Each writer has his or her own process, but discovering that process can take time. In the early phases, an excess of solitude can lead to a lack of accountability, and a lot of WIPs simply stay that way. The rise of online writing communities has made it far easier to avoid this trap. If you can't find a critique partner or a workshop in your area, then you can certainly find structure and feedback online. But this also means knowing which voices to honor and which to reject. Online or offline, it's important to respect criticism and the realities of the market while at the same time preserving the integrity of your work and your voice.
First, let's make one rule clear: An agent or an editor should never be the first person (other than you) to see your manuscript. When you've worked on a project for a long time, the story lives in your head as much as it does on the page. You need fresh eyes to catch small things like typos and gaps in information, and larger things like problems in pacing or failed emotional beats.
Sometimes you can sidestep this problem by working with writers outside of your genre. You may also get some surprising perspectives on your work. I have a television writer and an academic in my arsenal of beta readers and sometimes they nudge me in unexpected directions.
There are also plenty of people who don't write, but who make great readers. They simply get the fundamentals of story and know how to suss out the weaknesses and strengths of your work. This might be a freelance editor that you hire or the friend who always comes out of a movie saying things like, "It dragged in the second act" or "I just couldn't sympathize with the heroine after she ate that puppy." As long as your readers can articulate what worked or didn't in your manuscript, you're set. But "I liked it" or "I hated it" aren't going to do you much good.
I'm going to address this to YA readers and writers, but it's really applicable to any genre. A reader who doesn't read a lot of YA can still be an asset — provided he or she understands what you're trying to accomplish and can appreciate your work for what it is. But if the reader hates romance or coming of age stories or only reads memoirs or hard sci fi, you'll probably end up with a critique of your genre as opposed to a critique of your work.
Still, it's wise to be a bit wary when you get deep into the YA world. People who write YA and write about YA tend to have very strong opinions about YA. (I know because I'm one of them.) The problem arises when we start to get dogmatic in these views: I hate gorgeous heroines! I'm sick of love triangles! I'm tired of dual POV! Sometimes, as readers, we react to the mere existence of a trope, and we dismiss the way that trope is being used or approached. I hear these statements from writers all the time, and I've made them myself. But when we get or give critiques, it's important to draw a line between personal preferences and narrative merit.
Similarly, I'd like to offer a word of caution regarding broad pronouncements about the YA market. If you chase trends, you will always find yourself a step behind. Be aware of the market. Understand that if you're pitching a vampire urban fantasy, you better have one hell of a fresh hook. Just remember that no one knows what the next big thing will be.
The value of the feedback you get from your readers is somewhat determined by how you approach them and how you treat their criticism.
The I'm Stuck Read: You know there are problems with a major element of the story (the big battle scene, the love interest, the overall structure, etc.), but you don't know how to resolve them.
The Line Edit: You're done with the story and don't intend to make fundamental changes. You want your reader to identify typos, grammatical errors, awkward language, word repetition.
The release of information in a story can be one of the thorniest things for a writer to manage. This is particularly true when it comes to complicated plotting or world building. Once readers have seen your story, they can't unsee it. They will never have the experience of bringing truly fresh eyes to the work again, so try to keep a reader or two in reserve. These readers haven't had you bounce ideas off of them. They've never seen an early draft. They're the closest you will get to the way an agent or editor will approach your work.
Listen quietly and don't get defensive.
Once you've selected your readers, it's your job to respect their feedback. Don't just react or dismiss. Give each note its due. Let the ideas sit for a while before you decide whether or not to take them to heart. Have faith in your ability to address the difficult or frustrating critiques. You chose these people. You let them in. Trusting them is just another way of showing that you trust yourself.
Editor's note: Much of the old conferences' material has sadly faded from the internet, so we're bringing back the greatest hits! This post (originally from AUGUST 14, 2012) is one in a series of best events from previous years. Enjoy!


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HomeEducationMerely building extra classrooms and dormitories is not only the solution to the double track-African Education Watch to Ges
Merely building extra classrooms and dormitories is not only the solution to the double track-African Education Watch to Ges
By Admin February 22, 2021 Education, Local News, Pre-Tertiary 0 Comments
The Executive director of African Education Watch, Kofi Asare says, the expansion of infrastructure in Senior High Schools (SHS) will not completely solve the population issue associated with the double-track system.
Speaking on the AM show, Monday, he indicated that if the distribution of students through the computerised system does not tally with the expanded infrastructure, the issue will still continue.
An "equitable" system of distributing students, he says, has an enormous role to play in eradicating the shift systems in secondary schools.
Explaining this, he said, "merely building extra classrooms and dormitories is not only the solution to the double track. It actually dwells on expanding infrastructure and facilitating a more equitable distribution of student so that every expanded infrastructure is optimized other than that, we will have pressure on grade A and B schools which may lead to the congestion that moved us to double track."
"The distribution of student through the computerized School system is what will provide the assurance of the efficient use of these spaces created," Kofi Asare added.
His comment comes after the Ghana Education Service (GES) announced the cancellation of the Double Track System starting with the first and final year students of SHS.
Meanwhile, the double-track system will still be applicable to SHS 2 students.
The introduction of the double-track system by the Akufo-Addo government was greeted with several criticisms by Ghanaians calling for the cancellation of the policy.
Speaking to Joynews the Director-General of the GES Prof Kwasi Amankwah stated that the decision to implement a double-track system was a result of infrastructural deficit in various schools in Ghana. This he said has been resolved, thus, the need to scratch out the policy.
READ: Congratulations NTC Registrar for commencing teacher license Registration- Mr. Kofi Asare
However, Mr Kofi Asare argued that if government does not intervene in the computerized school placement, the issue of congestion will still persist.
"At a point, if that intervention is not done, no matter the level of infrastructural expansion, we will always have underutilized infrastructure in some schools and have oversubscribed infrastructure in the first and second class schools."
Tags:African Education Watch, Double track system, Kofi Asare
Teachers should go and do galamsay to survive – GES
Teachers do not work more to demand more pay, the contact hours is still the same-GES
Admission status of St. Theresa's College 2021/22.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The creation of the Newham Business Improvement District was the culmination of several years of campaigning by the businesses based at Newham in Truro to improve the infrastucture and visibility of their commercial area.
The project started life as the Newham Improvement Project, culminating in the formation of the BID where all of the companies in the specified BID area contribute a portion of their business rates into central funds. These are used on specified and agreed improvements such as tidying communal areas, grounds upkeep and grass cutting, signage, CCTV, marketing, website and even lobbying for road improvements.
Creative Edge have been involved from the initial project planning and fundraising stages of the initiative through to the design and build of the NIP website and marketing materials.
"The team at Vitamin Cornwall (Creative Edge) have put together a very striking website for Newham & Port of Truro which highlights the calibre and variety of businesses located here. The site also promotes Newham as a great place to work, visit and invest, all of which is great for business. Newham BID will be using this new website as the launch pad for a whole series of marketing led campaigns and initiatives in the coming months so the great work that Creative Edge have done will stand us in good stead for the future."


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Since her untimely death in 1889, Ellen Liddy Watson, dubbed Cattle Kate by local papers of the time, has been tangled in a web of rumors, mystery and all-out lies.
Considered an outlaw by most accounts, Watson and her husband were brutally hung by vigilante neighbors near their Wyoming homestead on the grounds of cattle rustling.
Albert Bothwell, the ringleader responsible for their unjust murders, was acquitted of his crime following a wave of mysterious deaths and disappearances of all known witnesses. His deep pockets helped sway local papers, who painted the couple as swindlers and thieves. This description sadly lasted well into the twentieth century.
Perhaps the most frustrating element of the story is how honest, vigorous and strong the real Cattle Kate was. A frontiers-woman who made her way homesteading across the Midwest, Watson built herself into a successful entrepreneur and cattle woman on her own dime. Her unavenged execution stands as a reminder that not all bad guys "get it" in the end, and that evil can–and will–go unpunished.


After developing chronic lower back pain in his early 40s, David had little to guide him and no idea if it was to be a curse for life or if he would get better.
Cath, a Masters Race Walker, was worried she'd have to give up the sport she loved after a recurrent hip injury. Here is how PSM got her back on her feet.
Thanks to the team at PSM Caroline's goals of winning the first All England titles in ladies singles & ladies doubles became reality.
After an accident on her bike Fritha compressed a nerve in her spine and was in unimaginable pain..


