#adding tech support to his CV

[georgiasbrainstuff]

Max Verstappen helps Gabriel Bortoleto with his mic.

[seventeenlovesthree]

“My best friend is finally getting therapy and part of his healing process is becoming my employee”

@taikouvember Day 5 - Hope: Something you would like to see happening for them

Short Fic Summary: Koushirou struggles to get new employees for his start-up company and hiring processes go rather slowly, even with the support of a very engaged team. He absolutely isn't prepared to hear that their most recent New Hire for the marketing department is someone very familiar to him... (Because I always wanted to write a fic about their set-up as coworkers at Koushirou's company while using a ridiculously long and cheesy light novel title - and because we all know that this would be the best type of therapy for Taichi!)

Word Count: 3287

“Excuse me, Izumi-shachou?”

The door to Koushirou’s main office opened and the HR manager came in.

“Kawashima-san”, Koushirou greeted her, accompanied by Tentomon bowing down next to him. She immediately smiled at the ladybug, who had become some kind of mascot to the little start-up company.

“Hello, Tento-san. I just wanted to hand in the sheet of New Hires we acquired today.”

“Ah, thank you very much”, Tentomon took the folder with the CVs in place of his partner, who let out a sigh of relief. It had taken several weeks to get the hiring process going, the main team in office consisted mainly of acquaintances he had made thanks to the network he had been building together with his American friend since he was 16. Since his tech company wasn’t exactly known too well yet, competition in regards to personnel proved to be rather difficult – especially in non-technical fields.

“We only had three applicants this time, but Takano-san actually found someone he intends to add to the marketing team core, so that may be a good sign!”, Kawashima explained and seemed rather cheerful about the announcement. Just like Koushirou, Kawashima Shiho was still in her early twenties, but pretty dedicated to get all administration duties done – which Koushirou was more than thankful for. She had joined the company around six months after he had met at a technology fair and Koushirou, who had mainly focused on getting technical acquaintances on board, had been pretty lucky to have stumbled across her. Things had gotten better back then – especially after the name Izumi Koushirou had become more well-known after appearing in the media thanks to the Eosmon incident a few months ago. Which was also when he had been contacted by Takano Hideki  – a marketing specialist in his mid-thirties, who had been more than fascinated by the intent of the company.

Providing gadgets for the growing network of humans partnering with “Digital Monsters” wasn’t exactly a market he had experienced before. And so, Koushirou had slowly but steadily gathered a little team of tech – and Digimon – enthusiasts. It wasn’t a lot, especially since he couldn’t even yet afford hiring too many people at once, but he had high hopes that things would improve.

“Three is more than we anticipated, so this is indeed a good sign”, Koushirou replied, “Thank you for attending the hiring meetings in my place, Kawashima-san.”

She shook her head in response.

“That is my job after all and you’ve been particularly busy with reporting the company project results to the finance team. Also, as company president, you don’t even have to be at all the hiring meetings for the other departments”, she added with a smile, which he returned wearily. They really needed the marketing team to make sure the company would gain more publicity – and thus, new potential clients and supporters if he wanted to maintain all of this. His American friend still provided financial support – though he didn’t plan on depending on that forever.

“And that’s also what this list is for! I met all three of the New Hires myself and I would assume they’ll be suitable additions to the company.”

“That is good to hear. I would still really like to meet them myself”, Koushirou admitted – he wasn’t exactly an office-shut-in and regularly tried to stay in touch with the different departments as much as he could. He also had veto rights in regards to hiring and felt like he had to at least look over the company structure to some degree. But by trying to micromanage everything, it did remind him a little of the times he had to look over Iori, Miyako, Ken and Daisuke during their school days…

“… You really should get to meet them, Koushirou-han.”

Both humans turned to Tentomon, as the Digimon urgently stared at one of the sheets after he had browsed curiously through the folder. Koushirou could, at this point, read his partner perfectly to be able to tell that something wasn’t right.

“Why, what do you mean, Tentomon?”

“Well… You may want to have a personal talk with one of them at least.”

Hearing that, he raised an eyebrow and took the folder out of Tentomon’s claws – only to immediately freeze the moment he saw the application picture…

Kawashima blinked in surprise and confusion. “Is something wrong?” Having her own curiosity piqued, she glanced at the sheet as well. “Oh, he was a very interesting applicant, we weren’t completely sure whether he would fit the role, but Takano-san seemed very intrigued by his attitude and presentation, so I trust that we made the right choice by hiring him.”

“… Do you know if he is still in office?”

“Oh, he probably is still talking to Takano-san, I assume. Like I said, he was highly impressed by him.”

“E-excuse me, then…” With his lips pressed together, Koushirou bowed and, to Kawashima’s even greater surprise, almost stormed out of the office. Leaving his HR manager and his Digimon partner behind, with the former still being at a complete loss.

“I’ve… Never seen him that frantic before, does he know the applicant?”

“Oh, ya see…”, Tentomon chuckled, bashfully rubbing the back at his head after pointing at the man with the confident smile on the application picture, “He may actually know Yagami Taichi-han a little too well…”

~

“Shachou?!”

Takano didn’t react any less astonished as Kawashima had just a few minutes ago when Koushirou almost slammed the door to his office open – which wasn’t like anything their usually composed and cool company president had ever done before. Besides the main IT and tech work space and Koushirou’s main office, the floor mainly consisted of the HR, finance and PR/marketing offices. Paths were short and so it didn’t even take him a minute to get here.

Their New Hire didn’t seem exactly surprised – instead, he looked like he had been haunted by a ghost when his eyes met Koushirou’s. A certain sense of “Damn, I didn’t think I’d meet you just yet” was in the air.

“Is something the matter, Izumi-shachou? You look rather distressed?”, Takano asked and Taichi became even more pale.

“I… Just talked to Kawashima-san and came here to greet our newest company member personally”, he smiled a forced smile – and Takano found himself laughing.

“See, I knew you would leave an impression early, Yagami-san.”

“Y-yeah… That’s one way to put it”, Taichi smiled in return, which led Koushirou to cough.

“Takano-san, would you mind if I talked to Yagami-san alone for a few minutes?” The way he pronounced his name – the family name of the person whose first name he had probably said a million times before – felt odd, foreign and just plain wrong, but his brain was running on autopilot right now anyway. What was happening here, why was it happening, was this a prank, was he dreaming?

“Absolutely not, I am sure you’ll be just as pleased with him as I was, just please call me back when you are done”, Takano said. Despite being more than ten years older than himself, he was oozing quite a relaxed and confident aura, still seemed very “in touch” with his younger colleagues… But Koushirou couldn’t tell how much he actually knew.

“Thank you very much…”

With that, Takano left his little office space and the two long-term friends behind, who remained quiet, still maintaining – somewhat uncomfortable – eye contact… Until the door was closed and the air seemed clear.

