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Do we all need to personal brand? Is personal branding important for everyone? What are common mistakes people often make with their personal branding?
On this week's #MarketingBuzzword Podcast, Ben M Roberts speaks to Brian Fanzo about 'Personal Branding'. As always the aim of the podcast is to debunk, demystify and bring back some meaning to the marketing buzzword.
Brian Fanzo talks fast and tweets faster. A proud, pager-wearing millennial, he is a keynote speaker and founder/CEO of iSocialFanz LLC, a social strategy consulting agency. Brian also co-hosts SMACtalk Podcast & FOMOFanz Podcast.
Brian's #ThinkLikeAFan philosophy has powered first-of-their-kind storytelling campaigns for many Fortune 50 enterprise companies leveraging Periscope, Snapchat, and Facebook Live under the username @iSocialFanz. He was awarded the Top 25 Social Business Leaders of 2014 by The Economist Intelligence Unit and was nominated for the first ever #ShortyAwards Periscoper Of The Year 2016.
You can find a full transcript of the conversation between Ben and Brian below, but before that I want to let you know that The Marketing Buzzword Podcast is now powered by Talkative. Talkative is a company that brings live chat, voice calls, video calls and co-browsing together, in one package. This allows you and your business to truly engage with your customers, offer quick and effective resolutions to questions and improve the customer experience. You can find out more at Talkative.uk
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Enough small talk . . . let's talk "Personal Branding"
Personal Branding Interview with Brian Fanzo and Ben M Roberts
Ben Roberts: [00:00:00] Hi Brian and welcome to the podcast.
Brian Fanzo: [00:00:03] Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. I feel like I just left you in San Diego so excited to be connecting via audio on me now.
Ben Roberts: [00:00:09] I know is what we did now. I used You connected to you for mean in real life oh my god you were an actual real person and then you go back to a condition that is like what is the real Brian Fanzo are.
Brian Fanzo: [00:00:21] Yeah. I had it's the power of social and reverse and in all directions right so I think is the fun part where you know someone via online you get off line you know increase that relationship and when you're online it's kind of rock n roll and it's as if you're long term best friends.
Ben Roberts: [00:00:38] Exactly. like you'd never be in a way that's healthy and that's not what about us waiting. Actually we need to say we needs to go to a conference actually just meet and the people you speak to on line honestly do it the best thing you've ever done. But anyway was sort of silly trucking of it awful you want day because you all the perfect guy to talk to me about personal branding. I think you've absolutely nailed the last couple of years. So I thought look if I can get someone to talk about it it's going to be Brian Fanzo. So Brian, personal branding, everyone seems to be doing it now. Why is it important?
Brian Fanzo: [00:01:22] Well. I guess the first way I start that off is like the idea just the terminology. I wish we could change like this these the words branding makes me feel like creepy. It's like way I'm branding myself or and I think this is a the reason I think it's starting to take off are more people just understanding what the underlying element of it means. And I like to think of it this way as you know your first impression in 2018 and beyond no longer happens off line. Like even if you're meeting someone at a coffee or you connect with somebody at an event more or likely if you have 2 minutes on a walk over to meet somebody you're looking at them on LinkedIn or you're going to their Web site or you're googling their name. And so for me you know the idea where we used to invest in our first impression the clothes we wear our business cards maybe even our opening line or our elevator pitch. Those are all things that you know are very important for business for sales for marketing for networking as a whole and now in the digital world you have to be able to do that online. And even if you're going to have a handshake with somebody more or likely they've done their research and so the question becomes what have they found. Is it you telling your story or are you letting someone else tell the story for you. And so I think really what first personal branding is it's now understanding that digital no matter how you meet somebody is how you will get your first impression. So the question becomes how do you make that first impression ultimately you? How do you scale that first impression? And then to me I think one of the hardest pieces of it is how do you be consistent with that first impression. And I know for me in 2013 it was actually November of 2013 I decided to commit to telling my story and I can say my mom was kind of the reason my mom was like Brian you know I know you're playing in the digital marketing space and she's like but just remember like what you were never the smartest kid in school you were never the kid that knew more than everybody else you were never the kid that wanted to feel smarter and everybody else but you always were yourself you understood what you did well you understood who you were what you were about you know. Hence why I wear a backwards hat and I wear my crimson shoes. That's not me trying to be different. It's actually me allowing myself to be myself online. And so November 2013 I less than 2000 followers on social you know it's not directly about the numbers. You know and then you fast forward 5 years later or even less than 5 years I guess 4 and a half years later you know and I have over a quarter million followers on social I have two podcasts. I get to speak around the world. And for me it was less about branding myself which I sometimes think about putting something out there that's not us but it was more about finding unique ways to tell my story and then doing it in the most consistent way possible. So like you know if you look me up on LinkedIn or you go to my website you follow me on Twitter or maybe you watch a video on YouTube. My goal is that the impression that you get of me isn't the same ballpark right. Either you want to learn more you understand what I'm basically about and I think ultimately that's what personal branding is. And I think the digital generation people under the age of 38 years old or 36 years old today. Really get that. But I would argue that the groups that are older than that probably understand the value of it more. They do struggle on how to do it in the digital world. And I get to work with executives that have amazing stories. They've run a hundred million dollar businesses and they run these charities but yet when they come online they sound like a robot or they're just as if they're not themselves and so I think personal branding is going to continue to grow. I think the idea of being a little more transparent a little more vulnerable will be something we're going to see emerge in this space. But you know it's far from there. Everyone doesn't have a personal brand yet but it's definitely way different than it was in 2013 when I kind of started kind of exploring my own personal brand.
Ben Roberts: [00:04:48] A new so many need to you go my sign ups as in my brain. Oh for hearing the one set and I think there's talk about in the first things you said that which is so poignant to me and this is exactly why I said of this podcast and it's about actually it's the turn there's no brand new there's terms and phrase and buzzwords out there. And people use and they don't actually they say personal branding. Actually they don't necessarily understand what it means and it's easy when you said again it's about you being you and actually whether that's a brand or not is to be debated. But it's about how you come across and how you go and you become vulnerable and actually how you show people who you are. And I think it's an incredible thing and that's why I have that you love and I really want to get you to come on to talk about this is how personal branding is in this necessary you go out and see I'm going to personally brand myself. I'm going to put my mark on the world on what to teach people about this. I want to show people this and if people like me great. They may follow me and they may when we speak then they may want me to hear more and read more my blogs or listen to my podcasts. And it's great. And so refreshing to hear that point of view.
