#netflix stop being afraid of success challenge

[ot8spreadsheetstay]

i have a draft for an actual review of kpdh but real quick

netflix. are you listening to me netflix

a series of tiger and magpie going around korea and casually observing normal human behavior. noraebang. farmers in fields. sit down restaurants with one thing on the menu. office workers drinking together after a stressful project is completed. sitting at a bus stop in the rain. so many possibilities. you dont even need voice actors

call it 'tiger and magpie' (or 'ty and maggie' maybe)

[glapplebloom]

The official beginning of Generation 5.

Last week we looked at the Bible that helped inspire the movie and the series moving on so today marks the beginning of Generation 5. Hasbro did its best to set it up for success. They got big named voice actors to do the cast. They set it up in the same world to get the old fans hooked. And they planned on releasing it in theaters. But COVID changed that idea so it went directly to Netflix. While I did see the G4 Theatrical Movie in theaters, I doubt I was going to see this one there since this is a new world and they have to prove it to me. So let’s see if they did...

The movie begins with a beautifully animated sequence featuring the Original Mane Six, complete with original voice actors. This would be the last time they officially voice the characters (as far as I know/for now) and this sequence ends with Rarity getting another voice and wanting to eat brains. We then see it in 3D where its three kids playing ponies. Sprout (the red pony) is drinking the Kool-Aid thinking non-Earth Ponies are bad. Sunny (the orange one) grew up thinking they did all live together originally (which they did).

And Hitch is trying to be a mediator between the two. He’s friends with both of them but considering he’s really helping Sunny over enforcing what his school taught them, makes me think he’s closer to friends with her than Sprout. We then meet Argyle who is a researcher (by the looks of it) and is teaching his daughter these things. Sprout’s Mother doesn’t like that as she buys the distrust on Pony Kind for two reasons: she can profit off of it and she honestly believes it.

It is nice to see Argyle for as long as we did in this movie considering Sunny will be carrying his dream. She wants to be the one to unite the three back together and continues to do so long after he died from an off screen sickness. Also remember Sunny and Argyle sent a letter via lantern to invite some pony to Maretime Bay. So after a time jump to future Sunny, we get the first song of the movie. And honestly, they don’t do it for me. I’m not saying they’re bad, they just don’t grab me like the later songs do. 

Hitch is the sheriff and tells Sunny to not go to Canterlogic. And thanks to being focused on a litterbug, she manages to avoid him and get into Sprout’s Mother’s Company. Canterlogic makes Anti-Pegasi and Anti-Unicorn tech. And honestly I really doubt any of these were tested. The guy with the Binoculars was so busy looking for Pegasi he fell off stage and the poor guy in the escape balloons will be up in the sky until the end of the film. I doubt these things would stop an Earth Pony let alone anyone else.

And Sunny kind of proves it. She’s caught in a trap and when they try to stop it it just doesn’t stop. And their big idea is putting a Unicorn in a box and hitting Pegasi with slime. We see in Tell Your Tale that box wouldn’t stop a Unicorn and I doubt Slime would stop a pegasi. But because they are so fearful they ignore the obvious scam going on and side with Sprout’s Mother. After a while, Sunny tries to convince Hitch to join her side but then Hitch challenges Sunny: “You keep saying there's nothing to be afraid of. Well, then, prove it.”

Hitch uses this as an ultimatum as he’s her last friend in this town. Basically stop making a ruckus or be completely ostracized. It honestly looks like she’s considering it, but knowing Sunny she probably would travel to prove she’s right. Luckily for her someone else saved her the time: Izzy Moonbow. And once again, we’re seeing just how ineffective these things really are. The frikkin slime is only causing a mess and the Unicorn traps are getting everyone but a Unicorn. It did get Izzy, but Sunny frees her. 

Going to the obvious first place they’ll look for her, Sunny finally gets to ask Izzy questions she always wanted to know. Sadly, they’re questions you would expect when you grow up thinking racist things are real. She finds out Unicorns don’t have magic anymore. She can’t think any further because Hitch is trying to arrest her. They easily escape Hitch and escape Maretime Bay. After hearing what Unicorns think of Earth Ponies, Sunny got a plan. The Pegasi could help. Izzy is scared but Sunny convinces her to go (by singing).

One thing I will say is weird is hearing these voices knowing they will change them for the show. So while the two go to Zephyr Heights, Hitch goes to find them and bring them to justice. He leaves Sprout in charge with only one command: “Just try not to start a war while I'm gone.” His mother comes in to give Sprout the idea that he’s the current sheriff now that Hitch is out. And this begins a domino effect that will affect the end of the movie. With the duo, they enter a valley and are seemingly chased by a parkour pony. It’s Zipp, the first Pegasus they ever saw.

She escapes as two other Pegasi Soldiers show up. They arrest the duo and capture Izzy with a Tennis Ball to negate her magic. Man, this world would be easily conquered by anyone in G4. Tirek, Sombra, Cozy Glow, The Flim Flam Brothers, Yona by accident... You can tell Zephyr Heights is a lot more technically advanced than Maretime Bay. Sunny notices that it only seems to be certain pegasi that flies: the Royal Family. This includes Zipp who they previously met. 

They get sent to the dungeon as Sprout sings his song about forming an Angry Mob. Again, none of the songs really grab me but imagine the G4 Pony Movie having to only rely on the Storm King as the villain. That’s Sprout. You really can’t take the guy seriously. They really needed someone to be the big threat for our heroes. Storm King had Tempest Shadow. Sprout has his mother, and she isn’t doing that good of a job except encouraging him. Oh yeah, there’s a reference to G1 during his song, and we see a unicorn there. 

After a commercial for perfume, we see the Dungeon and it looks luxurious. There’s a massage chair. Zipp sees them to find out about magic and she finds out from them that there is no Unicorn Magic. Zipp definitely wants to help but Pipp shows up to interrupt. I don’t think this movie does Pipp Justice compared to the series. You don’t really see the passion she puts into her work like you do on the shows. Also doesn’t help that they don’t give her much in the movie. After Pipp leaves, Zipp breaks them out to show them something.

We see Hitch for a bit following the trails and attracting more animals towards him. He finally sees that they were already captured and still intends to capture them. Zipp shows the duo a station that proved that the three were friends. Zipp reveals that no Pegasi can fly and wants to not live the lie. But the reason she came down here is because the book Sunny had matches a glass mural. Said Glass Mural has images of two gems and Sunny instantly thinks that uniting the two will restore magic to everyone.

But to get the crown off the Queen’s head, Zipp suggests a heist. They do so in Pipp’s concert and again, it doesn’t grab me like her later songs. Good news, they successfully swapped the crown with the macaroni decoy. Bad news, the dog knows and is chasing them, Hitch found them and is chasing them, and they can’t escape the big crowd. After shenanigans, they get the crystals but the Royals are exposed as being Phony Ponies Full of Baloney. The queen is arrested while the trio escape with Pipp and Hitch joining them for various reasons.

Sprout is building something and it worries his mother while the rest make their way to Bridlewood. While there is a nice moment showing that Izzy’s reason for going to Maretime Bay is because of the Lantern Sunny and her father launched long ago, but I don’t think it sells their dynamic as a friendship well. Sunny and Hitch definitely, and I see Zipp/Hitch shipping being strong, but you don’t get to see their interactions beyond the mission. You could think Zipp’s curiosity is her detective desires but it is something I think people would be curious about.

After doing their own version of “Fit Right In” (which I think Rarity did better), we see Bridlewood looks like the Rainbow Village from Rainbow Roadtrip. Alphabittle has the Crystal and Sunny challenges him for it. After a pep talk, she wins. After a scuffle, Sunny manages to get the Pegasi and Unicorns to not fight each other long enough to try to bring the magic back. It fails because logically you need three pieces of gems and nobody realizes this until later in the movie.

Sunny is defeated, returns the gems to their rightful owners and goes home. It is sad to see her put away everything but doing so allows her to figure out the obvious: there’s a piece missing. Luckily for her the Lantern her father made had the final piece. Motivated again, she goes to find the others but finds an empty town. Hitch and her then find out Sprout made an army to start a war. It really doesn’t help make Sprout intimidating when the others are ready to throw down their stuff because they could be friends.

Sprout gets the fear back in them and it does help that he has a big robot. The others join Sunny just in time to face a robot. Okay, the slime gets people to stick to the ground so it is a little more threatening. Alphabittle is saved by Queen Haven and a relationship is born. After the gems not working once more and her home destroyed, Sunny does what Hitch thought wouldn’t work earlier in the movie: “Give a little speech and everypony just magically welcomes unicorns and Pegasi into Maretime Bay.”

So the leaders (Queen Haven, Alphabittle and Sprout’s Mom) decide to unite and magic is restored. Sunny even gets an upgrade and becomes an Alicorn (one that she can turn on and off, something I gave my Twilight on May 3, 2019 to this movie’s release on September 24, 2021. And after everyone gets it back and that one pony that flew off early in the movie returns, we get the end credits. And the after credit scene shows that the Earth Ponies are getting magic too.

So how did this movie introduce us to the cast? Honestly, not good enough. We get to really know Sunny and Izzy, but it won’t be like how in the show.. People thought Hitch was competent when honestly looking back there are a lot of flaws he had that were ignored because of Sprout’s incompetence. Pipp barely got anything. Zipp is probably the only one who showed enough of what she would be like on the show. And with the voice actors changing, that would once again have people getting used to them again.

The movie was fine but it didn’t really make me want to see the show. It was mostly the youtube videos that got me to take a look since they were short and free on youtube. Like the first episode of Friendship is Magic, it introduces you to the core six’s big traits. This movie did not do that for these five. And even if it did, it didn’t introduce us to how they would interact since this was to restore magic while the rest of the series is mostly slice of life. It’s more pitching the show than the characters.

You’ll see how it compares to the Youtube Series next week. There are 27 Episodes of Make Your Mark (including the specials). Tell Your Tale has 94 episodes (including special) with 70 for their Season 1. There are six chapters in MYM, so I figured 10 of TYT then a Chapter of MYM and so on. While that means some TYT episodes would be way after their most logical timeline placement, I’m not a stickler for that.

[saeyoungchoismaid]

The King

Pairing: King!Lucifer x f!reader Genre: angst, fluff Warnings: uh minor character death, mention of war?, fighting, near-death experience???  Summary: Prince Lucifer, the eldest son of King Henry, has been exiled from his kingdom, but when his father becomes sick, he's supposed to become king once his father passes. The future king is to marry (Y/n) to join their kingdoms together. Instead of him becoming king though, his father chooses Lucifer’s younger brother to become the king.  Word Count: 5.3k words A/N: this fic is entirely based on the movie The King on Netflix!! I let you guys vote on who the fic would be about and most of y’all said Lucifer, so you ask and you shall receive!! If you want a better understanding to what’s going on, feel free to watch that movie!! The first part is from 13:25 and kinda just goes from there 

You feel your heart drop to your stomach when the man announces to the king, “Your majesty. Prince of Wales.” Your husband-to-be leans forward to look down the long row of men at the entrance, confirming that, yes, his brother is in fact here. After all this time. 

“My son,” the king starts, “come in.” You rise with the rest of the crowd, suddenly finding it hard to breathe as he walks down the aisle to the king’s throne, your hands starting to shake from nerves. Just how long has it been? Lucifer stops a little ways away from you, his eyes trained on his father. You could hear a dog barking outside the castle from how quiet it is in the room. 

You stop breathing when his eyes flicker to the right to look at his brother, only to freeze when they spot you right by his side. You stare right back at him, the sound of your heartbeat filling your ears. Both of you look away from each other when the king takes in a deep inhale before speaking. 

“I feel my life nearing its natural end, and yet, still even I must appear of ruder health than you.” He pauses and you watch as Lucifer blankly stares in his father’s direction but not actually looking at him. “The time has come for us to consider the issue of my succession,” the King announces, ending the sentence with a cough. This part makes you feel sick suddenly. 

Lucifer doesn’t know yet of his father’s decision? 

“You will not be king,” he states abruptly. Lucifer doesn’t react physically but you can tell, just by his eyes, that he is surprised, and maybe a bit disappointed, by this news. “While you are my eldest son, for reasons that are on display for all here to see, you will not inherit this crown.”

“Nor have I sought it,” Lucifer quips before you can even blink, venom dripping from his words. 

“That privilege and responsibility will instead fall to your brother Leviathan,” the king informs him. At the mention of his name, Leviathan sits up straighter. Lucifer’s eyes move to him before once again finding yours, his brother not seeming to notice the look Lucifer gives you. Well, he didn’t really give you a look, per se. Again, it’s in the eyes. 

I guess he’s starting to catch on to where this is heading. 

“He is soft, but he is eager. He will lead my army against the newly treasonous Solomon.” Your eyes flicker to your fiance, seeing him take a deep breath and look down. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he’s nervous about tomorrow. He wants to serve his father and make him proud. “I will assume that this news comes as neither surprise nor disappointment.” When you look away from Leviathan to focus back on the king and Lucifer, you find that Lucifer is, once again, staring at you. 

His gaze makes you feel pinned to your spot, air having a hard time finding its way to your lungs. “But it is my duty as king and father to say it to you directly.” His eyes finally leave yours to focus back on his brother, his eyes now pinning him to the floor. 

“And what of miss (L/n)?” Lucifer asks, your heart lodging in your throat at the mention of your name. All eyes turn to you but you can’t take your eyes off of those piercing, dark eyes. 

“Miss (L/n) is the bride to be of the next king, you know this,” King Henry informs. To prove his point, Leviathan reaches down and gently clasps your hand in his. You just hope that Leviathan doesn’t feel how clammy your hands are from how nervous you feel. You watch as Lucifer’s eyes flicker down to your conjoined hands, his own hands balling up into fists. 

“When do you fight?” he asks softly his younger brother, suddenly changing the subject.

“I set off tomorrow,” he informs, hand tightening on yours. “We fight by week’s end.”

“You need not fight. These feuds need not be yours,” Lucifer reassures instantly. You can see the fear and dread he holds for his brother. He’s never been much of a fighter. When you two would get into arguments, he’d either avoid the subject, instantly apologize, or avoid you altogether. When you were informed of his battle, you almost wanted to laugh. You’re sure that you’d do a better job at leading a war than he would be. 

“I have said what you were summoned to hear,” the king finalizes, bringing all of your attention back to him. Lucifer takes a deep breath as he looks up at the ceiling, clearly trying to keep his composure. “Leave us now.” Lucifer smiles, the clear disbelief he feels being evident. 

You watch on with solemn eyes as he leaves, your posture suddenly slumping with dread. So that’s that, you suppose. 

Luckily for your fiance and King Henry, you were the best healer in the country. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but you were quite good. Because of this, King Henry allowed you to go with his son to the battle. No one would say it out loud but you were all sure that Leviathan would somehow end up injured one way or the other. 

You walk alongside your husband-to-be, coming to stand beside him as he sits down in a chair. “Lord Simeon,” he greets before sitting. “Are your men ready for the day?” he asks once he’s sat down. You pull your bottom lip into your mouth to chew on it, a nervous habit that you’ve picked up over the years. 

“They are, sire.”

“Very good.” A pause ensues. “Tell me of your preparations.” When Lord Simeon doesn’t immediately respond, you cringe a bit. Leviathan just seems so awkward and out of place here. 

“My lord,” he warns, staring off behind you two. You turn around to find the true reason he had gone silent. 

Lucifer moves towards you all on top of a horse, his brows furrowing for a moment when he sees you. He slides off the horse as his brother asks him why he’s here. “I will not allow this havoc to transpire. I’ve come to see it stopped,” he replies, eyes moving to look at you. You think he’s going to address you but Leviathan speaks up before he can. 

“This is my battle,” his brother protests. 

“If I have my way, there will be no battle.” He pauses before walking in between you two, his side brushing yours. It causes a shiver to go down your spine and you’re disappointed by your reaction to such a simple thing. 

“You, come ‘ere,” he says to someone behind you. Your heart skips a beat at how demanding and confident he is. 

“My lord.”

“You have no place here!” his brother declares as he turns around to face him once more. You keep your back to him though, afraid of how your body will react to him. 

“Go to the rebel camp. Deliver the following message to Solomon. Tell him that Prince Lucifer challenges him to settle today’s score man on man. He and I. We will fight in our armies’ places.” This has you turning around to look at him, eyes widened and heart racing for a completely new reason now. 

Is he mad?

“Yes, my lord.”

“Who do you think you are?” the man who was answering to Leviathan just a few moments ago asks. 

“I am nobody to you,” Lucifer says with a shake of his head. Lucifer then turns away from him to walk to a tent to get armor, eyes connecting with yours as he passes. You want nothing more than to chase after him, beg him not to do it, but you know better. 

You know that once he puts his mind to something, there’s no stopping him. It’s something you’ve always both loved and hated about him. 

Despite this, you still find yourself following after him. 

You follow him inside an isolated tent, his back to you when you enter. You just stand there though, not knowing what to do or say. “You will not stop me, brother,” he says as he starts to unbutton his shirt. With no reply, he turns around and stops halfway down his shirt to look at you. Your eyes automatically move to his bare skin before you can stop yourself. To your surprise, he slowly continues unbuttoning it. 

“I think you’re in the wrong tent, Miss (L/n),” he says lowly, almost playfully, causing your eyes to move up to his. You gulp a bit, trying to think of something, literally anything, to say. 

“I’m not. Why must you refer to me in such a way?” you reply, slowly walking further into the tent. He lets go of his shirt when he’s done with the buttons, his upper half on full display to you now. 

“In what way, Miss (L/n)?” he asks, eyes boring into your very soul. You suck in a breath as you stop at the table between you two, looking at the armor that covers it instead of looking at him. 

“Calling me that. You need not do so. You used to just refer to me as (Y/n),” you reply softly, fingers brushing across a chest plate that is cool to the touch. You’d rather be touching his chest but you would lose that finger if you were caught doing so. 

“That was when I thought you were my bride-to-be,” he informs. Your breath hitches at this, your fingers coming to a stop on the shiny metal. Does his heart beat for you the way yours does for him? Is he upset about losing you and not at the fact that he won’t be king? 

“You may still refer to me as such. This changes nothing…” you argue, eyes still refusing to look at him. Your heart skips a beat when he starts to walk, moving to go around the table to meet you. You avoid him though by going around the opposite way. 

“My brother’s sudden role of becoming the new king changes everything,” he argues, stopping on the spot where you once were. You stop in his old spot, finally moving your eyes up to meet his again. 

You find despair and desperation lingering in his eyes but you aren’t sure that if he knows you can read him so well. He’s so used to hiding his emotions and being seen as emotionless nowadays. 

“It doesn’t change the feelings I once held for you…” you whisper, suddenly afraid that someone might be listening in now. He stares at you silently for a long moment, your heart beating faster at his pause. 

“Does my dear little brother know that I was your first kiss?” he asks, tauntingly starting to walk around the table again, to which you reciprocate by redoing what you had done before. 

“Whilst I was yours too, if I recall,” you tease right back, a smirk coming to your face. He hums and stops at the other end of the table, pulling you to a stop too at your end. 

“So, what are we going to do? Keep playing this game of cat and mouse?” he asks as he slips his shirt off and drops it to the table, bringing his hands to the table to lean against it. Your eyes flicker to his arms, watching as his muscles roll under his smooth skin as he leans against it. You gulp before flashing your eyes back to his strong gaze. It takes you a moment to realize what he just said. 

