms are posted up every year, and the links will generally update automatically. Still, always make sure to check the dates on the forms you are filing to avoid filing old forms. Please note, some of the images we used for informational purposes are from past years. So same logic applies, use them for reference, but make sure to refer to the official up-to-date forms from the IRS found in the links below.
Here are the forms and official IRS instructions. See below for our simplified breakdown of form 8962.
See Pub 947, for more information (especially for those who got married or divorced and need to use "alternative calculations").
See our File Taxes for ObamaCare page for a breakdown of all healthcare-related tax forms.
Other IRS forms related to the PTC forms can be found here.
NOTE: You may also need to file additional 1040 forms, like a Schedule 2 (used for repaying excess tax credits), due to the way the 1040 was changed for the 2018 tax year forward.
TIP: The above forms are all you need for your taxes as they related to marketplace tax credits taken in advance. The information below is just about offering extra insight.
This is an example of what the 8962 form looks like. Some specifics change each year, but the general layout will be recognizable in any year.
You or a dependent had health insurance coverage in a qualified health plan purchased through a Health Insurance Marketplace (also known as an Exchange). This includes a qualified health plan purchased on healthcare.gov or through a state Marketplace.
If you or a dependent didn't get a Tax Credit, you don't need to fill out the form.
If you got marketplace cost assistance and you plan to file your own taxes, you'll need to know how to fill out Premium Tax Credit Form 8962.
Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC) is the form you will need to report your household Modified AGI (MAGI), your Federal Poverty Level amount, your family's health insurance premium, exemptions, and the cost assistance you received.
Below we do a walkthrough of filling out the PTC form, and we simplify the terms found within.
Complete Form 8962 and attach it to your 1040. As noted above, you may also need to file additional 1040 forms, like a Schedule 2 (used for repaying excess tax credits), due to the way the 1040 was changed for the 2018 tax year forward.
To calculate your subsidy amount correctly, you'll need to know the cost of the second-lowest-cost sliver plan in your state's marketplace. You can find that info your 1095a form. If you didn't get a 1095, or if you got the wrong one, you should wait until you get the right one and follow up with the Marketplace. If, however, you need to fill out the form on your own, you can use the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan tax tool from HealthCare.Gov to help.
IMPORTANT: This guide has been updated for the 2018 tax year. With that said, specifics are subject to change each year. On the off chance we missed something in our updates, we apologize in advance, and would ask you to simply refer to the official instructions. Feel free to use this guide for reference, but please refer to the official IRS instructions and forms when filing taxes.
Please open up Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC) and IRS Instructions for form 8962 and your 1040 form (since your Tax Credit is based on the results of your 1040). This will make following along easier and more helpful. You will also need forms 1095-A, 1095-B, or 1095-C, which show minimum essential coverage. These should have been sent by your insurer.
Line 1. Family Size. The number of people you claim as dependent and yourself.
Line 2. Modified AGI (MAGI). This is your Gross Income (GI) Adjusted (A) and then Modified (M). Your 1040 will walk you through calculating AGI. Modified AGI (MAGI) includes Adjusted Gross Income on your federal income tax return plus any excluded foreign income, nontaxable Social Security benefits (including tier 1 railroad retirement benefits), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and tax-exempt interest received or accrued during the taxable year.
Learn how to calculate MAGI (this link contains the MAGI worksheet from the 8962 instructions used to calculate MAGI).
Line 3. Total Household Income. You and your dependents' MAGI combined.
Line 4. Federal Poverty Level. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) guidelines let you compare your income to 100% of the FPL. Poverty level changes every year and is determined by family size. You can find your Federal Poverty Level amount by finding 100% of the FPL for your family size.
See Pages 2 and 6 of the instructions for more information.
Line 5. Household Income as a Percentage of the Federal Poverty Level. To find household income as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Line, divide MAGI by your family size's Federal Poverty Level amount.
Household income will turn out to be a percentage of the baseline Federal Poverty Level based on your MAGI. For those receiving Tax Credits, this should be between 100%-400%. Learn more about Federal Poverty Guidelines.
Line 6. The Results. If you didn't qualify for Premium Tax Credits (PTC) due to income and family size (the number is greater than 400% FPL) and you received advance payment of PTC, see the Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC) Instructions for more information on reporting your Excess Advance PTC Repayment amount. You can also see our guide to Advanced Premium Tax Credit repayment limits.
If the result was less than 100%, you can keep your tax credit so long as you meet the requirements. If the result is over 400%, you must repay the full amount. See table below for Advanced Tax Credit Repayment limits.
TIP: These figures are updated for plans held during 2016. They are subject to slight changes each year. See the 8962 instructions.
The repayment amounts from the 2019 8962 form for advanced premium tax credits under the ACA.
NOTE: The following Advanced Tax Credit Repayment limit table from form 8692 below is updated for 2018 coverage (accounted for on taxes filed in 2019).
Line 7. Applicable Figure. See the chart found in PTC instructions below to fill out line 7 on the PTC. The numbers on the left side of the chart represent the federal poverty level, the numbers on the right side represent the percentage of your household income you can owe on a health plan (they thus affect how much of a tax credit you qualify for).
TIP: These figures are updated each year. The image below is offering you a visual example of what the table looks like. See the current 8962 instructions for the current figures.
Table 2. Applicable figures from the 8962 instructions for premium tax credits. This shows how tax credits are calculated for plans held in 2016. This is subject to change each year.
Line 8a. Your annual contribution to healthcare. Your household income capped by the applicable amount from line 7. (Somewhere between 2.01% and 9.56% of your Modified household income for the 2018 tax year for example. Written in the applicable figure table as a number between .0201 – .0956). TIP: Make sure to use current numbers as they are subject to change each year.
Line 8b. Your monthly contribution. Your annual contribution divided by 12.
Tax Credit Amounts and Premium Amounts. To fill out a lot of the form, you'll need forms 1095-A, 1095-B, or 1095-C, which show minimum essential coverage. These are sent by your insurer or employer. Not all insurers and employers are required to send forms, but if you got marketplace cost assistance, you should get this form. You'll use this to calculate premium amounts and Tax Credit amounts. Open this form as well.
Line 9. Did you Meet Certain Requirements that would affect your calculation? If you share a policy, got married, or want to use an alternative calculation due to a life circumstance, you won't use the standard calculation methods and will instead follow the alternative calculation instructions.
Line 10. Did you maintain minimum essential coverage? If you maintained coverage for each month of the year, then you'll answer yes. If you are using multiple forms or had coverage gaps, you answer no. You can find this information on your 1095 forms. Many people will have short coverage gaps. Up to three months in a row is exempt. <—– starting in the 2019 tax year this won't matter in most states, but it still matters for 2018 since the mandate to have coverage was still in effect.