Brian Fanzo: [00:06:08] No. Thank you. And I think you know part of it is and this is probably you know some of the advice I get when I'm talking to people is you know if you don't know what your own story is it's hard to create a personal brand. I think a lot of people struggle with that. You know I always tell people you know ask your best friend and your worst enemy. What they think about you or what you do or who you represent. But taking it a step further you know I think the hard part with online and this is just the world we lived in for the last 9 or 10 years is that we always thought of online. Okay. What do we need to put out there that other people want to hear about us? And I actually think that's the wrong way of doing it. I think what we have to switch that mindset and say I'm going to tell my story about who I am what I do and then how that relates with people is ultimately where we start building the business on front of that right. So I don't think of what I'm building a personal brand you know even working with an executive that wants to you know grow a book and they want to take off their speaking career. But the last part of that is the monetization the speaking career you know how do I write content that solves someone's problem. But I think that started off with you have to start not only telling people who you are but here's the here's the crazy part. Nobody cares what you do if you don't start talking about what you do online. You fall into the great abyss of everyone else. But people care about why you do what you do how it impacts your life and then ultimately how it's going to impact the reader. And so every time I'm telling my story I think of it as saying OK you know hey I went to this event and I got to speak there for 5 years. That's what I did. And that sounds like bragging but if I talk about it and say hey these are the things that I did this is why I did it. These were my goals that allowed me to achieve this. All of a sudden I bring people along with me on the journey and I'm not telling people I'm better than them. Ultimately I'm allowing them to learn from me. And alongside of me and this is the difference between getting people to celebrate your wins versus people that are either jealous or feel like you're just bragging. And it's a hard balance. Trust me I think it's something I think it's something that most people struggle with. I would even argue some people that write books on personal branding right now get that part wrong and they kind of teach people to talk about you know you know I said this tagline says if you're not your own biggest cheerleader why would someone else be your own biggest cheerleader? But being a cheerleader doesn't mean that I just you know promote myself and bang my you know my fist on my chest. Tone ultimately that cheerleader is there to support you in the good times and bad right. You have to be able to just share that across the board. And I think we're still going to get to this world where people that have really good personal brands today but they're not truly authentic and are not transparent and they only talk about their big wins and their only focus on success. I believe they're going to get exposed. I think they're going to have massive issues in the next couple of years because people don't believe anyone's perfect. People don't believe that you only have wins and success. The question becomes are you confident enough to talk about more than just your wins and success? And that's a vulnerable area that I love exploring with people but it's not easy and it's something way different. So like if your audience is listening and you're hearing there's like wait a second this is different than I've ever heard before. Well guess what. 2018 is way different in the last 9 years. The last 9 years we've thought about digital and social media and our personal brand is how do we scale? How do we get away from the human condition? And I will argue my favorite compliment to get when I speak and I meet people offline like we just met this past week at social marketing world. My favorite compromise is when someone says Brian you're the exact same person online as you are offline. To me that's better than you're saying I have a great keynote speaker. Hey you have a lot of followers. Hey you're influential to me that magic is being that exact person online and offline because that's why social media and personal branding and content creation. Is it hard for me because I don't have to fake it. I don't have to be something I'm not. And that's a massive jump and I'll tell you what the first 2 years I did this personal branding thing. I did not have that feeling when people met me offline like I didn't know that about you. Hey you're much you know more laid back here or hey I didn't know you liked wearing a hat or whatever that might be. And now it's you know it's something that's ingrained. I want people to feel like wow that is the same person that I've engaged with I've emailed West. I've had calls with. And I think that's where the magic is truly impersonal.
Ben Robets: [00:09:57] Yeah. I can't agree more is about consistency. That vulnerability that be able to be you can't there are no places to hide in the digital world as you said early one. Whenever I've gone to meet someone for a coffee even at the conference even different places I've always gotten like a new social media marketing Woodys as an example. They do meet and eat. You just meet random people for dinner. I knew before every single one I still who is signed up. I know I had a look online and I had a look at who they were what they did. So I just knew their face and say well I knew so much about some people before I even met them and other people
Brian Fanzo: [00::10:33] Yup.
Ben Roberts: [00:10:34] I knew absolutely nothing about into all and call much better with the people or an idea about before because I saw ok the way they talk about this stuff this is the stuff that they're interested in. And too that's a pool you can build someone online like we have and then you go and put it into a physical space and suddenly a relationship develops so much quicker and so much deeper. And it's incredible that people don't quite realize that actually the way you are online dictates how some of the conversations offline and how people betray you are offline is
Brian Fanzo: [00:11:06] Without question. And I think that you know like that to me you know I actually even have a podcast episodes I believe it's episode 21 of my podcast where I talk about networking hacks and strategic business development off line. And when I break down with people on issues like pick 10 people at an event that you want to meet with. Do your research and write down what was their most recent blog post. What was the last event they attended. What is something that they posted on social media that they really cared about right there in your notes field. And so when you meet with them it's not hey how are you doing or what's new with you. It's you're able to show them that you care before you meet with them and that is magic. And I love hearing that you did that because that is also how you stand out especially like a huge event like we were just at. It gets really hard to stand out but if you if you're able to look at this and kind of do some of these strategic things out up front especially if the personal brands are there at the event it can be magic. Now I can tell you I've done or attempted to do that at a government event with this health care event that I'm speaking at. That's a lot harder because a lot of them haven't embraced personal branding yet. So the only thing they have online is like some old resume from like 10 years ago. But for the most part a lot of events. Now you can really take advantage of that across the board.
Ben Roberts: [00:12:12] And that's one of the things isn't it. It's when you go to a conference of any size and size and shape it doesn't matter what it is. It's actually an enormous actually the bigger ones. It's even easier sorry to feel isolated like you don't know because everyone's having these conversations actually being able to have those 1 2 3 bits that people could know about you. Andalus 1 2 3 things that people you can find out about other people means actually look you develop those relationships. But there is one thing I do have a concern about Brian and maybe isn't maybe the wrong word but it's about going life okay. And I know you're a huge fan of going live and there are so many of the people there are doing an absolutely incredible job with going live but it might have a bit of a worry and my worry is this. It's like with content marketing. It started off with people start putting out so many blogs all the time and we start getting what they were Mark Shafer coined as content shock when there was so much content out there. I'm starting to look through my Facebook feed and I'm starting to see so many Live videos so many live streams people talking about this now or neither. Have you got a concern with people are almost putting too much out there on life and actually maybe the quality is being looted which actually may have an impact on people's personal brands. What are your thoughts around so maybe going life too much and showing too much and actually the quality not being there or am I just being a bit the cynic?
Brian Fanzo: [00:13:54] No. No I mean it's a reason of concern and I think my I believe if you're providing value and you have a reason to go live nobody will ever say you're doing that too much but if you are just going live because you know I don't believe in going live 5 times a week right if you don't have things to talk about and 5 times a week don't go live 5 times a week. The cause the thing about this that's interesting and I like the way you pose the question is that you won't know what is too much until you push the limit. Because live video especially by video is brand new for people. And you know I hate the question when someone's like well what's the best time to go live or how long should my live sessions be them. My answer is pretty simple like the best time is when it's good for you and your audience might be there. The length of it should be as long as you're providing value when you're engaged and people are listening. Keep going but as soon as you're done as soon as you're checking out you'll get the hell off respect people's time and I think about respecting people's news feed and everything I do every post every time I share something I think to myself OK in my overwhelming them what my overdoing because like I look at things like social and what social equity means to me is that if I provide you so much value with free content over and over and over again that OK I've built up some equity that whenever I ask you do hey share this out or can I get a comment or do you fill out this form. You know that's tapping into that social equity that I've built out. So there is a thing is too much. There's also there's a difference between oversharing and transparency. Most people look at the two as the same oversharing as just sharing everything just being a you know barfing out every single thing that comes out of your mouth right. Transparency is allowing people a window into seeing who you are and being transparent doesn't mean you share everything but it also means that you're willing to share things that maybe you hadn't shared in the past. Right. I think the thing that I do the things that I can do to answer this question one of them is everything I do has a strategy before I click the button. I think OK who am I doing a live video for? What does the outcome of this long video? How long do I plan on doing the video? You know what's the total length that I plan on doing it? And then ultimately what is my end goal with this piece of product? Maybe it's a live podcast maybe the video I want to download the live one and put it up on YouTube whatever that may be I think about that ahead of time. And the second part is I do a risk versus reward matrix. And so what I talk about as I say OK I'm going to share that I have A.D.H.D and I was diagnosed at 31 years old. OK. What is the risk of me sharing this information about myself? And then what is the reward of sharing this information that maybe most people are not willing to share. And if the rewards outweigh the risks I pressed the button. If the risks outweigh the rewards I re-examine. If it's valuable sharing but to kind of bring this full circle. We live in a world right now where live video is still brand new and you know my tagline is pretty simple press the damn button and press the damn button. The reason I say that is I preach that perfection is a fairytale and people. OK I agree. I don't have to be perfect. I say controls an illusion you can't control what happens and what people say and people like. Okay I agree but then they don't do the next step and you won't figure out if you know nobody is good on video the first time or the hundredth time you have to continue to press the button you have continue to try things out and I know I be amazed. I didn't realize that the content that I create now my podcast if you'd asked me 2 years ago if I was giving marketing and social media advice at 30 minute clips I would say No way. But what I did was I went on my live video and started doing that I start to realize that's what people resonate the most with me. That's the stuff they cared about. They liked the motivational and inspirational content behind digital marketing but I didn't figure that out until I started going live online video. And so I think live video we're still in this world where you know just because it's live doesn't mean it doesn't have to have a strategy behind it. And the reason video is so powerful is because anyone can do it. The reason most live videos suck is because anyone can do it and most people don't have a strategy so I challenge the notion that if you are doing it a lot and you're not getting feedback from people like ask people hey am I doing this too much or how often would you like me to go live. But I would rather see people go live to often than not go live at all I guess is my stance on the matter.