You sigh and cross your arms over your chest, turning to look away from him. You don’t notice how his eyes move to your deep neckline then, drinking in the sight of your cleavage from the side. “Lucifer, you mustn’t say such things. You know we can’t…” you trail off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Maybe if you don’t say it out loud, it won’t come true. 

Maybe there is still a chance for you two. 

Before he can reply though, you hurriedly change the subject. “You’re a fool to want to fight Sir Solomon,” you jab. You wanted to beg him to take it back, to not risk his life for something that isn’t worth it but, again, you know it’d be fruitless. 

“I am no fool, Miss (L/n),” he replies shortly, tugging on a new tunic that has a thicker material. With that, you leave the tent. You mustn’t get such fairytale ideas, like the possibility of you two having a future, in your head. You are engaged to his brother, to the future king, and nothing can change that.

“You have no place here,” Leviathan asserts as soon as his brother comes out of the tent. He fixes his armor as he converses with his brother. 

“You do not know war, Leviathan,” is his calm reply to his frantic brother. 

“I do know war,” he argues. He doesn’t. 

“You do not,” Lucifer speaks your thoughts without knowing he did so. “You’ve been recruited to our father’s madness, to wars that need not be fought. These men are not our enemies. Our father has made them thus.”

“Why then are you here? You so disapprove of our cause and yet, still, you find it necessary to upstage me.” You aren’t able to hold back a snort. Leviathan is sounding more and more like a child throwing a tantrum by the minute. The duo turns to look at you at the sound, making you quickly start coughing to hopefully cover it up, knowing that if one of the other men heard you disrespecting the prince, the future king, in such a way, you’d surely be punished. 

Leviathan is too much of a coward to say anything to you about it though. 

“I do this not to steal your thunder, brother. I do it to save your life.”

“Pardon me, my lords. Our herald has returned from the rebel camp. They have refused Prince Lucifer’s offer. They want battle.” You can’t stop or deny the relief that fills your entire body. You watch as Leviathan walks away, once again reminding you of a child throwing a fit by stomping their feet. You don’t know why he’s acting in such a way though. He got what he wanted. 

You look to Lucifer to find him already looking at you, your heart skipping a beat from his gaze. You wordlessly follow after your fiance, not trusting yourself to be alone with the handsome male. 

Your eyes widen when you see the man of the hour ride up to your side of the battlefield, your fiance pushing through his men to reach the front. Without thinking, you follow after him. You don’t trust him to be civil or to not be a coward. 

“Where is Lucifer?” he calls, making your heart fall out of your chest and onto the dry ground. Has he reconsidered? “I come to fight him in our armies’ stead.” Yes, he did. Oh god, you might be sick. 

“No. His offer was refused,” Leviathan responds instantly, your eyes moving the back of your fiance’s head now. For once, you actually agree with the man-child. 

“The offer has been reconsidered.” No, no, no.

“I said no!” he shouts, making you cringe a bit. You don’t mean to be so mean to your future husband but he just doesn’t sound threatening at all. He really does just sound like a child to you. 

“Why is the little dog barking?” he asks and you want to laugh but you also know it’s not supposed to be funny. But, c’mon, he practically just read your mind! “Hm?” he hums with a taunting raise of his brow at your husband-to-be. “Where be the big dog?” he screams, making you flinch at his sudden volume. 

In a flash, Lucifer pushes through men and comes to stand beside you. “It will be done,” he says with his eyes trained on your enemy. He goes to move forward but you grab his wrist before you can tell yourself not to, his squinted eyes softening when he turns to look at you. 

“Lucifer, please,” you whisper for only him to hear, your eyes starting to sting. What if he gets hurt? Or worse.

Solomon chuckles to himself as he looks between the two of you. “And here I am with the whoring fool,” he starts, Lucifer seeming to not care about the words coming from his mouth. He was overall indifferent until his next words. “Have you claimed your brother’s wife to be as your own? I’m sure you’ve taken her innocence by now too. Takes a whore to know a whore.” Lucifer pulls himself from your grip and marches forward, coming to stand next to his brother. 

“This fight need not be had, Solomon,” Lucifer warns, doing his best to remain calm when really, all he wants to do is punch him in the jaw. “My father will soon be dead. Your grievances will die with him.”

“Don’t be afraid of our small contest, young Lucifer. I promise to finish it quickly and not embarrass you too much in front of your new whore,” he taunts before turning away from him. “Come on.” 

Lucifer is quick to move forward, his jaw clenched tight before it’s hidden by the helmet he slides on. His tongue poking the inside of his cheek is still very visible though, letting you know just how truly peeved he is. 

“Your father is plague to England,” Solomon declares as he slides his helmet face down. “Come for me, big dog!” he shouts as he points his sword at Lucifer. Lucifer does the same before getting into position, your whole body shaking from how nervous you are. 

They start to circle each other and do so for a moment before Solomon speaks up. “Once I claim your head, I might just claim your brother’s too before taking your whore. I think she’ll love bouncing on my cock and calling my name,” he taunts, trying to get a reaction out of him. 

A reaction he did receive. 

Lucifer instantly plunges forward with his sword, only to be blocked and pushed aside. The fight continues on for a while, each one getting in hits and gaining the upper hand before it’s the other’s turn. Your eyes leave them as three men ride up to the fight, watching the two hit and slice at each other. 

Lucifer ends up dropping his sword while Solomon is attacking him, slyly grabbing one of the other men’s daggers as he backs away from his opponent. Once they fall to the ground, fear swallows you whole as it seems that Solomon will deliver the final blow. Before he can though, Lucifer trips him and brings him crashing to the ground and before he can recover, he moves on top of him and stabs him in the neck. 

You almost cry from the relief that you feel. 

He removes Solomon’s helmet before marching towards his brother with it. “Someday this will be your head. Dropped at the feet of a man who might otherwise have been your brother. Come with me, Leviathan. Please. Walk away from this field.” You stare at Lucifer in awe, feeling just how much he cares for his brother. 

“After you just stolen its prized scalp?” He’s joking. He has to be. “This is what will be spoken of tomorrow!” He’s not joking. “This field was mine!” he shouts. God, you’ve already said this so many times but he really is just a child on the inside. He’s acting like Lucifer just took away his toy when it was his turn to play with it. “It was to mark my dominion. Instead, now it marks only this head. This bloody head!” You look between the two, hoping for Leviathan to just let it go and to realize that Lucifer just saved his life. 

“Move!” he screams. Guess no such thing will be happening today. You watch him go before turning to look at Lucifer, only to find him gone. You quickly pick up your skirts and walk speedily to the tent he was getting ready in. When you arrive, you find him tossing his armor off and dropping it to the earth. 

He stops when you come in, his eyes holding all of the words he left unsaid to his brother. He doesn’t say anything as he takes off the last of his armor, gently setting it down onto the table. Without thinking, you charge forward and wrap your arms around his neck. 

“I thought you were to die out there today,” you whimper, letting your tears free and land on the ground by his armor. He softly shushes you as he wraps his arms back around you, gently rubbing your back with one hand while the other cradles the back of your head. 

“Shh, it’s alright, (Y/n). I’m alright. I’m not going anywhere,” he whispers, kissing your temple. You sniffle as you pull back, staring up at him with your watery eyes. You didn’t have time to pull away from him before his lips found yours. Now that they’re there though, you can’t bring yourself to deny him. You greedily kiss him back, praying that no one should walk in and find you two in such a vulgar state. 

He kisses you like you’ve never been kissed before, stealing the breath right out of your lungs and taking it for his own. Your hands move up his back to his hair, tugging on the long strands as he slips his pink muscle into your mouth. A moan tumbles past your lips and onto his without warning, making him hum and drag your body impossibly closer to his. 

A man’s barking laugh from outside of the tent snaps you out of your moment of relapsed judgment. You pull away from him and listen to you both pant, breathing in and out the same air from how close you are. “I must go,” you breathe before disappearing from the tent in the blink of an eye. Once outside of the tent, your hand grasps at your chest, trying to calm your racing heart and the blush that is surely spreading across your cheeks. 

It was odd hearing the news of Leviathan’s death soon after Lucifer had defeated Solomon. You had gone back to the kingdom, thinking the fight was over, only for your fiance to continue on in his desperate attempt to prove himself. He met his end in the western fields of Wales during battle. You didn’t cry though, you simply frowned and looked out the closest window to you. You never loved him, but you did care for him, just not enough for you to shed tears over his death.  

Soon after his death, you find yourself standing amongst the priests and minions of the king, frowning at the ill king as he rests in bed. He wasn’t the best king to rule but he was usually quite kind to you, so you held no hatred towards the man. You look away from him when you hear screaming, a sigh coming from you. 

His son doesn’t feel the same way, it appears. 

You watch him walk in, flinching a bit when he refers to his father as a monster. He walks past one of the men, saying as he walks past, “Move. Leave him.” 

“The king needs rest,” another man argues, standing up to the angered man before you. 

“Soon he will have it,” he quips, moving around this man as well. 

“He’s dying,” the man hisses, continuing to insist that he leave the king alone. 

“Leave,” Lucifer breathes, the single word dripping with venom. The man drops his argument then, slowly moving out of Lucifer’s way. When Lucifer reaches for his father’s covers, you step forward. 

“Lucifer,” you say softly but it was like you weren’t even there. He tugs the blankets off of him and drops them to the floor, moving around the bed to stand on the opposite side of you. It seems he also realizes that you’d be able to calm him if he just gave you the chance. 

He doesn’t want to be calm though. 

You stand still as Lucifer places his hands on the bed and moves to hover his head over his father’s, leaning in to whisper, “You feel this cold? Wretch.” 

You’ve never seen him like this before.

Your eyes begin to water as his father shakily tries to raise his hand to touch his son, your hands squeezing at the sides of your dress as you watch him gently touch Lucifer’s hair. Lucifer begins to rock, seeming a little unnerved by this. 

“Lucifer. Lucifer. You must be king, Lucifer. Please. You must be king, Lucifer.” It was honestly a strange sight to see him so weak, to see him begging his son for something so openly. Tears started cascading down your face as he starts to have trouble speaking, his face scrunching up in pain and...disbelief? Regret? Worry? Fear? You aren’t quite sure. “I know not what I have done,” are the king’s last words before he lets out one last groan before going still. 

You wipe at your eyes and cheeks, turning to watch Lucifer leave his father’s side to stand before the others. They all start to bow and get on one knee, your eyes widening a bit at the realization that he really is the king now. 

You lower yourself into a curtsey, watching fresh tears leave your eyes and fall to the wooden floors. “You know not what will become of you. So, I offer you this. The most blessed reprieve, the most dreadful misery. You shall suffer the indignity of serving me, the wayward son you so revile. But know now that you will be watched over by an altogether different king.” 

With that, he brushes past everyone to leave the room. You raise from your curtesy to quickly follow after him. You don’t bother calling out to him as you follow him, wiping away your final tears before taking a deep breath. 

When he finally stops, he is in front of a grand window that looks over the front of the castle and shows snippets of the town where he’s been living. “Lucifer,” you whisper as you come up to him, noticing that he seems to not hear you. You aren’t sure if this is because of how quiet you are or because he is stuck in his head. 

Becoming the king can do that to you. 

You quietly come up behind him and slowly wrap your arms around him, leaning into his back. You feel his body shaking, soft cries escaping him as you silently hold him. You feel his arms come up to rest on yours, tears splattering on your sleeves and skin. You let him cry though, not making a peep. 

There’s nothing you could say that would heal him right now. 

You’re there for every part of the ritual that Lucifer must complete to become king, your heart seeming to race the entire time. You don’t shout along with everyone else as he is pronounced king, everyone joyously shouting, “King Lucifer!” over and over again.

You’re right beside him at the table as you and the king's companions and allies eat to celebrate his success, your hands secretly conjoined with his underneath the table. Your new relationship, if you would even call it that, didn’t need to be a secret anymore, seeing as how he is king and you are to marry whoever the new king is to be, but just yesterday it was his brother and it almost feels wrong to be with Lucifer now.

Not that you were complaining one bit. The man beside you has had your heart since the beginning. 

You watch as the gift bearer announces gift after gift and you continue to watch on as Lucifer gives every single gift away to someone else. He’s so noble. It makes you swoon each time you see him act in such a way. It wasn’t until Dauphin’s gift was presented that his mood suddenly shifted. 

“From the Dauphin, son of his majesty Charles, King of France,” the announcer says before stepping to the side to allow Lucifer access to whatever was inside the decently sized box. Your brows furrow as you watch him stare down into the box, becoming more concerned the longer that he doesn’t move. He finally reaches in and takes out something that you cannot see. You don’t have to wonder for long what it is since he announces it. 

“A ball.” A heavy pause. “There is no accompanying message from the Dauphin?”

“No, my liege.” Another long pause. 

“I shall keep this gift. This one is sent only for me. For the boy I once was,” he says softly before throwing the ball against the wall and catching it single-handedly. You aren’t sure why such a simple action makes heat come to your cheeks. He then walks back over to his seat and sets the ball down but doesn’t set himself down. 

“I have a gift of my own that I’d like to present now,” he says as he raises his hand to cut off the announcer from announcing whoever’s gift was next. Everyone appears just as confused as you, your eyes turning up to look at him instead of the announcer. You find his eyes already on you, along with a gentle smile. “(Y/n),” he says as he offers you his hand for you to take. You wait for him to continue but he says no more. You gently place your hand in his and allow for him to help you stand, your free hand gathering up your dress. He leads you to the fireplace behind your chairs, the heat of the fire not helping the blush that appeared only a moment ago. 

“My darling (Y/n), ever since I met you, I knew you and I were to be wed someday. Now that I am king, that day is closer than ever before. I hope you will accept my gift,” he says softly to you, not really caring if others heard him or not. He then removes something from his pocket before going to one knee, your eyes widening even though you two are already engaged. You look down to your left hand and see the ring that has been passed down through his family for generations. His eyes move to where yours are, a small grunt leaving him as he brings one hand to take it off. “My gift to you is a proper proposal that you may decline if your heart so desires. I shall no longer ask you to be my wife because it is your duty. I shall ask you to be my wife because I want you to be.” Your eyes sting at his confession, your heart trying to beat out of your chest to fly into his hands. 

“I want to be with you too, Lucifer,” you whisper, afraid if you spoke any louder, your voice would give out. He smiles brighter than before as he slides the ring he picked out onto your ring finger, putting the old ring into the box in place of the new one.

He then stands and wraps his arms around you in a hug, your eyes burning from the oncoming tears. He swiftly pulls back though to share a passionate kiss with you, clapping and shouts of joy ringing around you. When you both pull away from the kiss, you let out a watery laugh as you look down at the beautiful ring. “You and I will rule this kingdom together until we meet our end. You shall be by my side every step of the way, no matter what hardships we may encounter. I love you, (Y/n).”

You sniffle and wipe at your teary eyes with a big smile. “I love you more, Lucifer.”

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

MASTERLISTS

More with Lucifer

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⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

[more-than-a-princess]

@xdcwntherabbithole​ asked:  What was your favorite TV show growing up? Do you still watch it? How many languages do you speak?

Munday meme full of random questions for the mun - Accepting!

What was your favorite TV show growing up? Do you still watch it?

I feel like I should preface this by saying the following: I didn’t have cable TV in my house until I was 14 or 15 years old. So that may alter what I can comment on this, at least in terms of what I watched routinely.

Mostly though, what I had access to as a kid was PBS and Disney’s One Saturday Morning (and a few WB cartoons, like Animaniacs). What I remember watching most often though? Wishbone, Reading Rainbow, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, The Simpsons, Star Trek: The Next Generation, ER, and Masterpiece Theatre (Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy? chef’s kiss). Wishbone was entirely due to the literary focus and I liked to challenge myself to beat the kid contestant kids on the geography questions on Carmen Sandiego. The other three were either out of coincidence, that they happened to always be on, or the fact that my parents were really into Star Trek and ER. 

Cable was a treat though, mostly when I went to relatives’ or friends’ houses, or on vacation. It was then I could see the Holy Grail (at the time): Nickelodeon. Sure, you had your Cartoon Network Cartoon Cartoons, with your Dexter’s Lab and Powerpuff Girls (this may have been a little later than my childhood, actually) and Johnny Bravo...but Nickelodeon?

Nick was gold. It was the coolest channel on TV for elementary school-aged me.

Doug, Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, All That, Legends of the Hidden Temple, GUTS...yeah. I loved all of those when I was able to watch them. AYAotD, Doug, and Legends were my favorites, though. And I managed to visit Universal while the Nickelodeon Studios were still open and the slime geyser was still going. It was beautiful.

Anyone else remember the time capsule?

As a teen, I finally went back and rewatched stuff I missed, like Daria, but I was mostly watching anime at that point. By the time I got to college though, I finally got into The O.C., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, Supernatural, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, etc. in my late teens/early 20s. I’m not sure how Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, and Vampire Diaries passed me by, but they did. 

As for a selection of my lineup of must-watch TV:

- So. Many. Historical. Dramas: Downton Abbey, The Great, Bridgerton, Sanditon, Victoria, Poldark, Endeavour, Grantchester, Outlander, A Discovery of Witches, Mad Men, The Gilded Age, Miss Scarlet and the Duke...etc.

- Actually just a lot of British TV in general. Just...just throw Britcoms, mysteries, and dramas at me. And while not strictly a British-made show, can E!’s The Royals come back? That final season cliffhanger was BS. Despite the creator being full of shit, The IT Crowd was great. Also: The Inbetweeners, Skins. 

- Netflix selections like: Stranger Things, Lupin, Big Mouth, Elite, Squid Game, most things by Mike Flanagan that don’t have dead cats in them (I’m looking at you, Hill House. Screw you, Hill House). I still need to watch Money Heist.

- Anime like: Lupin III Part 6, Spy x Family (alongside a whole list of favorites)

- Disney+ like: Ms. Marvel, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and soon....SHE-HULK. I’ve been waiting for MCU She-Hulk since the first Avengers movie, pretty much. She’s my favorite superhero. I am VERY EXCITE.

- Others: American Horror Story, Riverdale (though I stopped watching this season), Pretty Little Liars, Dollface, Shrill, Sex and the City (some episodes are better than others), Peacemaker, and I’m rewatching The Sopranos. Still need to start the TV version of The Time-Traveler’s Wife (the book is a favorite of mine. The movie was terrible) and finish up Succession and Euphoria.

How many languages do you speak?

Fluently? One. English, of course. But I’ve got a decent grasp on French, at least enough to get around: I studied the language between ages 8 and 22, though if I don’t use it frequently it’s harder to keep up with it. I also studied some Latin and Japanese.

Fiancé is fluent in English and Italian, and knows some Spanish and German. This makes our planned trips to Europe much easier!