“Taichi-san, why on earth didn't you tell me that you applied to my company?! When did you intend to tell me this, just – how did you even come up with this idea, what was going through your head?!”, it eventually bursted out of Koushirou in waves, so he couldn’t even keep his voice low anymore – didn’t even care anymore if the entire office heard him like that – and Taichi just apologetically raised his arms.

“I wanted it to be a surprise! I obviously knew you would learn about it sooner than later, but, knowing how freaking busy you were recently, I kinda thought it’d take at least until tomorrow!”, Taichi responded, but Koushirou still stared at him as if he had lost his mind. It was true that they had barely been in touch in recent weeks due to his finance report – but also because of something else.

“And what a surprise this is! Also, that doesn’t explain why you applied here, I mean… What happened to your job at the pachinko parlor?”

“I quit there. You said it yourself once, I was even more miserable every time I went there, and according to my therapist, it was just adding up to any mental issues, so… Yeah, I finally had the guts to quit.”

Taichi had finally started seeing a therapist. After losing Agumon, he had shut himself away for several days – up until Hikari, Koushirou and the others eventually couldn’t bear leaving him to his own devices to rot away in his flat anymore. It had taken quite a few attempts, speeches, crying and shouting to get through to him, reminding him that he didn’t have to deal with all of this by himself for him to finally break down. Years of self-isolation, years of pent up trauma, the feeling of loss, of his partner, of his sense of self… It had all come together, culminating in several painful realizations.

There hadn’t been an immediate solution. Instead, there had been a few fights and fallouts even, several weeks of searching and making use of Koushirou’s connections to find a therapist that was capable of taking over this case. Obviously, not a lot of “normal” humans were even in the position to relate to anything Yagami Taichi had gone through in his young life of only 23 years, but… It was worth a shot. And Koushirou had been glad that Taichi had accepted the opportunity despite having rebelled against the idea for a long time. Whichever path it may lead him towards, it could only have gotten better in his opinion.

However, he had not expected to suddenly see his best friend standing here in his office, dressed in suit and tie, not just as a visitor, but as an actual… Employee. His employee. And… As what even?

“I still don’t understand… Why did you apply to our marketing team, of all departments? How does that relate to your studies?”

Now it was on Taichi to cough and, apparently, collecting himself.

“See… You know, I picked up writing my thesis again, right?”, Taichi explained calmly – which was an unusual sight, but it also calmed Koushirou down a little as well.

“You’re writing about the relationship between the real and the Digital World and how its relations may result in a symbiosis between the two…”

“Yeah. And once I’m done, I will have to present my thesis orally as well and, you know, I was talking to my therapist about that… He said I’m currently lacking experience to pull something like that off. Speaking in front of a crowd of people, being convincing…”

Hearing that, Koushirou felt a little sting in his chest. The Yagami Taichi he had known for the majority of his life used to be capable of pulling people along just by being himself, by letting his charisma show, his natural sense of leadership. To hear that someone externally had come to the conclusion that he was currently not in a state of being his naturally contagious self anymore was… Daunting, to say the least.

“And… Part of me knows that I want to make that symbiosis happen. Kinda, at least. So… I need to be able to sell that vision somehow. I have no idea how to do that yet, but… I want to learn how to do it.”

Seeing Taichi so vulnerable, so open to him… Hadn’t happened in a long time. Yes, he had seen him cry several times before, but he hadn’t witnessed him… Explaining himself so surely yet unsurely at the same time.

“Then I heard Hikari and Takeru talk about how you’ve been struggling to get people to work for your company and…”, Taichi hesitated, “Yeah, I saw the open positions listed on your screen the other day too.”

Koushirou frowned. Again, they hadn’t talked a lot in the past weeks, hadn’t even seen each other in person for a while, so… He really must have worked hard on his application there. It made the sting increase even more. Made him feel like the worst friend in the world.

“I had no idea…”

“Like I said, it was… Kinda meant to be a surprise, you know?” The grin on his face felt genuine, but Koushirou couldn’t shake the thought that he must have forced himself to keep quiet about it too.

“But… You could have asked me! I could have introduced you to Takano-san even sooner and-“

“No!” This time, Taichi actually seemed steadfast about his decision and, most importantly, more confident again to put his foot down. “That’s the point, I didn’t want to be hired based on, well, knowing the CEO. I don’t want handouts, Koushirou, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. This was a crazy idea in the first place and I brought it up to my therapist, even if it felt stupid and out of place after everything that happened, but… I wanna figure out what I really want to do now. And what I’m capable of, on my own.”

Admittedly, Koushirou had never been to therapy himself, so he wasn’t exactly aware of how it worked, but if Taichi was already able to put his vision into words like that after just a few months… It really must have left an impact, Koushirou thought to himself while listening patiently.

Of course, when the subject of therapy had been brought up by Hikari for the first time, Koushirou had done his research – like he always did whenever he was not familiar with something. Thus, he remembered that there was something along the lines of exposure therapy. So whatever Taichi and his therapist must have brewed up together, it did feel like Taichi intended to face his demons, all of his insecurities heads on, taking on a challenge like this.

A part of him had almost assumed that Taichi would end up distancing himself from him even further, from everything in order to avoid hurting even more. Who could have blamed him for wanting to get away from everything that could potentially remind him of the part of himself that he had lost?

But now, Taichi really seemed to have gathered enough courage to do the opposite instead.

“So… Takano-san doesn’t know that you know me?”, Koushirou asked softly, causing Taichi to scratch his chin.

“Eh, I would say he still somewhat looked through me”, he confessed, again with a grin – one that felt a lot more like him though. “I knew way too much about this place and I’m pretty sure he saw me around before, but… I tried not to bring it up. But he’s actually a great guy, so talking to him made it all feel less stupid after all.”

Despite of how furious Koushirou had been before about not having known about any of this, about being left out of the picture… It also felt like, by choosing this path in particular, here of all places, Taichi was intending to step closer towards him specifically as well. Even if he hadn’t let him in on how it looked inside of him for a long time, even if he had shut him out just like everyone else… Now that the tables had turned, in just the blink of an eye, Koushirou couldn’t suppress a smile, even if he had wanted to.

“You mean getting into ‘marketing’, mh?”

“Yeah, wild, I know.”

Koushirou’s smile widened.

“I presume you’ll be responsible for texting and being a PR representative of the company – and less for designing then?”

This time, Taichi pulled a grimace – and Koushirou knew he had hit a nerve there. His political sciences studies would come in handy, that he was certain about – however, talking convincingly to politicians still required a significantly different skillset from selling their ideas to the general public, including clueless stakeholders and, especially, the media.

“I know that tone, Kou, and I don’t like it! Mind you, I was practicing technical stuff with Hikari, I know photoshop and such! I’m not a kid anymore and way past the point of bluescreening your computer! Trust me!”