Ben Roberts: [00:17:48] I actually I've love that in the fact it's exactly what you stand for. If you're doing what you stand for and you are building up that reputation that consistency you've got a plan and a strategy behind whatever you do. Again if you if we still using that term personal branding with my own. If you listen to the podcast over and over again my inverted commas. No one can see which are really poisonous. In fact if you've got a stra- upon the strategy behind it and you'll getting the feedback then you actually getting a result out of it that you want. If you were sold if you will outcome of it is to get people to know you feed it more speaking gigs to help people. If whatever you want to get out of if you've got a plan and strategy that and you're being consistent. It's what you stand for and your message is the point that you want to get across. Then maybe you're doing it right all the long you don't have to sort overcomplicate things.
Brian Fanzo: [00:18:47 Without question. And I think that's not only not overcomplicate things but you know it for me in this world you know. Everyone changes. Life changes everything we do changes and so now it has to come back with a come back and start asking ourselves things like Okay well now if I have change have I started to tell people what I do differently. I've started to change my mind messaging have I done a good job of telling my story and maybe your answer is you don't know the answer to that question and that's perfectly fine. The best way to figure that question out is to get online video because live video is raw and real people expect for you to not be perfect. They'll ask you questions while you're live. And to me that's the magic of life. And you can start answering some of these questions that maybe traditionally you don't know the answer too. By simply just using live to be your testbed of doing that.
Ben Roberts: [00:19:31] Again that rule vulnerability actually it helps expose that you are a real person and real people don't know everything but real people have real opinions and they like the fact that they can also question you can come back to them within an instant. I mean is nothing more frustrating sometimes and seeing a company and again your message him. And you don't hear back from ages it's frustrating because if you ask the question you won't a damn answer actually online video allow you to give that answer straight away.
Brian Fanzo: [00:20:00] No I couldn't agree more. I think that's beyond important.
Ben Roberts: [00:20:03] Exactly. And then one of the things that I've seen a lot with personal branding and with people are saying you need to be doing more personal branding will help with the work. What I'm seeing sometimes is that people seem to almost have a conflict between building a personal brand and actually what the workplace wants. So all see them the brand should be good for the work. But some people seem to almost struggle with that balance. What's a good voice do you have on people to struggling to find the balance between building a personal brand and actually leveraging it for the purposes of either getting more sales that work building awareness of the company with that product or simply just because they want to do them and they want to be able to do some personal stuff in work time.
Brian Fanzo: [00:20:51] So you know there's no easy button putting a relationship takes time and if you're not willing to invest the time upfront and you're looking for shortcuts to build these relationships you might find some shortcuts you might you know might be drop by an email newsletter list or you might be able to buy followers. Like I can tell you what that short term win will crush your long term success. And so I look at it as saying hey you have to invest in other people first before anyone is going to care about you. And if you haven't been online you have been doing that. You have to start doing it now and it now that doesn't mean that everything you do is for free and that doesn't mean everything you do is you know actually just kind of fluffy and just putting it out there. But for me when I look at monetizing and it is this is a good example is a podcasting right. Podcasting is an amazing medium. I think the medium is only going to grow from here but it's been around for 9 years or so. But one of the rules of podcasting that most people don't realize is that you don't get rich quick and it takes a while to build an audience. Podcasting is a word of mouth game but something that I believe in is that you know once you reach a hundred episodes of your show then you've established a baseline you've figured out and proven that you're willing to be consistent. Now you can go get sponsors and so like even my podcast former fans like I created my episodes are numbered in a 3 number sequence. So like later on today I'm recording episode 066 so sixty six. And the reason I use 3 numbers is because it was my commitment to my audience that said before I even worry about a sponsor before I worry about monetizing this for my business. I'm going to give you 100 episodes. I make that promise. And for me promising my audience that and then delivering it. When I hey I want to monetize this or hey I want to use. I want you guys to buy something. They already know that I committed to something and delivered that asked me very easy and so for people that are out there you know it picks it's baby steps right. Start doing you know if you don't have a Web site so start thinking about a Website if you know maybe it's not just google your name and figure out what comes up first and whatever comes up on that first page if you're linked in profile go up to the Eglington profile because my guess is the last time you updated LinkedIn profile was last time you were looking for a job because the majority of people get linked in but certainly like start with those baby steps with those kind of things where you can start getting the groundswell going and then worry about the bigger picture and I the other lesson I have here is that this is a big mistake and I'm writing about this in my book and this is something I really I think when you're when you're thinking about creating content most people say OK I want to create content. Where does my audience. What type of content is my audience listen to or watch or consume. And I think it's the wrong mindset because if you start creating trying to create something that is outside of your norm outside of what you're comfortable with the only thing you'll do is never actually create the content because you'll be overwhelmed. Oh I'm not good on video but I know my audience loves video starting to create video. Then you'll just keep making these excuses. So my recommendation to everybody is figure out what you like doing best yourself first. If it's writing create a blog. If it's audio create a podcast. If it's video create video. If it's kind of like Hey I like video but I don't like editing. Do a live video if you like creating graphics. You know credit Instagram account if you like making slides could SlideShare account. I don't care what it is. Pick something that you love doing first. Start being consistent start creating that content there and then the second piece of content you create is where your audience is at. Because once you get in that flow once you start documenting things then it becomes easier to create content outside of your norm. I can tell you if I wasn't doing wasn't all in on Twitter and I wasn't hosting a show on Google Plus when I was I would have never embraced live video because live video scared the crap out of me. But for me I was creating it where I was home which was this Google Plus show that I did for 2 years and I loved tweeting. It fits my model of talking fast and just getting things out there. And so for me I did those first two things where I preferred to be and then live video came out I was like oh my audience is really gonna like this. And I jumped all in. I've done over 2000 live Videos myself now but I can tell you it took me about a thousand live videos before I got to truly truly comfortable and okay with how I looked how I sounded what my what I was talking about. And I think that's the magic is starting where your most comfortable and then the second place is going where they're most comfortable. Most people do that in reverse and the crazy part thing is they never get hearted and they can't figure out why.
Ben Roberts: [00:24:50] I love the anoxia I'm quite relieved to hear that exact source what the podcast first because I've done it before. It's what I like. The first time I did it I hated the sound of my voice. I hated the way I did. You know and it grew on me. You know I became a love podcasting. Unfortunately that podcast stopped and also you know what I actually inlove I've come up with an idea and I'm just going to go and embrace it now because this is where uncomfortable. I'm tweeting a lot stuff. And now actually eventually once I get more consistent and the more episode and then you go off into so the video series potential book all these different things but again I can't agree more in terms of look! own space that you'll more comfortably create something that you stand for and then eventually it's almost like you're going to build people are going to tune up things you've got to be able to be consistent be regular and be good essentially be good for you but be good for other people in terms of creating content that they won't need or desire
Brian Fanzo: [00:25:54] Without question. And that's the magic right the magic ends up coming into our fact when you're young because you don't know what people want you don't understand how all these things kind of play well together until you start doing it out there and nobody believes you're going to be consistent. Consistency is hard to actually execute but if you're able to prove it first and say hey I want you guys to listen to this show I'm launching a new show and I'm going to be really consistent on it. That's where people start to go. OK we'll always listen to you now. Like I you know it's acting like we don't trust anybody until I prove it to us. And if you're able to prove it to us first then that's where we go from there.