[lover-of-trash-and-people]

shadow and bone rewatch s1e6 while drinking mid-range scotch

I wish I have a face that is as unlined and pretty as Ben Barnes' when I'm 39

Arken you dirty dirty liar

the face Alek is making at his lies that he knows are lies firstly because he knows the art of lying so well and also because he can read people very well

okay Ivan is kind of a bad bitch with his smirk at Arken's lies

alek's eyes narrowing and his little smile when Arken says 'im an entertainer' bitch I love this show

*grabs hand, pulls up sleeve, and discovers Arken's hand is full of marks indicating successful passages through the fold* 'well, that is certainly entertaining' I love this man with all my heart

him screaming is so fucking hot, is that weird for me to say

Nina being the Darkling's spy is quite interesting

Ben giving the Darkling crazy eyes when Arken owns up to his guilt is so cool

also wtf is Arken a fool trying to negotiate with possibly the strongest man in the world

kind of loved the darkness literally eating him

also love Alina learning to use her powers better when she is alone than when she is with anyone else, wish we got to see the cut in this season as per the books, ah can't have everything I guess

the camera pan to Jesper's gun at his side, amazing

god Jessie is literally so beautiful I need to see her bring Alina to the peak of her power so bad

netflix you better renew this series to let the plot run to its completion

HOW THE FUCK DID THEY CAST THE CROWS SO PERFECTLY

INEJ FUCKING TREMBLING JUST THE TINIEST BIT AS SHE BOWS SLIGHTLY TO ALINA SGSHSBSJJSJSSJ MY TWO QUEENS

'And where is my Summoner?' my little Darklina heart ouchie I really wish you hadn't used and manipulated her like this Alek it was incredibly fucked up especially considering you actually caught feelings

'Ivan and I won't fail you' oh Fedyor my baby, my angel, you don't deserve what is coming

Helnik literally recreating Titanic lmao stop this is a joke

I too would jump off the raft if I came to consciousness to see a gorgeous woman with magical powers with her hand on my back

omg but why is ryevost so pretty though

'I know exactly how she felt. The King's soldiers treated me the same way... I'm not myself today.' why must you do this to me, why must you fuel my darklina soulmates agenda idiocy

I don't quite think I have a problem with the Zoya Darkling relationship as much as I have a problem with the line they chose to reveal it to use with.

my drink's over and I don't know if I should have another, considering that it's 7 am

the tenderness with which he looks at Zoya and takes her hand and then when he says 'I shall relax when I have Alina' makes me believe more that the man that is reduced to tears time and again in front of Alina could in fact be the master manipulator I know him to be

god I can't wait for Zoya's character arc

'I speak six languages, it's part of my job' why is Nina literally the fucking coolest

Alina blinding the oprichniki was so hot, I can't wait to see more of her power and her ruthlessness

I know I've said it before but good god is Jessie Mei Li gorgeous

HER LITTLE SMILE AMONGST ALL THE PANIC AS SOON AS SHE SEES MAL, THE AUDACITY OF THIS SHOW TO MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY

THE SCORE COMING IN AT THE RIGHT MOMENT, THEIR HANDS MEETING, HER SMILE AGAIN DHDHSBSNSNSNSNAN IM IN PAIN

REALLY?! YOU'RE GONNA GO DIRECTLY FROM MALINA TO HELNIK WITH NO CONCERN FOR MY HEART?

I simply cannot get over Calahan's accent lmao it's really funny

'im not afraid of you' he says to the insanely gorgeous girl with magic

HIM HANGING HIS HEAD IN DEFEAT TO INDICATE NINA HAS MADE VALID POINTS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND I CAN'T BREATHE

'You're just a man. Like all the others.' she says and then forgets her train of thought looking at him as he strips. god I love this

not sleeping all night and then scotch is not a good idea, I think

'I promise not to ravish you' 'I hate the way you talk' her hand on his chest, his hand gripping hers, my fucking heart feels like it's about to explode

good god these shooting locations and sets are so beautiful

Alina throwing the flask at Mal and Mal going 'OI!' I fucking can't, I guess I am a

simp for childhood friends to lovers, give me more of that banter and childhood friend energy, I am thriving

wow it literally seems like they took book! Mal sl*tshaming book! Alina and made show! Alina sl*tshame show! Mal, hmm, interesting

'They would have split us up!' MAL'S LITTLE SMILE AT THIS, and the 'You wrote me letters?' Mal's nod, the Malina yearning stare, the Malina hug, 'thank you for finding me' 'always. I'll always find you.' NO MALINA YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU HAVE MADE ME ABSOLUTELY FUCKING FERAL

I understand they had to split time between my ravkan babies and the crows and that is why there were several aspects that were sort of not reflected on enough but Alina's training at the Little Palace, Alina's cut, Mal's personality, a teensy bit of backstory for the crows, maybe one lockpicking scene from my boy Kaz

random note: we have far too many idols and paintings and pictures and whatnot of Hindu deities in our house apart from the specially designed temple (we are Hindus, so maybe it's not that weird but it's a little weird)

Kaz's cane is a literal star, it's so beautiful my heart wants to explode

'Why would Heleen get the Crow Club?' *literally fucking gets up and walks aways instead of answering the fucking question* I LITERALLY CAN'T BREATHE I'M LOSING MY MIND

'I know that voice' WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO MAKE ME FIGHT FOR PLATONIC SHIPS IN FANDOMS

'We won't starve' omg get you someone who packs food for you when you go on the run together hiding from your ex who wants to capture you and use your powers as a weapon against your consent

Mal looking surprised at her summoning sunlight, Alina looking cautiously at him waiting for him to disapprove or run for the hills in fear or smth like that, 'I'm sorry it took me this long to see you... But I see you now' my dumb little shipper trash heart ouch

they really said we're gonna feed you this part asian couple as the protagonists in this show in 2021 and guess what I'm eating it's really tasty I'm very satisfied as a south asian

NINA'S LITTLE SMILE WHEN MATTHIAS WAKES UP WITH HIS ARM AROUND HER

'I can feel how much you hate sleeping next to me' 👀👀👀 BITCH SAID IMMA SPILL THE TEA AND THEN SHE DID

it's 8 am and guess what I'm getting another drink my parents have c*vid and are in govt qu*r*ntine centres there is nobody to supervise or stop me

I too say 'Why do you have to say things like that?' to my pretty crush when she flirts with me

Nina smiling at Matthias bragging about his conservative ways is my aesthetic

'No, it's not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall and yet, oh, there you stand.' MY FUCKING QUEEN

Matthias laughing uncontrollably at Nina saying something which isn't even that funny is a whole ass vibe

Kaz Brekker saying 'The Black General' ooh fuck yeah

YESSSS STEP OUT OF THAT CARRIAGE ALL SEXY BLACK GENERAL

isn't alcohol supposed to like kill germs? well, the amount in my system definitely will

I love my crows so much (always but this time particularly for setting that alarm in the stolen carriage)

ooh Polina recognising Inej by the knife yesss let's go writers

this Ivan Jesper showdown is all I needed from life and yet did not know about

Ivan taking off his cloak was, um, sexier than I wanted it to be

I just realised how thirsty I am going to sound in this post

'Has no one told you that keftas are Fabrikator-made and resistant to bullets, hmm?' 'Oh, I do love a challenge' LITERALLY EVERYTHING

im sorry to be pointing out flaws in a perfect show and adaptation but the line delivery on 'You robbed me of my brother, now I'll rob you of your life' from Polina was kind of weak

'You're a-' *gets knocked out with the back of a gun* LMAO we love the hints

got excited at the prospect of kaz v. zoya until I realised they will not be letting the opportunity of kaz v. darkling pass up

my goodness is Amita Suman a splendid actress

I AM NOT KIDDING WHEN I TELL YOU I SQUEALED WHEN I SAW DARKLES EMERGE OUT OF THE SHADOWS IN FRONT OF MY BABY BOY KAZ

THERE BEING ACTUAL FEAR OR ATLEAST DOUBT ON KAZ'S FACE, THE LITTLE BACK STEPS AS

THE DARKLING WALKS TOWARDS HIM, AAAAH I CAN'T

THE DARKLING STOPPING AT KAZ SAYING 'SHE FLED ON HER OWN' AND THE HINT OF TEARS THAT WE SEE IN HIS EYES

'IT WAS PRETTY CLEAR SHE WASN'T INTERESTED IN BEING A CAPTIVE ANYMORE' YOU TELL HIM, KING

*ACTUAL FUCKING TEARS IN THE DARKLING'S EYES AS THE SHADOWS APPROACH*

NOT ME YOWLING LIKE A HYENA THAT THIS CHILD OUTSMARTED THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN EXISTENCE WITH A FAKE MAGIC TRICK

'Are you sure you added enough cloves?' literally warranting a wide ass smile from my queen Alina making my entire fucking day

for some reason, no matter how much I push it from my mind, Ben Barnes dressed up as the Darkling, dancing to 'push it' keeps coming to mind, it's absolutely ridiculous

I got somehow distracted with interviews but good things came out of that as it gave my body the time for the booze to kick in

and I would just like to say that I love Leigh for all she has given me

Alina is so fucking compassionate, I have no much love for her. I can feel her guilt and her sorrow as Mal talks of Mikhail and Dubrov

don't particularly like how the stag plotline is woven in, could have been executed better

'You're afraid you might start to like me?' *flaps furs like a bird's wings in frustration*

'I DO like you' my fucking heart you idiots

the sexual tension is so palpable and the moment is so intimate I simply cannot

OMG SHE FUCKING FELL

that moment where you think he might let her fall despite having read the books and he doesn't and he tells her his name I- <3

YOU DARE TRANSITION FROM A HELNIK SCENE TO A KANEJ SCENE YOU REALLY HAVE NO MERCY FOR MY HEART HUH

people have talked about this endlessly but Freddie's little jaw tic after he says Inej because Inej is wounded and he can't physically bring himself to help her I fucking cannot

THE MUSIC PICKING UP AS KAZ LOOKS TO THE DARKLING'S CARRIAGE I CAN'T WITH THIS SHOW ANYMORE

and now for one of my favorite scenes in television and cinematic history, David Kostyk throwing a book at Jesper Fahey without even knowing who he is merely because he opens the door of his carriage and says hello to him before getting knocked out by Kaz Brekker while trying to run away

Immediately followed by another, the scene with David Kostyk raising his finger to put forward his point in front of the Darkling and the Darkling trying to let him know he doesn't have to before obliging is one of my favourite scenes in the world

also sir please stop being devastatingly attractive in your glorious appearance with your face and your black kefta and cloak because all that comes to mind is Ayesha Erotica's Emo Boy and I'm afraid that is terribly inappropriate.

'No, you look great.' *literally looks down from embarrassment or blushing* MALINA RIGHTS?

THE LOOK ON THE DARKLING'S FACE BEFORE HE SAYS 'NO ORDINARY TRACKER, NO ORDINARY GIRL' BITCH IM OUT OF BREATH

'ORPHANS OF KERAMZIN, REUNITED.' 'ADORABLE.' HE FUCKING SNEERED IRL I FUCKING CANNOT

GOD IT'S SO GOOD

[in-defense-of-the-horror]

An Artist and a Writer

“You know, I’m always going to support you, no matter what.”

That was always the hypothetical situation with Nate, and it probably always would be. He liked to talk about some mystical date in the future when he would be successful, and the money would be pouring in. He liked to describe this fantasy often, in the context that it would happen, probably because he realized that it never would.

He was a hack. It wasn’t the day-dreaming itself that bothered Greg – all artists had a certain level of disconnect from reality, he knew that was something he was guilty of himself. It was fact that in this portrait being painted of the future daily, his role in it never changed. Sometimes Nate did collaborations with authors whom he spent nights pontificating about with condescension. Often it was that his sole publication was picked up by a publisher for another three installations. Once it had been an adaptation into a Netflix original series that he himself directed and cameoed in for his fictional, adoring public. But the stories always ended the same way, with him supporting Greg. “Sure you will.” Greg had endured these ramblings for years, and he was never the star in these fantasies, never a co-star. They were never even equals. Nate liked him being more of a prop, it would seem. “I mean it. I’m going to take care of you.” He spent so much time thinking about that future that he didn’t even seem to realize Greg had been the one taking care of him for years. “I know you would,” he said flatly. “I will. This is going to happen.” “Sure.” It was hard to give monosyllabic replies that sounded sincere, though, and his attempt to evade further discussion had just pulled him deeper into the whole mess. “Oh, so you don’t believe in me now?” “I didn’t say that.” “You didn’t really have to. I can see it in your face. You don’t think that this project is going to happen. You don’t think I’m going to make any money off this.” “I think you have to finish the book, first.” Somehow it had slipped out and the tension was palpable between the two men. His situation had worsened considerably, but his chest felt lighter, even as his partner looked at him with the wounded eyes of an animal that has only ever known imagined pain up to this point in its life. “Wow.” “Look, Nate-“ “Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a novel?” “I’ve written novels, Nate.” “Do you have any idea how hard it is to publish one, then? No, you don’t. Making money in this business isn’t easy. It’s 99% networking – and that’s why you don’t have your name on the shelves.” “Your name isn’t on shelves either!” He was losing control of the situation, but it felt like it might be better to just air all his grievances at once. “You wrote one e-book seven years ago and you’ve been talking about it ever since.” “I have written plenty of other things since then, Greg! Which you would know if you ever paid attention to my work.” “You’ve started two other novels since then, and one short story that overstayed its welcome by about four-thousand words. That’s not enough content for so much time – even if you had finished one of them. I could list of every stage of every draft of every project you’ve considered since we’ve been together, because I have to hear about it for hours every time you manage to cough up a couple hundred words. I have to pay attention to it because it’s all you talk about all the time.” It felt so good to say it all out loud. The words carried with them a momentum and the knowledge that his life would never slide back into what it had been. Nathan, clearly, had felt the shift as well because he had fallen out of his victim routine, the wounded outer layer being peeled back to reveal something nasty and real that Greg had only ever caught glimpses of before. “Well, forgive me for wanting to do work that I’m actually proud of.” That was a low blow, calling him out for doing the contract work that had been paying both their bills. When they had started dating, Greg had been the sort of man who would never stoop that low in a fight. Then again, when they started dating, he thought he was in love with another writer. The insult was falling from his lips before he could even think of stopping it. “I would rather be a sell out than a prideful creator with no creation.” “How. Dare. You.” “That’s really the heart of the problem, isn’t it? You have no work. You have no ideas.” “I have ideas!” “The same ideas! The same three fucking ideas for your entire career – if we can even be calling it that.” “Stop it!” “No! I’ve been coddling your ego for too long – but I’m tired of hearing about what a genius you are every goddamned day and reading the same unfinished story over and over every time you change some punctuation. I can’t do it anymore.” “You won’t leave me.” “I’ll do one worse. I’ll tell you the truth. You’re the sort of writer who likes talking about his work more than he likes working on it – and the only market that sells to is the campus kids down the street who are as pretentious as you.” Honesty felt so good for Greg. The crime of passion that followed felt exponentially better for Nate. The knife was in his lover before he even knew what was happening. It had been sitting there, on the table where he had eaten alone because Greg had to work late. It hadn’t been cleaned up yet because Greg was too tired to ever dream of helping out around the house, let alone go to events or have a real conversation. Nate’s boyfriend who had always been afraid to open up, was now spilling his guts all over their hardwood floors. The irony of that struck Nate as incredibly poetic. As he let the body fall to the floor at last he tried to describe the sentiment in his head, to imagine how he might put it on paper. The words evaded him though – he couldn’t think of any that could truly capture the beauty of it all. It was something that he never could have imagined, a tragedy for the ages that bundled up in a warm euphoria. His metaphors kept mixing, and even in the thrill of the moment, the imagery was hard for him to hold onto. He wanted to do something with it before his inspiration was all gone. Taking just a moment to wipe his hands on his jeans, he retrieved his computer and sat down next to the carnage. He had the word processor up in seconds, but still, the story wouldn’t come to him. Not even in what he considered to be his finest moment. An abyss of white stared back at him, and they continued the stand-off until his vision was blurry and his brain hurt. Some work days were just like that. “I told you, you’re not a real writer.” Nathan tried to block out the sound of the corpse beside him, taunting him, just as it had in life. “You’re never going to see your name in print, you can’t write a single word.” “Shut up!” “Why don’t you tell me about the story you want to write, now that I’m truly a captive audience.” “You don’t deserve to hear it.” “You have nothing.” “I have everything I need.” “You’re not a writer.” He looked down at the body, half-expecting to see it sneering as it challenged him, cackling with its victory over his life and sanity. None of that was true, of course. Greg was just dead. “You’re not a writer.” This time, Nate was saying it to himself. He’d just had the biggest break through of his career. He wasn’t a writer after all. Maybe he never had been. He closed his laptop with a grin, feeling relief wash over him as he realized he’d never have to struggle with word count again. There would be no more query letters, no more rejection, no more feeling inadequate, and especially no more trying to fool himself into believing he was something he wasn’t. He wasn’t a writer; he was an artist. He was a visionary, a prodigy, someone who had created a masterpiece their first time around. The last seven years hadn’t been a waste. They’d pushed him to the point of brilliance and now that he’d found his calling, he could finally claim the success he knew he’d been destined for. He stood up a new man. For the first time since his publication he knew that he could go to bed and rest easy, knowing that it had been a fulfilling day of work. He looked down at the floor one last time, and exalted in the pride he had for his new creation.

[realitytvisamess]

Singapore Social(2019)

Disclaimer:

Reality TV is not reality. Any judgement made about the characters in these shows are based on exclusively the characteristics they displayed on their time in the show. The people on these shows are real people who have complex inner worlds I will never be aware of, and any judgements do not come from any intent to harm the actual people. If you were someone on this show, please do not take this as a judgement of you, but only of the character you portrayed on screen. If you are a watcher and find yourself validated by this analysis, please do not take that as permission or encouragement to approach anyone involved in the show to attack them. They signed up for a portion of their life to be filmed, not for a lifetime of harassment from internet trolls. Leave them be.

Summary of my thoughts:

I streamed this one on Netflix; my wife picked it at random. I was hopeful at the beginning, there were a lot of beautiful shots, and I enjoyed seeing that this would just be about a group of (majority female) friends. Unfortunately, one man did take up all the air in every scene he stepped in. Before we get to him, though, the women, while their friendship’s were by no means perfect, I did enjoy watching this group of people try and support each other while all going through their own dramas. 

I feel the age dynamic was also really interesting, these weren’t teenagers, and they didn’t pretend to be. They were career/romance-focused adults, all of whom were faced with choices in those realms. That being said, it did make the more childish characters really stand out and feel insufferable. Following the storylines about family, work, and education was a bright spot that slowly began to fade as another more personal drama began sucking all the air out of every room.  

The best bits:

The absolute peak of this show was Sukki going to finally meet the boy she was crushing on. Travelling across the world to open herself up to a relationship started with a lot of anxiety from her and eyebrows raised from her friends. In the end, that just made his reciprocation of her affection incredible. I clapped my hands and cheered out loud. Sukki, in general, was a bright spot throughout the show, and seeing her support Mae and all her friends was so heartwarming. The highest points were led up to really well, and we saw all the hard work and painful moments that led these characters to eventual success.

Who I loved: As I said, Sukki was an absolute gem. I don’t want to play armchair doctor, but as someone with a handful of neurodivergencies, I really related to her. Especially how hurt she was when the people she thought were her friends turned out to be more committed to being right than they were to trying to understand her. There were some really painful moments that came because of that dynamic, and in almost all the fights, I am #teamsukki.

Tabitha was also fun to watch most of the way through. Watching her be successful and firm in her singing career was a lot of fun, and watching her ex step up and step out of her life was a touching moment.

Who I hated:

Vinny and his… friend? From the second he opened his mouth, he revealed himself to be One of Those Guys. Y’know which kind I am talking about, one of those men that think they are the Chessmaster, manipulating everyone around them when really they are just so obvious in their insecurities that to get them to stop talking, people tell them what they want to hear. Vinny has clearly been told he was clever once and had not shut up since. If you have never met a man like this, you either are incredibly lucky, or you are one. That was my instinct when he entered the show, and I was proven right throughout the entire season. 