“No, no, I believe you!”, Koushirou laughed out loud – furthermore, he could not help but notice just how much he had missed Taichi’s presence. Bickering like that, being like this together, felt like putting over a warm, comfortable blanket he had hidden away in a closet for a long, long time…

And in the end, it was true – not only did he believe Taichi, he had always believed in him as well. And deep down, Koushirou knew better than anyone else how capable Taichi could be when he was at a hundred percent.

“Good! But yeah, Takano-san will do the visual designing stuff, I’m here to provide the input.”

“Interesting.” So that was most likely what Kawashima had been referring to when she had talked about Taichi’s ‘performance and presentation’ coming off as intriguing, Koushirou mused internally. Somebody must have done their homework up front and Koushirou was convinced that Takano had dug up quite a bit. Probably must have been aware of their ‘relationship status’ as well. “So by input you mean… Processing your experiences and present them in a neat package?”

“Pretty much”, Taichi smiled a crooked smile. He really had come a long way, considering how casually he was already conveying this. Maybe this would really prove to be a key element in getting Taichi’s spirit, and eventually Agumon back? Koushirou had seen him make miracles happen if he set his mind to it, so maybe his therapist had been onto something there. “So, you’re not mad at me anymore?”

Taken off guard by that reply, Koushirou blinked at him.

“I… Wasn’t exactly mad in the first place”, he said truthfully, all glimpses of potential anger had completely vanished after all and Taichi’s gentle tone was something he had never really been able to stand a chance against anyway. Instead, there was a weird sense of… Wary giddiness now. “Just… I did not see any of this coming.”

“Well, but then I was already successful in a way.”

“You really were.”

“Heh… So be sure to see me around a lot more in the future, Izumi-shachou, Takano-san was talking very highly of you.”

Avoiding to tell him that they wouldn’t even be in the same team and thus, probably not getting in touch much, Koushirou couldn’t tell if he was ready for them to be actual coworkers yet. He couldn’t tell if there would be rumours and gossiping, whether there were other complications he hadn’t thought of yet. All he could do was trust in Takano’s judgement, Taichi’s persistence and his own ability to separate their newly founded professional bond from their private bond. Things would absolutely be different from now on, but – it was genuinely making him a bit more hopeful for the future. For the sake of his company – and for Taichi’s sake as well. Most importantly, setting all rationality aside and letting his emotions do the talking, he wanted to believe that this arrangement would eventually improve their friendship again rather than harming it.

“We’ll see about that, Yagami-san.”

Little did he know that it would end up being an entirely different experience from anything he could ever have imagined…

[alliance00]

Why Businesses Trust Recruitment Agencies in South Africa for Fast, Effective Hiring

In today’s rapid-moving world, hiring the right people quickly can make or break a business. Whether you're a startup looking to build a dream team or a large enterprise expanding into new markets, having the right talent on board is non-negotiable. That’s why more and more companies are relying on recruitment agencies in South Africa to meet their staffing needs—quickly, efficiently, and with the right fit.

But what exactly makes recruitment corporations such a relied on answer? And why are they becoming even more vital in South Africa’s developing economy? Let’s damage it down in easy terms.

Recruitment Takes Time – Agencies Save It

Hiring is extra than simply posting a task and ready. It includes reviewing dozens (occasionally masses) of CVs, screening calls, interviews, historical past tests, and greater. All of this takes up precious time that HR groups or commercial enterprise owners won't have.

That’s where recruitment organizations in South Africa come in. These organizations already have databases full of certified candidates, lots of whom are already pre-screened. When a business enterprise desires to fill a function—fast—the business enterprise can deliver a shortlist of top candidates in just days, once in a while even hours.

In brief, recruitment agencies save time, reduce pressure on internal teams, and accelerate the hiring manner with out reducing corners.

Access to Better Talent Pools

One of the most important advantages of running with a recruitment agency is access to a bigger and extra certified skills pool. Instead of most effective accomplishing those who follow to your activity ad, corporations tap into:

Passive candidates (the ones not actively activity searching however open to accurate opportunities)

Niche specialists with hard-to-discover competencies

People in different areas or countries who are open to relocation

This is especially useful in technical fields like IT, engineering, or healthcare, wherein expertise shortages are commonplace.

Agencies like Alliance Recruitment Agency are recognised for his or her huge and deep candidate networks, making them a pass-to supply for tough-to-discover expertise in South Africa and past.

Industry-Specific Expertise

Not each process is the same—and now not each recruiter knows what to search for in every enterprise. The right news is that many recruitment companies in South Africa specialize mainly sectors. For instance:

Tech recruiters understand coding languages and tech stacks.

Engineering recruiters recognise the distinction among civil, mechanical, and electric roles.

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That level of insight subjects. It facilitates make certain that applicants aren't simplest certified on paper but are also a cultural and useful suit for the employer.

Alliance Recruitment Agency sticks out here by means of supplying dedicated recruitment experts for specific industries, because of this better fits and less hiring errors.

Support for International Hiring

In our international international, many South African corporations are looking beyond neighborhood borders to hire skills. And vice versa—foreign organizations also are setting up operations in South Africa and want help finding neighborhood professionals.

That’s wherein international recruitment corporations South Africa come into play. These agencies recognize how to handle visa methods, global policies, go-border interviews, and greater. They make global hiring sense easy.

Alliance Recruitment Agency, for example, has experience operating with organizations inside the UK, UAE, India, Canada, and extra. Their global presence method they can help groups rent from or into South Africa with ease and self assurance.

Lower Risk, Better Results

Bad hires are costly. They value time, money, and morale. Recruitment organizations reduce that danger via:

Rigorous screening procedures

Reference and heritage exams

Probation length assist and alternative ensures

If a candidate doesn’t work out, many organizations will replace them at no more fee. That’s delivered peace of mind companies truely respect.

Why Businesses Prefer Alliance Recruitment Agency

Among the various recruitment groups in South Africa, Alliance Recruitment Agency has built a strong recognition for handing over effects. Here’s why organizations maintain to pick out them:

Fast turnarounds – Quick response and fast placements with out sacrificing first-rate

Customized answers – Whether it’s everlasting, temporary, or contract roles, they tailor their services on your needs

International reach – As one of the pinnacle global recruitment corporations South Africa, they connect you to worldwide expertise

Deep enterprise knowledge – Their recruiters recognize specific marketplace desires in IT, healthcare, engineering, finance, and extra

Candidate great – Their strong screening techniques suggest organizations meet only top-tier applicants

Whether you’re hiring for a single function or building a whole department, Alliance Recruitment Agency brings each velocity and approach to the desk.

Final Thoughts

Recruitment of the right talent has never been easy - but in today's competitive job market, it has become even more difficult. Companies that try to handle everything in in-house are often finished with overwhelmed or wrongdoings. This is the reason that admitted agencies in South Africa have become such a trusted partner.