Line 11-23. Calculating APTC Owed Amounts. You'll fill out the chart of Premium amounts and assistance per month as seen below. All of this information can be found on form 1095 or will require calculations. See page 9 of the instructions for details.
Line 24. Total Premium Tax Credit. E is what your allowed Premium Tax Credit was. The total from E column of line 11 or combined totals of all E columns of lines 12 – 23.
Line 25. Total Advanced Payment of Premium Tax Credit. F is the amount you got in advance. The total from F column of line 11 or combined totals of all F columns of lines 12 -23.
Line 26. Net Tax Credit. The difference between the total Advanced Payment and Total Premium Tax Credit. You then report this on your 1040 (Line 69 of a standard 1040). If you got married and that messed up your tax credit, you enter 0 meaning you won't have to pay back your tax credit amounts. See page 11 for details.
The next section of the PTC form deals with repayment of excess Advanced Premium Tax Credits.
Line 27. Excess Advance Payment of PTC. If line 25 is greater than line 24, subtract line 24 from line 25.
Line 28. Repayment Limitation. The amount is limited. This ensures you won't owe more than you can afford.
Remember, we posted these limits above, feel free to also see our guide to Advanced Premium Tax Credit repayment limits for further clarification.
29. Excess Advance Premium Tax Credit Repayment. Use a Schedule 2 to account for your excess credits. Enter the smaller of line 27 or line 28. If line 28 is blank, enter the amount from line 27 on line 29. Also enter the amount from Form 8962, line 29, on Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 46, or Form 1040NR, line 44.
Line 30-34. Multiple payers for one plan. If you are allocating different tax credit amounts on the same plan to different people (in instances of marriage or divorce, for example), you report that in this section.
Complete Part 5 to elect the alternative calculation for your pre-marriage months. Electing the alternative calculation is optional, but doing so may reduce the amount of excess APTC that you must repay. To qualify, you must meet guidelines found in the instructions.
NOTE: The IRS instructions go into a lot of detail into the complex situations that can arise in terms of policy allocation and alternative calculations and provide examples. Make sure to reference them directly if you are for example dealing with tax credits in a year where you were married or divorced.
Once you complete the form, make sure to file it, and don't forget to report your excess tax credits on your Schedule 2 and attach your 8962 form.
IRS Instructions for form 8962 can be found here. Above are instructions for form 8962 Premium Tax Credit (PTC). Please see the official IRS instructions for further clarification.


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The Hardest Thing I've Done in Business
This week, Jay Goltz, Liz Picarazzi, and William Vanderbloemen talk about sales, specifically the transition most founders have to make from handling sales themselves to building a sales team. Jay, Liz, and William also discuss the value of going to trade shows, the pros and cons of compensating salespeople based on commission, and the differences between inside sales and outside sales. "The kind of person," Jay says, "that can go out there and cold call all day long and get the door slammed in their face—it's very hard to find, very hard to keep, very hard to train, very hard to control. And that's been my biggest challenge in business without any doubt."
William Vanderbloemen is founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group.
Liz Picarazzi is founder and CEO of Citibin.
Welcome, Jay, Liz, and William. It's great to have you all here. Liz, last week, you told us something I found intriguing that I'd like to follow up on. You mentioned that after the pandemic hit, you brought your husband into the business as COO and that he's taken over many of the responsibilities at Citibin that you didn't think you were good at. One of those areas, you said, was sales. I'd like to talk some more about that. Can you tell us, how were you handling sales before Frank joined the business?
Liz Picarazzi:
So, first, to make a little correction, I actually am very good at sales—but when my business was small. And with both of my businesses, when they were small, I was very involved with sales. So as the business scales, and I delegate to other people, and we have more and more customers, most importantly, it tends to get a little disorderly—despite having a CRM and other sorts of HubSpot tools. But what I've found is that, if I've set up a sales process, and it's being followed really well, I don't need to be that involved with sales.
But I do not manage sales very well, so that's what I was referring to last week, is that I've never been a sales director or sales manager who has 10 people working for me pounding the pavement. I've never had that. I know it's something I'm gonna need to get to, so until we get to that point, Frank, my husband, is the sales manager, and he manages a team of three. He's doing a really good job at it, but he also has never managed a sales team. So we know we could get some extra help with this. We definitely want to scale. We've got a great product. When I'm out there selling, I do a great job. But we just need to scale our sales operation.
You've mixed up three things in one, so I just want to clarify. You just mixed up inside salespeople, and you said people pounding the pavement—two completely different things. So managing an inside sales force is nothing like managing an outside sales force from my experience. And number two is—
Wait a second. Make sure we understand what distinction you're drawing between inside and outside. Is inside people who work in a retail store?
No, a person sitting, answers the phone, "Hello." And they go, "Hi, I'm looking for…" They can explain the products and services versus someone going out there looking for business. Completely different.
Well, it's like inbound, outbound. So our inbound is very strong with our SEO game, with our email newsletters, with our inbound even on the phone. But the outbound, people going out there to hunt, to go into new markets we've never been in, hiring external salespeople, I've dabbled with that a little bit. But it really is, to your point, Jay, it's about the external sales team. Internal we're doing pretty well.
William Vanderbloemen:
So Liz, what percentage of your sales would you guess are inbound versus outbound?
Probably ninety/ten. Ninety inbound.
Yeah, same here. Same here. Is it more of a transactional sales process or consultative sales process?
Yeah, it is definitely consultative.
Yeah, so when you figure out how to do outbound sales in a consultative process, please send me the notes, because we cannot figure that out. And so we just keep pouring more and more effort into marketing toward the top of our funnel, increasing our SQLs, and focus on inbound sales almost exclusively.
Wait, explain that to me. It seems to me, William, you've got fish in a barrel. There are so many churches in the United States. You can clearly get the list. Are you sending out actual mailings to them?
Nope. Nope. First of all, I don't think it works. I think the history of direct mail—which, by the way, is history, except for a few of our clients, who still insist on doing it. They market to a little bit of an older database. The history of direct mail is like a 1 percent return, and I would say the same is true for outbound calls. I had a mutual friend of ours who I'll leave nameless suggest that I hire a few young guns just to make outbound calls. "Make 100 calls a day, maybe you'll land one."
It's not just that it's cost-ineffective. It dilutes the brand. This is just my opinion, and to remind listeners, I have a religion degree with a philosophy minor, and I've said this before, but most people who have those degrees spend their entire career saying, "Do you want fries with that?" So I am learning as I go.
But wait, come on, William. How long have you been running this business?