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Yellen and an all-star, bipartisan coalition pitch carbon tax
Group including economists and former cabinet officials say a carbon tax is a market-based solution to climate change
Janet Yellen testifying before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in 2017 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
By Elvina Nawaguna
Posted February 13, 2020 at 5:00pm
Clarified, Feb. 18 | A bipartisan group of economists and former Cabinet officials, including former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and former Secretary of State James Baker, continued their push for a carbon tax Thursday, which they contend would halve emissions by 2035 and give families more money.
The group, the Climate Leadership Council, whose founders include Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP, suggests a gradually rising carbon tax starting at $40 per ton as an alternative to federal regulations to control climate change.
Yellen said such a plan would replace the need for "cumbersome and less efficient" federal regulations
"Such mandates can be expensive for businesses to implement and can be replaced by a market-friendly solution," she said. "This plan will spur, not impede growth."
The plan is not new and has proven politically difficult in Congress. Although Republicans are critical of federal regulations as a way to control carbon emissions, they're also wary of levying a new tax, which critics say would raise energy costs for consumers. Republicans, led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., have introduced a resolution (H.Con.Res.41) condemning a carbon tax as "detrimental" to the U.S. economy.
[Young Republicans push party to act on climate change]
The Climate Leadership Council asserts the plan would not add financial burdens to the public and that money generated from the carbon tax would be returned to Americans, with a family of four receiving an estimated $2,000 a year.
"Because the plan is revenue neutral, it doesn't require expanded public expenditures and it doesn't balloon the deficit," Yellen said.
If implemented in 2021, the plan would cut carbon emissions by half by 2035 from 2005 levels, its authors say.
"Climate change is already undermining the economy, it's already increasing poverty and it's hurting the poor the most … so we need some pretty radical changes," World Resources Institute CEO Andrew Steer said.
The group first unveiled this plan in 2018 and reiterated it last year. This year, it added a component that Chairman and CEO Ted Halstead said would assure environmentalists that a carbon tax can work.
Tracking progress
The "Emissions Assurance Mechanism" would require a periodical review of how much emissions the carbon tax is helping cut. If it's not meeting the 50 percent reduction goals, the price would go up faster from the initially suggested 5 percent above annual inflation to 7.5 percent above inflation.
"We think it's very unlikely that would be necessary," Halstead told reporters Thursday.
The group is a broad coalition of economists, corporations and former government officials from Republican and Democratic administrations.
The plan has the support of 3,500 economists and companies, including Vistra Energy President and CEO Curt Morgan, who participated in the call Thursday.
Morgan said a carbon tax "levels the playing field" without singling out industries or subsidizing others, and would spur industry-led innovation.
The group also proposes a border carbon adjustment system — which would levy a fee on imports made in foreign factories that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide — as a way to protect the competitiveness of U.S. products. That idea has also been floated by 2020 presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Members of the council have met the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus to sell their idea. A carbon tax, however, would be a difficult sale in Congress, where bills such as legislation (S 1128) by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that include such a levy are languishing and Republicans are reluctant to be associated with a new tax.
"I don't believe that actually works," Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., told reporters on Wednesday when asked if House Republicans would include a carbon tax in the climate plans they're releasing. He said putting a price on carbon emissions would put U.S. energy exports at a competitive disadvantage.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has also dismissed the idea as "neither winning nor workable."
"Conservative solutions to address carbon dioxide emissions do exist," Barrasso wrote in a letter responding to an article written in January by Halstead and former Reagan administration Secretary of State George Shultz advocating a carbon tax. Instead, Barrasso said bipartisan agreement can be found in expanding clean-energy sources including nuclear power, developing carbon-capture-and-sequestration technologies and building smarter infrastructure. "The idea that Americans would get dividend checks from an insatiable federal government for collected carbon taxes is far-fetched."
The Climate Leadership Council members acknowledge the difficult path a carbon tax would face, and said they don't expect it to happen in this political cycle.
This article was revised to reflect that the Climate Leadership Council's carbon tax plan calls for increasing the tax by 7.5 percent above inflation if the initial rate of increase did not meet its carbon-reduction goals.


I went to Florida Quitters because it was highlighted so that Ralph1955 might be able to find some people who are quitting and live close to him. I saw this comment and I decided to copy and paste it here because it really is incredibly interesting.
Makes perfect sense And in language I can understand rather than medical stuff! Nice.
I agree, I think this was an amazing comment and I was so happy to sort of stumble upon it so I could share it.
Wow, science is awesome! Thanks for this!
This IS awesome info! Thank you my friend!
I'm so glad you pulled that out to bring it to new light!!!! Great stuff to know.
Very good info - Thanks for find this and sharing Ellen!
Awesome! fiordelano has made an impact 5+ years later! And that, my friends, is why we felt so strongly about preserving the things that were posted in the past and not just getting rid of things when we moved. Thanks for sharing this past content elvan with the link(fiordelano (to scott17) →→5 years ago ←←) to it so others could see where it originally existed.
This one is destined for my Google bookmarks, Ellen. Thanks.


Wave [iii] has finished, so it's time to have wave [iv]. Nevertheless, there's an opportunity to have wave  of 5 afterwards. So, we should keep an eye on 6/8 MM Level as the next bullish target.
The price couldn't fixate above +1/8 MM Level, so we're likely going to have wave [iv] in the coming hours. The main intraday target is 7/8 MM Level.


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Brad Goreski... A Former Raver?
By Bonnie Datt Nov 26, 2012, 2:00pm EST
Share All sharing options for: Brad Goreski... A Former Raver?
Comedy writer Bonnie Datt once bought a chainmail vest "for clubbing"—a purchase she later came to lament, once she realized that chainmail wasn't particularly slimming. Inspired by this, she now spends her spare time asking famous people to dish about purchases which they initially loved—but ended up regretting, for Buyer's Remorse.
Brad Goreski first came to fame as a star of the reality show, The Rachel Zoe Project, where he worked as one of the famed celebrity stylist's assistants. After three seasons on the show, Brad went out on his own, both as a stylist, and as the star of his own show, Bravo's It's A Brad Brad World. Most recently, he's partnered with Kate Spade, even inspiring the brand's upcoming spring collection. So we were intrigued to find out what Brad had Buyer's Remorse about—and even more intrigued to learn that he used to be a raver...
Racked: Can you tell us about something you've had Buyer's Remorse about?
Brad Goreski: A pair of—they still have the price tags on them—it's a pair of Bottega Veneta over-sized denim with bright orange stitching on them. I thought I was in love with them and bought them in white and in dark denim and I've never worn them. Well I've worn them once. But it wasn't a really good look for me.
Racked: Why didn't you like them?
Brad Goreski: Because they reminded me of my raver days in a bad way. Remember those JNCO Jeans or whatever they were called? The big big ones? They looked like that. And they were a fortune.
· All Buyer's Remorse Posts [Racked]


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Alec Bathgate - Gold Lame
The title track to Alec Bathgate's first solo album ponders the peculiar trappings of fame: "50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong/I guess they knew it all along. If you want to be a star, go today/buy a suit of gold lamé." Well, it's unlikely that this particular Gold Lame outfit will turn Bathgate into a household name of Mr. Presley's stature. That said, this album is still pretty damned neat. This collection of three-minute '60s-inspired toe-tappers has a number of high points, including the backward-guitar-bedecked "Win Your Love," a cover of Leonard Dillon's reggae standard "Train to Skaville," and the garage-y sounding "Pet Hates" (which was actually recorded in Bathgate's garage; how's that for authenticity?). With 16 tracks, Gold Lame may overstay its welcome. Still, this Tall Dwarf's album is no small achievement.
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Do you consider yourself an expert on the subject of wine? If not, you need to read this article carefully. The better question is, "what are you hoping to learn?". Read on to learn more about this wonderful beverage.
If you are going to bring wine to a tailgate event, choose a bottle with a screw top. This option is far more casual and convenient; there is no need for a corkscrew, and the bottle can be opened quickly and easily between pours. They also re-seal with ease after the event is done, where a cork does not provide as secure a seal.
When shopping for a lightly flavored wine, don't judge your options solely on the color of the wine. There is as much alcohol in a red wine as a white. However, the white wines are often gentler on the palate and smoother in taste. Ask your local sommelier for advice on which labels are the best for your needs.
When you are going to be serving wine, you have to be sure that your stemware is right for that occasion. You need to have clean glasses to serve the wine in. If you have stemware that is chipped or outdated, invest in new pieces.
You can drink wine by itself or cook with it. Red wine and steak cook well together. White wine is great with any type of seafood dishes. Adding a little wine while cooking can really enhance the flavor of the dish you are preparing.
You should enjoy wine tasting in a serene and calm surrounding. If you want to capture the real flavor of wine, the ambiance should be soothing. Rowdy environments can be distracting and cause you to neglect the task of observing the wines.
When you are drinking wine at a party, there's a possibility others may like to propose a toast. This will result in the delightful tradition of clinking glasses. Incredibly, if your glass is not clinked properly, it can break, resulting in a big mess. When clinking your glass make sure that it is at an angle and the rim's faced away from the glass you are clinking with.
Do not suffocate your wine, as it needs air too. A carafe, decanter, or a large glass will work. Pour a little bit of the wine into your container. Let this wine sit for ten minutes. Next, taste the wine and also a sample directly from the wine bottle. You will notice a big difference in the taste between the two different types of containers.
Wine is great for relaxing or improving a meal. You can only benefit from knowing about wine. Keep this information handy, and use it the next time you are shopping for the perfect bottle of wine.