Ben Roberts: [00:26:30] And that's why I actually think when I started this podcast I said no way I'm going to do a couple of episodes weekly and I'm going to go to by weekly and then I was like you know what I'm gonna get the consistency and I'm going to prove it to people there it's going to be done absolutely every single week every single Monday. This podcast will come out for at least 100 episodes. Again that's my minimum goal. Exactly like yours there will be a hundred Mondays in a row. You're going to get an episode of the marketing buzzword podcast right into your podcast listening up and again you've got to be able to make those commitments and eventually pay. Like you said I'm not going to get rich quick off this I'm at the thousands thousands. I've been so thankful. I've had people like yourself come on. And the more I follow the base has grown substantially and I've been so excited but again I've still got so much more to prove in terms of that consistency and being able to almost at social proof that look! You aren't just going to be one of those people that comes up and disappears and I've seen so many of those podcasts like where it's up for 10 episodes and then you had never hear from them again. You are
Brian Fanzo: [00:27:40] Yup.
Ben Roberts: [00:27:40] consistent for two months and then they disappear for a month back for two weeks and they disappear again. No good. No good.
Brian Fanzo: [00:27:40] Yeah. Here's the data to back that up. The average podcast lasts 7 episodes. The average podcast in iTunes Dies After 7 episodes because it sounds easy everybody wants to do it but it's hard to be consistent it's hard to keep going back it's even hard after you have a like a couple of weeks down to kind of get back in the groove. But the people that are willing to do that to do the hard stuff to kind of take it to the next level are the ones who get rewarded. And just because the average one you know ends after 7 episodes to me that's motivation to make 100 episodes or 700 episodes. Because if the bar keeps getting lower like that you've got to keep pushing that up.
Ben Roberts: [00:28:30] Yeah. Exactly. Oh I didn't fail. I didn't know the next stamps. I'm already smashing it than it sounds. But on this comes I think we have 14 or 17 things as we see smashy we double the average yes.
Brian Fanzo: [00:28:44] There you go.
Ben Roberts: [00:28:45] No. Brilliant. Thanks so much. So coming on to sort of talk about that but before I let you go I want to sort of ask. I want to talk to you about sort of your former brands. Your former podcast and solve your book coming out can sort of talk to the guys this thing about everything that you are doing in terms of your personal brand and how you're being consistent on that as a great example of personal branding with the inverted commas.
Brian Fanzo: [00:29:16] Sure. So you know so I social fans a letter I and with a zero Zed at the end is my brand right so I am the founder of the company. But you know it's my Twitter account every single channel. There's a social media channel out there. I can promise you if you look up I Social Fanz you'll find me. And so I preach consistency. My website is isocialfanz.com. My Twitter account is isocialfans. So I'm all about you know that consistency that's where my. That's a kind of like the foundation of my personal brand. And then I kind of branched off there. I'm a tech geek so I host a podcast called Smack Talk which is cohosted with my old business partner and we talked about social mobility analytics and clouds that's one podcast. And then the other one is called Fomo Fanz which has kind of been the one that's kind taken off the most and for the longest time I wanted to help people embrace Fomo with the fear of missing out. I wanted them to live on the bleeding edge like me. And then I realized as I was trying to help people do that but not everyone likes that element of researching new technologies and kicking new tires and all that stuff. So rather than me having to try to force people to do something that they don't like. I flipped the script and my goal is to cure your fear of missing out around digital marketing every week. So my podcast every single week is about 30 to 35 minutes long. I recorded live on Facebook Live and then I push it out to all of the podcast players so it's in iTunes Spotify I Heart Radio. Any pretty much any podcasting app then you listen to podcasts on and there. If I'm not there please ping me because I can almost promise that I should be there. And then so Fomo Fanz is one of those things and then I talk a lot about millennials I talk a lot about helping people think like a fan which is also part of my brand. But my big piece now my big focus is getting people to just tell their story or what I say push the damn button. So I'm writing the book right now. I have a weekend blocked off for about 30 hours this weekend coming up to work on the book alone. I'm going to be isolated from social media. I'm simply going to be writing the book. Hopefully the book will be out this fall and it will be push the damn button and it will be about getting over the fear it'll be about the value of storytelling and ultimately deep diving into my own struggles and I can tell you I've written a book a framework for a book that 85,000 words that is never been published. I wrote another one. There was a little over 35,000 words that it was never published because I didn't take my own advice. I didn't push the damn button. And so I was overwhelmed I was worried about things. And so I'm kind of a walking talking example. And part of the reason I'm writing this book is that it's got to prove to me Hey I'm push the damn button. I got over my fear. Nobody else should have any excuse of doing that anymore either. So to me that is something that excites me and I'm Yeah. So if you're you know if you're looking for a podcast listener check out Fomo Fanz and Z or Z'ed at the end it's kind of a play on my last name. But you're everywhere and anywhere wherever yours. I always tell people you don't follow me on every channel but if you like Instagram follow me I Social Fanz. If you like Twitter if you like linked in wherever your preferred channel is check me out engage with me there. I love connecting with people and I can tell you every reply every engagement coming out of my account is me 100%. I do have a team that helps me with some scheduling stuff and some managing my calendar but I make it a mission to reply and engage all of my accounts 100% as me.
Ben Roberts: [00:32:20] Yeah. Absolutely love again that was so well almost drew me and to you. That sounds really creepy and we did actually on but that's easy what is the personal relationship that report up when you're speaking to someone. It's actually them replying and it's not an automated message is not one of the promo team out there it's real person and not something that really so connected. So I thought you were the absolute perfect person to bring on and again love you said all that well before well I've written 30,000 words of a book. I haven't press the damn button because so many of the things get in the way. And look this conversation I'm gonna do after work even harder and also need to press that damn button to get things over the line. Don't let the fears of hold you back and that's almost all I've taken from this episode as well.
Brian Fanzo: [00:33:12] Yeah. I love it. That's the point. Yeah. And I'll hold you to it. I'll follow up with that.
Ben Roberts: [00:33:16] So before I let you go bro because this is an absolutely fantastic in this instance you sure to be exactly what I wanted. But before I let you go I need to ask you as I ask everyone else is what the other business and marketing buzzwords out there you loving or hating right now. Is there any word or phrase that really gruines is where you go. Absolutely yes. I absolutely love that and people need to do more of it will say more of it.
Brian Fanzo: [00:33:50] You know for me. It's be yourself right. It's sounds super easy but you know if you really want to be successful in this digital world be yourself online and offline. The reason that people tell you that you know a business is done on the golf course or in the pub the reason that is it because you are yourself in those environments. You have to do that every day in life and I think you have to embrace that. And last but not least your vulnerabilities will end up being what makes you unique and what makes you memorable. When you start being ok at being yourself. And you take it a step further and you start to be a share who you truly are some of your vulnerabilities. I have A.D.H.D. I struggle sometimes with organization. I talk a lot about you know I went through a divorce I'm a dad of 3 girls. By sharing that people remember me more about that than they do any of my content and my podcasts anything else that is out there. So that to me is kind of the true magic.
Ben Roberts: [00:34:48] I can agree more. Thank you so much for coming on today. Brian that's the it's been an absolute pleasure.
Brian Fanzo: [00:34:55] My pleasure. Cheers everybody.


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Select at random from the massive group of women who've had c-sections in the past twenty years, and ask them about rupture.
Chances are they'll tell you that uterine rupture is common and life-threatening for those who choose to VBAC (have a vaginal delivery after a c-section.)