In my opinion, if we're just calling, saying, "Let me tell you how we can solve your problem today. Hey, we're here when you need us," I know how to sell like that. I think the brand we're trying to drive is "thought leader, trusted advisor." It'd be kinda like what Goldman Sachs used to be in its absolute heyday. They didn't do cold outbound calls. You came to them, because you knew they were the best. So we're focusing our efforts on content that drives people toward us as experts, trusted advisors.
For instance, the vast majority of pastors in the country are nearing retirement age. We could be doing cold calls about succession. Instead, we poured our eggs into the basket of, "Let's write a book on succession," which is now in every library at every seminary in the country, and is the textbook on the matter—and people come to us. And I wouldn't say outbound sales is a bad idea. I just think for us, what I've found is, we're a brand new idea with zero trust factor and highly consultative in sales. And that has led me to believe that the best thing I can do is put free content out that builds trust, and then when they call, have incredibly good inside salespeople who are concentrated in their approach.
Okay, again, you've mushed three things together that are completely different. You said, "Well, direct mail only gets 1 percent." That's a good return. If you bought a 10,000-person list, 1 percent of 10,000 is 100 people. And for what it cost to do a stupid mailing with a beautiful letter addressed to the right people, if you had 100 live leads, that would be a home run. So 1 percent is a great return, number one.
Number two is, you've mixed together outbound calls with mailings—two completely separate things. I would think that a beautifully written letter to the head person in a church, saying, "Here's what we do," would get some attention. And people always go, "Oh, I throw all my direct mail out." Do you think these people do that because they lose money? I get direct mail every day. It's obviously working for some companies, or they would stop doing it.
So I don't think direct mail is dead by any stretch of the imagination, and I think you could send out a very sophisticated letter to the churches. And until you try that and tell me it doesn't work, I think your opinion is a guess—versus, "I tried that, and it didn't work."
Well, you know what, Jay, you've actually given me a lot to think about, and you've been at this longer than I have. So I'm gonna take that to heart and go back and drop back to my team—particularly, maybe a direct mail towards succession clients, who tend to be older, who actually read mail. Maybe you're right. What I don't want to do—and like you say, it's just a guess—is get 100 leads and then have 9,900 potential clients think, "That's an ambulance chaser. He's just trying to do a slick sale. I don't want to be around him."
I think you're overly sensitive. I think a sophisticated mailing with a beautiful letter looking like it was just written to them is not a bad brand thing.
Well, you have just made my hour, Jay. You've given me—I'm dead serious. You've given me something to think about.
Listen, I've tried a lot. I had a big idea one year. I sell to people who buy art, and there was the Gold Coast Art Fair. So I had this idea: I'm gonna hire one of those airplanes with a banner, Artists Frame Service, to fly over the 50,000 people who are buying art at the Art Fair.
It was thinking out of the box, and I did that. Now, did it work? No, it was a complete failure because it took me about three seconds when I got downtown to realize: you can't look up at a banner when you're in downtown Chicago. That's for people looking out over the horizon. The point of my story is: It was a complete failure. But that was one failure. I've got three other success stories that I kept doing, so you've got to try some stuff. That one aggravated me just because they clearly knew the airplane banner wasn't going to work.
Let's go back to where we started with Liz. I think what she described is kind of a classic entrepreneurial dilemma. At most companies, the person who starts the business is the person who sells it best, but you can only grow so much doing all the sales yourself. At a certain point, you have to grow beyond that. Liz, you said you weren't good at managing a sales team. How do you know? What didn't work when you were managing a sales team?
One: I don't really enjoy it that much. I don't know exactly what that means, but having a scorecard and tracking the sales and finding out where it is in the funnel… It's just not my forte. I'm definitely more of the creative person, the visionary.
But you said you're good at sales. Arguably, you might be the best person at the company to teach someone else how to do what you were able to do.
Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. And the people who are in the company, I have taught them on the existing segments that we're working with. And so we primarily work with property managers, developers, affluent residential homeowners. And so they only need to deal with those customers. But I have a couple of segments that we're starting to get business from without trying that I want more of.
Harvard University, for just a couple of their dormitories, needed trash enclosures, and they came to us. So we've got a great installation up there, we've got a great case study. But if I say to the team, "How do we get 10 more Harvards?" we don't quite know where to go with it. We're not getting traction with some of the things that we're trying. So that's where the idea of, "If I had an external salesforce, and I had someone who was a manufacturer's rep for a brand that sold to facilities managers at colleges like Harvard, could someone pull out their Rolodex and be able to get us into 100 other universities?" I feel like something like that should exist, but I haven't been able to get to it.
First of all, when you describe management of your sales force as keeping track—that's not really management. I question whether you hired the right people in the first place, number one. Don't know. And number two, did you train them properly? Because if you hire the right people, and you train them properly, you're not selling brain surgery. There's no reason they shouldn't be able to have an intelligent conversation with a customer who calls in. So I think that could work.
But again, I'm going back to: Why not do a mailing to the facility managers of every university? Or, there are magazines that are targeted just to those people. That's all they do. There's other ways of management. The most expensive one that I've found is hiring an outside salesperson and managing them. That salary would pay for 10 mailings, and I think you could get some great leads from, and I've done it.
Right. Ads and trade shows too. I know in that segment, there are definitely trade shows that we're going to start going to and there are trade publications.
I've gone to some of those trade shows because we sell artwork, so we try going to some of those trade shows that are specifically for facility managers, and they're looking for stuff like what you're selling. I wouldn't be so quick to hire an outside salesperson, because that's been the most difficult thing I've ever done in business—trying to hire, train, manage, and get results from people who want to make $80,000 a year. The salesperson you're going to hire for $30k is not going to do it, in my experience. They can make a hell of a lot more money doing something else.
Jay, what was your transition like, going from being the entrepreneur who does all the selling to hiring a staff and managing people who do it for you?
Well, first of all, to be specific, I'm in a retail business, so I had to just find people who could take care of customers. They didn't have to go out and find customers. That's a huge difference—night and day. So I started hiring people with art backgrounds and started learning how to train them. And I have to say, that that was fairly simple compared to the next 20 years I spent trying to find outside salespeople to sell artwork, which it took me too many years to figure out.
Inside salespeople are completely different than outside salespeople. I always use the example of, "It's the difference between cats and dogs. They both are similar, but cats go out and will kill things on their own and figure out how to bring it back in, but they're not always your best friend like a dog is. They're completely different species." And in what I was doing was, I was hiring nice people because that's what I did in my retail business. And I found out that just because someone's nice doesn't mean they know how to go out and find business. So I hired lots of nice people who couldn't sell. They couldn't bring in business.
And like I said, night and day. Inside salespeople are not outside salespeople. Before I would go hire a salesperson and train them and wind them up and send them out on the market, I'd be doing some mailings. I'd be doing some trade shows. I'd be doing some outbound. Well, in your case, people are looking for your product, perhaps. I would be spending time on making sure my website looks good, which your website looks very good. So I would think that that would be a great platform to get customers to.