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« North Carolina House Casts Final Vote to Repeal RJA | Main | Commentary on Judge Jones' Ethics Complaint »
Continuing Coverage of Judge Jones' Ethics Complaint
The ethics complaint filed against 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones is available in Adobe .pdf format. Other documents filed with the complaint are also available from the Texas Tribune.
"Judge in hot water: Allegedly said minorities are prone to violence," is by Ben Brumfield and Marlei Martinez at CNN.
Civil rights groups filed a complaint this week against a federal judge in Houston after she allegedly said during a lecture that some minorities are prone to violence.
Judge Edith Jones, who serves on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was a Bush-era Supreme Court frontrunner, allegedly made the comment while speaking on the death penalty to The Federalist Society at the University of Pennsylvania in February.
Jones was on President George W. Bush's short list for the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, though legal observers remarked at the time that her reputation has a staunch conservative -- firmly upholding the death penalty and vocally critical of the Roe v. Wade decision, among other issues -- hurt her odds.
"The decision for which Judge Jones is really best known is her opinion saying, 'While I'm a lower court judge, I will apply Roe v. Wade, but I think it was wrongly decided and should be overruled,'" Supreme Court expert Tom Goldstein told CNN. "That really typifies her role as a lower court judge but signals what she would do if she became a Supreme Court justice."
Bloomberg News posts, "Texas Judge Accused of Misconduct for Remarks on Race," by Sophia Pearson.
Edith Hollan Jones, a federal appeals judge in Texas, is the subject of a judicial misconduct complaint from a coalition of civil rights groups over comments she made about race and the death penalty.
During a February event at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia, Jones said black and Hispanic people are "predisposed to crime" and "prone to commit acts of violence," according to the complaint filed in New Orleans by the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Austin, Texas, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Jones, 64, also allegedly said death sentences provide a positive service to capital defendants, who are likely to "make peace with God" when facing imminent execution. She said that capital defendants who raise claims of "mental retardation" abuse the system and that claims of racism, arbitrariness or innocence are "red herrings" used by death-penalty opponents, according to a copy of the filing supplied by the groups.
The complaint was filed with Chief Circuit Judge Carl Stewart, who must review it and decide whether it should be dismissed or referred to a special committee. Stewart may conduct a limited inquiry in determining what action should be taken under rules established by the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act.
John Council writes, "Complaint: Judge Edith Jones's Speech Showed 'Racial Bias'," for Texas Lawyer.
The complaint arises primarily from a lecture Jones gave on Feb. 20 entitled "Federal Death Penalty Review" at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
The complaint alleges Jones made the following points during her lecture:
• The U.S. system of justice provides a positive service to capital-case defendants by imposing a death sentence, because the defendants are likely to make peace with God only in the moment before imminent execution;
• Certain "racial groups like African Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime," and are "prone to commit acts of violence," and get involved in more violent and "heinous" crimes than people of other ethnicities;
• Claims of racism, innocence, arbitrariness and international standards are simply "red herrings" used by opponents of capital punishment; and
• Mexican nationals would prefer to be on death row in the United States rather than in prison in Mexico.
The complainants have been unable to locate a video or audio recording of Jones' lecture, says Chuck Herring, a partner in Austin's Herring & Irwin. Herring says he advised the Texas Civil Rights Project in drafting the complaint, in cooperation with other lawyers.
"Circuit Court Judge Edith Jones: How Can I Be Impartial When Everybody Knows Blahs And Browns Are Violent Thugs?" is the Wonkette post.
You guys, have we ever turned you on to Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones? We mean, have you ever really listened to her, man? She's a trip. Such big hits like "Scream At Fellow Judges During Oral Arguments," the evocative "Supreme Court is the Source of Moral Decay," the ear-worm "If You're Not Actually Raped No Way is it Sexual Harassment," and her biggest number to date: "It's Cool if Your Attorney Sleeps Through Your Trial Because Fuck You." All of these really pale in comparison to her latest work, though, which we're calling "Blacks and Hispanics, You So Criminal!"
"A Tale of Sound & Fury (But No Transcript): In Defense of Judge Edith Jones," is Tamara Tabo's Above the Law post.
Full disclosure before I go further: I interned with and clerked for Judge Jones. I didn't attend the event in Philadelphia, and I haven't spoken with her about this situation, but I don't claim to be a fully impartial observer. I could be the first among many to attest to her dignity, intellect, and impeccable ethical standards. I could even tell you how generous with her time and supportive she's been of my law school, a historically (and still predominantly) black institution.
But I don't need to do that.
I don't need to offer a character reference in order to rebut the accusations made in this complaint. I don't even need to contest many of the facts that the complaint alleges.
Earlier coverage of the ethics complaint begins at the link.
Thursday, 06 June 2013 at 02:27 PM in Capital Punishment, Fifth Circuit, Judiciary, Race | Permalink
Tags: 5th Circuit, Austin NAACP, James McCormack, Judge Carl Stewart, Judge Edith Jones, Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. Texas Civil Rights Project, League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC, mental retardation, Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, race, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit


Window glass have different sizes & thickness. DIY rule #1, always wear gloves & goggle. Use a tape measurer for measurements on glass replacement. Measure width x height. Do the same process for a glass door as you would for window glass. A glass replacement can be tempered, insulated, plate, laminated, or plexi. If insulated glass repair or glass door has grids, then thickness & color are important for glass replacement. Common residential glass repair & window installation are single or double hung & sliders. If glass is in little pieces, its tempered glass. Tempered glass serves many purposes. Most importantly tempered glass is stronger than plate. Tempered glass can be installed in a glass door as glass replacement. If door or window is tempered glass, it's durability against wind is better. Tempered Glass is also more expensive due to heating process.
For broken glass door and window glass repair estimates you can give us measurements for a glass repair or window glass replacement & we'll send an estimate within 24 hours. For tempered window glass & glass doors, measure the opening for an estimate on glass replacement. For emergency glass door or broken window repair we provide a 24 hour glass board-up service as temporary glass repair. We also provide estimates on replacement window installation for new construction homes.


28/01/2015 · But they do need to fit more snugly than your street shoes do. An American-made ballet shoe is typically one to two sizes smaller than a street shoe size, but for the truest sizing you should visit a dance store and have them fit you for shoes. how to make gif on gimp 2 Heel slip may be more present in shoes that have stiff soles as compared to shoes that have very pliable soles. Some soles start stiff and break in, others remain more rigid. As a result, heel slip may be alleviated once a sole has broken in. Just another minor point regarding fit to take into account.
It will feel snug, and you will not need to tighten laces to make the shoe fit further. After installing lace anchors, you just need to pull the laces once. The laces will not move after that, and this will avoid putting more tension on the top of your feet. how to say more than in french When trying on dance shoes , make sure to try on both the left and right shoe. Many people have one foot that's slightly bigger than the other, so it is important to make sure that both shoes fit right before you go dancing. Consider buying foam inner soles, which stabilize your foot inside the dance shoe. Shoes that stretch too much wear out more quickly.
For example, I like a racing/speedwork shoe to fit a bit snug (not tight or toe squeezing, but to hug my foot closely) and to be a bit stiff. For the rest of my runs I like to mix things up, but generally prefer a roomier fit. For all day, flat and wide all the way.
You can find a shoe made on a last that fits your foot very well for $150 and then a last for a $500 shoe that doesn't fit well at all. If you find a last(s) that fit you well, ask the brand(s) what other styles they make on that last and look to those for other options.


Crazy Days at the Library!
Crazy Days at the Stanley Public Library will be Friday, August 3 from 9 AM to 5 PM. Come and check out the great deals on books, movies, book bags and souvenir playing cards! Each child that visits the library that day will receive a free toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, courtesy of Delta Dental of Minnesota and their Inspiring Smile Power Initiative along with National Smile Month.