They bring speed, industry knowledge, better candidates and less stress. And when you choose a top agency like Alliance Recruitment Agency, you get a hiring partner, who invests in your success as you are.

FAQs

1. How do admitted agencies in South Africa help in renting businesses fast?

They have ready-to-go databases of qualified candidates, which allow them to present the top talent quickly-within days.

2. Which industries are among South African recruitment agencies?

Many agencies including Alliance Recruitment Agency are experts in industries like IT, healthcare, engineering, finance and hospitality.

3. Are international work services available through South African agencies?

Yes! Many international recruitment agencies provide South Africa Cross-Border Hiring Services, including visa aid and remote onboarding.

4. Do recruitment agencies guarantee?

Yes. If a fare does not work within a certain time limit, most agencies, including the alliance, give replacement guarantee.

5. Why choose coalition recruitment agency on others?

Alliance combines fast service, global talent access, industry-specific expertise and customized hiring solutions-which makes it one of the most reliable names in South Africa.

[causeiwanttoandican]

The Telegraph

How Harry’s very LA relaunch has only just begun

From Prince to campaigner and Silicon valley ‘tech bro’ what wider impact could the Duke of Sussex's new jobs have?

By Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor28 March 2021 • 6:00am

Jobs appear to be like buses for Prince Harry. Wait a lifetime for an opening and two come along at the same time.

The former Royal’s first foray into the corporate world has seen him take up the role of chief impact officer at Silicon Valley coaching firm BetterUp, while also sitting alongside Rupert Murdoch’s daughter-in-law on a commission aiming to fight “misinformation”.

Neither role appears to have required the 36-year-old former Army captain to submit a CV or go through the usual vetting processes as he adds mental health coach and anti-fake news campaigner to his résumé.

Yet in keeping with a new breed of “celebrity responsibility”, which has increasingly seen the rich and famous flex their corporate muscles for the greater good, the highly prominent positions look set to propel the cash-strapped Prince to ever more lucrative heights, as LA’s most sought-after recruit.

Just as when Jennifer Aniston became the ‘chief creative officer’ of a natural supplement range or when David Beckham backed a cannabinoid skincare company, these mutually beneficial ‘ethical’ tie-ups can be worth their weight in publicity gold. And not just for the company that gets their endorsement.

As showbiz agent Jonathan Shalit puts it: “Like corporate responsibility – this is celebrity responsibility. There’s been a shift in people’s mindsets. Two, three years ago the mindset was: ‘What’s in it for me, how can I get paid a shedload of dosh, how can I maximise my income?’ Now people desire to give back and give back support to the community.”

While pointing out that Harry is “above celebrity,” he adds: “Many celebrities are very responsible in trying to use the strength of their platform to help others.”

The announcement of both roles last week certainly played into the idea that this was more than just a money spinner for the Montecito-based ex pat – although there is no doubt all sides are set to benefit financially.

While BetterUp may be carrying out noble work in its offer of “personalised coaching, content and care designed to transform lives and careers” – it all comes at a price.

Having spoken about his struggles with grief following the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, Harry said of his appointment to the “unicorn” tech firm: “(I) want us to move away from the idea that you have to feel broken before reaching out for help,” insisting he intends to use the job to “create impact in people’s lives”.

The Duke added: “Being attuned with your mind, and having a support structure around you, are critical to finding your own version of peak performance. What I’ve learned in my own life is the power of transforming pain into purpose.”

He said his goal was to “lift up critical dialogues around mental health, build supportive and compassionate communities, and foster an environment for honest and vulnerable conversations” and he hoped to “help people develop their inner strength, resilience and confidence”.

It might strike the cynical as Californian word salad akin to Aniston’s declaration, upon joining Vital Proteins, that: “Collagen is the glue that holds everything together. I’ve always been an advocate for nourishing your wellness from within.”

Yet as Alexi Robichaux, who co-founded BetterUp in 2013, points out, Harry does bring a unique perspective. “He comes from a very different background,” to other executives, he says, adding: “He’s synonymous with this approach of mental fitness and really investing in yourself. It was not a hard internal sale. He will obviously have the whole organisation sprinting to help him.”

Robichaux confirmed Harry was joining the company’s leadership team as an “officer of the corporation”, which suggests it is a paid role, although public relations expert Mark Borkowski thinks it “highly likely” he has been offered equity in the firm, which values itself at $1.73 billion.

“This previously unknown start-up has now got instant recognition,” he says. “I always said that if Harry and Meghan wanted to generate income, they should look to Silicon Valley. Getting eyeballs onto the company like this, with all the competition, is the hardest job in PR – but now the whole world is talking about it. That’s the effect signing up someone like Harry can have.

“If he’s got points in this firm and it goes gangbusters, he could make some serious money.” Borkowski cites the example of shares in Cellular Goods, the synthetic cannabis firm backed by Beckham, shooting up by 310 per cent after it launched on the London Stock Exchange in February following news of the star footballer’s investment.

“This is all about the ongoing narrative, now,” adds Borkowski, referencing the Oprah Winfrey interview in which the Sussexes raised serious concerns about the Royal family’s handling of racism and mental health issues.

“The impact of generating more connections to his brand is an ongoing struggle for him. But by taking that narrative, which is embedded with that interview along with mental health issues, then he can certainly have a credible corporate platform.”

Yet considering some of the discrepancies that have surfaced since the interview aired in the US on March 7, can Harry really be considered a reliable voice when it comes to combating what he has described as the “avalanche of misinformation”?

Critics have been at pains to point out that his appointment to the Aspen Institute’s new Commission on Information Disorder, a six-month project that will examine the “modern-day crisis of faith in key institutions” appears somewhat at odds with the Sussexes’ repeated insistence that they do not look at newspapers, magazines or social media.

Equally awkward is the fact that the Prince will be sitting alongside Kathryn Murdoch, who is married to James Murdoch, the former chairman of News of the World publisher News International, who resigned from his father Rupert Murdoch’s media empire last year.

As with Harry’s decision to appear on CBS, despite the US network once sparking outrage in 2004 for showing a “distasteful” photo of his mother after her fatal Parisian car crash, the move suggests the exiled Murdochs are now considered reformed characters thanks to their new found work on democracy reform and climate change.

As Harry himself put it, information disorder is an issue that demands “a multi-stakeholder response from advocacy voices” including, apparently, the wife of a man who was found by a Parliamentary report in 2012 to have shown “wilful ignorance of the extent of phone hacking” and being “guilty of an astonishing lack of curiosity” over the illegal practice that Harry, William and Kate were all subjected to along with Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and a string of palace aides.

It is not thought Harry is being paid for his work with the think tank, founded in 1949, which will look at everything from last year’s US election to vaccine safety and marginalised communities.