I do have a question about your website, though. I see that you're offering 10 percent off for signing up. And my question is, it looks like you're selling a first-class, great product. Why do you feel compelled to give them 10 percent off?
Because by giving me their email address, I can market to them, and that's worth a lot to me.
And you believe you have to give 10 percent off to get their email address?
It's been very effective, yes. Because if they give me the email address, then they go into my drip marketing campaign, and they're going to get 10 emails from me over the next couple of months. And we can track who comes in and buys from that.
How long is the 10 percent off good for? Is that forever? Or is it just, buy in the next 30 days?
It's actually forever. It's for as long as they're on our email newsletter. So anyone who gets our email newsletter can use that 10-percent off.
So theoretically, you could argue, you built it into your price that pretty much everyone who's buying is getting 10 off, I would assume. Okay. That might make sense. I think you've got a great looking website and a product that—I'm amazed, in Chicago, people are just leaving boxes on the sidewalk. It's unbelievable. They're just leaving entire boxes on the sidewalk, and I'm thinking, "How long is that gonna last?" And it seems to me—
You're talking about delivery boxes?
Deliveries. I would think that I'd be contacting UPS. They have to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in claims for products that were sold. And I would think that they would want to help you sell your product.
I would, but they actually have a competitive solution. And that's that they have lockers at a lot of major retailers, including, I think, Lowe's, some gas stations, 7-Elevens. Same thing with FedEx has those, and as we know, Amazon lockers are everywhere, including in all Whole Foods.
So those lockers are not convenient. I mean, my product solves the problem of convenience, because you're still having your package delivered to your home. If you have to go to Whole Foods and get your package from an Amazon locker, that kind of takes away that convenience, but you get the safety. I would love for them to subsidize my business, but they have their own solution.
Are you getting a good amount of business from people who just saw the bins out in front of someone's house, and they call in?
Yes, so that is probably our best marketing, is the product itself. People—in New York City in particular—you have your lockers, your package locker or your trash enclosures right in front of your house. It's not like in Chicago where you have alleys and driveways. I would have loved to have gone to the Chicago market, but we haven't done as much there because people don't need to keep their trash in front of their homes. They can put it in their alley in the back.
Here's my thought with that though. You've got Citibin in a fairly small logo on the side of the product, and I would think you'd want to put it in the front of the product with .com on it, so people can clearly see, "Oh, I can go right there and find out where these things came from." And you've got a great name, and you got the URL. So I would think your greatest under-used asset is simply the thousands of boxes sitting out on the sidewalk that people would just see. When you buy a Craftsman tool chest, they've got a gigantic logo plate on it, and your logo was very small on there. I would think that would be your best form of advertising.
Well, it's funny that you said that, because the logo that we use now is considerably larger than the last logo plate we used. And I'm pretty happy with the size, but I definitely will take that into consideration, Jay.
Don't you think putting ".com" on it would help?
Yeah, definitely. Possibly, if they think they can go right online and buy it.
That's the whole point. They don't have to think about it, and they're walking with their phone in their hand. They could literally, when they're walking by someone's house while it's on their mind, put it right in, and boom. Now they call into your office, and you have your well-trained salesperson close the deal. Boom.
William, what was your transition like from being the person driving all of the sales to what was the next step?
It was a lesson in humility. A couple things. I had assumed that, like Jay, "Let's find somebody, who's doing framing, let's find somebody who knows art, then they can talk the language, etc., etc., etc." I figured if I'm selling—at the time it was primarily to churches, now we're helping schools find headmasters and non-profits find CEOs and values-based businesses find their CEOs even on a for-profit side—but back then it was just churches. And I thought I needed somebody who had worked in a church, who knew the language, who knew all the things. I went to a couple of interesting learning sessions that were sort of closed audience. One, particularly, was led by the lead team of the sales department for Salesforce. So pretty interesting.
They talked about founder-CEOs as either operationally driven or growth-driven, right? So you get somebody who loves running the business or growing the business. And that was their hypothesis. And so obviously, I slot into the growth. I'm paying attention to this, and I did all the sales—I love selling things. And so they said the number one lid to companies at the time was, "How do we get from $1 million to $10 million?" The lid for that threshold is the founder/CEO who really believes no one else can handle the sales like they can, and I'm like, "Guilty as charged." And then they said, "The number one lid to a founder finding an EVP of sales who's effective is the founder believing that the person has to come out of the industry they're in." And they used the example of a tractor company that felt like they had to find farmers from the Midwest that understood seed and all these things. The bottom line of the workshop was, "Here's the deal: Salespeople can sell anything. You just have to teach them what they're selling. So you get good at teaching them the product, they'll get good at selling." And that's exactly what happened with us.
The second lesson in humility was that I am arguably the worst trainer/manager of salespeople in the history of sales. I brought on a wonderful team member, Sarah, who's been with me a long, long time, and she was selling homes. She was the person, when you drive into a subdivision and go to the model home, sitting there and selling people their first home. So high-anxiety transaction, high-level widget, a lot of the same things that our clients are experiencing on a sales call. Zero industry experience.
So we tried teaching her the business, and she learned it very well. And then I said, "Okay, let me train you in sales," and I even got a coach to teach me. And I was just terrible at it. Finally, I said, "Sarah, now we're going to use the book of Ruth as our training manual. There's a line that says, 'Whither thou goest I will go. Whither thou stayest, I will stay.' In other words, Sarah, I don't know how to teach you, so your desk is now next to mine for the next four months. And you figure me out and figure out how," and she did. And she needed no industry experience. She was able to figure out the sales without me doing training.
She's now turned into a fabulous trainer of salespeople and has, for lack of a better idiom, given birth to an entire team. But for me, Loren, it was a lesson. One: Don't be so arrogant, William. Don't think people have to be in your industry to sell to your industry. Two: Don't think you know how to train just because you know how to sell. Entirely different prospects and entirely different profiles of candidates to hire. I think I probably sympathize and empathize with Liz. I don't like dealing with sales teams. There are too many people involved. I just want to sell, if I'm going to sell. So, a lesson in humility in my inability to train, even though I know how to sell. And my arrogance, in thinking people had to know my industry in order to sell to my industry.
Wait, you're leaving out the most important part. How did you find her? Where does she come from?
Referral of a friend. In fact, she wanted to get out of… she was working in this home-sales thing, and she's always been very values-driven. She loves her church. We were looking for some people on our research team. Frankly, we'd already filled the job, and we were really small at the time—this was eight years ago—and we'd already hired everybody, but I met her for a drink, along with my COO, and the three of us sat together for a while. And when she left, we're like, "Okay, we've got to figure out where to put her." So we created a role on the research team with the hope that maybe one day she could learn the whole industry and then become a salesperson.