Revealing himself to be incredibly afraid of commitment, he showed his full ass on camera when he said he would only be ready for a romantic relationship once his career took off and then showed how bad his work was. He was using his failing directorial(?) career as an excuse to avoid any level of vulnerability, breaking up with his girlfriend only to emotionally manipulate her into staying for as long as possible and continuing to sleep with him. If that weren’t bad enough, when Sukki gently expressed concern over the situation, he would go on to gang up and attack her at another friend's big event, making her cry only to follow that up with a chaser of alienating her from their other friends by lying about her. 

While pretending to be this Deep Sensitive Guy, he revealed his toxicity over and over and over again. It was clear he was upset that Sukki had a more successful creative career than him due to her emotional vulnerability and was terrified when she challenged his faux intellectual toxic masculinity. Both he and his partner attempted to sabotage her career and friendships, and it was eventually their combined misogyny and lack of self-awareness that ruined an otherwise enjoyable show for my wife and me. 

Did I follow up?:

Yes. This show was not well received, as it displayed only the lives of the wealthy and semi-famous; it set up an unrealistic version of Singapore and does not look like it will be getting a second season. Since the season left me emotionally dead because of Vinny’s bullshit getting rewarded by the oblivious friend group, I checked instagram, and it looks like Sukki is killing it in real life. Her activism is meeting a continued success, and she seems to be thriving. (It also did feel very satisfying to see her more personal Instagram have 250k+ followers while Vinny’s carefully curated one has under 20k)

[officialotakudome]

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Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe Anime Review

A new spinoff from the JoJo world staring mangaka Rohan Kishibe is out on Netflix. Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe adapts the spinoff source of the same name into an animated series of horrifying tales lead Rohan experienced prior to and sometime following his meeting of Josuke Higashikata, Koichi Hirose, and Okuyasu Nijimura. Rohan tackles curses, ghosts, and ghouls in what’s hopefully the first half of a two part adaptation. 

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is a 2017 shounen OVA adaptation of the original 1997 manga of the same name. It is produced by David Productions and licensed by Netflix for streaming in the US. Four chapters have been animated and are available in English and Japanese audio.

Editor’s Note: This review may contain near complete to complete spoilers for Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe and it’s source material (main and namesake).

Former JoJo antagonist turned protagonist Rohan Kishibe takes center stage in a new spinoff.

Originally debuting in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4/Diamond is Unbreakable, Rohan started off as a villain antagonizing Koichi while pretending to be his friend. Upon meeting Josuke Higashikata and learning what happens to people who insult his iconic hairdo, Rohan while not completely turning into a hero does end up becoming a valuable asset to the Joestars of Morioh. As Koichi prepares to depart to Italy (starting the events of Golden Wind), he asks Rohan for a favor who instead decides to tell him and the others about his supposed encounters with the supernatural.

JoJo focuses on it’s beloved horror elements in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.

THE GOOD: The initial source to Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is eight chapters long and ran from 1997 to 2018 with chapters being released several years apart from one another. The anime follows a similar production schedule with the first four episodes being released within a year from each other except for the last two which were both released in 2020. The four chapters adapted in the anime are “Millionaire Village”, “Mutsu-kabe Hill”, “At a Confessional”, and “The Run”.  In the first episode (in Netflix’s order) Rohan encounters Koichi who asks him to use his stand Heaven’s Door to force fluent Italian into his life story as he’s getting ready to head out to the country on behalf of the Speedwagon Foundation for a mission. Rohan decides to tell Koichi of his own time spent in Italy following his meeting of the former and the other Joestars. Rohan learns that a young man had been cursed after accidentally killing a homeless man having overheard his story when he incidentally posed as a preacher in a confessional box. The curse relays that the homeless man shall come for the young man as a cursed spirit to kill him during the happiest moment of his life.  Several years pass and the young man has become insanely wealthy with a family, one day while out with his daughter he’s suddenly attacked by her who has been possessed by the homeless man now seeking his revenge. The young man tries to claim that the homeless man’s death wasn’t his fault, so the homeless man says they’ll let faith decide. He challenges the young man to catch popcorn that his daughter was eating in his mouth three times after tossing it in a high distance. The young man succeeds twice following distractions from pigeons, however on the third try he fails and has his head cut off. Rohan is about to question the validity of the man’s story before he’s stopped by the man explaining that he had switched identities with a loyal servant through surgery and the servant was the one who was killed by the spirit. It is then revealed that the servant having been tricked has also cursed the man along with the homeless man swearing together to curse him on the day of his daughter’s happiest moment in life as he continues his escape. Following this story, Rohan meets with his editor, Minoru Kaigamori asking for an advanced for work on his latest manga shocking him. He explains that he lost his money purchasing a huge piece of land in Mutsukabezaka rumored to be haunted, but scheduled for road work. He purchased the land in an effort to prevent the supposed spirit from being scared off. The supposed spirit belongs to Naoko Osato; a woman scheduled for an arranged marriage by her wealthy family but is visited by her lover Gunpei their gardener who she accidentally kills after an argument gets physical. Gunpei’s body seemingly continues to pour blood no matter what she did. When her fiancée and father come to visit Osato panics and hides the body while clearing the blood. The wound pours blood years after Osato marries everyday requiring her to clean the spill. 

In the present, Rohan heads to the property where he meets a young girl. After a discussion with the girl she trips and suffers a surprising fatal wound. Rohan is stunned to see her body bleeding out profusely like Gunpei in the story. Using Heaven’s Door he looks into her past learning she is the child of Gunpei & Osato and is suffering from the effects of a generational yokai curse. Rohan rewrites the girl’s past erasing the curse and saving her life. He decides to use the story as inspiration for his new manga. Later he meets up with another editor of his, Kyōka Izumi who wants Rohan to accompany her on a trip to purchase a famous villa where the owners are notoriously strict on manners. They arrive and pick up a lost baby bird & are then greeted by doorman Ikkyū. Upon entering the home Ikkyu immediately notes that they have already failed to respect the three main rules. Kyōka begs for a second chance, but gets a call informing her that her mother and boyfriend died in a car crash together. Rohan also finds the baby bird has been killed. He quickly uses Heaven’s Door on Ikkyu learning that the villa has a direct connection to mountain gods who rewards those who succeed in following the rules and punishes those who don’t with a sacrifice of something precious. Rohan’s use of his stand causes another break in the rules which gives Kyōka a heart attack. Ikkyu gives Rohan a chance to redeem himself and Kyōka if he can properly eat an ear of corn. Rohan passes and tricks Ikkyu into failing to remain respectful of the house rules reversing the infliction of the mountain gods on Kyōka and her family. The final story is told from the perspective of male model Yoma Hashimoto who works out at the same gym as Rohan. He quickly rises to fame & success while forming a rivalry with Rohan following a competition back in the past in which Rohan cheated to win. Yoma becomes obsessed with improving his physique and steals money from his girlfriend for more high end equipment. After showcasing strange behavior on top of the stealing she kicks Yoma out. While in the gym alone Yoma challenges Rohan to the same competition they had before which is accepted. Yoma increases the stakes by breaking the glass window behind them as the speed on the treadmill goes faster killing whoever stops first. Rohan attempts to grab the remote controlling the machines, but is stopped and has his fingers broken by Yoma. The speed continues to accelerate as Yoma’s body changes. Rohan uses Heaven’s Door and learns that Yoma killed anyone that got in the way of his training including his girlfriend. Upon further investigation Rohan realizes that Yoma has become the avatar of speed god Hermes. As Yoma wins the competition Rohan uses his stand to force Yoma to stoop his treadmill instead seemingly killing him. Rohan shows regret for feeling forced to kill Yoma and likely earning Hermes’ wrath causing trouble in the future.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is an eye-opening experience in just how expansive the potential of the JoJo world can be. And as we’ve seen with recent arcs for the franchise mangaka Hirohiko Araki is not afraid to experiment with his work. Part six, Stone Ocean acts as a soft reboot for the franchise completely upon it’s climax redesigning several fan favorite characters as well as successfully introducing a new wave of main characters in between. While Rohan is focused on an already established character itself, it does build the world of JoJo without a dependency on stands. Instead opting to tackle the more supernatural elements that’s spread throughout the centered world. Something that’s consistently praised in the JoJo fandom is Araki’s use of horror for more dramatic scenes in the series. This is where ‘Rohan’ gets most of it’s inspiration from. It weirdly fits for Rohan to be surrounded by non-stand related supernatural phenomenon oddly fits his character being a mangaka and all. It’s also been suggested that Rohan is also an avatar for Araki himself within the series.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe breaths new life into a decades old franchise.

I mentioned early that Rohan while a good assist to the Joestars isn’t a full on good guy, but Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe explores his more human side. He’s still an asshole, but he has a heart when it counts even going out of his way to save one of his editors who’s nearly killed from mountain gods. It shows his development is continuing to grow after the end of the Kira arc when he expressed his sadness for Reimi Sugimoto finally being able to move on following Kira’s defeat. ‘Rohan’ also introduces the potential of gods possibly being used in the JoJo franchise. I’m not too familiar with the spinoff material over the main canon so I wouldn’t know if they haven’t already done this. But I do think it’s odd for Araki to reference gods twice in the spinoff if he wasn’t considering having them be apart of a main storyline or spinoff down the line. If anything ‘Rohan’ proves that JoJo can indeed exist without the use of stands, as it did with Harmon before. Thus keeping the franchise’s ability to stay fresh vast and wide. In regards to the new characters introduced there’s not really much to them they were more or less minor plot devices to either introduce the story or move it forward. If Araki wants to continue with experimenting on giving other characters their own self-contained stories this could always be changed in the future. 

Old favorites have small speaking roles in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.

THE BAD: While not likely it’s possible that the four out of eight adapted chapters could be all there is. At least for quite a while. The COVID-19 pandemic heavily effecting the anime industry aside David Productions has been quite busy these days picking up series after series for adaptation efforts, And it’s significantly slowed down how much work they can do on the JoJo franchise. If you were expecting some decent interaction between Rohan and the core cast you’ll be rather disappointed. While some characters have voice roles in the spinoff this is very much the Rohan show and they have maybe a combined five or so combined minutes of screen time with him. Speaking of limited appearance, Josuke Higashikata does make an appearance in the spinoff. Two in fact, but they aren’t voiced which is odd. Story wise it makes a bit of sense as Rohan kind of despises Josuke so maybe it was intentional? Or maybe they couldn’t schedule Josuke’s Japanese VA for the spinoff to do lines and just cut him from having a speaking role.

New characters and experiences opens JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure into a world with limited Stand use.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe feels like it’s job was to be more than “just another spinoff” and it succeeds with flying colors. It not only properly represents it’s namesake, but it also provides the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise with a multitude of doors to open for experimentation into new directions and the potential move away from Stands in the near future. There’s tons of JoJo material outside of the canon which could and should be animated in some point in time, including a sequel novel to Golden Wind which people still debate on the canonical relation it has to the series. It’s nice seeing a series that debuted in the 80s still having some more tricks up it’s sleeve to captivate viewers almost forty years later. Otaku Dome gives Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe a 95 out of 100.

[orbemnews]

When Doing Well Means Doing Good Exclusive: The S.E.C.’s evolution on E.S.G. Allison Herren Lee was named acting chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, and since then she has been active, especially when it comes to environmental, social and governance, or E.S.G., issues. The agency has issued a flurry of notices that such disclosures will be priorities this year. Today, Ms. Lee, who was appointed as a commissioner by President Donald Trump in 2019, is speaking at the Center for American Progress, where she will call for input on additional E.S.G. transparency, according to prepared remarks seen by DealBook. The supposed distinction between what’s good and what’s profitable is diminishing, Ms. Lee will argue in the speech, saying that “acting in pursuit of the public interest and acting to maximize the bottom line” are complementary. The S.E.C.’s job is to meet investor demand for data on a range of corporate activities, and Ms. Lee’s planned remarks suggest that greater transparency on E.S.G. issues won’t be optional for much longer. “That demand is not being met by the current voluntary framework,” she will say. “Human capital, human rights, climate change — these issues are fundamental to our markets, and investors want to and can help drive sustainable solutions on these issues.” Ms. Lee will also argue that “political spending disclosure is inextricably linked to E.S.G. issues,” based on research showing that many companies have made climate pledges while donating to candidates with contradictory voting records. The same goes for racial justice initiatives, she will say. This is not an interim priority. Ms. Lee is acting chief, but based on recent statements by Gary Gensler, President Biden’s choice to lead the S.E.C., she’s laying the groundwork for more action rather than throwing down the gauntlet. In his confirmation hearing this month, Mr. Gensler said that investors increasingly wanted companies to disclose risks associated with climate change, diversity, political spending and other E.S.G. issues. Not everyone at the S.E.C. is on board. Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman, fellow commissioners also appointed by Mr. Trump, recently protested the “steady flow” of climate and E.S.G. notices. They issued a public statement, asking, “Do these announcements represent a change from current commission practices or a continuation of the status quo with a new public relations twist?” Further reading: HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING More prominent Democrats abandon Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Lawmakers like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested, to varying degrees, that the governor of New York consider resigning over allegations of sexual harassment. He has rejected those calls and is considering running for a fourth term. The U.S. is considering new ways to protect itself against cyberattacks. Efforts by China and Russia to breach government and corporate computer networks — and the failure of American intelligence to detect them — have spurred discussions about ways to organize U.S. cyberdefenses, including more partnerships with private companies. Credit Suisse is accused of continuing to help Americans evade taxes. The Swiss bank aided clients in hiding assets, seven years after it promised U.S. federal prosecutors that it would stop doing so, according to a whistle-blower report. That puts the firm at risk of a fresh investigation and more financial penalties. The bank said it was cooperating with the authorities. A veteran Democratic official is poised to join the Biden administration. Gene Sperling, an economic wonk who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, is likely to oversee the implementation of the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, Politico reports. Stripe is now Silicon Valley’s most valuable start-up. The payments processor has raised funding from investors like Sequoia and Fidelity at a $95 billion valuation. Stripe plans to use the money to expand in Europe, including in its founders’ home country, Ireland. Blockchain for the underbanked Brian Brooks, the former acting chief of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is really into blockchain. He was, after all, the chief counsel of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase before joining the O.C.C. But his enthusiasm isn’t based on Bitcoin’s success as much as on his personal struggles, he told DealBook. Mr. Brooks borrowed his way out of an ailing town. He grew up in Pueblo, Colo., a steel center that lost its purpose in the 1980s. His father took his own life when Mr. Brooks was 14, and he and his mother had little. In high school, he waited tables and took out loans for school, for a car and eventually for a home. Now, he’s betting that blockchain can help the underbanked do the same more easily. “Unlocking credit availability allows people to move up the ladder,” Mr. Brooks said. Nearly 50 million Americans don’t have credit scores, but many are creditworthy. Traditional rating systems aren’t equipped for nuanced assessments that might include things like rent, Netflix bills or income from gig work. For many, the inability to borrow limits opportunities to achieve financial security. At the O.C.C., Mr. Brooks started Project Reach, a financial inclusion initiative. His first move since resigning from the agency in January is to join the board of the fintech firm Spring Labs as an independent director, DealBook is the first to report. Among other things, the company is developing richer data environments for credit scoring using blockchain tech. Finding solutions to financial inclusion that are immune to politics is key, noted Mr. Brooks, a Trump administration appointee. Credit, he argues, lets people bet on themselves regardless of which party is making policy, and the current system excludes many worthy borrowers. “Let’s let more people climb ladders,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s just a pent-up cycle where the money has nowhere to go, so it’s doing stupid things.” — Howard Lindzon, an investor, entrepreneur and market commentator, speaking to The Times’s Erin Griffith on the booms (or bubbles) in everything from trading cards to Bitcoin, SPACs and so-called meme stocks. Big Pharma’s Covid booster The pharmaceutical industry is popular right now, which is perhaps unsurprising considering that the end of the pandemic depends on Covid-19 vaccines. Drug makers’ rapid response to the crisis has transformed public sentiment about the industry, moving it from one of the most reviled to one of the most respected, according to new data from the Harris Poll, revealed exclusively in DealBook. A year of living in fear created unlikely heroes. For the past year or so, the Harris Poll has monitored public sentiment in weekly surveys of more than 114,000 people. At the height of the emergency, more than half of respondents were afraid of dying from the virus and a similar share were afraid of losing their jobs. “Only in the past month, with vaccines rising and hospitalizations and deaths declining, is fear abating,” the report noted. Business got good grades during the pandemic. Many respondents cited companies as important to solving problems, where previously they were considered the cause of social woes. (Two-thirds said that companies could do a better job coordinating the vaccine rollout than the government could.) Approval ratings rose for many industries from January last year to February this year. But the reputation of the pharma industry — stained by its role in the opioid crisis and criticized for high drug prices — benefited the most. In January 2020, only 32 percent of respondents viewed the industry positively; late last month, that had almost doubled, to 62 percent. “The pharmaceutical industry’s ability to innovate and perform under intense pressure and in a time of crisis is the ultimate validation for any business,” said John Gerzema, the C.E.O. of the Harris Poll. On Big Government and Big Tech Silicon Valley has been lauded for decades as a hotbed of ingenuity, where companies like Google were born from the brains of entrepreneurs. But in the latest episode of The Times’s Opinion podcast “Sway,” the economist Mariana Mazzucato told Kara Swisher that the traditional narrative has holes in it. “Do you have any idea where the innovation in places like Silicon Valley came from?” asked Ms. Mazzucato, the founder of University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She ticked off technologies like the internet and GPS: “We wouldn’t have any smart product without all the smart technology, which was government-financed.” “It’s not that the private sector is not doing anything,” she said. “It’s that the government comes in first, does the heavy lifting and invests in the most early stage, high-risk stage — which is exactly the opposite of the storytelling and the narrative.” “We have to admit that value is collectively created,” she said. “It’s not just created in business. The public sector itself is a value.” Listen to the conversation here. THE SPEED READ Deals The French food giant Danone ousted Emmanuel Faber as its chairman and C.E.O., under pressure from two activist investors. (FT) A Maryland hotel magnate who cut a deal to buy The Baltimore Sun from Tribune Publishing may instead challenge Alden Global Capital for all of Tribune’s newspapers. (NYT) The value of short bets against SPACs has more than tripled since the start of the year. (WSJ) Politics and policy Jeff Bezos declined an invitation to speak at a Senate hearing on economic inequality, which will include testimony from an Amazon employee involved in union organization efforts in Alabama. (CNN) With pandemic stimulus out of the way, President Biden is now making infrastructure spending a priority. Can it pass Congress? (FT) Tech Ant Group’s C.E.O., Simon Hu, resigned amid pressure on the Chinese fintech giant from Beijing to overhaul its business. (NYT) In a securities filing, Elon Musk gave himself a new title, “Technoking of Tesla,” and the company’s C.F.O. Zach Kirkhorn is “Master of Coin.” (S.E.C.) Tesla’s California factory recorded hundreds of Covid-19 cases after Mr. Musk reopened the plant last May, according to county data. (WaPo) Best of the rest Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize, held an in-person conference that became a Covid-19 superspreader event — and then followed up with a webinar that touted questionable treatments. (MIT Technology Review) How the I.P.O. of Coupang, an e-commerce giant, signals a potential weakening of South Korea’s traditional corporate elite. (Bloomberg) Some at Goldman Sachs are reportedly frustrated by the leadership of David Solomon during the pandemic, including his criticism of working remotely — while he himself has booked numerous getaways. (Bloomberg) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Good #means

[thomasrydahl]

Are you asleep, man? Here are 7 signs that you have fallen asleep in life — and how to wake up…

Are you asleep, man? Here are 7 signs that you have fallen asleep in life — and 7 ways to wake up

I’ve been there. And so have most men. The place in life where you are surviving — instead of living — life. If you recognize one or more of these 7 signs, it’s time to wake up and figure out what it’s all about.