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How to Validate Your Business Idea in 3 Steps (The Right Way)
July 2, 2019 May 8, 2018 by Louis Grenier
How to validate your business idea, the right way? Marketers have become obsessed with conversion optimization over the last few years. We're trying to squeeze conversions out of each part of our website. But are we forgetting there's another human involved on the other side of the screen? We tackle that topic in today's episode with Josh Pigford, the founder of Baremetrics, a metrics and focusing tool for startups.
Josh shared with us his 3-step plan for starting a new business, including how to validate your business idea, where to find your first customers, and cold emailing in the marketing industry.
The unexpected reason why most new businesses won't become scalable
How to quickly generate a compelling business idea that attracts an audience
Why you shouldn't always listen to your customer feedback
What holds back aspiring entrepreneurs from achieving their goal
Where to find your target market in any industry
Why waiting list landing pages aren't the best validation for your product
The popular tactic that is ruining your sales email campaign
Why we should stop optimizing for conversion rates
What the most human marketing strategy is today
Baremetrics
Growth Hacking is Manipulation
Data Camp
Josh Pigford on Twitter: @shpigford
josh@baremetrics.com
Louis: Bonjour, bonjour and welcome to another episode of EveryoneHatesMarketers.com. The marketing podcast for marketers, founders and tech people who are just sick of shady, aggressive marketing. I'm your host Louis Grenier. When I started my consulting business around three years ago–and since then I've left this consulting business–but almost, I think four years ago, I got inspired by companies like Buffer and Baremetrics because they were bringing transparency to an entirely new level. Sharing their revenues, sharing their mistakes openly. Basically almost opening up to the public.
Louis: As a consequence of that, I think that all of those companies doing things transparently, Baremetrics is another one. I think they do good marketing which is really fucking impressive. My guest today, you might have guessed, he's the founder of Baremetrics. Which is a metrics and forecasting tool for small business. The interesting thing about the founder of Baremetrics is that he previously founded at least ten startups, at least that's what he documented. He has two other projects on the side. One of them is Rockburg, which is an online music industry simulation game and Cedar and Sail, which is a handmade homewares site. Like me, he also sings and like a lot of us, a lot of you listening he also thinks that growth hacking is mostly manipulation, so Josh Pigford welcome aboard.
Josh: Thanks for having me, Louis.
Louis: I'm going to start with the easiest question of the show, so how to launch a new business, let's play a game. We're going to try to simulate the situation where we are listener listening to this podcast. We're either a marketer or designer or developer. We'll decide what to do with this information, but we want to launch a new business. We have $1,000 available to us right now. We want to be profitable quickly enough. Maybe within six months, we want to start making enough money to cover a bit of a salary of some sort. Here's the caveat. We cannot use your name. You cannot use your network or what you've built so far in the last few years that you've been in the business. You really have to start from scratch anonymously. The big question is, how will you go about it?
Josh: Okay, I kind of feel like that was the case with Baremetrics but not totally. I think what it comes down to more than anything at all, as a baseline, you have to be solving a legit problem. Not just this, it's the whole everybody talks about are you selling pain pills or vitamins? You have to be solving something that's an actual pain and not just a nice-to-have. I think the nice-to-haves become a lot easier to sell when you do have a name or some sort of history or branding or whatever. If you're talking anonymously from scratch with zero budget, how do you get something out there? The baseline is you have to be solving a substantial problem.
Louis: Right, let me clarify just the terms you use because they are interesting. You talk about painkillers or vitamins, what do you mean by that?
Josh: Let me try and think of a real-world example here. Let's think in terms of selling something to other businesses. A vitamin would be something that the business does not need to function. It's things like updating social profile bios or something. Whatever, maybe there's some handy way to automatically update social profiles based on what you're doing or something, you could automate that. Whatever, that's not actually a problem, nobody has that problem really.
Josh: You could do it, technically, but you're going to have a hard time making anybody pay for that. Let's take the social thing further, you think of like, Buffer that you mentioned earlier. Okay, so they're solving a major pain of companies needing to have a presence on social media that they don't forget about and they're able to build up their social media following and keep adding value. That's a thing that people hire people to do full time. The social media marketer or whatever you want to call them. That thing, Buffer's tool, can potentially replace an employee or it's saving people lots of money or helping them make money so it's solving this major pain. It's like you have to think on a larger scale something that makes a bigger impact.
Josh: I think a lot of times the problem that new entrepreneurs have is they think that building some little tool means that they've got a business that they can scale and it's just not the case. You've got to build something that does something that substantially impacts the business.
Louis: Okay, so step one, we try to identify a pain, something that is actually really painful. Let's go through the process of potentially discovering problems around you that you might have a business about. It's not necessarily a new entrepreneur launching something new. It could be somebody in a company coming up with a feature idea or even a product idea based on pains, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be an Indie Hackers, per say.
Josh: Right, right.
Louis: How do you typically advise people how to go about this first step, to find out problems that are very painful?
Josh: I think the easiest way to find those problems is to experience them yourself. That's the long way to do it. People want this framework for finding pains. That can be a new entrepreneur or even within a company. What people think in their head is the easiest thing to do is to talk to some customers, ask the customers what they want and that just surfaced what they need to build and it's not. It's not the case at all. People are terrible at verbalizing what it is that they need.
Louis: I'm glad you say that I'm sorry to cut you, but I remember reading a blog post of it and I nearly sent you an email but I didn't. I'm glad we can have a discussion about this right now. Exactly as you say. For example in my job, in my daily job I do keep a note on my mac, with a smaller application notes, every time I go through a pain that I really can't solve, I couldn't find any tools doing it. And I just hired, let's say a freelancer to help us or we had to come up with a process and hack things together to make it work. I do keep notes of that. I probably have ten or twelve at this stage which is not huge right? Those are the small things that you pick up over time. As you said it takes time. But you pick them up and one day you find that this pain is something that you can actually solve right?
Josh: Totally and I think, the way that I do this or we do this at Baremetrics is we keep a running, we've got a document for basically every high-level feature in Baremetrics. There's a dozen of these documents. Any time a customer mentions something about wanting this thing added or this thing changed about whatever feature or they wish this feature could do that or this or whatever. We make a note of it and then we just sort of let it go. We don't take any action on it at the time other than making a note of it. Then what we can do from that is over time we revisit these documents as we work on the products. We work in like cycles so each cycle will revisit these documents and see if we can find some higher level commonalities amongst them.
Josh: We can say like okay, people are requesting features or changes X, Y, and Z but if we put these things together what they're really saying is they're having trouble doing this inside their business. We can group these things together and solve them by doing, building out whatever. I think listening to customers is obviously super important but you can't take things at face value. People will say if you just had this in the product then we would pay for it or we would stay a customer. Or we would be so happy. Whatever, that's typically not the case. There's typically a deeper problem that they're actually trying to get at. It's my job to figure out what it is that they're actually saying.
Louis: Right, and this is the point that I want to make. You're definitely right when you say when you ask people what they want, our customers what they want you're going in the wrong direction. We talked about this in this podcast a few times. It's not about trying to ask them what they want because as you said people are terrible at that. However, they are very, very good at explaining their problems and what they suffer from today. They are able to think about the past and what they've done and they are able to talk about the present. If you ask them about what you would like to have this is usually a question that will lead to terrible answers because people are very bad at planning ahead what they like to do. They can say, listen, I have this big pain doing this process. It takes me ages, it costs an arm and a leg. I really wish I could do that simpler manner. That usually leads to the right type of innovation.
Josh: Right and I think innovation is the key there. It's like there's that quote, I think it's Henry Ford or it might be misattributed, about if you asked people what they wanted a long time ago they would tell you they wanted a faster horse. It's like well, no the car solves the problem of getting somewhere faster but at that time the customers can't even imagine the concept of a car. It's your job to figure out what it is they actually want. Whether that's like they want to get to their destination faster, how do we get there faster? It doesn't mean take the current solution and make it better. It might mean innovating some entirely new thing that other people haven't done before.
Louis: Yeah actually Henry Ford never said this quote. I remember reading–
Josh: I feel like I had read that.
Louis: Everybody thinks that he did but he didn't.
Josh: Whatever.
Louis: The point of this quote is interesting because yeah if you ask what they want they can't really come up with a solution, but they are able to say well you know it takes me three fucking days to go from New York to Chicago–I wish I would go there faster. That might lead you to then think in your head in terms of the type of solution you can come up with. Let's go back to the small challenge I started with you and let's get a bit more specific. One of my big pain right now as a podcaster is that I really struggle to promote the podcasts outside of just interviewing guests and asking them to promote it for me, just to share it once.
Louis: I don't have time for it. I have a full-time job and therefore I really wish I could have a way to select the best bits of each episode and publish them on a recurring basis on like communities and all of that to keep promoting the podcast. It's beyond just Buffer, it's like selecting the right bits in the podcast, putting them in a nice visual format and then sharing them, not only on social media but also on maybe communities like Indie Hackers right? Let's say this is the pain we are trying to solve. What would be the step two after that?
Josh: Basically like you've built the thing and now what do we do about it?
Louis: Let's say that, let's say not necessarily we have built the thing but we are thinking about potentially solving this.
Josh: How do you validate it?
Louis: For example yes, that's up to you to come up with the step. But how do you validate it might be a very nice step too.
Josh: I think, say you've got this idea and you think that you're solving a pain. To me, this is the big difference between someone you would say has lots of great ideas and somebody who can actually execute on them. I think execution is ultimately the missing piece that separates say an entrepreneur from the cheesy wantrapreneuer the person who just wants to be an entrepreneur but they can't make anything happen. The difference is the ability to execute. To me there is no other real validation or the only next step after you think you've got this pain or are aware of this pain, it needs some sort of solution, is to just make the solution on a really basic level.
Josh: Otherwise you're stuck having these high-level conceptual conversations with people. Again, like we've just established people don't, they're terrible at knowing around the edges. It's not going to do all the things but on a base level, on as simple as possible, it's got to solve the problem. The only way you can validate that it can solve the problem is by offering the solution. Letting them see if it solves it.