So she sold you, basically. She has, what I call, "it."
She did. She played me, absolutely.
No, she has "it." Which gets back to what I always say: It's about hiring. It's about hiring. It's about hiring. And most entrepreneurs I talk to—almost all—they're managing the wrong people. And whenever I ask them, "Wait, can you explain to me where you found them?" They go, "Oh, it was my neighbor's brother-in-law's sister." And like, they really weren't qualified. They just put them in the spot because they showed up. In your case, you got a recommendation. You talked to her, you liked her, you hired her. That wasn't luck. And she's successful.
That's what my whole company is filled with. My salespeople, I found that there are people who are better than I am at it, because they're just schmoozier than I am. And I finally got to where I got better at hiring those people. And I have to tell you, no one ever asks for me. When I say no one, I mean, I can't think of the last time where someone called me down to the showroom, "Oh, so and so's here. They want to see you." The average frame shop? It's all about the owner. They've got to see the owner, and you can't grow a company like that.
Have any of you tried compensating salespeople on straight salary and not on commission?
I have.
William Vanderbloomen
What I didn't want was a cowboy culture of, "That's my lead, not yours." I wanted a pull-for-the-team mentality, and so we've played with a lot of different things. And Sarah really put me at ease, saying, "William, I've been selling stuff for seven years now, and I think I've had seven different models for compensation. So just treat me fairly, give me a number. I will perform better if there's a number on my head than not." So we set a salary plus a bonus, if you hit numbers, so it's not really commission. It was company-wide numbers, not her personal numbers. Of course, the sales team was Sarah and me.
Now, we're a little more commission-based, but it's very low commission. And there are two commissions: One for your individual sales and one for sales of the team. And then Sarah, who leads the team, is only on sales of the team. So we're trying to make her replicate herself and be just as incentivized to have an amazing team that doesn't have her doing sales calls.
But just to be clear, it's inside sales. The leads are coming into her, correct?
Or is she going out and looking for business? Or are the leads coming in and she's dealing with the leads?
Very, very rare that she goes out looking. Very rare.
Okay, so my point is, that is an inside salesperson. And if you hired her and wound her up and said, "You go out there and find business," she probably couldn't do it. Because like I said, cats and dogs are completely different animals. The kind of person who can go out there and cold call all day long and get the door slammed in their face—it's very hard to find, very hard to keep, very hard to train, very hard to control. And that's been my biggest challenge in business, without any doubt. I'm a retailer. I'm used to hiring nice people to take care of customers, and hiring an outside sales force is just 180 degrees away from running an inside sales force.
I look at what the corporate world—which has been doing search longer than the non-profit world—has done, and you've got a spectrum where one is just cowboy culture, and consultants are rewarded based on the sales they produce and the bills they collect. It's almost like they're a solopreneur using the house brand. And then the other end of the spectrum is, "We're all going to get paid based on how the company goes, and your tenure is what weights your bonus." And that feels more like Europe than the United States.
So I'm trying to find a middle ground, and I don't know that I've got it figured out. I'm wide open to listeners sending me something to find a way to split Solomon's baby—or you guys on the call. It's a wild tightrope to try and ride.
I think the fact is, you're still a business that's going to be mostly—if you generate leads by doing good marketing—you're inside salespeople. And I think it's just a much easier business model than hiring someone to go out there looking for business. And I don't think it's broken, at the moment, from what it sounds like. I don't know that you do have a dilemma. It sounds like you've got it figured out. And if you did a little more marketing—meaning mailings, whatever—all of a sudden, you have more leads coming in. Life is grand.
Well, my next meeting is with a marketing guy, just because I've already texted him during this podcast episode saying, "Okay, Jay says we have to meet."
Do the math. Send out 10,000 envelopes, and you get, not 1 percent. You get .2 percent. That's 20 people who responded who say, "Oh, that's interesting. Call me." Like, I've got to think, how many of those would you have to close to pay for a 10,000-piece mailing? Two? One?
Liz, how about you? Have you had the issue of the salary versus commission?
We have, and we do a hybrid right now that I think is working fairly well. So we have a really fantastic employee who came in. He did assembly, and then he moved into the shop. And then he started doing sales. And then he started doing scheduling. So he's very strong in internal sales, and he's also good at doing all the scheduling. So he gets a salary for all the operational things that he does in the business, which are pretty significant, and then he also gets commissioned based on the sales.
But in listening to you, one thing I realized is that he's really good at those two things together in a way that he never could be if I had him trying to pound the pavement, which I've been kind of encouraging, and it hasn't been going very far. So it's like, looking at him as a person, how does he work best? I think that where he's at right now is really good—and that there's some danger in having me try to get him to get 20 more universities. So that's the sort of thing I would encourage him as a non-external salesperson to try to do, and that's where I'm not getting the traction. And it's not like it's his fault, but I have this idea that he can do inside or outside.
Well, it's like telling your dog, "Run out there to the tree, run up the tree, and get that bird for me." It ain't gonna work, and it's not their fault. They're dogs, meaning they're friendly, they're happy, but you've got to feed the dog. Outside salespeople go out, and they're like the cat. They go climb fences, they kill birds, they come back with something in their mouths. It's a different animal. And I've been doing this for 20 years, and I've never succeeded in taking an inside salesperson and converting them to an outside salesperson. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so.
Have any of you ever hired a sales consultant or thought about hiring a sales consultant?
Somebody whose job it is to look at a company's sales operation and make suggestions about how better to manage it.
Yeah, so at the risk of getting kicked off the podcast and never invited back, I'll be transparent. I am a Tony Robbins guy. Sorry. Cut me off right now. Sorry, Loren. I had gone to one of his mastermind smaller gatherings and hired one of his top-level coaches who was particular to sales, who had specialized in inside sales, and I signed him to a six-month contract. We met once a week. It was super helpful to me. He gave me homework to do. We had a very directed call, and he was part of the process of moving Sarah into her role. I don't know that we would have gotten there as quickly without him.
That makes sense. I think he's a smart guy. He's super successful. I'm sure there's something to what he's doing.
Loren hasn't spoken yet, Jay, so now maybe we're both kicked off the podcast.
He has no podcast left then. So I'm not worried about that. [Laughter]
He'd have to do outside sales.
Liz, have you thought about hiring a sales consultant?
I would definitely consider it. We've done Sandler Training, which has been helpful a little bit.
So Sandler is a sales training course. I think it's somewhat of a franchise.
It is a franchise. They're all over the country.
Yeah, and so it's very specific to sales. And my main salesperson, I sent that to him a few years ago before he had done any sales, and it did a lot of work. But that's a different thing than saying, as a company, how are you going to set up your sales operation? And how are you going to differentiate how you set it up for inside versus outside? And how do you match that up with your marketing?