They've gotten this impression from doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies who, after a ACOG (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) position paper in 1998 decided that VBAC was too risky to support.
On the other hand, talk to a bona fide crunchy-granola homebirth mama and you might get the impression that uterine rupture doesn't actually happen – at least, not with any frequency.
Neither are quite true.
Rupture happens.
Some degree of separation along a former uterine scar occurs in up to 3% of VBAC attempts. In less than 1% of VBAC attempts, a complete separation of the scar occurs, requiring an emergency c-section to avoid life-threatening complications (in other words, a TRUE emergency c-section, as opposed to the much more common "failure-to-wait" section.) In the remaining 1-2% of VBAC attempts that result in rupture, the separation is small and/or partial and requires no treatment other than monitoring hemoglobin levels. (Data from VBAC.com.)
Generally, these incomplete ruptures are caught by manual examination after a VBAC. The attending physician sticks his hand inside the newly delivered mother's uterus and palpates the incision scar to see if there are any holes or weak spots. Yes, it really is as awful as it sounds (It was more painful for me than the previous 42 hours of unmedicated childbirth.)
My rupture wasn't identified in that manual sweep. It was discovered by ultrasound a week later when I went back to the hospital with intense abdominal pain. That we know of, the pain wasn't caused by the rupture – the pain resolved on its own before I left the ER.
My hemoglobin had dropped, but it had stabilized at the next check, a couple of days later at my doctor's office.
I never required any treatment for it.
It won't prevent me from getting pregnant again or having another VBAC, although it does mean that I would be wise to give my uterus plenty of time to heal before I subject it to more contractions (in other words, I should try to avoid labor until Beth-Ellen is at least 18 months old.)
Moral of the story?
Rupture happens. It can be life-threatening, but it isn't necessarily so. Those considering a VBAC (or who have been talked out of a VBAC) deserve to hear the whole story – instead of only hearing worst-case scenarios or empty reassurances.
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Haul your off-duty essentials in style and take on the city as Digisoria gets you packed for your daily adventure. Be young and have this colorful backpack added to your collection. - Material: Polyester - Zipped front utility pocket - Meshed side pocket - Adjustable backpack straps - Metal zipper pull & adjustable strap - Stylish and fashionable - Suitable for everyday use


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Can someone help me with my assignment? Im new at coding. I Need help with question 3. I have tried everything and every video. I just can't figure it out.
Function exerciseThree(STR)
In this exercise you will be given a variable, it will be called: str
On the next line create a variable called 'lenght' and using the length property assign the str
Strings in JavaScript have a property called "length" obviously to tell you how long a word is.
The videos you've seen have probably told you this already but,
to access a property of an object attach a period . at the end of the variable name, followed by the name of the property.
In your case you want to
.length from
You also have a variable called length (a valid name, but it's confusing to use "length" so many times for different things)
var length;
You just want to set length equal to
str.length like so:
var length;
length = str.length;


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'Without You (PRCHT Remix)' is out now! Download: https://theartistunion.com/tracks/80f040
Become a part of the show, subscribe to receive the next records from PRCHT: http://eepurl.com/cXNn0z
Remixing an artist you've been admiring for almost a decade obviously means something special to me. Thus being said, I deliberately decided to step aside from the contest launched by Avicii for 'Without You' and take enough time to create a record I'd be proud of.
Definitely more club-orientated than the previous works posted here, my remix for 'Without You' offers a melodic Progressive vision of the song based on the amazing vocal performance by Sandro Cavazza. It is now available for free in its short or extended version and I hope it will find a spot in your playlists!
Connect with PRCHT:


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ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of nearly US $ 35 billion (as on 30.06.2020) and Gross Sales Value of US $ 10.74 billion (as on 31.03.2020) with presence in FMCG, Hotels, Packaging, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Agri & IT Businesses.
ITC has diversified presence in Branded Packaged Foods, Personal Care, Education and Stationery, Agarbattis & Safety Matches, Lifestyle Retailing, Cigarettes & Cigars, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-business & IT.
ITC Brands are designed and customized to delight the diverse tastes, needs and lifestyles of the discerning Indian consumers. ITC's brands reach
124 million Indian households.
ITC believes that businesses can bring about transformational change to create a more sustainable future. To serve larger national priorities, ITC has made societal value creation the core of its business strategy.
ITC's Businesses, Brands and Sustainability initiatives create headlines every day. Get the latest updates in the media section.
All the latest publications from ITC are indexed in this section for quick reference. To receive them in your inbox use the application - 'Publications in your email'.
Click here to watch the accompanying video
In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Kurush Grant, Divisional Chief Executive of ITC, spoke on how soon the goods and Services Tax (GST) would be implemented and what impact it would have especially for sectors like tobacco.
Below is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Kurush Grant on CNBC-TV18.
Q: What have you made of the white paper on GST? Is it giving you any kind of relief that overall tax burden on ITC will go down, or do you think it might be the other way round?
A: Regarding the timing of the release of the first discussion paper, all one can say is better late than never; it is finally out. It is extremely interesting, very well crafted, well-written document. There are certain issues, obliviously, that have not been covered in this particular document which we hope will be recovered in the future. The big one obviously is what rates are they are proposing. Until we know what the rates are, the industry will not be able to comment. However, apart from the issue like rates, there are two–three other issues also which need to be clarified. The first is what kind of legislative provision would there be in a final Goods and Services Tax (GST) set of regulations and laws.
In order to ensure that classification of goods and services across every single State are the same unlike the way it is currently happening in value-added tax (VAT). The second obviously is what kind of regulations or legislation there will be to ensure that the rate of GST across states for a particular product remain the same and third, the big is how do we ensure legislatively that individual states or collectively and not able to change rates arbitrarily without a total concurrence of all the parties involved, all the states and the centre.
Q: You don't think that problem will be obviated once the state and centre agree on a uniform or dual GST rates?
A: We certainly hope so. Unfortunately, the current discussion paper has not got any provisions for a legislative limit on it. This will obviously be discussed in the future. For example, we do know that there is a fair amount of constitutional changes which will have to take place to enable GST to come in, perhaps they are looking at that particular point of time to introduce these other legislative requirements also.
Q: You are a unique category, tobacco, but aside of the GST the centre reserves the right to levy excise and even without input tax credit, does that worry you?
A: As long as there is input tax credit on GST and throughout the world and in a lot of states of the countries there is GST or its equivalent by whatever name it is called on products like tobacco, petroleum, alcohol. In which there is input tax credit and there is a separate excise duty in variably specific in nature on which there may not be an input tax credit.
Q: There have been some people who have been whispering the ad valorem word, is it a possibility in your eyes that you have GST plus an ad valorem tax instead of an excise?
A: I would certainly hope that that would not happen for the simple reason that every single economist both in the government and in the private sector realized that a specific tax for products like tobacco which have a very high rate of taxation is always the best way of taxing the product. A specific tax is now in existence since 1987 and the advantages it has had is known to everyone, both the central and the state government as well as the industry.
Q: So from the little that you have seen in the discussion paper, assuming that the central GST rate hovers between 16-20% do you think the overall tax burden on ITC or other tobacco companies would be similar to what you have burdened with today or do you think it could be more?
A: We will have to work out details exactly, between 16–20% there is also a difference because today the tax burden, if you add up the excise duty and which on some products its on maximum retail price (MRP) and on some products its on ex-factory price, so if you add up that plus VAT and the differing VAT rates across the states, some amount of calculation will still have to be done. So until they are very sure of the actual final rates of taxation, it will be difficult to say, however, one thing is certainly there, because of the new method proposed for interstate transfer and sale of goods, the IGST as it is being called, quite clearly some amount of input tax credit which today is not going to the industry in the current VAT system hopefully will go to the industry also and that will certainly be a relief for everyone in the industry.