Louis: If I'm a developer or designer with a bit of knowledge of like I can put something together that is quite online. I guess even if I'm a marketer or just someone who is looking to launch that what are the avenues there to hack a solution together, to put a solution together that might be a first version of a solution you're dreaming about?
Josh: Yeah, so I think people overthink this. Certainly with Baremetrics the first version, I can do all the thing. I built the entirely functioning first version of Baremetrics. I think best case is yes, you figure out how to code. That will always serve you well, for the rest of your career, having the ability to do some really basic coding will always be a good thing and you should do it. Now if you don't want to do that, fine. You can even use a tool like InVision or Web Flow or something like that.
Josh: If you can design something, a basic UI then you can fake interactions. I know in InVision, which we use this a lot for just internal product markups, Marvel is another one too. Where you can basically upload designs and then create these hot spots on the site where you click on this and it takes you to basically another image. You can basically hack together a fake app or product and show that to people or even let them click around on it and use that as a way to show off what you're trying to do or how you're trying to solve the problem.
Louis: That's a nice solution.
Josh: It's something tangible.
Louis: Yes, this why I wanted to go and you're right when you just speak to people in a very generic manner and you never show anything and you're like would you be interested possibly in a solution like I've just described?
Josh: Of course they say yes! You're like hey, so if there was this tool and it solved all of your problems would you pay for it? Yeah, of course. You can say anything you want, it doesn't matter. The other person can say anything they want because they haven't seen anything. They have no idea what you're actually talking about.
Louis: So we have grand available. Let's remember that just as a way to prioritize and focus, because we don't have a lot of money to play with, but this InVision access doesn't cost an arm and a leg and we can put a UI together that looks decent without overthinking it. Then you're say showing it to people. I know I can hear the listeners already asking, okay that's all well and good but how the fuck do I do that? Let's go into maybe step three which is, who do you find, how do you find those people to show this product to or this UI to or this hacked solution?
Josh: Sure, so that varies across industries. I think there's, let's say you're building something for gyms or something. If you're building something for somebody who owns a gym then you go to the gym and you talk to them. That's it, the end. Those scenarios or those sorts of people that exist in every industry. You just have to figure out. You can't just be like well my industry is the entire internet. No, it's not, that's your first problem, you're not focused enough. Figure out who your first customers are and it should be a very, very specific group of people.
Louis: How specific?
Josh: As specific as you can possibly get. For us, early on with Baremetrics, it was like, it was Stripe customers who were using the Stripe subscription API correctly. That cut out people who weren't using Stripe or who weren't using the Stripe API subscription API or they were using Brain Free, some other payment process. That cut out a lot of those people but let me focus on a specific group of people who I knew we could serve out of the box and didn't … I could have gone I guess a little bit further and been like only companies within the healthcare industry or something like that.
Josh: This was also four years ago–Stripe wasn't nearly as large and prolific as it is now. I think the more, you will have an easier time finding people who you can definitely solve a problem for if you have a very specific group of people. The more you branch out the more fragmented the feedback is going to be and the larger the scope of the problem is that you'll have to fix. Not that you won't get there one day but again you're not building what the product could be in like ten years. You're building something that you can do now, as quickly as possible for as little money as possible.
Louis: Right, and do you have an estimate of the amount of companies or potential companies that were within this group, this very specific group of people four years ago when you started Baremetrics?
Josh: It might have been like, I can't remember off the top of my head. It was probably a thousand or something like that. We were able to scale up as Stripe grew that made our target market get larger as well.
Louis: Yeah, and today you have integrations with Rick Hurley, Brain Free, a lot of other payments.
Josh: We have our own API, we don't even have to use those payment processes, there's lots of options.
Louis: There's always ways to expand but you need to start small with a tiny amount of people. How do you reach out to those people? You basically said don't be lazy or don't be afraid, get out of the building and just go talk to people?
Josh: Yup, if it's a physical location yes, go. I remember Patrick McKenzie, who works at Stripe now, talks about when he was building this product called Appointment Reminder which is for basically anybody who has clients who schedule time. Whether that's like a masseuse or a haircut or whatever. He went and basically walked into those stores cold and said, here's $50 for your time, can I spend 30 minutes or an hour with you talking about business problems or whatever? There's some of your thousand dollar budget. If you pay people for their time you're much more likely to get some feedback, good solid insight. Go do that for whatever industry you're targeting and just ask them to sit down to talk.
Louis: What do you talk about?
Josh: You're basically trying to figure out, you've got this hypothesis right? You've decided, here's a pain that I think exists among this type of business so let me go see if that's actually the case. So maybe you take in your mockups that you've got or take in an iPad to let them poke around on your hacked together thing. You say, "Hey, here's a problem that I think you might have at your business, could you tell me more about that?" If it is a problem they can ramble on for an hour about the problem that they've got. Then if you can be like, "Hey, here's what I think is a solution. Give it a try and let me know what you think." You could start getting sales that way, like right away.
Josh: You could be like hey, well we're going to launch this in the next three weeks, four weeks whatever, I'll give you a 50% off discount if you want to go ahead and sign up for the first month or something like that. Whatever, there's lots of ways you could even start getting money right away.
Louis: Probably it is the best way to validate your business idea and your first product is to ask for payment. You will see right away if people were bullshitting or not. If you ask them okay you like that, you have this pain, you said the solution was great, okay it's $50 a month, here's a credit card machine I brought with me, or whatever you come up with, let's do it. If they say, well no, this is probably a good way to dig into the well no and say okay why not?
Josh: I think landing pages like before you launch a product, landing pages are the most ridiculous thing. So many people think I'm going to put this landing page up to collect email address and then they're going to keep working on their product and then they keep sending people to the landing page that's kind of obscure, maybe shows a screenshot or two. They then associate, people dropping in an email address as validation for their product. Collecting email addresses isn't a bad thing but it's like using the collection of email addresses on a landing page before you launch and taking that as validation. Which is insane. There's zero validation. Like really, money is about the only way to validate something.
Louis: If you describe on your landing page the pain you're solving and you're showing a few screenshots and people leave their email if you do the right thing next, IE building the right product that you promised, it is likely that some of them will turn into customers no?
Josh: Sure, statistically yes. If you're using the landing page and the collection of email address and the quantity of email. Like I collected a thousand email addresses before I even had a product. Yes, that I think there's correlation but the mistake is assuming that it's causation. That the collection of these email addresses somehow proved that you're solving a real pain.
Louis: Right.
Josh: What happens, a lot of times people collect all these email addresses, then sure they get people to sign up for their free product and then those people never become paying customers and they're stumped because they weren't able to get any money off of it.
Louis: This is a nice, this is the right way to say it, exactly as you said. It's like, yes they can become like free users of your product but the leap between paying nothing and paying even $5 a month is actually much bigger than you think, the gap is huge.
Josh: Huge, yes. I think, but what happens is people associate a free sign up as a customer and they're not. They're very much not a customer at all. They're basically a lead to become a customer. In the same way that you can't associate collecting an email address on a landing page as being an actual customer like a free sign up after that is still not a customer. They're still just this different version of a lead to hopefully become a paying customer someday. They shouldn't have any impact on what the product is because they have nothing invested in it right? They're not actually using the product, your product doesn't solve a pain enough for them to pay for it. You still haven't validated anything.
Louis: Right, I remember reading in a Facebook group not that long ago a guy who pre launched a product and had a few hundreds of emails. He said I don't understand what's going on with my convert key, my email marketing platform. I sent this email to my people who said that they would be interested in this product. Only 20% or like 15% opened the email and I only got a few purchases. I think there is a bug with the email platform.
Josh: No bug.
Louis: No bug, that's how people think right? That's how people are, they truly don't give a shit about you.
Josh: Totally.
Louis: If you're asking them, as you said the only validation is money. If they are not paying for this thing then you haven't validated the product.
Louis: Right, let's move on from that because I think we've gone through a nice step-by-step and I think a lot of people will take away a few things. Even if they are working at a company that is much larger than just a one man or woman band because they can also apply those learnings when it comes to innovate and finding new products or new features. I want to go back to something that I found quite good. We even shared it within Hotjar, this article. You wrote an article in December called Growth Hacking is Manipulation.
Josh: Yeah.
Louis: I could have written it myself if I was a good writer. It was pretty impressive to see that we were sharing a lot of the same values. Can you maybe give me a summary of why you think this is the case?
Josh: The impotence of that article sort of stems from the unending onslaught of cold emails that I get from other companies who are doing this stuff in mass. They've got some list of SaaS founders or whatever. They just go and send out cold emails and replace a couple of variables in the email and try to schedule a phone call or something with me. Or it's like using Twitter to reach out. They're sending the same Twitter message to everybody they can get their hands on. That stuff drives me–it's the laziest thing. I can't think of anything more lazy from a marketing standpoint. It's all based around this faux interest in what I'm doing. A lot of times the emails, they're replacing the first sentence in the email with, "I saw this article that you wrote the other day and I loved it. Hey, do you want to hop on a phone call?" It's just so dumb and lazy. You're trying to act like we're buddies or something just so you can hop on a phone call. I'm not interested. That stuff drives me crazy because it's a daily thing, and it bothers me that anyone thinks that's a reliable, decent option for them. I could rant about that for days.
Louis: Let's do more of that. Cold emails is one of the examples you're using. You're telling this story, you were off for a few days and you looked at your emails and realized the sheer amount of such emails you were getting. By the way, I sent you a cold email to get you on this podcast.
Josh: Right. Well, it works sometimes but we had some sort of connection. We had talked previously about getting the CEO of Hotjar on the podcast. So it can work when it's not terrible.
Louis: Right, I wasn't asking to get on a call with you.
Josh: You weren't selling me anything!
Louis: Exactly, right but then you make the point in this article and that goes beyond cold emails and you talk about all of those quick wins or those shallow wins, can you tell me more about this?