I think that there could be a lot done with that. But I also have never had anyone say to me, "Oh, I hired this great sales consultant. You definitely need to call him or her." And if I did hear that, I would call that person.
No, I think in your business model, I don't think you're an outside sales force kind of company. I think you've got this hot, great product that so many people need. I think that doing the right marketing to get leads to your inside killer crew of knowledgeable, good people is the business model. I don't see your business model being one where you hire six sales reps to go out and call on buildings. I don't think that's gonna work out.
I'll tell you why I don't think that way. We're about 60 percent B2B and 40 percent B2C, and our B2C game with email marketing, and some of the advertising, and we do direct mail, and we do some ads. That works really well. For the B2B, we're talking about property managers, architects, facilities, managers. They're these bodies, these groups, that tend to purchase in a certain way, and I feel like I don't have enough connection.
So for example, we've got a big job with AT&T within their retail stores in the Southeast. And I think we're in 20 or 30 stores with our package delivery locker, because they have some very expensive gear that they need to transfer between stores. So our package lockers are being used as kind of an intermediary.
And I'm like, "Okay, well, that's one type of commercial entity with a retail space. Who has a brain who can go out there and say, 'I'm going to find 30 more AT&Ts?'" I feel like someone could do that, someone who has sold into those types of industries, someone who has sold to universities before. But it's not so easy, because I've gone on LinkedIn, and I've tried to mine it for, "Who has sold trash cans to universities?" That's not very easy to find. But if I could find that person who sold supplies to facilities, then I would think they would be really good at doing what I want them to do.
There are independent sales reps who call on those kinds of companies, and they have six lines, and they sell all those different things. So I would be looking for an independent sales rep who's already into those places and says, "Oh, wow, this is a great addition to my selection." I don't think it's a full-time employee.
So it'd be like a manufacturer's rep?
Yeah. I've talked before about this: I deal with somebody who's selling into the autism space. We're selling exercise and we're selling an app, and we found out that there are companies out there that do nothing but sell into the school systems and to governments. And we're finding those companies to sell our app to and to sell our certification to, because reinventing the wheel, trying to call all those places, would be impossible. And there are reps that do that. So I think if you spent a little time just looking for reps who call on institutions, you'll find out there's a bunch of them. And if you find one rep group, they've got 20 reps that work for them. They cover the entire country.
Liz, you sell package bins and you sell trash enclosures. They're largely targeting the same customer, I assume. Are there any differences in the way you sell them?
Yes, the need is very different. So when we're talking about trash enclosures, we talk a lot about trash hygiene, managing recycling, keeping rats out, and the pain of all those things. The pain of having a package stolen is very different. They do work modularly together, so we often get people that will buy a trash enclosure for trash, recycling, and then a package locker. So they're getting three modules that all work together, and that's a really cool thing to market because we're selling it as a combination unit. Everything about the space utilization and the design, I'm really excited about selling that. It's been selling okay. I wish it would sell more, but the modularity of it has been a big part.
Have you ever done a trade show for facility managers?
We have done them for property managers, which are kind of similar. Facilities managers, in the straight way, we haven't, but I did get my assistant to pull together a list of all the trade shows that were with potential target groups, including exterminators. Exterminators can sell our trash enclosures through to their clients who are dealing with rat problems. We're the only trash enclosure that they can confidently recommend.
See, I don't know that they want to, though, because if they solve the problem, they just lost a customer. I don't know if they have any incentive to sell a thing. "Oh, if you do this, you won't have any more rat problems." There goes their customer. I don't know that that would be the most motivated group to be selling through. So my question is: When you did the trade show for property managers, did it work?
It did. It's been the best trade show we've ever done.
There you go. I think that's your future. Do six trade shows a year, and the business will just roll in.
Yeah, the ROI on that trade show, a couple that are related to property management, has always been there. And every time I've tried to go to a trade show for something that's like architecture, design, or even waste-related, landscape-architecture related—none of those were worthwhile. And it was disappointing, because I personally enjoy those other shows more than property management. But that is really where our main buyers are, because for them, if you're a property manager, and you're dealing with a building that has a rat problem, your phone is ringing all the time with people who are complaining about rats. So you're not going to be very price sensitive about it, because you just want the best solution s your phone will be ringing less with rat complaints.
So it simply gets to, you need to go to people who have a problem, and those other things? Architects don't have the problem. They're not getting the calls from the tenants. You need to continue going to trade shows where they need to solve their rat problem. And exterminators and architects? Not their problem. They're not the ones that are on the frontline. I think there's a reason why some trade shows are working great, and some don't.
Have any of you changed your approach to sales because of COVID? Are you doing anything differently today than you were before 2020?
We've discussed this some on other podcast episodes, Loren, but I think what we've discovered during the pandemic is what we're calling "the very top of the funnel." And that is giving away free assistance during the mess that we're in and not making any money on it, but building a lot of friendships that we think will outlast the pandemic. And so far, that's paid off pretty well. You know, ask me in 10 years. But so far, that's a pretty, pretty, pretty big focus for us. And it's good to help people. There's always the benefit of doing a good thing, but I think it's also gonna end up being a smart business move.
We sent out an email like we always do, once in a while about, "Here's a $25 gift certificate," and I sent out a personal email to everyone saying, "The pandemic hasn't been easy. Thank you for supporting us." And it was a really heartfelt, nice message. I got back literally, like, 100 emails, love letters about how much they appreciated the email.
Did that prompt you to build on that? Are you sending an email newsletter out?
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I got back two paragraphs from some people, about how they love the store and blah, blah, blah. And it was like, wow, I don't think that would have happened if I just sent out an email three years ago and just said, "Hey, here's a $25 gift certificate. Thanks for your business." I don't think I would have gotten that response. And I'm not smart enough to have predicted that. It was kind of a weird accident.
I've got good and bad in me. The good in me is like, "Look, if our business goes down during this, I want to go down doing something good." The more Machiavellian part of me is like, "If we come out on the other side, we're gonna have a lot more friends. We're gonna have a very top of the funnel that's going to be profitable." And hopefully those two things can coexist.
I will say, we did not bank on this lasting longer than a year and a half. I'd said 18 months, and I was wrong, and maybe we're almost done with it. Maybe we're not. I mean, China just locked everything down, and Britain just said, "We're not doing anything anymore." So who knows? I saw the other day, a friend of mine sent me a text saying, "You know, back in 2020, when we were in episode one of the pandemic, we all thought this was an eight-episode documentary. Now, we're realizing it's more like Grey's Anatomy, and there are just endless seasons upon seasons." So who knows whether our strategy will pay long-term, but for now, it feels right.