Sign # 1 — You’ve given your soul to a job you don’t appreciate

If you are like most of us, you are in a situation where you need to work so you can afford to live. Maybe you’ve always had plans for your career and even done it well. Perhaps life has led you from one job to another. It is strong and meaningful to take responsibility for your life and be able to pay your bills — and you probably have a couple of good days here and there, maybe even good weeks. The problem is not the work itself — whatever the work is. The problem is that you are not inspired.

Half of the day’s waking hours (more than 1700 hours a year), you spend on some mediocre workplace. You live for the weekends and holidays and the occasional after-work beer. You might be betting on winning the Powerball to tip the scales in your life.

The problem is you don’t stop for one minute and consider what is going on. You don’t dare go into a study of what you spend your time doing that would really make your heart jump and your soul break free. You also don’t dare talk to your partner or your friends about your deep dissatisfaction, because much of your identity and self-perception is tied up around your job. Who are you if you are not a lawyer or account manager or cook? What would you really like doing?

https://medium.com/media/99b6993f29646050269d871064722560/href

The most devastating thing about your dissatisfaction is that it also affects the rest of your life. When your worklife is on autopilot, you are neither alive nor inspiring around the house. Not as a partner, father or son. The cost is higher than you think. The respect and love you have for yourself deteriorate, your health fails, your profits disappear.

How to move on

It is important to acknowledge that you are in a situation where you are likely to have obligations to your family, bank or work. Your fear of putting the status quo out of balance can be so overwhelming that you have to give yourself some space to investigate where your fears come from and what the worst thing that can happen is. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Use your energy to consider what you would do if it wasn’t about money. And find the courage to talk to your boyfriend or friend about what you dream of and what he or she is dreaming about.

Sign #2 — You’re addicted to food, internet, porn and other routines

When life is difficult or the everyday life is challenging, it is easier to soothe the pain and anesthetize the thoughts than to do something about it.

Most men surrender their livelihood to Netflix on the couch, wasted hours on the internet, too much porn and internet or video games that keep your thoughts and feelings at bay. Even more men disappear into these addictions without noticing it. There is nothing sinful or wrong about Netflix, the internet, enjoying erotica (except most porn is basically an unsustainable industry) and games, only if it is something you do too often and cannot live without. Of course, you can also be addicted to food, tobacco, drugs or alcohol containing substances or affecting the brain in a way that makes it even harder to break out of the addiction.

If you are doubtful of whether you are addicted to something, begin to notice if you can actually control your habit. If it is difficult or impossible to abstain from it for a day or a week, you are an addict. You may tell yourself that you can control it, but can you? Just be honest. You are not a bad person. It just doesn’t serve you and the life you really want.

If it’s hard to stop, do it anyway. Just stop. You can step down a bit first, but don’t be too soft on yourself. It MUST be difficult. After a while you will feel that your energy is rising. Simply because you take charge of your life. Don’t resist the difficult thoughts and feelings that emerge. Let them pass. The only thing that is certain is that you will not die or be hurt by being aware of your inner life. It will hurt, but it will stop. The more you let it go, the more it will dissolve.

GET SUPPORT. Have someone support you when you break free of your addiction. There is evidence that addiction has to do with a lack of connection with people around us. So don’t try to do it on your own. Reach out and connect to friends and family. Johann Hari makes the compelling case that “The opposite of addiction is connection” in this TED Talk:

How to move on

The reason for your addiction has nothing to do with Angry Birds or porn or gaming or the appeal of greasy food. But with the lack of connection to one person: YOU, and with people around you, your partner, friends and family. Make sure you get a practice of reaching into the depth of your own sentiments — and find the courage to open up about your addiction with someone. Be it a friend, a family member or perhaps a therapist. See more in point #3.

Sign #3 — You don’t know and never express your deepest needs

You might discover it by chance. One evening when you are a bit too drunk. Suddenly, an unknown anger rises in you. You almost become another person who wants to fight or quarrel with the whole world. Or there is a crisis situation, a breakdown in your life. Perhaps a severe illness, perhaps divorce or even death.

And suddenly you think: Who am I? It will trigger the feeling that there are parts of yourself that you do not know. It is a bit of a shock. It might make you and your partner uncomfortable. It may even be so unpleasant that you do not want to face it, but rather escape the feeling. Bury yourself in work, alcohol, tv or something else.

Too many men don’t know anything about their needs — not even the most basic needs.

Too many men don’t know anything about their needs. They only know a little about the needs that are most basic. Sleep, food and drink, sex and entertainment. But most often, these needs are not personal or heartfelt, but characterized by the definitions of society and a squandered man’s culture. The is nothing more tiresome than the man’s supposed need for big steaks, big breasts and big beers. It is flock mentality when it is most narrow-minded.

The crisis situation remains the primary triggering factor in examining your own needs because it makes you stop and reflect. We live busy lives, characterized by chores and duties. We overload our nervous system every day — without thinking about it — with an abundance of experiences and sensory impressions, to the extent that we may find it difficult to sense the tiny or even larger machinations within us.

THE FRUSTRATIONS YOU BURY. The quarrel with the girlfriend. The grief over the job you didn’t get. Your father’s remark during the last family gathering. Your son’s struggle to make friends. The idea that you should lose weight. The sight of Syrian fleeing children on the news. Your friend’s success that you makes you jealous.

There are loads of emotions and sensations that pile up in us — and we choose to overhear because we are A) preoccupied with getting everyday life to work B) not sure what to do with them C) afraid of them D) unable to talk about them. So when your girlfriend (or psychologist) asks you what you need, you don’t know what to answer. You try to look inward, but see and feel nothing. You are untrained and incapable of feeling and expressing it.

How to move on

We can choose to stop — and observe ourselves. It is not complicated or difficult. It is only difficult because it requires patience. And it requires you to learn how to filter the noise and zoom in on what’s going on in yourself. What is really happening to me? What is occupying me? What am I sorry or happy about? What am I dreaming about? And most important of all questions: What are my needs? What do I long for? What causes my heart to beat and my love to grow?

Next, you may be interested in formulating what you feel. Both to yourself and to others. When you get to know your own needs, take responsibility for them and share them with people around you, you enhance the possibilities of having your needs fulfilled. It is only you — not others — who have to fulfill them, but if you share your needs, people around you might be inspired to help you. Not as a demand, but as love.

Sign #4 — You procrastinate the hard and important things you know should have done already

I know this all too well: I procrastinate (the hard) things because I’m afraid of the feelings and thoughts they bring. It can be a conversation with the bank — or talking to my parents about something that does not work in our relationship. As soon as it’s done, I can see that my procrastination only brought me unnecessary suffering, but before I take action, my primary strategy is always to postpone until tomorrow, until later. When this happens, it’s a sure sign that I’ve fallen asleep.

Now you probably tell yourself that you are not like that — at all. But stay with the concept. There are hard and important things in your life that you take care of today if you didn’t resist them. Your salary review , a visit to the dentist or telling your friend that you can’t come to his wedding. Or something much more meaningful in your life. You know what I mean.

The person suffering the most when you postpone something is you

Delaying or procrastinating can cost you money and friendships if you remain passive until it is too late. But the most ignorant and perhaps greatest cost is in your relationship with yourself. The person who suffers most when you postpone something important is you. As a matter of fact, you can only postpone as long as you think the delay is free, but it is never. The cost is immediate and robs you of your joy, freedom and sense of responsibility for your life. It makes you want to go back to sleep.

How to move on

Remember: Before you can take action, release your self-recrimination and force yourself out of what Mark Manson calls “the feedback loop from hell”. It is the frustrating feeling you get when you postpone doing something about your ability to postpone. You are hit by guilt and shame — thereby prolonging your willingness to procrastinate. Let go of it. It is human to postpone, but it is definitely more satisfying and gives you much more energy and joy to do something about the issues. Do it now. Start somewhere tangible and easy. And feel the energy rising as you take on more of your important tasks.

Sign #5 — You blame X and Y for the things you haven’t achieved in life

Only a few of us have become astronauts and Hollywood stars like we dreamed of. But almost all of us invent a pitiful story about why we ended up working in the insurance industry or why we married the wrong person. The problem is not your work or your partner, but the story you tell yourself about why it didn’t go as planned and why you didn’t have any other options.

It is a sign that you have fallen asleep if you are a victim of your circumstances. If you were born to a life of globetrotting splendor, but feel stuck on life’s dusty inroads in a beat-up Volkswagen because X and Y happened.

We all end up in different places than we intended. And even if you are making an effort, life does not always serve you lemonade with paper umbrellas. The point is: There is nothing more devastating in your life than victimizing yourself and believing your own lie about why it is someone else’s fault that you are not a bitcoin millionaire or a star on Youtube already.

There is a great sense of sorrow associated with realizing that life and other things have not led you where you wanted. There is frustration. And angusih. You can’t just rush through life — and ignore the frustration and sorrow. If you do, you also choose to live with an everlooming sense of anger, powerlessness and self-suffering.

How to move on

You have to stop — and recognize exactly where you are and what you have achieved. And you will either A) realize that you might not have achieved exactly what you dreamed of, but perhaps something that is much more valuable — or B) discover that you still have dreams and hopes and that it is time to do something about them. In one way or another. See point # 6. Before you become a sad excuse for yourself.

Sign #6 — You’re waiting for something big to happen to you (or you are living a trial life)

A lot of us live a life waiting for “something to happen”. We accept being passive and hope that a tremendous job, a passionate lover or a colorful life will somehow appear before us, rather than getting out of the chair and demanding something from ourselves.

For example, notice how willingly you postpone the things that are important to you. Simply because they require an effort on your part. Perhaps you hope that someone or something will reward you for your patience or for your many years of faithful service without complaining. If you have ever bought a lottery ticket, you know what I mean. Hoping to win the big prize in the Powerball is a sure sign that you are hoping that the cornucopia of life will topple over you — by accident. Hope and trust in life is great. But without action, it will leave you limp and heartbroken.

Is this your trial life?

You may also be living your trial life. Or so it seems. You relate to everything as if it were something that you can start doing when you become the real version of yourself: Wiser, braver, more fun, more satisfied with your yourself, etc. Of course, planning and reflecting before taking action is smart, but most of us are passive and reluctant in life. We don’t have the courage to reach out for what we want. We would much rather entertain a nice story to convince ourselves and others why it is impossible or too early or too late to throw ourselves into the game of life. We live with the story of who we could be.

How to move on

The alternative to living a trial life is not to quit your job or sell the house like some people do. Begin by noticing the things and actions you postpone — and consider whether you can do a little, perhaps just one thing, this week, that goes in the direction of what you dream about.

Forgive yourself for postponing and living a trial life

Write a list of big and small things and experiences that you inspire you. Consider what you can do today or this week — or which steps to take now.

Talk to a friend or your partner about at least one desire or goal you have

Become a volunteer in an organization or help a friend with a project

Take all the money you are willing to spend on lottery tickets — and invest them in yourself: Learning, education, training, singing, dancing…

Sign up for a course, go for a walk or book a trip to somewhere unknown

Sign #7 — You live to survive without a life purpose that truly inspires you

Spreadsheet junkie, commuter penguin, drugstore zombie. The harsh truth of our repetitive lives is a sign that too many of us are lost in a dull, robotic existence. We play the same tune, same sappy vinyls — every week, every day, every year. We keep ourselves busy enough to not feel anything — but remain the victim of our own busyness.

The drugstore zombies are coming.

If you are lucky, you suffer from severe stress and depression at the age of 35, thus learning to listen to yourself. If you are like most people, you will ignore the warning signs and push your way through life until you collapse or your partner leaves you. At some point, (it feels like) you have no other choice. Other than survive: Shut off the emotions, go to work, watch TV, eat, shit, sleep and repeat the process. When you ask yourself what you feel and think it is difficult to answer. You feel empty. You think nothing and everything. Or you may notice something, but it’s impossible to talk about. In this state, you are most likely to become addicted to games, pornography or work, the only things that can make your heart rate rise above zombie state.

The reason is this: You don’t have a life purpose that inspires and challenges you. Something that makes you jump out of bed in the morning. Something that occupies you intensely. Something that gives you direction in life. Something that keeps you curious and awake. Something that contributes to the world and inspires others. But above all, something that makes you live your life so you prioritize everything in accordance and make good choices.

How to move on

Begin to think about what your life purpose is. It’s not easy. It can take days or weeks. Maybe you already know, maybe you should get to know yourself a little better before you even feel what you are passionate about (read #3 again …)

Here are some ways to explore yourself …

Read books or watch documentaries about the people you admire or envy. What do they awaken in you?

Think back on your dreams as a child, and consider what they were about, maybe there is a truth in them. A hidden longing.

Do you have a passion you’ve never had the courage to pursue? Perhaps it is time to bring it to life. Or is there something similar that is even more inspiring?

When are you truly alive and at ease? Can you create a situation where you are even more so?

What would you do if money was no issue?

Are you still sleeping or are you awake? I hope I have challenged and inspired you in some way. Feel free to comment or write to me if you want to know more.

from Stories by Thomas Rydahl on Medium http://bit.ly/2ICfb0d

[batclevercandystudent]

We all start as employees. But some of us, with enough drive and focus, learn how to make money online and start our own businesses.

None of us are born as entrepreneurs. We are driven to start.

My guess is you are one of us — the driven few. The ones who are willing to put in the work NOW to change our lives TOMORROW.

So what’s holding you back?

For most of us, it boils down to three things:

Time: Racing through the day with no time left for yourself, your family, or realizing your dreams.

Fear: Staying frozen in place rather than face the possibility of failure and ridicule, losing your security, the unknown.

Knowledge: Not knowing how (and desperately wanting) to make more money without trading away more of your time. Plus, not knowing where to start.

By the time you finish reading this article, you will have everything you need to take action today.

Find the Time: Where to find the time to build your online business while working a full-time job.

Overcome Your Fear: How to get unstuck today – and move closer to your goal (of financial independence) every single day.

Uncover the Knowledge: The one thing you need to know to take action today. Plus, where to find your profitable online business ideas.

In this article, we are going to learn how to make money online fast in 2019.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s jump straight into it.

How to find the time to take action

Let’s be clear. This isn’t about how to make money online so you can live a fantasy life with mansions and fast cars. It’s not about startups and buyouts.

But it’s not about creating another job for yourself, either. That’s trading time for money, and you already know it’s not the answer.

This is about making enough money to buy back your time.

It’s about starting small, and learning as you go. Most of all, it’s about fearlessly creating and launching your ideas out into the world.

It’s about freedom.

The freedom to sleep late tomorrow if you want, or not work at all next week and take your family to Hawaii for a last-minute getaway.

“No such thing as spare time. No such thing as free time. No such thing as down time. All you got is life time. Go.” – Henry Rollins

Not to get morbid, but we’re all going to die one day. And when we’re laying on our deathbeds, we are not going to reminisce about season six of The Walking Dead.

Every day 1000s of people are choosing to start profitable side hustles rather than watch Netflix. What will you choose?

We are going to remember the chances we took, the places we visited, and the things we produced in this world.

From Consumer to Producer

We spend our entire lives consuming other people’s products and services.

We buy new phones, clothes, and cars. We use apps and watch Netflix without even contemplating these purchases — and this is great for producers.

Producers create every app, song, video, phone, website, podcast, and pair of headphones that you own or use — and they get paid to do it.

They build something out of nothing. They get paid to create, inspire, and do work they love.

You can do that too if you learn to be a producer.

Before you consume anything, think about the people behind your purchase. Consumers pay for producers to live bold, exciting lives, on their own terms.

Which side of that exchange do you want to be on?

You know that show that you are watching but it’s not really that good? Give up one episode of it each night. In that one hour, you can accomplish an astonishing amount.

The beauty of not endlessly consuming other people’s creations is you now have hours every day to work towards your goal of making money online. You need to move from being a consumer to producer.

Here’s what I propose: start small. Start something now that gives you ownership of your time and money. And grow from there. Use our goal setting worksheet if you need help getting started.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s overcome the fears and anxieties you may have around starting an online business.

How to overcome your fear of failure

The biggest killer of online businesses and entrepreneurial dreams is not what you would expect. It’s not lack of financing, the economy, or bad ideas.

It’s doubt.

Self-doubt kills many dreams, long before any external factors can come into play. Most people are afraid to start pursuing their dreams.

Or if they do start, they turn back at the first signs of struggle, convinced they don’t have what it takes.

This is why your mindset is so important to get right in the beginning. Here are 21 business hacks to get you rolling right.

There are so many misconceptions around starting a business, it’s no wonder there is so much doubt (and so little confidence).

The truth is, you can start to make money online from home without quitting your job, knowing how to code, and without a million-dollar idea.

The most important thing is to start off with the right mindset. You need to go into this journey knowing you can get past any obstacle that comes up — you can and will.

Don’t worry, I can help you do it. Check out my entrepreneurial mindset course now.

Learning how to be wrong

Not only are failure and being wrong inevitable in business and in life, but you should actively search for them to learn valuable lessons.

All forms of education are tied to a cost – the cost of failure is time, resources, and humility.

It’s not always easy to make mistakes and fail, but it is essential to your growth and your success in online business and in life.

When you make a mistake, it’s not catastrophic. Keep moving, iterating, and using what you’ve learned to determine your next move.

When you enter your bedroom in the dark, you reach for the light switch.

If you miss, do you stop looking for it?

Do you decide to wait for the sun to rise and provide you with light?

My guess is you would never think of doing that because without even thinking, you take what you’ve learned (the light switch isn’t where you just touched) and reach out to another spot on the wall.

Again, if you miss a second and third time, you never think of living in the dark.

You instantly reach out again: you don’t get beaten by the defeat, and it never crosses your mind that you might not be cut out for living in a well-lit bedroom.

Think of making money online as a light switch. It doesn’t matter if you’ve tried and failed in the past, you need to know that it will work once you get it right.

Don’t struggle with failure (learn to enjoy it)

As Seth Godin said, there is a difference between failure and your struggle with failure.

Failure is inevitable in business and in life, but somehow we are better equipped to deal with it in day-to-day life.

We don’t know if our business ideas are any good. We don’t know if we have the skills and perseverance to pull it off. We don’t know what will happen if we fail.

Learning to fail and not allowing it to sideswipe you is essential. The good part is, the more you fail, the better you get.

Failure is not catastrophic, it is simply an opportunity to redirect and reiterate your project or ideas.

Of course, you could try to avoid the possibility of failure by never taking any chances. But you will still face risks that you can’t control You can live your whole life taking the safe route, and still have the rug pulled out from under you.

You could get laid off, the stock market could crash, or your job could become obsolete.

Best case scenario — if you silence the voice in your head and push down that feeling in your stomach long enough — you can retire and live with your regrets.

Either way, life is a risk.

How to make money online

There is a lot to learn, and plenty of opportunities to get stuck when you’re starting an online business from scratch.

Even if you’ve run a business in the past, taking your expertise online will involve learning a whole new set of skills.

From creating and selling an online course to writing a sales page that converts, it’s daunting for anybody. Especially those who don’t consider themselves technically inclined.