Q: Now we come to the big point as to whether higher taxes do indeed worry you because on the evidence of the last couple of quarters it's not because you have taken price and it's not affected your volume growth at all. In fact, you have seen some of the best volume growth in recent times with 8% tobacco volumes.
A: We haven't published any volume growth numbers. Two years back when VAT was first introduced on cigarettes, the average rate then of 12.5%, the industry volume came down considerably. Last year when the excise duty on non-filter cigarettes was increased dramatically, once again the industry volume came down. At this point of time even over the last two years, if one were to go back at 1987 when the current specific duty rate system came into being, roughly the total industry has remained fairly constant over the last 30 odd years. The cigarette industry has not grown, what is interesting is that in the same period the overall tobacco industry has grown pretty dramatically and an in increase in taxation may not have an impact on overall tobacco. However, it clearly has an impact on the cigarettes form of tobacco which most people are aware nowadays is very small which is less than 15% of the total tobacco consumed in the country.
So what happens is that an increase in the taxation has in immediate impact on the volume of cigarettes because of movement from other forms of tobacco to cigarettes and those people who consume both.
Q: What do you attribute the high single digit volume growth that you have witnessed after quite few quarters?
A: I think it's a combination of a few factors; the first is that we have got a strong brand. Brands that are doing relatively well and the second issue is that Indian economy has grown pretty considerably over the last few years and this momentum of growth of the Indian economy has seen an upgrading into cigarettes as happens every single time the economy grows. Ultimately, the rate of growth of cigarettes within the overall tobacco basket will clearly depend upon the rate of taxation on cigarettes relative to rate of taxation on other tobacco products and on how well the Indian economy is growing.
Q: But in your case it appears that king-size volume have grown even faster. Again you don't publish numbers but it appears that we may actually see double-digit percentages in king size volumes, is it because of upgrading or something else?
A: There has been upgrading constantly over the last 15–20 years. There is no question about it and people have been upgrading which is one of the reasons why excise collection has been so rigorous and good as far as the government is concerned because the process of upgrading also increases revenue collection of the government and upgrading has certainly taken place.
Q: Do you see this kind of volume growth being sustainable because it has come after a long time––2008––which wasn't a great year for tobacco volumes. Is it just a one-off or is it sustainable?
A: For that I will have to ask the Finance Minister because 2007–2008 the industry actually shrank in terms of overall cigarette volumes, 2009 thus far has been pretty good. Keep in mind that there was no change in excise duty this year as far as cigarettes are concerned and that has helped the industry get some amount of recovery for the loss it had made for the last two years.
Q: At the higher end product level, the launch and aggression of Marlboro has not made any dent at all in your volume growth?
A: In all fairness one must understand that Philip Morris has been marketing their products in India for several years. Recently, they have changed their source of manufacture to a domestic manufacturer. Moreover, they have changed their distributors from a series of smaller distributors to a known company JPI Industries; consequently, their distribution mechanism in India has changed.
But Philip Morris has been in India for the last four–five years and to that extent their volume at this point of time doesn't appear to have grown to the extent one would have thought for the simple reason that they have already been here for four years, and it is not a new launch by any chance at all.
Q: There is some talk of creation of a new entry level filter cigarette segment by the government––encourage conversion from bidis to cigarettes––is that a reasonable expectation?
A: The objective of any entry level excise slab for filter cigarettes is very clearly not aimed at conversion of bidis to cigarettes but it is aimed at the huge illegal Rs 1 filter segment which came into existence into India around two–three years back whilst little bit was always there.
After VAT came into India on cigarettes in 2007 and after high rates of excise increases on non-filter cigarettes last year, this illegal Rs 1 filter segment absolutely exploded. Today, it is estimated that this segment accounts for something like 12–13% of total cigarette industry in the country. They don't pay any taxes, they don't pay any excise, they don't pay any VAT at all, and they don't pay any taxes at all. So if there was an entry level filter segment which enabled manufacturers to produce a fairly good cigarette which could compete at an attractive price point against these illegal players, it will certainly help the industry.
Q: Are you expecting it though, this is a statement of principle?
A: It's a statement of principle. The tobacco institute has certainly made representations to the government on this and we hope that the government brings this into being.
Q: Talking about fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), there is a lot of talk in the market and I think the ITC management has conveyed that as well that they are about to launch another personal care or enter another personal product category. By when do you think that decision will be taken?
A: In all fairness whenever the decision is taken, I rather don't think I will be able to talk about it publicly.
Q: But is it going to happen in the next calendar year, the next four quarters?
A: I am afraid I really cannot comment upon that. It would be inappropriate.
Q: You cannot share what that category would be?
A: I am afraid not. That would be competitive information.
Q: Why your investors and analysts would be worried about that is that they are probably trying to map a timeframe by which your FMCG business starts getting out of the red and into the black. But if you launch or enter new category maybe losses will just get staggered for a longer length of time. Is that a legitimate concern because of start-up cost or launch costs?
A: Any start-up into a new venture, there will always be a period of time before the business starts recovering. In the case of FMCG, the main inputs on product development innovation and communication, if it was, let's say paper mill, the main inputs would be in physical assets and capital assets. But ITC has got a robust portfolio both across businesses as well as within the FMCG businesses. So you have got certain categories and brands which were launched seven-eight years ago and some newer ones which were launched just few years ago. Thus, with a combination of these you got certain categories which have crossed the humps, certain categories which are still growing and require investments.
Hence, to that extent I really would not be too worried or concerned about introduction of a new category especially now in a space where we have enough category knowledge. We have enough understanding of the industry space and we are making progress in the market place.
Q: By when do you think the FMCG business will start generating profits, at a composite level?
A: I would not care to make a forecast on that.
Q: What about biscuits as a category? Have margins improved there?
A: Yes certainly, in fact, over the last few years we have taken a great deal of efforts to ensure that with innovative product development margins have improved at the same time to ensure that what the consumer gets in terms of value has also improved. So combination of these has enabled our FMCG business to surge. In fact, if you have been noticing over the last few quarters the losses in the FMCG category have actually been coming down whilst simultaneously turnovers have been increasing pretty dramatically.
Q: Your agriculture business margins have also gone up quite a bit. Is it because of that leaf tobacco shortage internationally?
A: It would be a combination of tobacco as well as other commodities but quite clearly leaf tobacco prices on exports from India have, the prices have been increased dramatically over the last few years and that is certainly one of the reasons for that.
Q: You are sitting on a large kitty of cash at ITC, any thoughts on how to utilise it? Is there any thought at the management level of giving out a large dividend or giving some of the cash back to shareholders?
A: It will be totally inappropriate for me to even talk about that. But as the Chairman has mentioned in the past in his annual general meeting (AGM) speeches, ITC will continue to invest in existing businesses whether it is investment in paper, investment in tobacco, investment in FMCG. So, we clearly have plans to continue growing and continue investing to increase our capacities, increase our quality, variety, etc. which are available. So investments will continue, very clearly so.
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10 Reasons Muscovy Ducks Make Great Pets
Are you considering adding exotic waterfowl to your household but still wonder which animal will suit you? I searched the internet for answers but could find nothing useful. Here is a list of the 10 best reasons Muscovy ducks make great pets.
10 Reasons Muscovies Are Awesome Pets
- Muscovies have cute babies and are easy to raise. Pet shops used to sell a lot of them for this very reason. Not many people can resist a cute little duckling.
- They are calm and collected, especially when they grow up around people. (Daffy definitely was not a Muscovy.)
- They are quiet. They don't quack like the mallard type ducks, so even if you live close to another house, the neighbors will never complain about the noise.
- They will eat the weeds in your grass almost as well as a goose. These ducks like to eat worms, grubs, and even small fish, but they are omnivores so they will chomp on the young weeds in your yard.
- They make fierce moms. Not everyone with a pet Muscovy wants to raise babies, but if you do, most predators will tend to avoid a mother because she will tear into his face instead of backing down. If your Muscovy decides to sit on her eggs and you are worried about your dog and cat worrying her, don't be. Your duck will not be concerned.