I was going to ask you about that. We're just about out of time, but I'm curious. This has gone on longer than I think anyone expected. How are each of you coping with the current situation?
Every two days, I get another email. Someone's got it. But no one's gotten really sick, and we're wearing masks and doing what we can, but everybody's pretty much numb to it, and business is okay. I've got nothing to complain about. I have to remind people once in a while that my parents' generation lived through World War II, four years of wondering whether my father was gonna come back alive. So I'm sorry if you're upset that you can't go to brunch. I remind myself of that, because it's bad, but it ain't that bad. Am I wrong?
Hello? Tell me, living through World War II—was that worse than this?
William, I haven't heard from you. Am I wrong?
I didn't live during World War II. I am not very popular on this, Jay. I actually am dead aligned with you. I'm endlessly optimistic. I feel like we live in… I mean, what if this had happened 10 years earlier when there was not nearly the internet connectivity that we have? What if it had happened, you know, fill in the blank, when we weren't able to communicate as the immunologists have, to come up with vaccines? I just—
What if we didn't get PPP money?
I completely agree with you, Jay. We're going down a road of a podcast episode where I'm gonna end up losing followers, but I just think there is a quiet victimhood out there that's really, really not helpful to the situation.
Why? Why would that cost you followers?
Because there's a culture of victimhood, and I just minimized everybody's suffering and pain by saying, "Suck it up and deal with it."
So let's just keep track. You lost some people because of Anthony Robbins, perhaps, and now you lost… Boy, I hope you're holding okay.
All right, my thanks to Jay Goltz, Liz Picarazzi, and William Vanderbloemen. Thanks for sharing, guys.


text:
Tasmania Welcomes Married Gays, Not Gay Marriage
The Australian state recognizes same sex marriages made outside the country, which sounds too formulaic to not be an immigration incentive to boost population and woo a free-spending demographic.
By Jenara Nerenberg 2 minute Read
Tasmania made a big move this week by saying it would formally recognize the civil unions of people of the same sex made outside the country. Wait. Huh? You won't legalize same-sex marriage, but you'll welcome, with open arms, people who were married outside your borders?
This just sounds like a sneaky ploy to get more people into the country. An article published earlier this year clearly lays out that Tasmania is on the hunt for more residents, so why wouldn't the sort-of-wishy-washy stance on gay marriage be part of that same plan?
Tasmania's Liberal Party actually wants to boost its population by 70,000 more people and wants to pay people to move there. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Northern Tasmanian coverage, "A Liberal Government would pay individuals $2,500 and couples $5,000 to relocate to Tasmania but there are conditions. People have to be under 45, be qualified, be able to secure to full-time work and have not lived in Tasmania for four years prior to making their application." Getting very specific now, aren't we? It's just a matter of time before they say, outright, that they want more gay residents. Afterall, the gay community has long been known to be an extremely lucrative market. A gay travel company, Toto Tours, states, "A large volume of disposable income paired with relative freedom to travel without dependents further lends credence to the statistical information gathered by the Gay and Lesbian Press." Market size estimates center around $514 billion dollars annually.
Noone has outright said that the new plan includes incentivizing the gay community to move to Tasmania, though there are hints. "Population follows lifestyle which we are securing through investment in a whole range of areas and economic opportunity," said Premier David Bartlett. If "lifestyle" isn't code word for high-income gay couples with no kids, which would certainly boost the local economy and reduce costs associated with children, then I don't know what is.
Nepal's first openly gay member of Parliament, Sunil Pant, who is
leading a gay rights revolution across Asia and who we featured last
month, knows a thing or two about tapping into the lucrative gay market
for tourism. He's on an aggressive quest to legalize gay marriage in
Nepal and make it an uber gay-friendly travel destination, with tailored
trips to Mount Everest and more. "I'm extremely
happy to hear that Tasmania recognizes legal marriages made outside the
country. Tasmania has moved a long way forward," Pant tells Fast Company. "As
Nepal will be recognizing same sex relationships soon, this news makes
me proud to be part of a progressing region, 'the Asia-pacific.' I hope
the progress in Tasmania and Nepal will inspire other countries in the
region like India, China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, etc."
Forget South Beach and the Castro. Tasmania is so hot right now.
Jenara is an overseas reporter for Fast Company and a freelance writer/producer in Asia, regularly on CNNGo, and a graduate of Harvard and UC Berkeley.
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We are looking for an energetic individual with a solid understanding of trade show and event planning. Working under the direction of the Operations Manager to ensure flawless execution of trade show booth and equipment setup, tear down, shipping.
The trade show specialist works closely with trade show project managers, sales, manufacturing partners and show management to ensure products are shipped and delivered in a timely manner. The ideal candidate would have the ability to self-direct and work independently. They would assist managing product inventory including booth properties, promotional materials and marketing literature. This position requires the ability to set up trade show booths, involves heavy lifting of materials for booth set up.
Must have a good understanding of display products. The ideal candidate will have forklift and warehouse experience.


text:
Historical Biographies
History Book Reviews
Home European History Early Arthurian Britain – The House of Vortigern
Early Arthurian Britain – The House of Vortigern
In time after Constantine's death, one of the "tyrants," a leader called Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn in Welsh), came to power on a wave of anti-Roman trendiness, beginning around the year 425. He probably came from central Wales. He and his supporters favored Pelagianism, an offshoot form of Christianity begun by a British monk, Pelagius. This following may have only been a political ploy to gain power. The church considered Pelagianism as heresy, and Pope Celestine I sent St. Germanus to quell the movement in 429 and again in c.445. By the second visit, however, Vortigern's political use for the Pelagians had waned.
Saxon raids grew more severe and frequent by the 440's. In spite of the turmoil, Vortigern's power was strong, but as the Picts attacked more and more from the north, he turned to a Roman tactic, the use of foederati (the hiring of auxilliaries). He allowed some of the Saxon barbarians to settle in the island in return for help fighting the Picts. The oldest records of this practice mention Vortigern and his council inviting Hengist and Horsa, Jutish brothers, to take land in Kent. Three shiploads (keels) arrived. More came soon after, settling along the eastern and southern coasts.
The campaign was successful at first, but as more settlers arrived and lacking resources to pay his mercenaries, Vortigern began to lose control. In 455, a battle at Aylesford is described to have had Angles and Picts fighting together against the British. Allegedly soon after, a new treaty was created for peace and Vortigern set aside his British wife to marry Hengist's daughter. Peace did not last. In 457, civil violence spread as displaced native people and Saxon settlers fought. The Britons abandoned Kent after losing a battle at Crayford.