It is his listing on the Aspen Institute’s website, however, which perhaps provides the biggest clue to the sixth-in-line to the throne’s direction of travel as he settles into life in the US.

Referenced by his full title, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the soon to be father-of-two is described as a “humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate and environmentalist.”

Despite his blood-born Royal status, Shalit believes this repositioning is actually intended to put him on a par with his high-achieving wife. For unlike her husband, who left school with two A-levels before training at Sandhurst Military Academy, it is Meghan – a Northwestern University graduate with a successful acting career under her belt – who is arguably the more employable of the two, on paper at least. As an American, the pregnant mother-of-one also doesn’t carry the burden of Harry’s complicated visa and tax arrangements, amid confusion over whether he is living and working in the US as a “diplomat” or as a person with so-called “special talents”.

“I’ve met Meghan on a number of occasions and she is a hugely astute woman, very bright, incredibly impressive,” says Shalit

“So for Harry to keep up with his wife, he’s got to find his own name and identity and this is the start. He doesn’t need celebrity. When you’re Royal, you’re the biggest celebrity in the world. But what this does is allow Harry to have relevance.”

When it comes to making an impact, Royal relevance is clearly going to be the jewel in the crown of Harry’s very LA relaunch.

[gauribhalekar]

American Business Association,Inc builds innovative phenomena to encash exorbitant money online

The group is promoted by a seasoned ex techno banker Anim Akhtar Ali Khan with work experience of around 20 years in Banking , Professional Consulting, Core Management & International Strategy in more than 5 countries. Indian business magnate, technology specialist, banker, and philanthropist Anim is best known as the founder of PerPayment.com, Fundacle.com,  HireKhan.com & ABACert.com.

During his career at major banks in India & Middle East he was heading technology department, Anim has vision for socio economic tech products, which would create jobs & enable access to funding for businesses worldwide.

Anim owns 100 % Ownership of PerPayment, HireKhan, Fundacle & ABACert.

With past working experience at management level in major banking technology players like BVQI, IndusInd Bank, Emirates NBD Bank Dubai, Masraf Al Rayan Bank Qatar, Neogrowth Credit NBFC India.

Anim with his team started this socio economic technology product journey around 10 years ago in feb’2010 the team identified for next two years from 2010 – 2012 gaps in the fintech ,outsourcing and business trust ecosystem.

We undertake to innovate and introduce new research based products and services. The goal is typically to take new products and services to market with global impact to fill the untapped market.

Based on 2 years research from 2013 to 2020, three products were complete with international level acceptance Fundacle -Fintech , HireKhan – HR Tech & ABAcert – Business Trust. The launch pad for all three products would be PerPayment.com

Our Business Model is through Country Level License Sale of Joint Venture Partnerships, Financial Consortium & Global Stake Sale in major countries across the world. We provide Framework and Operational Support to our JV partners and they Execute and Market it.

On sale of the Stake, we would accept directors from the investors and provide international audit of the company.

ABOUT AMERICAN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION INC

American Business Association, Inc.  registered in United States undertakes to Innovate and Introduce new Research Based Tech Products and Services with Global Impact to fill the untapped market.

American Business Association is a conglomerate with businesses in HRTech, Fintech, Credit Rating and Business Consulting with separate companies.

With a new-age digital business model, ABA plans to expand in 180+ countries. The digital native has already developed platform cater to:

PERPAYMENT AD SELL Network

PerPayment is a launch pad for satellite products Fundacle, HireKhan, ABACert.

PerPayment is an advertisement program run by American Business Association Inc through which website publishers display text, images, video advertisements on their Website or Social Media Channels and generate revenue on a per conversion basis.

It enables small websites and businesses that do not have sufficient resources or other major sources of revenue to generate advertising revenue.

WELCOME TO PERPAYMENT.COM THE AD SELL NETWORK

The Simplest Way to Make Money Online through Website / App Monetization, Social Media Influencer Marketing & Ads Trading Platform.

Now Grow Your Money Online & Get Paid up to $ 299Per Conversion

So, How does it work?

§  PerPayment provides Ads for three major platforms

§  HireKhan.com , the AI based HR & Technology Outsourcing Platform

§  Fundacle.com, the Financial Networking Platform for FundSeekers & Investors

§  ABACERT.com , the Business Trust & Verification Platform

It’s Free. PerPayment AdSell Network as an alternate to Google AdSense provides avenue to advertisers to earn an extra income

You can give Text Ads, Image Ads & Video Ads on your website / apps. For every monetary deal on any of the three AdSell Network products by clicking on the Ads displayed on your website, App or social media channels, you will earn up to $ 299.

For Website Publishers:

     Choose the Ad type that best suit you (Flash the names of the Ad Types on screen – Text ads, Image ads, Video Ads)

o   Select the platform you wish to show Ads on your website / app & Click download code

o   Copy the code on your server

o   Deal Done

o   Earn per Conversion

Earn up to $ 299on Per Payment Basis

It’s Free. PerPayment AdSell Network as a Social Media Influencer provides avenue to share on Social Media to earn extra income

For Social Media Influencers:

•          Select the platform you wish to become influencer on social media

·             Copy Paste the Code on all your social networking accounts like facebook, twitter…

•          That All

•          Earn per Conversion

Earn up to $ 299on Per Payment Basis

Investment in PerPayment AdNetwork Trading Platform to earn extra income

§  Display HireKhan, Fundacle or ABACert Ads on global AdNetworks

§  Select the platform you wish give paid Ads on Global AdNetworks like Google, Facebook, Twitter Ad

§  Hire Dedicated PerPayment Account Manager who will configure your ads & be your point of contact

§  Once Ads are configured, Recharge the Global AdNetworks yourself based on your budget

§  Earn per Conversion

You can track every impression & payment in View Income Analytics in PerPayment Dashboard

Earn up to $ 299on Per Payment Basis

Make Money & Create Social Avenues on Job, Funding & Business Trust.

PerPayment is an opportunity for Website / Apps rejected by Google AdSense and Not happy with the income so made, Philanthropists, Government, Semi Government, Corporates, Mutual Funds, SME, MSME to monetize

PERPAYMENT – GROW WITH US

For further information please view PerPayment Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtZFPftFKac

For PerPayment Revenue Model please view PerPayment Revenue Model Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFw6mpRw_fo

PerPayment Advantages

-       An Alternate to Google Adsense

-       An Ads Trading Platform which can be collaborated with Top 10 Ad Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads etc.