- They are hardy and will rarely get sick. Compared to other duck species, they are problem free.
- They are easy to train. If you are not into spending that much time with your pet duck, that is not a problem since unlike a rowdy carnivore (a big dog), an untrained Muscovy is still a great pet.
- The drakes are not aggressive with people. When you come home, a drake will often rush at you. It is not aggression. He just wants to see you and find out what is going on. With other ducks, however. Well . . .
- They will never complain about the heat. Since they are native South Americans, the heat in an area like Florida or Texas will be nothing for them. They do okay in cooler environments but will probably want to come in the house when it is raining or snowing.
- Muscovies are affectionate. Your pet will most likely not want to nap on your lap, but will be content to sit at your feet when you are typing on your laptop.
The Feds, Regulations, and Muscovies
If you live in the US, you should be aware that these ducks are considered dangerous and illegal immigrants and have been declared illegal for many years. It all came about because some thoughtless people bought a cute, little Muscovy duckling as a pet, found out that like any duck, they can be messy, and then released them at their local pond.
They are good at surviving and breed well even when competing with mallards and other local ducks, and it wasn't long before the Fish and Wildlife Department started to consider them a nuisance. The law does not apply to people who keep ducks as pets, but if you want to find a Muscovy duckling nowadays, you will need to get one from a local breeder.
When you have your pet, be sure that it is on your property at all times. If there is a local park on public land and your Muscovy goes over there to take a bath, he or she can be seized and destroyed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Are you ready to join the ranks of the Muscovy fanciers?
What Does Your Duck Need?
Your new pet will need:
- Food
- Water
- Shelter
- Diapers
- Nesting
All animals need food and water. Since Muscovies are omnivores, feeding is easy. You can provide some chicken feed, duck feed from a local feed store, vegetable scraps from your table, and of course, your ducks will want to go outside to check the yard for any delicious bugs.
Besides water for drinking, they do need an area to take a bath. If you do not have a pond in your yard, or at least a child's waiting pool for them to splash around in, you need to give them access to your bathtub.
What else could a duck need except food and water? Well, shelter is kind of nice. If your pet ducks do not sleep in your house, they will need some kind of building outside to sleep peacefully at night.
If you provide that shelter in your house, diapers are kind of a necessity. My ducks are all outside, but even they like to come in and sit on the tile in my front room. Muscovies have projectile poop and can make quite a mess. If you allow your ducks to run around the house these are a must.
The only other thing you need to worry about is providing a nesting area if you have a couple and are planning on raising ducklings. They like to nest in the hollows of a tree, but if there is not a safe place around, they will find any little corner to lay their eggs.
Reference and Useful Link
- This is a US government site that gives some Fish and Wildlife rules on Muscovy ducks.
- Bullying Is Becoming More Common Among Ducks
If you want a duck and have other pets, bullying is an issue you need to be aware of.
© 2019 Dr Mark
Sounds like a fantastic bird! I mean, I'll stick with my Meyer's Parrot for the time being, but if I had the space to raise ducks (and apparently ducky diapers) I think it sounds like an excellent breed to raise.
Hello, DrMark, this is something new to me. I am pleased in reading every datails. Thanks for sharing.
Dr. Mark, I guess I didn't tell you the whole story. As I said, the night before the eggs started hatching the Mom was killed. When I discovered this first thing in the morning I went in to "overdrive". Brought all the eggs into my kitchen and set them up in a small bird cage. I surrounded them with whatever table lights I could find until I could get to a feed store and buy a heat lamp. Amazingly, later that day and well into the night all the eggs started hatching. 10 of 11 eggs hatched and they were all "clean" hatchlings. I have incubated geese and ducks eggs before, in a real incubator, and I never had the success I had with these little girls and guys. To make a very, long story short they stayed in my kitchen everyday and night for the first couple of weeks. I was just trying to keep them warm. Eventually, I made a makeshift pen outside with fencing covering the sides and top and a sheet to cover them when it got hot. I had to bring them in to my Florida Room every night to keep them safe. I would haul them out to the outside pen every morning and bring them in every night. As they grew larger I finally bought a real pen (12 x 12) and covered it in hardware cloth on the sides and about two feet out from the bottom to keep the digging predators out. Oh, and it was covered. This went on from June until about August. I would let them out every morning and one day they started to fly (thank goodness). This was totally a "labor of love". On one hand, I never want to go through it again. On the other hand it was an amazing feeling to have saved them but I never want to do it that way again. They are neat ducks. I wish more people would appreciate them.
Our neighbor has them but they are white ones. They still have the red on the face and sometimes the neck. Because our farm has more grass, water and weeds they spend most of their time on our farm.
I like seeing them on the lakes and grass. They've laid eggs near one of our sheds but alas the tegu has found the nest. We plan to move a box closer to the house in hope the tegu won't come up to the house looking for a nest.
I had never thought of ducks as pets before. This is an informative article in the UK I have noticed that Canada geese can be quite aggressive in park settings. I was always keen to keep children at a safe distance from them. Feeding the ducks in ponds in public parks is a popular childhood activity, but it can get a bit lively when the Canada geese muscle in.
I wish I had the space as I love the thought of having these as pets. They sound wonderful little creatures.
Good article. I raised 10 babies last summer when their Mom was killed the night before they hatched. I like them but not all my neighbors do. I find the males have neat personalities. They like to talk to me. The females are not interested in me - except for food. They are quiet and get along just fine with my dogs. I have enjoyed their company and like to watch their interactions with one another.


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Contact Us
Vitality Group: How Does a Leading Health and Wellness Program Revolutionize Customer Engagement?
Read how Vitality Group, a leading health and wellness company, implemented a flexible and adaptive data platform to track multichannel customer engagement, improving membership rates and engagement and reducing its IT expenditures. Download the Document


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BOOK: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
WHEN: Sunday, July 27, 2014, 12:15 p.m.
WHERE: Dorothy Quincy Homstead
34 Butler Road ~ Quincy, MA
RSVP: Leave a comment here or on Facebook if you're coming.
We will be meeting on the grounds, which have benches and tables. The house is not open for tours that day, but is open six other Saturdays this year.


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IT and Telecommunication
Your company's security is exposed to many threats to its IT and telecommunication systems: viruses, cyber attacks, technical disruptions, fires, power outages or system problems. Here it is important that the system remains highly available and the data and system security are maintained. It is critical that you have an IT security concept, which will include preparations in the event of serious failures: The administrators in charge, the crisis management team and customers need to receive alerts immediately.
By implementing FACT24, our software-as-a-service solution, you are ideally prepared for the risks and system outages and will have a dedicated point of contact at your side, available at all times. FACT24 does more than provide support for incident or crisis management; it also assists with prevention and post-crisis analysis. Employees and the crisis management team will be automatically alerted in the event of threats to the IT or telecommunication infrastructure. And you will not experience any outages, thanks to a guaranteed availability of 99.99%.
- User report IBM
Ideally prepared for any eventuality
IBM Switzerland incorporates FACT24 into the company's disaster management and Business Continuity Management system
- IBM Switzerland AG has made disaster and BCM their top priority when disruptions or problems occur.
- The focus is placed on securing fast communication with internal and external groups of people, such as with the crisis management team, specialists and management, and customers.
- It was necessary to have a powerful and flexible solution that features the ability to address persons receiving the alert in their native language.
- FACT24 was embedded into their emergency procedures, utilising the telecommunications system to alert personnel within seconds and set up automatic conference calling.