Josh: Specifically, what do you mean?
Louis: Sorry, I'm being very generic right there. So you talk about the number of followers you have and the number of likes you get and the funnels–all of that are just numbers and just vanity right?
Josh: Sure, yep.
Louis: So many companies are just focusing on those quick wins instead of are we actually adding value to people's life? Are we actually adding value to a relationship? Apart from cold emails what are the other things in marketing that you think are just, we need to stop doing right now?
Josh: Oh, I think, really which just seems weird coming from a guy who runs a metrics company, for most people metrics are the wrong thing to optimize. People try to optimize the number itself, so things like the number of followers or the number of comments on a blog post or number of page views or whatever it is. Optimizing things like so much, and marketing obviously for measuring purposes revolves around conversion rates and things like that.
Josh: What happens is people start optimizing for conversion rates. That still kind of flows back to the cold email example where somebody is like well, 2% of cold emails convert into a paying customer. Yeah, but the other 98% hate your guts man. You can't just optimize for this single number. I think that's probably even the bigger point when I mention the vanity thing. So many numbers in and of themselves are just vanity and don't actually mean anything. When you start optimizing for the number itself instead of optimizing for the goal of whoever you're trying to serve.
Josh: It will always, it always ends up being this race to the bottom of like how can I increase conversion rates of this popup or increase conversion rates from the responses on these emails or whatever it is. The more you optimize for the conversion rate or the number the more you just keep hammering a way to optimize that and you've lost focus of the fact that there's a human on the other side of that number.
Louis: Yeah, and this is an interesting thing because when you focus on numbers too much like this, as you said 2% and 98%, you need to think of those 98% of people as you said who hate your guts. In the long term, this is very bad for business.
Josh: Right.
Louis: It destroys the trust that you have, that people have in you and in the long term that could kill you because trust is the only currency that I believe can work in the long term in marketing. If people stop trusting you one by one your market is decreasing.
Josh: It goes away. That's the thing, I get these cold emails. Like if you cold email me trying to sell me something like a product and you're asking me to hop on a phone call, my response is to block that domain. You won't ever email me again. I won't ever see it, that's the end of the relationship if you cold email me trying to sell me something. There's tons of people that do that because everybody is sick of getting those kinds of emails. The pay off long term, it's just not there.
Louis: Right, so two questions then, first, I'm going to start with one, how do you convince people who are still using these type of tactics to maybe try something new? How do you convince them that this might also lead to more value, more money for them in the long term if they do that?
Josh: How do I convince them? I guess me writing about it is sort of like me trying to convince them about it. For the reasons that we've laid out, the downsides like yes, maybe you can increase some obscure number but there's an inverse too of that. The other side of that number actually may be causing more harm in the long run than not.
Louis: What should we do then? We know we shouldn't really optimize conversions and we know we should focus on helping users reach their goals and people to reach their goals and build relationships but tactically speaking what are the marketing activities or things you've done in the past that really seem to go hand in hand with this philosophy?
Josh: I think it comes down to being, like a helpful resource to people. For us, the way that we tackle that would be the content marketing stuff. Writing about what's working or what's not working at Baremetrics, the stuff that we're struggling with as we grow a business. That's marketing, we're writing this stuff for people who we want to be our customers but even if you never contact our sales team, you never sign up for a free trial, never have any actual interaction with the business outside of this article, you've still gained some value. Even if you'd never become a customer you might still share that article with someone else who could become a customer.
Josh: The positive sort of branding that comes from that of like man, Baremetrics is just–the people there are so helpful. You talk to your friends and other founders about that stuff. It's all these really intangible things which annoy any kind of marketing person to no end because you can't measure that stuff. It's like trying to measure attribution when someone signs up. In reality, there are a thousand different things that play into someone signing up for something but we want so desperately to attach it to, someone read this article and then they signed up. We sent them an email and then they signed up. But there's no direct correlation. The path to signing up is all over the place. I think you just, you have to look at the bigger picture and try to just offer value.
Louis: This is why I think that word of mouth as a channel, considering word of mouth as a channel is completely bull shit. It's the number one thing that people do. They talk to each other. If you have the product then yes, word of mouth happen but you can't optimize for it, it just optimizes or it doesn't.
Josh: Yes, it's not a channel, it's this high-level thing that exists.
Louis: Exactly, it's normal relationships between people.
Louis: I'm glad you said all of that because content marketing, in particular, is very shiny and word of the minute and everybody is using it and all of that. I think deep down the reason why content marketing works and writing content or publishing content. I mean, when I say good content I mean good content, helpful content. It works because it just builds trust over time and people have the liberty to consume it or not. They have the liberty to stop listening to a podcast or not or keep listening to it. Over time it builds relationships. It's not new, the Michelin guide for restaurants started more than a 100 years ago as a small brochure that they were giving for free to cyclists. That was content marketing. It's just building trust and helping people.
Josh: Yeah, I think the frustrating part when anybody says like, content marketing is such a slow thing. It takes a long time. You're playing the long game with that. It can take six, twelve months or longer before you really start seeing any benefits from it. It's one of these things that keep giving back for years. Then not even just because this article can keep getting read or serviced in a search engine or whatever but using the content for other forms of content. Turning some article into a podcast or turning an article into a white paper. There's just a thousand different ways you can use content to be helpful to people but it's really hard to measure. I think a lot of people don't, they avoid it because of that.
Louis: It's almost a good sign. When things take so long but are almost guaranteed to work if you do it right. I would say it's a good sign that you're actually building trust over time and that it needs to grow on its own. This conversation right now we are having Josh is a testament to this. I started reading your articles, I started to follow what you've been doing for the last four years I think. I said that at the very start of the conversation before the podcast interview started that I feel like I know you very well. Obviously, you don't know me, but I know you very well because of this, right? That creates the trust and I feel I can trust you even if it's the first time I'm talking to you.
Josh: That's exactly right. That's been intentional but also not the motivation behind it. So many people were helpful to me, pre-Baremetrics that it only made sense to keep helping other people and it so happens that that works pretty well from a marketing standpoint too. I don't know that content marketing will, obviously any kind of channel will work for one person but not for the other. I think for us it's been sort of a natural way for us to do marketing.
Louis: Right, you're pretty opinionated right? You have a strong point of view on a lot of things. I'm wondering where is that coming from? Is there a particular event in your life that you can pinpoint that made you who you are today? Somebody who is quite vocal about all these issues?
Josh: I don't know, I've just been doing it long enough. I started building software or little businesses and stuff for the past 15 plus years. I think over time I've just picked up a lot of thoughts and insights on things and have opinions of just because something is shiny it doesn't mean that it actually works. I think that just comes from…I don't want to say the word experience, that assumes that I've arrived or something. I think it just comes a lot from doing things. I think that's a huge problem with new entrepreneurs is like they just don't know any better, like they haven't ever tried anything before.
Josh: It's easy to read an article that tells you to do something and then be like okay cool, it worked for them so it will work for me. It's like no, that's not how it works. So much of building a business is trying something and it completely failing and so then you adjust and try something else. Business is just a series of trying and failing over and over again for years on end. Most people aren't willing to stick it out long enough to eventually figure out something.
Josh: They want to read an article that tells them what to do or they want to be able to use some piece of software that changes their business. It just doesn't work that way. I think it's just been lots of me trying stuff and knowing that certain things work and certain things don't.
Louis: Do you have entrepreneurs in your family? Have you been inspired by any?
Josh: I don't know that I've got, my dad's an engineer, my mom, stay at home mom for years. I don't have any direct entrepreneurs. I think where I come from is like, a lot of people in my family are what I would describe as a maker. They're really good at just figuring things out or hacking things together or having an idea and making it become a reality. That was part of my childhood from the start. That is what is instilled in me as like the ability to have an idea and make it happen. I think for whatever reason I've got this entrepreneurial gene or bug that I can attach to that. A core level it's more like, I love just making things become a reality out of nothing. It's sort of my thing. I just enjoy that.
Louis: What do you think marketers should learn today that will help them in the next ten years, twenty years or fifty years?
Josh: I think they need to learn how to step back, it's the stuff that we've been talking about, step back and look at the bigger picture, have a much higher level view on things to not dig down and get obsessed with numbers but instead look at what the long-term effect of something is and understand that there's much more at play then a single metric to optimize for.
Louis: Linked to this answer then, what would be the top three resources you would recommend listeners around this topic perhaps?
Josh: Resources? Can I have an anti-resource? I almost, which doesn't necessarily fit having a podcast here, I think most people should stop looking for resources and instead just start taking action on stuff. Maybe a resource would be like learn how to program. If you're a marketer who can build stuff, pretty great combo. Go figure out how to make stuff.
Louis: You must know a few resources for that. What would be resources to learn how to program and code?
Josh: There's a bunch of them. It could be anything from like Tree House is really great for really basics of programming stuff. Then think of, when I say programming or building stuff that may not be like build a website. That may instead by like learn more about data science so you can build some sort of, do stuff with machine learning and be able to take large amounts of data and find real insights from it. There's a site called Data Camp that is great for teaching you how to do machine learning and statistical programming and things like that to build data models and all sorts of stuff around business. I think any time that you can take something and turn it into something else, something more valuable, anything around that as far as resources goes is pretty solid.
Louis: Josh, you've been a pleasure to talk to, thank you so much for going through this exercise of step by step to build a new business and all of the questions after that. Where can listeners connect with you and learn more from you?
Josh: Yeah, on Twitter @shpigford that's S-H-P-I-G-F-O-R-D or shoot me an email josh@baremetrics.com, I'm happy to chat anytime.
Louis: But make sure it's not a cold email.
Josh: Don't try to sell me something, dang it.
Louis: Do not, not even a coat or anything, fuck that shit, all right? All right Josh, thank you.
Josh: Thanks for having me.
How to Tell Better Stories With Data
How to Build a Growth Marketing Team (The Non-Sleazy Way)