I get it. I’ve been there.

But I learned the hard way that trying to learn everything all at once, before you start, means… you’ll never start.

The sheer volume of information and challenges ahead will overwhelm you. You’ll get buried in it, and you might not be able to dig yourself out.

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” — Aristotle

You can read the best business books, take courses, and wait for the perfect idea for years without launching anything. It’s procrastination by learning.

It’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking we’re taking action by researching, studying, and reading endless books before we launch our business.

Just-in-time learning

There is no replacement for action. You don’t have to learn everything before you start.

You learn only need to know enough to move to the next step. You take one step, then you learn the next thing.

I call it just in time learning. You learn what you need to know just in time, right as you are about to take action.

You NEED to LAUNCH something. And once you have, I want you to keep improving your process with all the experience and knowledge you gained the first time through.

Until you jump into the pool, you are not going to learn a damn thing about swimming.

Producers do not have to learn to design and code. Producers need to take an idea and turn it into reality. Creating something out of nothing is your job as a producer.

The producer of your favorite T.V. show does not hold the camera and edit the final show. She simply takes an idea and organizes the right people around her to create the best final product possible.

The internet itself was built by people like you and me.

Now let’s take a look at the best ways to make money online for those who are looking to take action today.

Start a blog and use content marketing

Is it still possible to make money online with blogging? Yes, it is.

Now, I won’t lie to you. It takes time and effort to learn how to start a blog.

It only takes a few hours to set up your first blog, but It will take you a ton of work and time (think months or years) to start seeing decent passive income. You may even feel stupid for spending so much time on something with an unpredictable return on your investment of time.

But once it starts, you are off to the races. Trust me — once you get that first win, things start to change pretty fast.

Here are the 3 steps to set up a blog:

Pick a name for your blog (and buy your domain)

Choosing a good name for your new blog can be overwhelming. After all, the domain name you choose is the first impression people have of your blog.

Depending on your topic you can always use your own name for your domain – James Altucher did this and it’s worked out incredibly well for him.

So how do you find a perfect blog name?

It’s much easier to come up with ideas once you know what niche you serve and who you target.

Spend some time writing down words to describe your audience. Focus on how they describe themselves.

Do your search over at Namecheap, my #1 recommended place to buy your domains.

Grab your domain now and save 19% (for a limited time)

To help you decide, here are a few characteristics of an ideal domain name:

Original and available: Do not try to copy another popular name.

Clear and simple: Keep it simple, so it’s easy to remember.

Simple spelling: Don’t get too creative with invented words, or people won’t know how to spell it.

Common extensions: These extensions are common, therefore easier to remember:  .com |  .co | .org | .io

Choosing an ideal domain name will take some brainstorming. But once you have the perfect name, the next step is finding hosting for your blog.

Get the right website hosting

Now that you have a name for your blog, you need to find a place for it to live. This place is your website host.

If this is your first time setting up a blog, then you might not even know what website hosting is. And while this can be confusing, it doesn’t have to be.

Once you understand the fundamentals of how website hosting works, you will be able to make an educated decision.

Website hosting 101:

A website is a bunch of different files connected to the internet. These files hold data and need a ‘space’ that’s secure and accessible to the internet.

This ‘space’ is what a hosting company offers.

The function of a host is to keep the data of your blog safe and accessible.

The worst thing you can do for your blog early on is to choose a hosting company based on price – or going with the cheapest hosting you can find.

You’re looking at endless problems, like slow loading times, and crashing. Add some terrible customer support into the mix and you’ll never want to blog again.

Instead, here’s what to look for in a hosting company:

Excellent customer support: Get help quickly when you need it.

Quality hardware: You need your website to be fast and secure. You can’t do that with crappy hosting.

Economical pricing: The best hosting is less than $10/month.

My recommendation:

If you’re serious about the speed and security of your new blog — as you should be —  SiteGround is the best option you can find. Here’s a complete SiteGround review to give you an inside look at their product and service.

SiteGround is one of the few hosting providers recommended by WordPress itself, and that says a lot about their quality and integrity as a hosting company.

Sure it can be a few dollars more than the cheapest hosting available, but it is infinitely better.

If you want excellent service, a blazingly fast blog, and peace of mind with automatic backups, then SiteGround is a perfect choice.

Pick an effective design for your blog

Now that you have a domain name and hosting, it’s time to get to the fun stuff — designing your blog!

There are two ways to go about this:

Hire a WordPress Developer

Get a WordPress Theme

Developers are expensive. When you’re just starting out it is faster and more effective to go with a predesigned WordPress theme. With a theme, you can make a great-looking blog without hiring a developer.

Your blog’s design should reflect your brand’s identity, while also touching on a few key components such as having a fast load speed, easy navigation, mobile-optimized for all devices, and friendly user experience.

There is no perfect design for a blog – but, there can be a perfect design for your blog.

All WordPress themes are not created equal. Some are fast – others are slow. Some are secure – others will get your site hacked.

We are looking for FAST and SECURE.

Genesis is a framework for WordPress. The benefit of using the Genesis Framework is that there are 100s of Genesis compatible themes and swapping between themes (designs) is simple and pain-free.

I’ve been a fan and user of the Genesis Framework and StudioPress themes for years.

The current version of this site is running Maker Pro theme by StudioPress on the Genesis framework. You can check it out here.

Yes, it will take time to get rolling, build an audience, and start earning money from a new blog. But writing about topics you are really into, building a community, and getting paid for it is an awesome feeling.

When it’s time to start writing blog posts, follow this process for how to get on the first page of Google.

2. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning money by promoting other people’s products. It’s a proven online business idea for getting started.

As an affiliate marketer, you will find and promote products. The owners of the product pay you a commission for every sale or lead you to send to them.

When I interviewed Erik Bergman on the podcast, he said affiliate marketing was the best business model in the world.

If you’re new to making money online, you can use affiliate marketing to test your ideas and find your ideal customer base.

Once you find a product that sells really well to your audience, you can then think about creating your own (better) version of this same product. Consider it market research you get paid for.

Getting started with affiliate marketing is a 4-step process:

Sign up with an affiliate network

There are hundreds of affiliate networks out there. When you know what type of products you want to promote, it’s easy to find options.

Some of the leading affiliate networks are:

Amazon Associates

ShareASale

CJ Affiliates

You can find most affiliate programs by Googling “product name” and “affiliate program” together.

More than anything else with affiliate marketing, you should ONLY be promoting products YOU USE YOURSELF.

Choose an affiliate product

First off, you need to find products that will appeal to your audience – the people you are marketing to.

If you are just getting started making money online, choose a digital product to promote – such as online courses, ebooks, or software – because they pay a higher commission and are typically easier to sell.

The process of choosing your first affiliate product involves three simple steps:

Narrow down product ideas

Choose a single product

Then validate

By testing which affiliate products resonate with your audience, you can learn what kind of products may be big sellers if you eventually decide to create your own.

Promote the affiliate product

You’ve researched affiliate programs and chosen a product to promote. Now it’s time to start making some sales.

But you don’t want to feel like a pushy salesperson.

Here’s how to strike the right balance of helpful content and sales offers:

Always do what’s best for your audience and makes sales later.

When getting started online, many people struggle with this part – you aren’t alone. Here’s the exact process we use to create sales pages that convert.

If let your fears hold you back you will never start making money online – or get to enjoy the freedom that comes along with it.

People purchase the product with your affiliate link

Once you’ve created the affiliate link, it’s time to start selling. Let’s talk about some different ways you can market your affiliate products.

If you already have a good readership on your blog, you have a head-start. You can easily add product reviews to your publishing schedule.

Transparency is always appreciated — let your readers know you will be paid a small commission if they decide to buy.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to get started in online business, but let’s move on to the next way to make money online.

3. Create and sell courses online

There’s never been a better time to make the transition from selling your time for money to selling your knowledge at scale. And creating an online course is a great way to do this.

You can get started with little to no up-front investment, you can start small and grow over time, and you can get paid to help people solve a problem they have.

Your first barrier is figuring out what to teach.

It’s much easier to make money selling online courses when you aim to solve a problem for the intended audience. That’s why it’s one of my favorite online business models.

Instead of pondering, “What’s a good idea for my online course?”

Ask, “What challenges does my audience face that I can help with?”

Successful online courses are results-oriented and unambiguous.

They promise to:

Solve a specific problem

For a specific audience

To achieve a specific result

When framed this way, you’ll spend less time judging potential course ideas and more time focusing on the real goal: delivering something of value.

As you build your audience, use lead magnets to build your email list – then simply ask your subscribers what they need help with.

From here, you simply need to commit to your idea and take action.

Do you want to learn more about how to make money from online courses? Check out this step-by-step guide from Podia.

4. Start a membership site

It takes a lot of time to wade through content online to find the golden resources you need. Membership sites remove this from the equation and provide customers with all the info they need in one place.

A membership site is at its essence a resource hub. Customers pay a subscription fee, and they are granted access to the resources the owner creates, aggregates, or sources.

Resource materials can be anything from tutorials, videos, articles, and any other form of content your audience finds valuable.

With the creation of all-in-one platforms like Podia,  you don’t have to worry about the headaches of setting up a website. These platforms enable you sell memberships, courses, and digital downloads all in one place.

Membership sites are a great path to making money online if you are a content producer and love social media and forums.

That being said, if that doesn’t sound like a way that you’d like to spend your time, then you will want to choose another online business model.

5. Start a podcast

Of course, I’m a little biased on podcasting since it’s the foundation of my entire online business. But that doesn’t make it any less of a great way to make some extra money online.

If you don’t have an existing audience, learning how to start a podcast is not the fastest way to starting making money in your spare time. But as your popularity grows, you’ll build up your credibility and become a resource in your niche.

You’ll also be able to find sponsors for your podcast who want to pay you to introduce their products to your audience.

Additionally, as the demand for advertising on your podcast increases, so will your ability to select sponsorships that fit your brand, and that could provide you with steady streams of online income.

Here’s the (simplified) process for starting a podcast:

Pick your podcast topic

Define your audience

Position your podcast

Choose the right format

Pick a name for your show

Record your episodes

Publish and distribute

It’s not a sexy voice, a good microphone, or flashy editing that makes a podcast stand out and become successful. Those things might help you sound good. But none of that matters unless you build a podcast on a foundation of remarkable content.

It is the content that makes the podcast.

Whatever your reason for wanting to learn how to start a podcast – whether it’s to talk about your favorite TV show or to make money – you need to provide valuable content.

That’s not saying you have to be an expert in your field. You will learn as you grow your podcast, but you have to start with by having value to offer.

Grab our Remarkable Guide to Starting a Podcast

6. Social media management

Here’s a way to transform your Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest habits into a profitable money-making venture.

There’s no marketing without social media marketing – and because of this, every business needs to be marketing on social media. The thing is, most business owners either don’t have the time or they just aren’t savvy enough to do it well.

If you’re good at creating content and engaging on social media, this is the perfect way for you to begin earning money online.

The best part is, you can start making money immediately with social media management.

Here’s how you can get started:

Clean up your personal social media accounts (remove any posts you wouldn’t want a potential client to see)

Read Buffer’s guide to social media marketing (to create a strategy and brush up on the lingo for making your pitch)

Email 10 businesses in your local area and make your pitch! (Car dealerships, restaurants, and bars are a great place to start)

If your self-confidence is running low, you can offer to work for the first month for a reduced rate or even free

You are probably thinking I oversimplified this process, but I didn’t. The only reason you’re telling yourself this is to make it more complicated than it needs to be – and create a reason to procrastinate.

If for some reason you can’t come up with 10 local business to pitch your services to, you can always set up a profile and pitch your services on a marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr.

7. Become a content writer

If you want to make money online from home, this side hustle may be perfect for you. If you have a way with words, then you should take the time and do the work necessary to become a content writer.

Content marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing channels for businesses – both local and global – and will only increase in the future.

Learning the art of crafting effective content is a valuable skill that will keep you in demand for years to come. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 53% of brands are looking to increase their content marketing budgets in 2019.

Writing for the web is different than writing for other mediums. If you want a primer, check out Copyblogger’s simple rule for web writing.

To find work as a content writer, you can reach out to your personal network or (again) you can use some of the many marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr.

There is also an excellent marketplace specifically for companies and writers to find each other – it’s called nDash.

I recommend using nDash because it’s the perfect place to find work as a content writer – and it’s free for writers to sign up!

8. Make money online with surveys and research studies

If you were looking for make money online surveys and found them to be too much work for very little reward. This may be the exact thing you were looking for – research studies. No previous skills or experience required, and each study takes only about 30 minutes to complete.

Respondent is the fastest way to find high-paying research opportunities.

You can get started with research studies in 4 simple steps:

Sign up here and verify your profile (with Linkedin or Facebook)

Get automagically matched with your first study

Select a time that works for you and participate in the study

Get paid automatically via Paypal

It could not be easier to get up and running today. No excuses, this is your chance to start earning money on the side.

9. Develop and sell software

If you are searching for ways to make easy ways to make money online, this isn’t it.

Software development has become very popular with the rise of SaaS (software as a service) companies. The software can be as small as a browser extension that does one specific task or it could be as full scale as Adobe’s Creative Cloud.

Making money creating apps works similarly to software. The idea is providing a product that your target audience needs (or wants), and charging them a one-time payment or recurring subscription fee.

There are three popular payment models when it comes to software and apps:

Freemium: This means that customers get limited access to your software or app’s features. If they’d like to use more features, they can upgrade to a paid subscription.

Free trial: Customers get full access to your software or app for a set period of time, after which they’re charged if they want to keep using it.

Free software business model: The software or app is free for customers to use, but you earn revenue from advertising.

Software business models are some of the most innovative online, and for a good reason. They provide a steady source of recurring revenue to the owners, and over time they have the potential to become a saleable asset.

Because software is digital, it is also highly scalable. You can sell 1 copy or 1,000 copies in a day with no additional work. Due to this level of scalability, software is also labor intensive and can require a lot of customer support.

10. Sell your expertise as a consultant

Consulting is a great use of the skills you’ve acquired in school, work, or from your hobbies, and it has high earning potential.

Getting your first clients can be tough, but with some outreach on social media, and using content marketing to establish yourself as an expert, anyone can get started making money with consulting.

Don’t fall into the common trap of undervaluing your skills and knowledge. What seems easy, simple or obvious to you, can be amazing to others – not just in the skills you have but more importantly the end result and benefit you provide to your clients.

As you gain experience and confidence using your skills to help clients reach their career or personal goals, you can begin charging higher fees for your guidance and expertise.

Plus, one of the reasons consulting is the best business to start is that you can get started fast, with little to no startup capital.

Learning how to make money online is not just a dream

I’ve been working online full-time for 10 years. During the past decade, there has been a radical shift in how and where people work and earn money.

Five years ago, I could walk into any coffee shop, grab a coffee, sit down to work on my laptop – and I’d be the ONLY person doing that. Today, I can barely find a table at my favorite coffee shop.

The dream of learning how to make money online from home has rapidly become a reality of 1000s of people around the world.

This article showed you 10 ways to get started online. Some of the ideas will give you a faster path to revenue than others, but they will all get you there. You just need to work on finding focus.

Are you willing to step up, do the work, and make it a reality?

The post How to Make Money Online (While Working Full Time) appeared first on Hack the Entrepreneur.

via Hack the Entrepreneur

[alo-piss-trancy]

For the shipping thing: Kara and Alex (even though they're not really a ship but still)

👀👌💯SIGN ME THE FUCK UP G O O D S H I T💯👌👀 thank you for this asks I live for these two and their sweet sisterly bond

Wets because they didn’t want to get up from a video game/computer/work or other activity? I feel like both of them are usually good about avoiding this, since they're both pretty organised and probably have their own personal routines to ensure breaks before anything that they know takes a while. However, Kara is sometimes prone to it if she's wrapped up in a netflix binge or something else fun, and Alex when she's focused on researching/training for the DEO bc that poor girl refuses to give herself a break when it comes to her job rip

Who laughs/shrugs off accidents? KARA, she'd be a little surprised but definitely cracks a joke and shrugs bc whatever stuff like that happens, and she just cleans and goes about the rest of her day. She might be embarrassed ofc if it happened in front of her friends or at work or smth, but she's comfortable enough around Alex, and really, once you've almost died a couple of times and saw your entire civilization explode, wetting yourself isn't the worst event in the grand scheme of things.

Who gets really angry/upset over their accidents? ALEX. She's so critical of herself and is under /so much pressure/ to be Kara's big sister and protector and an agent, etc. that it's absolutely crushing for her to do something considered to be so infantile. It makes her feel weak and inadequate and it takes a lot of comforting gestures to even make her slightly forgive herself for it. She gets so mortified that she wants to bawl her eyes out (and probs does if alone), but if it's in front of someone besides Kara she tries to intimidate them into never mentioning the event (usually without success bc it's hard to look tough when she's barely holding back tears and can't really speak) before retreating off to crawl under a rock for eternity rip.

Who has to wear diapers on long trips? Neither.

Who is more likely to fear wet? Honestly, I don't think either of them really do this bc they're usually pretty strong in the face of danger. However, I think Alex would actually be more prone to it. Kara's very in tune with her emotions, but Alex has such a tendency to bottle up any that aren't convenient/she doesn't want to show that I think sometimes she doesn't notice them until there's a physical sign/action (like clutching something too tightly when she's angry). In a situation where Kara was in horrible danger or something else traumatizing and intense, Alex would definitely lose control, probably only realizing after the danger passes and Kara sheepishly points out her wet outfit and then she feels every sensation of moisture cooling in her pants and would probably be ready for death if she wasn't so glad to see Kara safe lmao.

Who sneaks up behind the other and startles them, causing the fear wetting? Kara's accidentally scared Alex to death more than a few times thanks to her super speed, esp when they were younger. And unfortunately some of those times were when Alex was on her way to the bathroom rip

Who insists they can hold it even when they can’t? Both! Kara because she doesn't want to disappoint anyone that's counting on her (coughCATcough) so she tries to force her needs down, and Alex bc she's a stubborn mule who just doesn't want to admit it lmao

Who pees in a bottle because they didn’t want to leave their warm bed at night? Neither really. Maybe Kara once when she was first experimenting with her omo kink in high school (yes i'm bringing my self indulgent headcanon into this)

Who challenges the other to holding contests? Mmmm idk? They definitely might do one if they were really goofing off one day and it came up during jokes (and also no siblings can resist competition this is a fact), but idk who would initiate it. Probably Alex. Kara doesn't want to risk hurting people and also knows her sister is a bit shy about that stuff, but if Alex suggests it teasingly then she knows it'll just be innocent fun and she'll take her up on it.

Who doesn’t pay attention to their fluid intake? KARA. You've seen how much this chick packs away when she eats, drinks are no different lmao. She's also pretty confident bc of that kryptonian bladder strength, but boy howdy does she overestimate it sometimes and has had some /very/ close calls. She probably ended up having to beg Cat once to let her use her private bathroom bc she wouldn't make it downstairs lmao

Who hogs the bathroom while the other squirms outside the door? When they were younger Alex would, but only jokingly if Kara was being a michievous little sister earlier that day, and she always relented before it went too far.

Who pees in the shower? Kara bc it all goes down the drain who cares??? She never understood why it was such an Earth taboo, it saves water for the environment anyways.

Who locates the bathroom on maps prior to visiting someplace? Alex does it subtly bc she likes to be prepared, Kara also secretly does it to make sure she knows where to rush Alex if she needs to use super speed to avoid an urgent situation.