- The BCM software and FACT24 were integrated using an interface
- Improved availability because alerts are sent using a variety of communication channels
- Addresses persons in their native language


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£58 billion — that will be the business cost of Brexit if the EU27 and the UK revert to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) trading relationship with each other, according to an assessment by Oliver Wyman and law firm Clifford Chance which calculates the impact of tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
- The annual 'red tape', or tariff and non-tariff, costs of Brexit for EU27 exporters is around £31billion and for UK exporters is around £27billion even after initial steps to mitigate costs have been taken. This is proportionately 4 times larger for the UK as a percentage of Gross Value Added (GVA ).
- 70 percent of the aggregate impact falls in just five sectors in both the EU27 and UK.
- Disproportional impacts in specific regions such as Bavaria in Germany and London in the UK.
- A future customs arrangement equivalent to The Customs Union reduces the EU27 impact to around £14billon and the UK impact to around £17billon. Mitigating the costs of Brexit are non-trivial and impacted firms need to be taking steps now. Small firms will be least able to mitigate these costs and in turn pose risks to their supply chain.
The 'red-tape' cost of Brexit estimates that the direct costs will total around £31billon for EU exporters and around £27billon for UK exporters, with non-tariff barriers accounting for more of the effect than tariffs.
Oliver Wyman's report focuses only on the direct impacts of the UK's exit from the EU which are of immediate importance to companies for Brexit planning. It does not model additional impacts such as migration, pricing changes or third country Free Trade Agreements, which are likely to increase the overall impact.
In the EU27 the hardest hit sector will be automotive, where the direct impact will be around 2 percent of current GVA.
Country level differences will vary considerably, with Ireland's agricultural sector's exposure to UK consumers, for example, a particular pinch point. In Germany, four of the sixteen states — Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden -Wuerttemberg, and Lower Saxony — will shoulder around 70 percent of the country's direct impacts as a result of exports to the UK that arise from their leading global positions in automotive and manufacturing.


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How tall is David Duchovny?
David Duchovny's Height is 6ft 0in (184 cm)
Celebirty name: DUCHOVNY, David (Original: David William Duchovny)
Birth: 1960-08-07 (United States) (age 60)
Occupation: actor
Source: WIKIPEDIA.ORG
No desciption are currently available. Please come back later.
Compare your height to celebrities or Compare a Celebrity Height with Others with CELEBRITY HEIGHT COMPARE TOOL - Height Chart Maker. More »
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Polished 24kt Gold iMac
Luxurious gadgets, that was the perfect description for a diamond-coated laptop sleeve worth $11M and Platinum&Diamonds Macbook Pro. To even give you a gigantic feel of these opulent devices, Computer Choppers have just finished their polished 24kt Gold iMac 27″ —-all sealed with clear coat. According to the company, "this monster desktop system is a rare commodity in the luxury world and you won't find it anywhere else." So have yourself a golden treat by doing virtual jump after the break and see those bling-bling images through our gallery.
Source: Computer Choppers


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walking through westside park it began to rain, and with u2 in my ears and too much alcohol in my system i turned my face to the sky and said "i give in. i will believe. i will give you everything, because you have asked. i want your love, but i want ordinary flawed human love as well." and the rain came down and soaked my face, my hair, my skin.
and now begins act two.


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Contemporary urban art print "Bold" by Amy Smith
Contemporary urban art print "Bold" by Amy SmithBe the first to review this product
This collaboration gave a beautiful opportunity for Amy Smith to showcase her work and the work of friend and talented photographer John Louis.
With an orange and red fiery tone, this portrait gives off the perfect amount of don't mess with me attitude.
Amy Smith creates pop art and street art inspired mixed media collage portrait paintings with the goal of empowering the viewers, collectors, models, and participants in a cyclical unifying creative spirit.
Beautiful pop art collage print for any room. Available in various sizes perfect to fit any wall.
This poster has a partly glossy, partly matte finish and it'll add a touch of sophistication to any room.
• 10 mil thick
• Slightly glossy
• Fingerprint resistant


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Today, I bring you an extremely complicated recipe.
It involves multiple steps, exotic ingredients and unusual kitchen gadgets.
Are you ready for it?
Do you have some of this in your kitchen:
What about some of this:
Do you know how to beat together butter and olive oil?
Oh, you do.
Well I take back what I said.
This is actually the easiest thing you'll ever make. Ever.
Use it instead of tub margarine to spread on toast, baked potatoes, you name it.
Given that margarine is pretty close to being plastic, your body will thank you for making this.
It'll thank me for giving you this recipe.
So - you're welcome.
Butter Olive Oil Spread
Makes: about ¾ cups
Source: The Highlandview Pantry
½ cup softened butter
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
1. Beat together softened butter and olive oil until well combined. Season with salt to taste. The mixture will be the consistency of mayonnaise. Refrigerate until it reaches a spreadable consistency.


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The Barcelona Collection in New York
MONTROI launches collections with the vision they travel the world and accumulate experiences, that they age well and gain beauty over time.
With this in mind, the MONTROI team set off for New York with DELTA and ELEKTRA and from the MONTROI Barcelona Collection.
The journey across New York took the team from the West Village to Brooklyn, from the Whitney Museum to a surprising jazz performance at Happy Ending. The day ended in Brooklyn and biking back to Manhattan across the Williamsburg bridge, a perfect backdrop to this photoshoot, that tries to capture the beauty of movement and discovery.
Perfect allies, companions and co-travellers, the DNA of MONTROI bags means they are easy to access with large zippers and allowing complete opening, they are light yet resistant and only get better looking as they age. The perfect travelling essential for a MONTROI nomad.


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What are your best tips for hacking and optimizing your sleep, ladies? We've talked about different types of insomnia and using sleep cycles wisely, with lots of advice on sleep detractors like anxiety loops as well as some sleep tools like weighted blankets — but I don't think we've ever had a general discussion on how to hack and optimize your sleep. (Oh, and we've got a TON of sleep advice for working moms — for both the sleep-deprived kids and sleep-deprived parents — over at CorporetteMoms.)
The Big Fish: The Big Things That Help You Optimize Your Sleep
The Little Fish – Smaller Things that May Affect Your Sleep
- taking vitamins B12 or D
- Working out with weights
- Eating late
- Eating too much salt
- Turning off WiFi on devices near my bed
- Taking a shower before bed
- working out didn't affect my sleep one way or another
- PMS, which always FEELS like it affects my sleep, did not actually seem to affect my sleep (1% more negative sleep when I reported I was having PMS). Still, I wish there were a way to sync my sleep tracking app with my period tracking app (I'm using Clue right now).
- Things that did have an impact over the past 6 months:
- Vitamin D boosted sleep performance by 5%
- B12 boosted sleep performance by 4% (although when I take B12 reliably I feel like the main benefit is that I get to have my brain for the last few hours of the day instead of staring at the wall/TV in sheer exhaustion)
- Turning off WiFi: I saw a random thing on FB about how plants had stilted growth if they were placed near a WiFi router (Snopes notes that this is totally unverified.) After some thought I realized that my general sleep habit of having 4 WiFi enabled devices on my bedside table (Chromebook, Kindle, iPad, and iPhone) probably wasn't the best. I changed all of them to airplane mode (even for the Chromebook, the default setting was that it was searching for WiFi even if the book was closed!) and I actively turn off WiFi on my phone before bed (but not cell service) — and saw a 3% boost in sleep performance. Not a huge trend — but it might be worth thinking about if you, like me, have a crazy number of devices near your pillow.
- Eating "a lot of salt" – As I get older I start to get more wary of eating a lot of salt, so I was super surprised to see that this one is in the "positive" category — but over the past 6 months when I reported eating a lot of salt it showed a 7% improvement in sleep. (!)
- eating late (7% worse sleep)
Further reading on general sleep hygiene:
- 20 Tips for Better Sleep [WebMD]
- Sleep tips: 6 steps to better sleep [Mayo Clinic]
- 37 Science-Backed Tips For Better Sleep Tonight [HuffPost]
Social media images via Stencil.