text:
Smash & Grab: Hands On With The Swindle
Stefan L 06/03/15 1 Comment
Depending on how you play it, The Swindle can very quickly turn into a game that would be better called The Smash & Grab, as you crash, bash and explode your way through the houses of the rich and well-off to steal as much of their cash as you dare.
Derring-do is at the heart of how the game plays, your thief dropping from an airship that hangs in the sky above rickety tiled roofs of this loosely Steampunk version of 1849 London, crashing into the ground outside a vacant house. The human occupants might be away, but the procedurally generated houses are bound to be swarming with sweeping security cameras, patrolling robot guards, spikes, mines and plenty more for you to contend with.
As a consequence, this game is hard. Even overlooking the fact that I was coming to the game without gradually building up my arsenal of tools, and my general inexperience, it took a lot of concerted effort and just a dab of luck to manage to finally finish a level. Sometimes I timed bursting through a door wrong and was spotted as I knocked out the guards, other times it was bumbling into mines, and sometimes I just misjudged what I could get away with. In the end I did manage to finish a level, but only by the skin of my teeth.
I was forewarned of this difficulty though, and as the game's creator Dan Marshall, of Size Five Games, explained to me some of the abilities and equipment I would have with me, he also added that "The point of The Swindle is that it's a hard game. It's a game in which you die a lot, and it's kind of like Spelunky or OlliOlli or Super Meat Boy, where you die and you start again and start again."
But the beauty of it is that rather than giving you set objectives to reach and steal, your only goal is to grab as much of the cash that is in the house and escape. It's either in its physical form or in much larger sums on computer terminals within the house, with a frantic little QTE battle spicing up the hacking beyond just waiting for the progress bar to fill up. You can steal as much or as little as you want before trying to escape, and knowing when you're getting in too deep is the key to your success.
"It's the antithesis of stealth games, right?" Dan said, sharing some of his many ruminations on the genre. "Stealth games say, 'Here's six ways into a building and here's your tools and go,' and you're basically going through the motions that the designer wants you to go through. Whereas what the Swindle does is it generates a building and it puts a load of baddies in that building, and it's up to you which upgrades – whether you're going to focus on hacking and stealth or bombs and weapons and all that sort of stuff."
"As a designer, I'm basically saying for you to go at it your own way. There might be rooms that are impossible for you, but it's your choice as to whether you decide to take that risk and take that gamble or not."
There are plenty of ways to get into a building then, whether it's strolling through the front door, crashing through windows or using explosives to blow through walls. Thankfully, the robot guards in the earliest of areas aren't the brightest in the business, with their simple lines of sight clearly marked for you to see and avoid as best you can, and their obviousness to nearby bombs. Bopping them on the back of the head knocks them out, but stray into view and all the enemies are alerted, with the money available to steal from the computers siphoned away to safety.
Oh, and the coppers will eventually show up too, flooding the house with even more robots to avoid as you frantically scramble to get out of the house in time and back to your pod. Get bonked on the head yourself, or shot up by one of the fuzz in a minigun-laden hovercraft of sorts, and it's game over for your thief.
Or at least it's game over for this particular thief. You see, you're actually quite safely ensconced in your airship, getting thieves to head out and do your bidding. The cash that they do bring back is spent on buying them new equipment and abilities, from double jumping to hanging off walls, remotely detonating mines, hacking drones to work alongside you and the excellently named Steam Purge, which embroils you in a cloud of steam, making you impossible to detect by the robots. Switching between gadgets – all quite cutely labelled as .exe applications – brings up a nice little radial menu as time slows to the crawl in the background.
And you'll come to need every trick that you can stuff up your sleeve, as more advanced guards start to be used and houses become more and more labyrinthine. In fact, their layouts never really make sense – you certainly wouldn't want to live in anything designed like these – with oddly shaped rooms, long vertical shafts where you can slowly slide down the walls, as well as the aforementioned security situation. It's all procedurally generated in a rather freeform fashion each time you load in a new house.
There's even the possibility for the game to create something that's impossible to beat, to which Dan simply says, "Yeah, but I love that. That's amazing. That's so much more interesting to me!" He did, of course, clarify to say that "as long as the impossibility of the room feels like your fault for going after them rather than my fault for making them, I think that's fine. And it's not like anything's truly impossible because when you get spotted it just means the amount of cash available in that building is slowly going down."
Just as a caught thief disappears for all time, you will never see the same house again. You can't even try and restart a level, so you will see a lot of very different houses over the course of your time with the game, as you unlock access to new areas of London's airspace and try to stop the police putting an end to all crimes in the city.
It's hardly the most important aspect of the game, but there is a loose and somewhat humorous justification to your crime spree. However, Dan said, "I took the plot out, because it's not that game. Originally it had an involved story and characters and voice actors and all that sort of stuff, but I pulled it all out."
What's left behind is a loose and somewhat humorous justification for your crime spree. "You're a sort of master thief," he revealed, "and the idea is that you play as you in your airship and these generated thieves are sort of your employees. The idea is that Scotland Yard have announced that in 100 days, they're going to be plugging in an all seeing AI – a sort of Steampunk skull thing – that is going to have total surveillance over all of London. That's going to basically ruin your career as a master thief, and if they turn it on, you're going to have to find gainful employment. So your plan is to steal it before they can turn it on."
Setting the controller down, it felt to me that there was a hint of some other games like Gunpoint and Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine in certain aspects of the gameplay and parts of the visual style, even. As ever, trying to boil a game down to such simplistic comparisons is somewhat unfair, and especially so when Dan explained that he had deliberately avoided playing those two games.
"I haven't played either of them," he said. "Basically, I'm waiting; I will play Gunpoint when this is done. I announced The Swindle in 2010, which massively predates Gunpoint. […] They're not similar games at all, but they are 2D games with a building and two sides of the building are breakable.
"But I've seen people playing Gunpoint and I've seen the trailer for Gunpoint and the only thing I took from it was that I want to make it more satisfying to smash through windows than Gunpoint. A little bit of slow mo, a lot of glass shattering, and I think I've done that. That was the one thing from Gunpoint that I was like, 'I'm going to do that better than you, Tom Francis!'"
And it is very satisfying to have those explosions and window shattering moments punctuated by slow motion effects. It helps to add a little extra spice to the game's presentation, but it's really the gameplay that shines, with the freedom to tackle a building how you see fit, in a compulsive loop of trial and error. The kinds of terrible situations and madcap escapades are always your own fault, though.
"There's a moment of greed," Dan said, "when your standing in the middle of the level you've got ten grand, and you just think, 'I could just get that…'"
Tags: The Swindle
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bunimomike	 06/03/15, 11:29
I like the look of this, fella. Hope we get to know more about it or see a review (when the time comes). :-)
Comments are now closed for this post.