Who wets because they were too shy to ask someone where the bathroom was/if they could go? Both. Alex bc she finds it mortifying and is busy trying to be the tough collected DEO Agent and also she genuinely thinks she can suck it up until her work is done to avoid anyone getting hurt. Kara's usually more willing to ask bc she isn't as embarrassed about it, but sometimes her job is so hectic and Cat is constantly giving orders so she can't get a word in and she's afraid to interrupt her very stressed (gf)-IMEANBOSS with something so trivial. That, or she's in a situation where she needs to fight crime or is in a stakeout with the DEO so she can't exactly stop or ask to step away rip

[wikimakemoney]

CTV is where the viewers go and advertisers should follow

30-second summary:

Massive popularity translated into the explosive surge in CTV media buying. At the end of the 2010s, globally programmatic advertising on CTV grew by a whopping 330 percent. 

In a nutshell, both content consumption on CTV and ad spend are climbing while the ad budgets on traditional television are decreasing. Since CTV has been the least affected ad placement in the lockdown, the ad spend on this channel is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser.

Impressive as it may be, the future looks even brighter. In 2021, connected TV ad spend is estimated to hit the significant sum of of $10.81 billion. Most of the cash will end up in the pockets of such ad-supported giants as YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

When it comes to efficiency, video ads on connected TV should be the should be the choice you make. Compared to any other communication channel, CTV drives the highest level of both cost-efficient responses and sales. 52 percent of the responses caused by the media come from connected TV. 

Furthermore, the powerful built-in algorithms will spare marketers headaches as they identify the best-performing creative and display it first while running campaigns to maximize efficiency. 

Imagine the amusement of our grandparents’ generation when they first got a TV set. What a delight it must have been to watch pictures not in the movies sitting next to strangers surrounded by cigarette smoke, but in the comfort of their living room.

Linear television that millennials and Gen Z’ers take for granted (and oftentimes smirk at) was revolutionary at the time. That was then.

Today, it seems like TV has always been here. Spoiled by seemingly unlimited choices, younger viewers no longer wish to play by the rules of “boomers”.

For them, it is unthinkable to check TV guides looking for favorite shows and then adjusting plans according to the whims of broadcasters. They want to watch whatever they want, whenever they want.

Connected TV offers such freedom. This is one of the reasons why CTV threatens its predecessor. But is it the only one? Let’s take a look at the CTV’s rapid uptake, where it leaves linear TV, and what it all means for advertisers. 

Fertile grounds for CTV

The previous decade was definitely great for connected TV. For example Roku, the largest CTV platform, had managed to gather an astronomical number of users: nearly 85 million. And yet, this number accounts for only 46.9 percent of CTV users in the United States.

Such massive popularity translated into the explosive surge in CTV media buying. At the end of the 2010s, globally programmatic advertising on CTV grew by a whopping 330 percent. 

What prompted such interest in connected TV?

First, younger generations stepped onto the scene. As mentioned previously, millennials and Gen-Z’ers ruthlessly cut the cords of linear TV in favor of streaming. As a result, most evasive audiences gather in one place ready to consume their favorite shows and whatever is displayed alongside.

Second, CTV is omnipresent. Three out five tech giants (Amazon, Apple, and Google) spotted the huge interest in connected TV and now sell not only hardware that makes your TV set connected, but also offer their own environments where viewers get to enjoy the content.

Moreover, many companies that deliver content on CTV make it available further over the top by enabling users to stream videos in mobile apps.

And third, even though it is principally different from linear TV, the experience does not diverge. Since viewers were trained to watch commercial breaks for years, they don’t feel opposed to seeing ads on connected TV.

They realize that this is a small price to pay for free content, especially in the age of SVOT. 

Modern-day TV consumption and its future

In a nutshell, both content consumption on CTV and ad spend are climbing while the ad budgets on traditional television are decreasing. Since CTV has been the least affected ad placement in the lockdown, the ad spend on this channel is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser.

Also, 52 percent of respondents admit that they redirect their cable TV ad budgets. Moreover, in the US during lockdown the time spent watching videos on CTV grew by 81 percent.

Ad platforms support the optimistic forecast with their own data. BidMind by Fiksu, a globally recognized cross-channel advertising platform focused on CTV, has surveyed the ad spend by categories only to confirm the enormous growth.

The findings of the analysis of the same periods from January to May in 2019 and 2020 reveal the largest surges in telecommunications (550%), ecommerce (500%), money transfer (300%), and entertainment (350%).

Impressive as it may be, the future looks even brighter. In 2021, CTV ad spend is estimated to hit the significant sum of of $10.81 billion. Most of the cash will end up in the pockets of such ad-supported giants as YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

Furthermore, provided the CTV ad-buying keeps growing at its current pace, in 2023 the total amount of money invested in CTV ads will comprise 14 billion. 

Marketers crippling fears

Now, having beheld the exponential growth of CTV as a medium and its popularity as a destination for ads, the question that hangs in the air is: what stops marketers from stepping up their game and following the lead of the innovative (and dare we say, successful) marketers?

Here are some of the most important concerns that hold marketers back:

1) How do I scale? 

The lack of scalable solutions remains due to the popular belief that the audience size and the amount of inventory are rather narrow. What worries marketers is that even though the growth has been outrageous, the total number of users is no larger than 200 million.

Moreover, not all content is available to sell to advertisers. One of the largest platforms Netflix is still ad-free (and there’s no sign of this changing in the nearest future), whereas Amazon Prime Video runs ads to promote its own platform. 

2) Where should the spending come from?

Allocating budgets is quite simple when it comes to traditional TV or social media. The former comes from “television ad budget”, the latter comes from “digital”.

CTV, however, is something in between, and many advertisers find themselves in a pickle trying to determine the type of expenditure for connected TV. 

3) Where do I get a comprehensive report?

If you have already tested the waters of CTV ad placement, then you must have faced a hard truth: the CTV environment is fragmented, really fragmented.

Therefore, the data available in reports varies greatly from platform to platform. This creates a challenge for marketers to see how well their dollars are spent. And unfortunately, this concern is a major deal-breaker for many advertisers thinking of hopping on the CTV ads gravy train. 

No Time to Fear

Fear causes limitations. And the danger of limitations could be what makes you drop out of the game.  Marketers shouldn’t be afraid to tip their toes into the CTV waters.

A wiser response would be to embrace the might of the new ad placement landscape and ride the wave for your brand’s good. The time is right and here’s why: 

1) CTV is the destination

Viewers’ mass migration has started. And as trends indicate it is irreversible. The recent lockdown has demonstrated that no matter what happens, the CTV industry will probably withstand it.

This is good news for marketers since CTV ads allow marketers to offer a TV-like experience to viewers at a much lower price and with much more powerful targeting capabilities. 

2) CTV is about results

When it comes to efficiency, video ads on connected TV should be the should be the choice you make. Compared to any other communication channel, CTV drives the highest level of both cost-efficient responses and sales. 52 percent of the responses caused by the media come from connected TV. 

Moreover, ad retention here is significantly higher compared to linear TV, as ads are not only personalized but also much shorter than traditional commercial breaks.

3) CTV is freedom

Especially if marketers run CTV ads on a self-serve platform. In this case, advertisers get to fine-tune their accounts on such a platform according to their objectives, KPIs, budgets, and business types.

Furthermore, the powerful built-in algorithms will spare marketers headaches as they identify the best-performing creative and display it first while running campaigns to maximize efficiency. 

It has been a glorious reign that of linear TV, but its successor is already here winning the audience’s attention. It’s time for us in the advertising business to acknowledge the new rules of content consumption and adjust our marketing strategies accordingly.

Even though there may be some challenges and pitfalls at the beginning, if addressed smartly, the rich CTV capabilities will turn into treasured gold. 

Anna Kuzmenko is the COO at BidMind by Fiksu. Anna is a business leader and project manager with experience in strategy development, crisis management, and staff coaching. Being passionate for ad technology and video content ad monetization, Anna applies innovative approaches in the digital marketing ecosystem further advancement.

The post CTV is where the viewers go and advertisers should follow appeared first on ClickZ.

source http://wikimakemoney.com/2020/08/06/ctv-is-where-the-viewers-go-and-advertisers-should-follow/

[clairedmaddox]

How to Develop a Trader’s Mindset for Success

Your mindset is the biggest determining factor in if you will succeed at trading or not. It trumps any trading system or indicator.

The mindset of a successful trader is developed through a process of repetition, review and continual improvement. A trader must be willing to keep taking trades, review them in a journal, then take an honest look at what improvements can be made. In addition, traders must continually work on eliminating negative habits and psychological programming. 

There's a lot to unwrap here, so let's dig into the details. I'll go over each of the elements to show you how you can start building the mindset of a professional trader.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The first important concept to understand when learning to develop a trader's mindset is that you have to be willing to practice your craft. Just like boxers go to the gym and runners hit the track, traders have to practice their trading strategies to keep their skills sharp.

There are a couple of ways to do this.

First, you can use backtesting software to download historical data, replay the data and take simulated trades. This is similar to a NBA player practicing his jump shot. 

You can practice your trading methods in simulation when you aren't trading, when the markets are closed, or when you don't have an internet connection.

If you can get just a couple more hours of trading practice per week, imagine how much that can compound your skills over time.

Next, you can also open a demo account and take demo trades alongside your live trades. There might be trades that you don't want to take in your live account, but you can still take them in your demo account, and learn from them like they were live trades. 

Again, this gives you more repetitions and more opportunities to fine tune your pattern recognition skills. Another benefit of using a demo account is that it helps build your intuition.

Not all traders should rely on intuition to make trading decisions. But tracking your demo trades will help you understand if you can trust your intuition, or if you should just stick to your system rules.

Break Through Your Drawdowns

I have a more risk adverse personality, so I've never blown out an account. That might sound like a good thing, but my type of personality profile also comes with a few downsides.

The biggest downside is that I used to shy away from taking trades, especially in a losing streak.

After a lot of review, I realized that this is the opposite of what I should be doing.

Let me clarify that…

I'm not saying that traders should keep taking trades, if their strategy isn't working, or they are not focused.

…or worse yet, if they don't have a strategy at all.

However, if you're confident that you have an edge, then you should keep trading. By definition, the only way to end a losing streak and make up for the losses, is to keep trading and keep applying your edge.

This can seem like an insurmountable task and it might even seem hopeless…or even a little scary.

But it must be done. 

You must embrace the suck.

If don't want to lose more money, you can stop trading your live account and open a free demo account.

Do what you have to do to keep trading.

Yes, it's uncomfortable because you could keep losing.

When you're in this situation, it's also helpful to ask the following questions:

Am I attaching too much of my ego to my losing trades?

Am I insisting on being right, at the cost of being profitable?

Am I too worried about losing?

Am I beating myself up after each loss?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, develop the awareness of when you're doing those things. Work on hitting the “mute button” on those thoughts and learn to review each trade as objectively as possible.

You will learn more about yourself and your trading strategy from pushing through a drawdown, than any other trading activity I know of. 

Once you know that you can successfully overcome a drawdown however, that will give you a ton of confidence that you'll be able to do it again in the future.

Keep a Trading Journal

In order to understand what you're doing right and what you need to improve on, a trading journal is essential.

This can be a simple notebook, Evernote or RazorJournal.

Regardless of which method you use, just be sure that it works well for you and that it's simple enough that you can fill it out quickly. When a trading journal is too complex, you are less likely to fill it out and won't get the benefits.

Most trading journals have the basic information about each trade.

But also consider including these elements:

MaxR

Flash Cards

Missed trades

Trades you were considering taking, but didn't

Profit/loss calculated in multiple of risk

Adding these elements to your journal can help you progress significantly faster than if you don't track them. Review your results weekly and take an honest look at how well you're trading.

Most aspiring traders I've seen don't fill out a trading journal. This is like being an Olympic runner, but not recording your lap times.

You must track your results, in order to improve them.

Improve Your Trading

Once you've recorded your trades in your journal, now identify areas where you can improve.

Here are some staring points that you should explore:

Should you give your stop losses more room?

Are you cutting your winners short?

Do you move your stop losses?

Are you trading at the ideal times of day for your strategy?

Should you be more selective about your trades?

Are you afraid to take trades that would have worked?

Do your entries differ from how you backtested your strategy?

In hindsight, would you have still taken every trade you took?

Even a very simple trading journal will allow you to go back and review these questions. Again, try to review each trade as objectively as possible and look for common mistakes or potential optimizations.

Upgrade Your Mindset

Last, but certainly not least, figure out how to your continuously upgrade your mindset.

Scientists used to believe that our brains could not be changed after a certain age. More recent studies have proven that this is not true and we can form new brain connections and pathways throughout our lives, an ability called neuroplasticity.

So don't feel like you're stuck with what you currently have. It is possible to change how your mind works. You just have to be willing to put in the work to make those changes. 

Here are some mindset challenges that traders often face:

Hesitation when taking a trade

Discouragement during a drawdown

Blaming others for trading losses

Self-pity after a losing trade

Not forgiving yourself after a mistake

Revenge trading

Getting greedy on a trade: either targeting too big of a take profit or not using stop loss

All traders have struggled with at least one of these issues, at some point in their careers. On deeper levels, most professional traders still face these challenges. They have just learned to control them better than amateur traders.

You can read these books and see that for yourself.

So how do you fix these issues?

Here's a simple exercise that you can do to start upgrading your mindset. Human psychology is a very complex and nuanced topic, so I cannot give you all the answers in one short blog post.

But this can put you on the right track to understanding what will help you.

First, write down the behaviors that you feel are having a negative impact on your trading. Then focus on each one individually.

For example, let's say that the first item on your list is: Blaming others for your trading losses.

This might include:

Blaming your broker for hunting your stops

Blaming your family/partner for not allowing you the time to trade

Blaming your job for not having enough time to trade

Blaming an educator for not teaching you properly

Once you have your list, first ask yourself if the opposite could be true.

Is it remotely possible that your broker is NOT hunting your stops? Could it be that you really do have enough time to trade, but you're spending too much time watching Netflix?

Take an honest look at the opposite of your belief.

What do you find?

Next, do the “Why Exercise.”

Keep asking yourself why, until you cannot ask come up with any more answers, or you come to an important realization.

In this example, you might say something like this:

Why do I blame others for my trading losses?”

Because everyone is out to get me

Why is everyone out to get me?

Because the world is a harsh place

Why is the world a harsh place?

Because that's what my parents taught me

Why did your parents teach you that the world is a harsh place?

Because that was their experience growing up during the war

Ah-ha!

So in this example your tendency to blame others, could actually be coming from your parent's experiences. Not directly from your own experiences, or because people are intentionally sabotaging your trading.

Sometimes, just the realization of where your beliefs came from is enough to change some behaviors.

So that's where you should start.

However, there can be beliefs that are so deeply rooted, that they cannot be fixed through realization alone. If you want to dig deeper into possible causes of these roadblocks, and how to fix them, read this post on advanced trading psychology.

Conclusion

So if you're struggling with figuring out how to be consistently profitable, start implementing the actions suggested in this post.

Remember that learning trading strategies is easy.

Developing the mental toughness to overcome drawdowns and internal doubt is the challenging part. This is the reason that most traders quit. 

But if you keep at it long enough, I believe that most people can figure it out.

If you want help with developing your trading mindset, join the TraderEvo program. I coach traders through the entire process of learning to trade and hold them accountable at every step along the way.

The post How to Develop a Trader’s Mindset for Success appeared first on Trading Heroes.

How to Develop a Trader’s Mindset for Success published first on your-t1-blog-url

[andrewdburton]

Great lessons from great women

A decade ago, J.D. shared some great lessons from great men. He had a wealth of material to draw from: biographies of historical figures from centuries ago, classic business texts, and the earliest self-help books.

If you want to compile lessons from great women, however, you don’t have the same sources, because women have not been considered “great” for much of history, and thus they’ve not been asked for their opinions on most things — certainly not financial matters! Multiply that times ten for women of color.

Today, I'd like to share some great lessons from great women. But the wisdom I’ve collected here comes primarily from media sources and speeches. It’s no less wise than the wisdom from books written by great men, and it applies to everyone of all genders, although it’s informed in many cases by much tougher life circumstances than the white men who lent their thoughts to this post’s counterpart.

Here are ten inspiring bits of wisdom that I’ve learned from great women.

Do the Work

“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” – Indira Gandhi, India’s first (and only) female prime minister

We are trained to look for shortcuts in everything. More than that, we're surrounded by people who want the glory and the money associated with having done something without actually doing the thing.

But real success – and with it a sense of true accomplishment and fulfillment – only comes if we actually do the work. Success without having done the work feels hollow. And the belief that success should come instantly and with glory puts us in the wrong mindset to achieve big things.

I’d tweak Indira’s quote just a little, though, to say that it’s fine to claim credit – in fact you should! – but only after you’ve actually done the work.

Work first, credit second.

Define Success for Yourself

“To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world — that I am able to change it in positive ways.” – Maxine Hong Kingston, author

Our society tends to have a one-dimensional definition of success: To be successful is to have power, status, and money. While those things might satisfy some of us, it’s simply not true that everyone will feel equally fulfilled by having them, never mind that our current economy simply won’t allow most people to achieve those things.

Instead, let’s follow Maxine’s advice and define success for ourselves. She defines it as effectiveness at carrying her ideas and values into the world, which is true for me, too, but you get to choose your own definition.

Mistakes Aren’t Failure

“You know, failure hurts. Any kind of failure stings. If you live in the sting, you will undoubtedly fail. My way of getting past the sting is to say no, ‘I’m just not going to let this get me down.’” – Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina justice on the U.S. Supreme Court

“Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience. Don’t be afraid to fail.” – Michelle Obama

It’s natural to be afraid of failure. And despite the recent Silicon Valley-led trend of “failing fast” (in which failure is accepted but is also supposedly painless), Sonia and Michelle understand that failure sucks. There’s no point in sugar-coating it.

If you invest yourself in something and it doesn’t work out, it’s inevitable that that’s going to hurt. But what matters is what you do next. Do you wallow in that hurt? Or do you figure out what you can learn from that failure, and refuse to let it stop you?

Be like these great women and carry on, more resilient than ever.

Embrace Fear

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Speaking of that fear of failure, not only can we not let failure stop of from moving forward, we can’t let the fear of it stop us from even trying in the first place.

Fear can be a helpful guide to tell us that we’re getting closer to our highest purpose, and to doing something that really matters. If you’re never scared by something you’re setting out to accomplish, it doesn’t mean that you’re especially brave. It means you’ve never challenged yourself.

Real Wealth Is Community

“My object in life is not simply to make money for myself.” – Madam C. J. Walker, the first self-made African-American millionaire

We don’t talk enough about the incredible life of Madam C.J. Walker, an entrepreneur who was determined to build her own wealth, but also to lift as she climbed and enrich others in her community along the way. Fortunately, you can now learn more about her in the Netflix series Self Made.

Walker grew up in terrible poverty, like most African-Americans of her day, and knew she wouldn’t be satisfied if she only enriched herself without making things better for her community. It’s a lesson we can all take to heart, asking how we can use our own opportunities and advantages to create opportunities for others, especially for those who’ve historically faced more barriers.

Generosity and an Abundance Mindset Will Serve You Well

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

Something I wish I’d understood earlier in life is the destructive power of a scarcity mindset (in which you focus on what you don’t have and feel compelled to hoard money) rather than an abundance mindset (in which you focus on what you do have and therefore don’t need to hold on to it so tightly).