-       Avenue for Advertisers to generate more revenue

-       Opportunity for Investors for diversification of Funds

-       Tool for Jobs & Funding avenue creation in Covid-19

-       Tool for Covid-19 Bulk Supplier Verification and Legitimate Businesses and Websites

Per Payment Ads Products

HireKhan

In fact as a CIO of a bank in Anim’s past experience, he faced certain issues with service delivery by major IT Vendors which at that point he wanted someone to fix. And Like they say that Solutions come from Problems – Innovations are born out of Gaps in the existing scenario and hence the Birth of HireKhan took place giving a vent into 850 Job Industries worldwide WITH A BIGGER AIM TO MAKE A PRODUCT THAT HAVE A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE SOCIETY.

HireKhan is a complete package for all Outsourcing and HR Requirements, available in 12 International Languages.

Today everything is available online from a needle to an apartment and the reason online platforms are booming is because of their accessibility 24/7, convenience of logistics and flexible hassle-free buying. So same customer satisfaction and convenience in collaboration with the latest AI Powered technology, we are trying to incorporate with respect to outsourcing of Manpower, BPO and IT Projects.

Then we have created the Online Platform for Candidate background verification called the HK CV wherein, a unique customized weblink is created per candidate and on just a click of a button, a complete authentic background report will be out for a person. And the kind of disruptive pricing plans we are coming up with, it will be a breakthrough in the employee verification segment.

Thirdly, we have the Job Portal for Employers where Employers can do a very refined Candidate Search and Job Postings which is integrated with the HireKhan Job seeker mobile App – Live on Android and iOS.

Now here again, we are bringing the world a lot closer. This is going to be a global platform for employers and job seekers. So anybody looking for a job anywhere in the world  - right from a Security Guard to a CEO and vice versa,  - HireKhan Job Portal and Job Seeker App will be a one stop shop. The App is going to be in 12 major international languages and Plus Hindi with special categories for women to work from home, ex Defence and Retired personnel and differently abled people.

HireKhan is the only DOT COM gateway to India for its highly efficient and cost effective availability of talent which is also an untapped market for many countries where quality IT Services have not yet reached.

The HireKhan.com Package is designed to create jobs locally in the country of JV launch and provides gateway to world's best technology data bank -­‐ India, Ukraine, Malaysia etc. Besides, this will also bring foreign investments.

HireKhan Manpower Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dClYjursp48

HireKhan BPO Product Video          - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I_ZuTWGLeY

HireKhan Projects Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhk1Ee4DaIY

HIREKHAN PACKAGE

Fundacle

Welcome to Fundacle, World’s No.1 Investment & Funding Marketplace

A Financial Networking Platform With Unlimited Opportunities, Creating the best environment ever for new business ventures to kick off

and existing business to expand and grow which would enhance the global financial ecosystem by helping innovators and businessmen to arrange money for new ventures or for business expansion and investors to find the right business proposals for funding

Now fundseekers can put the first proposal for free and Realize their dreams at no cost while Investors access up to Four logins per day at zero registration fee

With the introduction of Global Business Plan Account Number (BPAN) System, standardized business proposals are available for the investors or banks to view at just a click of a button.

With such a platform like facebook for financial networking, entrepreneurs and investors across the globe could connect to each other and create endless opportunities

This was the idea behind Fundacle.com

World’s No.1 Investment & Funding Marketplace which will bring Innovators, Businessmen, Business sellers,  Fundacle agents and Investors on a single financial Networking Platform

So, How does it works?

People who want to start a new venture, grow their businesses or even sell their business can post well planned business proposals and showcase to investors from One hundred and Ninety Five Countries and Eight hundred and fifty verticals across the world and will stand a better chance to get funded

Investors can find better business proposals options from eight hundred and fifty plus Business verticals

Our Fundacle agents would help people in creating business proposals or arranging funds

Companies can make money by distributing Fundacle.com coupon codes to their existing Ad campaigns, Products or social media

Fundacle is available world-wide through website and global app

Now everyone across the globe get to be a part of mainstream Global Financial Ecosystem. Realize your dream venture with access to local and international investors and get the right business proposals to make better decision on funding

Fundacle – our tribute to this great spirit of humanity

FUNDACLE PACKAGE

Fundaclce Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEI6Gz6-yug

ABACERT

Welcome to ABACERT.COM The Business Trust & Verification Platform

A Global Business & Website Verification Agency that validates the Legitimacy of an Individual, a Business or a Website.

ABACERT - Your Partner in Building Brand & Trust

Business ABA Number, is a recognized Standard for Business Identification. Widely used by Business Customers, Vendors and Suppliers to review a Company’s Business Credit Profile.

ABA Number provide unique 9 Digit Number assigned to a business post verification of all company documents.

With ABA Number for Business Verification, get your Company’s Unique International Identity Validate Company Credentials @ABACERT and Instill Confidence in your Business Partners/Investors with Business ABA Number

Validate your Individual Credibility with Individual ABA number, A Unique Identifier for Proprietors

Also, if you want to find out the current operational status of your suppliers or business partners, get in touch with us for a Bulk Supplier Verification.

Now Abolish Fraud or Blacklisted Suppliers Safeguard your Payments with Bulk Supplier Verification @ABACERT

Not only this, now you can also increase your Website Conversions with the ABACERT Site Trust Seal Validate your Website & Convert Visitors into Buyers.

Establish Website Credibility & Grow Your Business Online

Get your company’s unique international identity with ABACERT – Your Partner in Building Brand & Trust

ABACert Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BldUaS4ahZg

Group Business Model

Our Business model is to operate world-wide through country level Joint Venture Partnership. The joint venture license sale could be a 5years, 10 years on(or) lifetime validity, wherein we provide a complete hand holding, operational support and framework to our JV Partners while our JV partners execute and market it.

The ABA Joint Venture Partner will take the complete ownership of the ABA’s various Tech Product verticals viz a viz the fundacle.com - A Fintech Platform for Fund Raising, HireKhan.com - HR Tech Platform for Outsourcing, abacert.com – a Business Credit Rating and Certification Platform.

PerPayment Revenue Model Product Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFw6mpRw_fo&t=6s

Stake Sale

PerPayment / Fundacle / HireKhan / ABACert company stake can be purchased by any Corporate / Government / Philanthropist.

We are looking to sell maximum 25 % Stake in below products with stake sale price mentioned in US Dollars

Legal Entity Name - Product

Stake Sale Price

American Business Association Inc – AdSell Network

25 % Global Stake for $ 140 Million

Fundacle Inc – Fintech Platform

25 % Global Stake for $ 100 Million

HireKhan Inc – HR Tech Platform

25 % Global Stake for $ 80 Million

ABACert Inc – Business Trust Platform

25 % Global Stake for $ 65 Million

[techjpr]

TechJPR December Newsletter

Happy New Year from team TechJPR! Read on for PR jobs looking for the perfect candidates, news of a fabulous new sponsor for TechJPRs Fantasy Football and social stuff from our ever-wonderful Facebook group.          As 2020 draws to a close, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all for your many and varied contributions to our group. We've had some great discussions, some invaluable advice and plenty of all-important banter. Thanks too for the great support you've given each other over this most challenging of years. Here's to an easier time of it in 2021. Wishing you and yours lovely things for the year ahead.