The degree to which the Saxon onslaught was waged is continuously debated. Some historians say the movement was gradual and not nearly as bloody as originally thought. Others claim it was devastating, the towns were swept away in massacres, refugees fled to the western mountains and Brittany, and it was questionable whether Britain could be saved at all. Either way, the discrediting of Vortigern, the ruin of political unity and the Church's disconnection from the continent brought about the rise of the Roman faction's remnants into favor once again. Two brothers, Ambrosius Aurelianus and Uther Pendragon, sons of the previous king Constantine, led that faction. Ambrosius, avenging his father's and brother's lives, is alleged to have defeated Vortigern by burning him and his forces in a stronghold. The date for this is unknown, but logically falls in the 460's.
Vortigern may have had several sons by his first wife. The oldest, Vortimer, supposedly broke with his father over the settlement of the Saxons. According to Nennius' Historia Brittonum, Vortimer fought the Kentish Saxons four times, driving them out. He died shortly after, possibly poisoned by his father's Saxon wife. Vortigern appeased the Saxons, and they returned to plundering. A second son, Cadeyrn, was killed at the Battle of Aylesford. Vortigern's third son, Paschent, was allegedly a troublemaker. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he first stirred up the Saxons, landing in northern Britain. Ambrosius defeated him there. Then Paschent went to Ireland, joined in an alliance with the Irish King Gilloman, and landed at Menevia (Mynyw in Welsh, now called St. David's.) with the Irish. He was again defeated, this time by Uther Pendragon. Paschent was killed in the battle. And finally, a British bishop called Faustus, prominent in Gaul around the year 470, is speculated to have been another of Vortigern's sons.
Geoffrey of Monmouth tied a number of Merlin's prophecies to Vortigern. The best known came during the king's attempt to refortify a stronghold at Dinas Emrys, in the mountains of North Wales. (See Section on Archaeology in Lesson 1.) The walls continuously fell, disallowing the building to be completed. Vortigern's magicians recommended a boy without a father be brought in and his blood sprinkled on the foundations to give them the necessary strength. Merlin, a young boy at the time and unknown as to whom his father was, became the designated sacrifice. But Merlin, crafty as he was, avoided death. He revealed a pool lay beneath the structure that undermined the foundations. He convinced the king to have the pool drained. A red dragon and a white dragon bitterly fought there. When the king asked the meaning of the dragons' fight, Merlin replied with a long prophecy, in effect detailing the defeat of the Saxons (white dragon) by the British (red dragon).
Cathy Anne Smith
Christmas in Austria – History of Austrian Holiday Traditions
A League of Nations, For Nations? Part 2
The Wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, Part 3
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text:
CDC: 'War Has Changed' as Delta Variant Dangers Emerge
July 30, 2021by Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer
Employees check out customers at 2nd Street second hand store in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
New evidence showing the delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be more dangerous than other versions has prompted U.S. health officials to consider changing advice on how the nation fights the coronavirus, internal documents show.
Recommending masks for everyone and requiring vaccines for doctors and other health workers are among measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post.
The documents appear to be talking points for CDC staff to use in explaining the dangers of the delta variant and "breakthrough" infections that can occur after vaccination. Noted under communications: "Acknowledge the war has changed."
In recommending that vaccinated people resume wearing masks indoors in virus hot spots, the CDC this week said that new evidence shows that breakthrough infections may be as transmissible as those in unvaccinated people. They cited a large recent outbreak among vaccinated individuals in the Cape Cod town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, among others, for the change.
As the documents note, COVID-19 vaccines are still highly effective at preventing serious illness and death. The CDC has always expected some breakthrough infections but has struggled with how to explain them to the public.
The documents point out that the delta variant, first detected in India, causes infections that are more contagious than the common cold, flu, smallpox and Ebola virus, and is as infectious as highly contagious chickenpox.
The internal documents also cite studies from Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that the delta variant may pose a greater risk for hospitalization, intensive care treatment and death than the alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom.
Since January, people who got infected after vaccination make up an increasing portion of hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths among COVID-19 patients, according to the documents. That trend coincides with the spread of the delta variant.
But the CDC emphasizes that breakthrough infections are still uncommon.
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WASHINGTON — Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., are leading an effort to convince the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to provide penalty relief for taxpayers amid what they describe as the "extensive" and "ongoing" processing backlogs at the... Read More
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HARRISBURG, Pa. – A Pennsylvania court struck down Act 77, the state's election reform law that permitted no-excuse mail-in voting in the last presidential election, saying the state Constitution requires voters to cast ballots in person unless they meet specific requirements. The ruling was 3-2, with... Read More
Federal Court Tosses Alabama Congressional Map on Grounds it Disadvantaged Blacks
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden asked Congress Thursday to revive chances for the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of... Read More
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text:
Q: neomodel unable to match record i am using neomodel==4.0.1 on python 3.8
i have structurednode name store with integerproperty code when i search store with get method it is not able to find any match
StoreNodeDoesNotExist
----> 1 StoreNode.nodes.get(code='23416')

app/.env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/neomodel/match.py in get(self, lazy, **kwargs)
    605             raise MultipleNodesReturned(repr(kwargs))
    606         elif not result:
--> 607             raise self.source_class.DoesNotExist(repr(kwargs))
    608         else:
    609             return result[0]

StoreNodeDoesNotExist: (StoreNodeDoesNotExist(...), "{'code': '23416'}")

or
StoreNodeDoesNotExist
----> 1 StoreNode.nodes.get(code=23416)

app/.env/lib/python3.8/site-packages/neomodel/match.py in get(self, lazy, **kwargs)
    605             raise MultipleNodesReturned(repr(kwargs))
    606         elif not result:
--> 607             raise self.source_class.DoesNotExist(repr(kwargs))
    608         else:
    609             return result[0]

StoreNodeDoesNotExist: (StoreNodeDoesNotExist(...), "{'code': 23416}")

on the other hand if i run cypher it matchs
In [9]: results, columns = db.cypher_query("MATCH (n:StoreNode{code:'23416'}) return n;",)

In [10]: [StoreNode.inflate(row[0]) for row in results]
Out[10]: [<StoreNode: {'created_on': datetime.datetime(2020, 11, 17, 7, 31, 49, 262277, tzinfo=<UTC>), 'modified_on': None, 'delivery_status': None, 'name': 'Ll Shop (23416) ', 'code': 23416, 'id': 145798}>]

can someone explain the reason and how to correct my former neomodel query?

A: You have to pass code as an integer not a string:
StoreNode.nodes.get(code=23416)

A: setting property code to integer solved the problem.
It raised because I had code as integer property while during bulk insertion i set its value in string.
I need to add a schema check on csv upload code.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text: La terza stagione della serie televisiva Der Winzerkönig è stata trasmessa in anteprima in Austria da ORF 2 tra il 20 maggio 2010 e il 12 agosto 2010.