Psychological research tells us that giving of ourselves, both our time and money, makes us feel better about ourselves, more grateful for what we have, and happier overall. And that’s in addition to strengthening our communities and helping those less fortunate at the same time.

Generosity is a muscle you have to build, so start small if you have to, but give whenever you can.

Pursue the Things You Love Most

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” – Maya Angelou, author, poet, and civil rights activist

I actually kind of hate the “follow your passion” career advice that so many extol, because it’s simply not universally applicable, and it sets up an unhelpful divide between those who are able to go into a career path about which they’re passionate, and those who have to do the thankless jobs that we’re finally recognizing as essential in the era of COVID-19.

But your career is not the entirety of your existence. And in your life as a whole, I absolutely believe in letting what you love guide you, without regard for money.

Being accomplished at something doesn’t have to mean getting a paycheck to do it, nor does it require public recognition. It could be something you do privately for your own enjoyment and nothing else. And doing it without regard for money is an important piece, because we make decisions differently when we’re profit-motivated.

Allow yourself at least one thing you love in life in which money plays no part.

Claim Your Power

“Power is not given to you. You have to take it.” – Beyoncé

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend that you are not, especially in public, otherwise you will emasculate him.” – Chimamanda Ngozi, author and activist

“We as women should shine light on our accomplishments and not feel egotistical when we do. It's a way to let the world know that we as women can accomplish great things!” – Dolores Huerta, founder of the United Farm Workers

“Women’s empowerment” is another idea I kind of hate, because it suggests we are being granted some small amount of power by those who already possess it, in the amounts they choose to grant.

But those in power never asked permission or waited patiently to be gifted what they felt was theirs. They didn’t shrink themselves to make others feel better about themselves. They didn’t hesitate to shout their accomplishments because of how it might make them look. They took that power and stood in it — without shame.

So, instead of “being empowered”, we should claim our own power. (And to those who’ve historically had those advantages, don’t worry – “power” isn’t a zero-sum game. More people having power doesn’t lessen your own.)

Use your voice, cheer your accomplishments, and live to your full potential.

People Are More Important Than Anything

“People first, then money, then things.” – Suze Orman

“Remember, ‘No one’s more important than people’! In other words, friendship is the most important thing—not career or housework, or one’s fatigue—and it needs to be tended and nurtured.” – Julia Child

We can argue about whether Suze Orman is a great woman or not, but she certainly expressed this sentiment most succinctly: People are the most important thing.

If your wealth or your success comes at the expense of your relationships, then all the money in the world won’t make you happy. And countless studies confirm this: Those with the strongest relationships live the longest and have the most high-quality-of-life years, they have the greatest sense of purpose, and they’re the happiest.

Put the people in your life first, ahead of your career and hustle, if you care about what your life adds up to and not just what your financial numbers add up to.

Know What You Stand For

“Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist

This may seem like it’s not a money lesson, but it absolutely is. We’re faced with scores of choices every day that have real-world implications for other people and the planet.

Let’s say you decide you want to earn passive income through rental real estate. Do you want to be a slum lord who does the bare minimum maintenance on your properties and evicts people the second rent is late? Or do you want to recognize that your property is someone’s home and maintain it accordingly, and cut them some slack if they have trouble paying?

Making no decision is a decision in itself, so make your choice consciously. Know what you stand for, and recognize that your money is the single biggest expression of your values.

Final thoughts: The women who gave us these lessons are a huge inspiration to me, and their fights for justice have paved the way for future generations to struggle less. Let’s carry their lessons into the world and do great things!

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/great-women/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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The Best and Brightest Ideas from the 10th Annual Adobe 99U Conference

If there is one pervasive theme that has taken hold of our work lives, private lives, and digital lives in the past year, it’s that challenges are always present — and they demand confrontation. This year, the Adobe 99U Conference focused its theme around tackling challenges by exploring new approaches to creative leadership, overcoming hurdles that limit our own work, inventing and reinventing formats, and using creativity to effect social good.

From 99U founder Scott Belsky to CreativeMornings founder Tina Roth Eisenberg to John Maeda, speakers dug into how to design the immersive experience of our future, how to replace job perks with passion, and why the future will be crafted by those who do the work beyond the scope of what their job title requires.

We’ve rounded up our speakers best and the brightest ideas so you can incorporate their insights into your career and reshape, upend, and nurture your creative life.

Lead fearlessly and from the heart.

You get to mindfully pick what kind of leader you are—whether you lead from fear of failure, or are joyfully driven by your vision. For CreativeMornings and Tattly founder Tina Roth Eisenberg, the best method is to make your work a playground for your future best self. “I am learning everyday to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire and not terrify me,” she said.

Don’t protect yourself from failure.

A culture of consensus building can kill any chance of disruption and innovation. Instead, Todd Yellin, VP of Product at Netflix, encourages his team to challenge convention, even if there is the risk of failure. “You want to lean so far forward that sometimes you fall on your face,” said Yellin. “You can never make it to a true utopia, but you should keep on pushing.”

To be a creative leader, start silly.

Whenever we begin a project we tend to also begin with an ambitious goal and that can make the whole project feel super serious and pressure-filled right off the bat. But what if we sometimes began with play and discovery rather than metrics and objectives? According to Google Creative Lab’s Tea Uglow, there is no reason that approach also can’t yield a successful result. “You can start with stuff that feels dumb and stupid, and play with it and you will get to places where it becomes potent and powerful.”

John Maeda and Adobe VP of Design Jamie Myrold/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

Be inclusive.

“Being inclusive means welcoming the unknown,” said Automattic’s John Maeda who has made it his mission to rehabilitate the design world with a broader and braver sense of who we’re designing for. And when we design for everyone, we can reach everyone.  “Better products are created in tech when we’re inclusive-minded because the total addressable market increases,” he said.

Do, delegate, or drop.

In order to write compelling new chapters in our career, we have to give ourselves permission to drop a ball or two. Or better yet, learn to delegate—even if that feels totally unnatural. “If you want something you’ve never had before you’re gonna have to do something that you’ve never done before in order to get it.”said Drop the Ball author Tiffany Dufu said, So either do it, delegate it, or drop it. (And, as Dufu reassured everyone, if you drop unrealistic expectations, nothing bad will happen.)

Make your message the focus of your work.

Artist and author Adam J. Kurtz admitted he doesn’t necessarily aim for by-the-book visual perfection. Instead, he embraces an unpolished aesthetic and a habit of churning out a lot of ideas for the internet to either adore or ignore. “My work looks bad, but I have a lot to say,” he said. “My visual voice, the handwriting that I use, is emotive and disarming and it allows me to tackle difficult topics.”

Set your own house rules.

Sound artist Christine Sun Kim viscerally feels the effect of sound when it invades her home. Rather than be a passive player, Kim builds house rules and art projects like performances and sound diets to wrestle with the role of sound in her personal space (including asking a nearby church to cut back its bell-ringing schedule). “For me home is where my deaf identity and deafness are one and the same,” she said.

Walk your stakeholders through your ideas, literally.

Duncan Wardle, the former Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney, recommends printing and posting your ideas around the walls of a conference room and physically walking your team and clients through them. “People sitting behind tables will judge you, they can’t help it,” says Wardle. “When you walk with somebody, a presentation turns into a conversation.”

Tiffany Dufu/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

Start your business with a problem you want to solve.

“Sometimes when people talk about their business idea, they jump to the benefit of their business,” said Emily Heyward, Red Antler co-founder. “But people are not sitting around wishing your business existed—no one is sitting around wishing for a crunchy cereal with raisins.” However, they might be wishing for a quick answer to breakfast, or to lose weight—their motivation for buying the product you’ll make. “You have to go deeper to the actual problem behind why someone might care about this idea.”

Mindlessness is an affliction. Mindfulness is the cure.

These days you’re either at a company that is disrupting, or one that is being disrupted. As a leader, embracing change starts at the individual level, said SYPartners’ Rachel Salinas, who advocates for scheduling time for mindfulness into everyday life, through things like meditation or setting down your phone and disconnecting from the always-on mode. “If you don’t let your thoughts control you, you can be responsive, not reactive,” said Salinas. “That is hugely important for leaders.”

Risk-taking is an art…and a playground.

Our most valuable contributions can come from the times when we launch into untrammeled territory. But risk-taking is uncomfortable, awkward, and frightening. To keep creatives from shying away from going out on a limb, Good F***ing Design Advice co-founders Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher recommend adding partners-in-crime to share the burden of your risk, injecting playfulness to energize your process, and to embrace—not avoid—a sense of fear. “Pride and insecurities are responses to vulnerabilities,” they said. “They are telling you something. So listen!”

Don’t be afraid to ask the obvious question.

Iteration through prototyping is one of the most integral steps in the design process. It’s often the best way to bounce around new ideas, question creative solutions, and unearth new problems. But we often skip the most important piece in the prototyping process. As we rush to dream up new solutions and ideas, we often forget to ask ourselves ‘why?’ Why do it this way? Why prioritize that? Adobe Creative Resident, Natalie Lew alongside Donors Choose, said to ask three ‘why?’ questions after someone gives an initial answer, so you can get to the heart of what is really driving the change.

Attendees workshopped their own ideas during break out sessions/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

If you’re not designing for the future, you’re designing for the past.

Brand strategy firm Lippincott highlighted three key human experience design trends to help us plan ahead: a world of devices and systems treated as intimate resources and friends, which will set higher and higher bars of trust in order to access with your product; an increasingly customized world, where every moment and experience is designed for each individual; plus a new synthetic reality where the real and virtual meet and blend. In order to keep pace with the future, designers must address these shifts now. After all, the Lippincott team points out, “If you’re designing for today’s customer, you’re probably designing for the past.”

Think forward with your feedback.

Feedback is one of the most valuable and yet unspoken gifts we can offer our colleagues. Why is so much left unsaid? ustwo believes we don’t have the roadmap to manage our fear of crossing the line from feedback into critique. The most important thing to remember? “Be actionable,” said the team from ustwo. “Effective feedback is specific, relates directly to the goals of the project, and suggests a possible next step.”

Sometimes the most effective tech is the most old school

Stop motion animation brings to mind whimsical characters navigating a bumpy existence. But animation studio Mighty Oak says there’s more to stop motion than a wink and a smile. Major brands, from Volkswagen to Sun-Maid, have put animation at the center of their campaigns, embracing the personality that animation can add to the simplest shapes and images. According to Mighty Oak, animation keeps viewers engaged for longer lengths of time than live action. Even more importantly, the simplicity of the medium makes more complicated messages possible. “It allows us to discuss tough issues, explain complex information, remove barriers, cut through the clutter, and make memorable impressions,” said Mighty Oak CEO Jess Peterson.

99U founder Scott Belsky/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

The messy middle of a project can hold the biggest rewards.

99U founder Scott Belsky is no stranger to launching new endeavors. His current focus? That mysterious middle no one talks about in between inception and shipping; the time when you can’t see the finish line and you’ve forgotten what got you into the project in the first place. “Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that long-term vision is enough to keep us motivated,” said Belsky. But that’s not enough. In order to stay motivated during that muddle of a middle, Belsky advises building a team that accepts the burden of processing uncertainty, enjoys being together apart from product success, and to set whimsical milestones that lead to team excitement when there are no formal rewards in sight.

Deliver your wordy message in a visuals.

An audience’s attention is one of our most valuable resources. How can we make sure to keep it long enough for them hear our whole message? Data journalist Mona Chalabi transforms numbers into witty, incisive visuals that both delight and surprise and drive home serious facts and figures.

“Charts don’t connect the subject matter with the visualization themselves,” said Chalabi. “I try to connect the subject matter with the depiction of the visualization.” So if she’s been assigned to design a chart showing a major world event, she surely isn’t going to a ho hum bar chart. “If you’re talking about an economy that’s in freefall, that’s diving, why not show a diver?” she says. “The surprise is meant to hold your attention.”

Speaker Mona Chalabi/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

Fun fact: Alternate realities are the product humans desperately desire.

Meow Wolf CEO Vince Kadlubek didn’t plan to get into one of the fastest growing economies of the 21st century. He originally set out to build an arts collective. But the immersive installations he launched at Meow Wolf fed into our desire to experience the avante garde. Kadlubek sees a growing opportunity  between reality and design as the two shape the world, and he challenged designers to think of themselves as shapers in the new freedom of this landscape. “The world has felt limited by previous infrastructure that we can’t affect,” he says. “That’s changing. All creatives around the world should start thinking about how together, over the next 20 years, we can create a beautiful new world.”

Replace perks with passions.

It’s no secret: tech and media are great fields to work in. Entry level talent can get unlimited vacations, three free meals a day, and workspaces with Kombucha and nap pods. But Audrey Liu, Lyft’s Director of Product Design, cautions against emphasizing all-day fun, not fulfillment, to attract talent. “We’ve lost sight of the one perk we should all care about,” Liu said. “A shared sense of passion for the problem we’re trying to solve.”

Inspire the dreams of others by chasing your own.

Super Heroic CEO, and former Nike Senior Global Design Director, Jason Mayden is driven by the philosophy that if we can play together, we can live together. Through his company, Super Heroic, he’s created a world of play that coaches kids toward creativity, agility, and perseverance. But to raise a new generation who can play and dream together, adults have to set a good example by tending to their own dreams. In order to inspire new generations, we must follow our own dreams. “You being comfortable with your dream,” said Mayden, “Allows someone else to be comfortable with their dream.”

Speaker Audrey Liu/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

Shoot for the mundane, not the moon.

On a trip to Cuba to work with local start-ups, Marcelino J. Alvarez, founder of Uncorked Studios, discovered an entrepreneurial culture that, unlike in the U.S., wasn’t obsessed with profits and products, but with contexts and communities. Inspired by them, Alvarez advised designers to zero in on the everyday needs of systems and communities, “There are way more opportunities to scale impact through the mundane than through moonshots,” he said.

Unbury your greatest hopes and fears.

Ashleigh Axios, design exponent at Automattic and former Obama White House creative director, wants us all to be a little more self-centered. Not in the way that makes us design unnecessary products for a quick buck. She means self-centered in a more introspective, vulnerable way. Axios challenged designers to dig deep into the things that frustrate us—whether it’s hurt about racial inequality or an experience being bullied as a child—and create products that address those problems. “Every frustration,” she said, “every fear, every hope that you’ve buried really deep down inside thinking there was no way for it to change into something positive, I want us to pull that back up. Those are the things that will make us better off.”

Resistance at its best will slow the pace of change. Resistance at its worst can decimate a company or career.

The key to understanding why people resist change, said NOBL’s CEO Bree Groff, is to understand why exactly people are resisting. “I would argue that people aren’t resisting change—they’re resisting loss,” said Groff. Based on NOBL’s work with brands and agencies, Groff pinpoints six types of loss employees feel during organizational change: loss of control, pride, narrative, time, competence, and familiarity. Her advice for someone who is trying to enact change is to follow three steps: Honor the end of what you’re saying goodbye to, address the loss, and celebrate the beginning. Most people start with celebrating the beginning, noted Groff, but first they need to lay the proper groundwork for turning the page.

Learn to speak the language of every medium you touch.

We can’t be an expert in every medium, but our jobs require often require us to go beyond our speciality and work in new formats. What’s a creative to do?? Make sure you learn the language of the medium you’re in charge of. For instance, if you’re the brand director on a photoshoot, have a palette of visual language to communicate with your photographers so you can articulate direction to them. The best tactic for framing the initial conversation? “Make multiple mood boards,” said photographer and Adobe Creative Resident, Aundre Larrow. “A mood board for how you want expressions, how you want the light, and for the general feel.” You might not be a photographer, but you are still in charge of the photoshoot.

Attendees participating in Google’s break out session/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U

Get to the point (and then you can embellish)

What if you only had five seconds to sketch out your idea? What would you put down on paper? Some intricate design? Or the bones of the problem you’re looking to solve? In her breakout session, Adobe Creative Resident Jessica Bellamy challenged her audience to draw certain objects in five seconds to show how, when you get to a design’s essence, function precedes form “Beautiful design does not mean it communicates its function,” said Bellamy.

When in doubt, do as Google does.

Over the last 10 years, Google has become one of the largest and most important companies in the world. Even though its employee count has quadrupled during that time and its reach spans the globe, the company’s philosophy today remains the same as it was in the early years. “Focus on the user and all else will follow,” said Jens Riegelsberger, UX Director, Google, sharing a mantra that, come to think of it, companies of any size can follow as the golden rule of business.

Bottom up in the new top down.

Brands today have more dimensions to them than ever before, and experience, experience, visual, and verbal design must connect to each other, and to a brand’s purpose. This means companies have to be built in a whole new way, said the team at R/GA. “Modern brands are built from the bottom up because today, behavior is as important as belief,” said R/GA’s executive creative director Mike Rigby. “Bottom up means starting with designing the system and thinking about all of the interactions the audience has with the brand first instead of pushing a brand directive from the top to the bottom.”

Take Time out for Pen and Paper

  Effective Brainstorming = Frame > Open > Close

Who hasn’t been in an ideas meeting that has gone completely off the rails? Sure, we want to be open to any and all concepts, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use a strategy to keep us on track. “The best way to brainstorm is Frame -> Open -> Closed,” said Jason Cha, director at The Design Gym. “Frame is where you figure out the challenge or problem; open is where you think of ideas—anything goes, you can just spitball the broadest ideas. “Closed is where you figure out how to actually solve the challenge using your open ended ideas.”

Bring in new voices and onboard them to lead the conversation.

General Assembly advised creatives to open up the pearly gates of design to new voices and new experiences. After all, the collective is stronger than the individual. The new mindsets General Assembly looks for? A full systems approach to design, and people who think ahead to design for evolution and adaptation. To bring those new voices in, Tyler Hartrich advised, “build a culture that allows newcomers to contribute to the way you do things.” The more we open up the doors, the better we will be as an industry.

When you demo new tools, demo new ideas too.

When working with new products, your key ingredient is the desire to try new things. That means, lead with a wish to learn, not a desire to be perfect. “Be inspired to make something you’ve never made before,” said artist and designer, Jennet Liaw.

When it comes to branding, sound matters.

Design is often thought of as a visual journey, which leads us to overlook one of the most powerful ways to connect with an audience—through sound. Emotional response to sound is strongly linked with the desire to engage or avoid an experience. “Our role is to score the brand experience,” said Kristen Lueck, Director of Strategy for Man Made Music. “If a product or experience makes a sound, it will have personality – you have no choice in the matter.”

Go with your gut.

It’s tough to evaluate and critique a partner’s work. We worry about hurt feelings, or possibly squashing the germs of a good idea. But DKNG founders Nathan Goldman and Dan Kuhlken say lets your instincts guide you. “Whatever your initial reaction to your partner’s work, don’t take it lightly,” they said. “It’s quite possible that anyone viewing the work will have a similar opinion.” Be upfront and honest, and, if you have to have a hard conversation, better it coming from you than a client who feels the same way.

Make thinking and making the same thing

Artist Jon Burgerman has crafted a career out of doodling. But there’s more to that practice than whimsical lines. “Doodling is thinking and making at the same time,” Burgerman said. Sometimes the best ideas, with the biggest impact can come from the very simple, silly, and quick, so find ways to remove the barrier between your thoughts and your attempts. “Allow your imagination to be your raw material,” advised Burgerman.

Attendees toasted two days of ideas with a dance party at MoMA/Photo by Ryan Muir for 99U