text:
module TrackingConcern
  extend ActiveSupport::Concerns

  def tracking_send_mail( model, action, options)
    options[:cookies] = cookies[:tracking_history]
    model.send(action, options).deliver_now
  end

  def tracking_history
    star_cookies_history = cookies[:tracking_history] ? true : false
    if trackable?
      cookies_tracking_history.push(referer_full_url) if cookies_tracking_history.empty?
      cookies_tracking_history.push(original_path)
      set_tracking_history

      store_tracking(star_cookies_history)
    end
  end

  def trackable?
    !request.path.start_with?("/admin")
  end

  def cookies_tracking_history
    return @cookies_tracking_history if @cookies_tracking_history.present?
    @cookies_tracking_history = cookies[:tracking_history] ? cookies[:tracking_history].split(",") : []
  end

  def original_path
    date_time = DateTime.now.strftime("%a %b %d %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")
    date_time + " | " + request.original_url
  end

  def referer_full_url
    request.referer.present? ? "Referrer URL: " + request.referer : "Referrer URL: "
  end

  def set_tracking_history
    cookies[:tracking_history] = cookies_tracking_history.join(',')
  end

  def store_tracking(star_cookies_history)
    user_email = nil
    if has_devise?
      if send(current_model_devise).present?
        user_email = send(current_model_devise).email
      end
    end
    if star_cookies_history
      tracking = Tracking.where(ip_address: request.remote_ip, user_email: user_email).order(id: :desc).first_or_initialize
    else
      tracking = Tracking.new
    end
    tracking.history = cookies[:tracking_history]
    tracking.ip_address = request.remote_ip
    tracking.user_email = user_email
    tracking.save
  end

  def has_devise?
    TrackingFwz.model_devise.present?
  end

  def current_model_devise
    "current_#{TrackingFwz.model_devise}"
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Real Deal on NFL Football Helmets
The NFL is perhaps the most cherished games in the USA. In any case, there is a gear which is frequently underestimated in spite of its significance to the game. Individuals and football fans regularly imagine that this thing is only a simple embellishment helping make their football players look true and no-nonsense activity pressed while out there on the field. What numerous individuals don't understand is exactly how imperative this specific football frill plays while lashed onto a player's head.
NFL football caps are vital. Without it, players can't play and will absolutely not be permitted to play on field. American football is a profoundly physical game which no one can anticipate except for the actual players. What's more, these players can just anticipate the result of a game while every one of them are nevertheless seconds from scrambling to make an ideal score. NFL football protective caps resemble the genuine article with regards to football. With the entirety of the handles which should be confronted and avoided, each football player's security depends on the cap ensuring their heads.
This is additionally the motivation behind why NFL football caps are made with such relentless plans. A few players and groups even request that their protective caps be redone. Despite the fact that it is viewed as vital, NFL football protective caps can't contain an excess of highlights which can negatively affect the head protector's weight. All things considered, the player should have the option to wear it all through the length of a play without hardly lifting a finger. It doesn't help that another superfluous inconvenience will be added while a player focuses on the game's play.
As you might see, NFL football caps look unpredictable and they at times appear to be profoundly unique from other football protective caps. แทงบอล 24 ชม By and large, you will see that jaw lashes are produced using unquestionably the best quality materials. Jaw lashes are produced using materials which will truly hold the cap set up. Now and then, NFL football caps likewise come as of now with its own mouth piece despite the fact that isn't actually needed. The best in class plans of these protective caps truly makes it one of a kind and assists it with standing apart from the remainder of the group.
As incredible as these protective caps appear to be, it additionally expects upkeep to guarantee that it will consistently be fit as a fiddle. Head protectors, even the ones being utilized in NFL games, can go through mileage if not appropriately tended to. This is the reason one a few levels it very well may be viewed as that these specific kinds of head protector are to some degree high support by their own doing. Generally, reconditioning is important to ensure that these caps are kept fit paying little mind to what games in expected to journey through.
Aside from reconditioning, these head protectors likewise go through a particular sanitizer technique so they can be kept up with spotless as usual. All things considered, head protectors additionally get filthy while on field. All that combination of sweat and mud is certainly something each player won't be psyched to encounter in each game. In this way, shower cleaners and other protective cap arrangements are utilized for sterilization.
Football Drills – Football Tackling, Practice, Hand Offs and Ball Handling
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This cannot be limited to one factor; however the earlier theory suggested that it could be a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors. One theory was that several serial killers had an extra "Y" chromosome which would explain the phenomenon; however no serial killer DNA marker or gene has been identified. (Freeman, Shanna. 2007).
Even after years of studies, interviews, and team efforts, serial killers are a strange phenomenon that is not fully explained. There is no formula that exists that tells us exactly the cause and how to prevent, find, and stop them. There are still many unanswered questions that we are left in attempt to fathom what possesses an individual to commit serial murder. In relation to the cause, most serial killers are men. In fact less than 10 percent are female, however in the 1500's Elizabeth Bathory aka "The Bloody Countess" she murdered over 600 virgins. In fact, the woman vampire in Bram Stoker's fifth book was influenced by Bathory. Female serial killers normally do not use the same level of violence or torture that a man will ascend to, however poison is the chosen favorite to kill family, friends, or patients. (Schultz, L. 2010).
Another one of the causes is a "psychopathic personality disorder", which shows absolutely no empathy for their victims, or the family and friends for their loss. They are commonly referred to as psychopaths, and are also pathological liars. Unfortunately there is no successful treatment which includes rehabilitation. John Gacy was a father and head of a family, well liked, and knew famous political candidates. When they discovered that he had buried over 33 bodies of boys in his basement, he responded without remorse, "I should never have been convicted of anything more than running a cemetery without a license." (Martin, 2004).
Serial killers usually try to explain the reasons why, or suggest that there is an explanation for the horrible crime. However, with that follows the loss of accountability that serial killers feel and portray to the world, in addition to their lack of responsibility in their behavior. Ted Bundy tried to explain the reason why he started by saying, "I don't know why it started. I don't have any definite answers on that myself. If I knew the true, real reasons why all this started, before it ever did, I wouldn't probably have done any of it." (Keppel, 1995). Ted Bundy has been considered as one of the most prolific serial killers in the USA, which confessed to over 30 murders in 12 states. However many experts believe it is possible that he murdered more than 300 females. (Schultz, 2010).


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