 TechJPR quiz - we have a winner!

Congratulations to Jason England, the winner of our most recent TechJPR quiz, see here with his prize - a Nvidia Shield TV, an Android TV-based digital media player. Watch this space for more quizzes in the coming year. If you have any suggestions for virtual TechJPR socials, let us know by emailing hello@techjpr.com

  TechJPR 2020/21 Fantasy Football winners and NEW SPONSOR 🥳  HUGE thanks to CMC PR (the PR brains behind Philips, Bowers & Wilkins among others) for becoming the new TechJPR Fantasy Premier League sponsor. Hurrah indeed. Chat with them on Twitter @cmcpr.         The first winner under CMC's reign is Alexander Martin (not a group member - someone please tell him!) who bags a £40 Amazon voucher after scoring a hefty 226 points, 8 points clear of Stuart Tarrant. Jonathan Burch is the new overall leader with 699 points, just 3 points ahead of a three-way tie in second between Dom Whitlock, Chris Bignell and George Baggaley

 TechJPR social stuff

💻 Looking for inspiration for a virtual press event? Look no further than this thread for some tried and tested ideas for fun over the ether. Thanks for the conversation starter Sophie!         😍 Advice from seasoned PRs and journalists on pitching and creating a        relationship with journalists aimed at complete beginners. Some great tips in this thread on our Facebook group. 

 Jobs

PR-side          ⌨ Bath-based Clearly PR and Marketing Communications has a hat trick of roles it's looking to fill - PR Director, Associate Director and a Social Media Content and Influencer Marketing Executive. Full details can be found here, or message group member Vicky Eastman if you have any questions.         ⌨ PR agency Fire on the Hill is on the hunt for both freelance and        permanent PR people to work across clients primarily in B2B tech,  traveltech and fintech, More details here. Drop a line to Nick Ward or Sarah Mulder.         ⌨ Grammatik is hiring an Account Director to join its team. The agency focuses on B2B creative tech - vfx, broadcast, cloud, data-centres, virtual production, SaaS with a bit of short-film PR thrown in for fun. Read all about it here.          ⌨ Cheshire-based Firework PR is recruiting for an Account Manager with tech PR experience. If you are currently considering a move, email hello@fireworkpr.co.uk with your CV and covering letter.          ⌨ Music business communications consultancy Name PR wants to hire a Press Assistant. Clients  include 51st State Festival, Sony Music’s in-house creative division 4th Floor Creative and the Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing. For more information, head over to http://namepr.co.uk/site/about/jobs/           If your publication, media outlet or PR agency has a job to post - whether a permanent role, or a freelance gig, send details to hello@techjpr.com and we'll do our best to include it in the next bulletin. No recruitment agency ads please.

 Events diary

🎟️        What: Women in AI Virtual Evening 📅        When: 19 January 2021 - 7pm GMT/11am PT/2pm ET  💡        Why: An evening of virtual networking & discussions to        progress AI and raise awareness & support women in the sector.

If you'd like to publicise an industry event to our community of tech journalists and PRs, send details to hello@techjpr.com

 Until next time...

Seasons greetings from all of us at TechJPR. Wishing you health and happiness for the year ahead.          Get in touch @TechJPR, hello@techjpr.com, don’t forget our Facebook group and don't be a stranger.

RW

[sayantandodo]

How does mentoring help in personal growth?

As I am in a technical field for so many days, I have seen novice people search for someone who can teach them or help them to grow professionally and personally. People need to figure out how to balance both in personal and professional life. They need a mentor. SkillPal is the only way where suitable mentors and coaches can be found.

If you want a mentor you must have sure that the person had overcome hard struggle and rough situations in his or her life. This kind of mentors is found only in SkillPal and nowhere else. A person who mentors you must qualify many tough conditions which gave solid experiences. Not everyone like that. A mentor is one within thousands. A SkillPal mentor has robust knowledge and experience to share with the mentee. That is why mentors are not plentiful.

A SkillPal mentor is someone you can look up to. It is a person who guides you and helps you in making well-informed decisions. Mentorship means that someone takes you under their wing to teach you how to fly, so to speak. “One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination.” — John C. Maxwell

Benefits of being a Mentee

·         Gain practical advice, encouragement and support

·         Learn from the experiences of others

·         Increase your social and academic confidence

·         Become more empowered to make decisions

·         Develop your communication, study and personal skills

·         Develop strategies for dealing with both personal and academic issues

·         Identify goals and establish a sense of direction

·         Gain valuable insight into the next stage of your university career

·         Make new friends across year groups

Benefits of being a Mentor

·         Improve communication and personal skills

·         Develop leadership and management qualities

·         Reinforce your own study skills and knowledge of your subject(s)

·         Increase your confidence and motivation

·         Engage in a volunteering opportunity, valued by employers

·         Enhance your CV

·         Increase your circle of friends

·         Gain recognition for your skills and experience

·         Benefit from a sense of fulfilment and personal growth

 It’s often the case that, within an organization or a network, there are more people looking for a mentor than there are those offering to be one. A practical solution to this is “mutual mentoring.” Although it is probably useful to have a mentor who has “been there and done that”, you might have to wait a long time for such a person to come along. Instead, why not try working with a less-experienced but willing person, who will still be able to encourage you to think about what you want from your career, challenge you to commit to goals and help you to review your progress towards them? If you do the same for them, you have the basis for a strong and mutually-beneficial relationship. To get a successful person to mentor you, SkillPal is the only way.

A mentor is someone with knowledge and experience in your desired field. They’re willing to share this knowledge with you to help you achieve your goals. A mentor should be someone who has achieved a level of success that you envision for yourself. It’s someone who can challenge you and push you in ways other people can’t. Mentorship is probably the most underrated aspect of searching for a job or building the foundations of your career. The guidance you can potentially receive from a mentor is invaluable, and their ability to help you navigate the unknown paths of your position and reach your goals more quickly is what makes them so important. For getting the best mentor you should come to SkillPal.

A goal for the mentee is to teach them how to trust themselves when making decisions. Good people know what to do but often allow their instincts to be suppressed by overthinking. A good mentor helps a mentee to make decisions that help them reach their goals. A great mentor builds mentees confidence in a way that less instruction or assurance is needed from others. A goal for me is when the mentor/mentee relationship transitions into a partnership. I end up learning a lot from them equally which keeps me relevant. For a personalized mentorship, SkillPal is the best option.

Many of the biggest names in tech benefited from the mentorship of seasoned entrepreneurs: Mark Zuckerberg had Steve Jobs, Bill Gates had Warren Buffet, and Sheryl Sandberg benefited from the guidance of her former college professor, Larry Summers. In simple terms, a startup mentor is somebody that’s been in your position, worked through it, and come out the other side; somebody with: Experience in your industry (ideally both success and failure). Expertise in a specific area of growth you’re struggling with. Willingness to help you grow, both professionally and personally. Their advice is invaluable for helping you grow your business with fewer expensive mistakes and wrong-turns; instead of relying on trial-and-error, you can ask for their guidance, and say ‘How did you solve this problem? How can I do the same?’ Now here is SkillPal, a platform where you can get paid personalized mentorship from industry experts.

How may a SkillPal mentor help you:

· Unbiased advice. Mentors are there to help you grow, even if that means tough love and hard-hitting advice.

· Personal advice. Mentors often develop personal relationships with their mentees and help them work through the highs and lows of growing a startup.

· Connections. Great mentors tend to be well networked, and can often introduce you to potential employees, investors and other mentors.

· Recognition and social proof. Mentoring often comes with the implication of endorsement, and getting help from a big name can work wonders for your profile.

India is a nation of more than 1.4 billion people. Our demographic dividend is skewed towards a sub 35 population and we have a requirement of adding more than 1 crore jobs each year. To meet this requirement, India needs a collective effort from its sharpest brains — in each corner of the country. For the crore new working force entrants, learning the tricks of the trade — for whatever endeavour it is that they want to pursue, is critical. The gap is wide and the need for experienced mentors to come forward and invest their time in nurturing talent even if it’s just nudging them in the right direction has never been more pressing. Finding a perfect mentor is not that easy. But, Skillpal is the most authentic platform where the proper startup mentors onboard themselves to give solid guidance.

Most people take their first step into entrepreneurship not fully realizing what they’re getting themselves into. No matter how much research you conduct, no one knows the journey of entrepreneurship better than someone who has experience walking through it. Startup mentors don’t necessarily lighten the load, but they do ease the difficulty of making tough decisions. Their advice is often unbiased, which provides you with opportunities to look at both sides of the matter before jumping into something you are unprepared for. Likewise, mentors often have experience with failure in ways a fresh startup might not have encountered yet. In an ecosystem that oftentimes functions like a minefield, it’s important to stay grounded and learn where to step from someone who has already made the journey. At SkillPal you can find those mentors who may lead you to the paradise of success.

[gomangodigitalblog]

How to choose the best content writing services?

How to choose the best content writing services?

Choosing the right kind of content writing services depends on a number of factors. Content Writing is such a vast and broad genre for you to fathom. You need content suiting magazines, journals, health-care industries, educational trends, beauty topics, real-estate, online shopping trends, web technologies and the list is endless. Again, you need content writers for producing articles, blog snippets, web content, press release write ups, white papers, research related articles, company brochures and email creation.

Hence, it becomes imperative that you delve into the specialized areas of expertise a content writer has. You must chart out a definite plan of action for choosing the best content writing services for your business, commercial or personal needs.

Presenting you with 6 robust tips on how to choose the best content writing services:

Chart out a precise job description

Your business may need Content Writers for performing a specified task like framing articles on freestyle topics like lifestyle, travel, food and gourmet, etc. You may need business writers to compile content for your business web sites. Here, you look for a content writer who has an eye for detail. Else, the writer must be able to draft the technicalities of your console in print. You may require specific content writers to create content for the website. You may require technical writers to design instruction manuals or know-how guides. To look for a writer your business wants, you must specify the job description in a precise manner. These are the characteristics you can mention for the JD:

Fast typing skills

Exceptional organizational skills

Must be a team-player and focused.

Ability to proofread or edit

Can perform good research on the internet

Keyword research must be done by the core writer himself/herself

Must be fluent in grammar and business English.

Must have knowledge on Java Script or Coding, etc.

Likewise, state the core expectations you have by charting out a detailed JD for the job profile.

Probe into the educational qualification of Content writers

Again, you need to check if the Content writer is qualified to take up work your business specializes in. If you are running a lifestyle magazine, you would want your interns to have a degree on English Literature or Journalism. This way, he/she matches the industry standards. You may also require quality editors to manage a team of writers and publish articles on time.

For a proficient Technical Writer, you may choose a candidate who has done a certification programme or an Associate fellowship on Technical Writing. You want him/her to know process related know-hows and design instruction manuals or user guides. A person from an Engineering background can be an added advantage for your firm.

You may require a Content writer to design law case files. You may choose a candidate who has done a Bachelor’s degree in Law. Likewise, you choose a Content writer after probing into the educational background he/she belongs to.  You can ask the person to submit an updated copy of the CV to get an idea about the educational qualification.

Information about your company

You can provide an overall summary on what your firm is all about. You can create savvy content for your own firm. Else, you can ask the web developer to have the web content designed. This way, you must have your website up and running. You can provide your website address to the content writers you plan recruiting. Ask them to devise suitable content with respect to the fleet of products or services you sell.

You can also give a hindsight overview on what your company’s policies are. You can explain the main goals of the firm. Plus, you can educate your recruits on what your company’s culture entails upon. This way, you can hire recruits who understand your company better.

Meeting up with deadlines

There are quite a lot of content writers who design topics on a varied range of subjects. But how do you make sure your recruits submit the given task within the specified deadlines? You can create a column on your job description stating how many articles will he/she be able to submit through the week. You need to make sure your team of Content Writers follow a disciplined approach with respect to submitting the given work within deadlines. If you have a project on hand, you can allow your Writers to work the freestyle way. Hence, depending on the nature of projects involved, you must make sure your content writers submit reliable and plagiarism free content within specified deadlines.

Openly communicate concerns or queries

Look for content writers who are open to taking feedback constructively. They must be able to reach out to the company as and when they have doubts or queries regarding work on a project. Blind assumptions on how the work needs to be done, can create staggering losses for your business firms. Poor content can also impact the credibility of your brand.

They need to represent your firm as the brand ambassador or as the voice of your firm. Hence, look for experienced Content Writers who show willingness to learn or correct from mistakes. They should also know what the brief is all about.

Referrals

As a hiring firm, you must look for an SEO console or a Content writing company you have been referred to. This way, you find the right hire for your business. You can also enquire with other firms if they have suitable content writers who can frame content akin to your field of business. You might have come across guest blogs who are exceptional authors. Try contacting the firm and enquiring if the writer is available for work, through your clientele too. If the Content firm has no qualms in letting you take services of the content writer, you can contact him/her and make an offer. If the writer is not open to working with you, you can at least ask for leads or recommendations of his friends or accomplices on whether they would take up Content work pertaining to your field of business.

Conclusion

These are 6 major tips on how to choose the best Content Writing services for your business entity. After all, you want to hire a recruit who would be a valuable resource for your company. He/she must execute your business ideas in print. Hence, you must find a writer who not only creates fab content but also understands your business value in a realistic manner.

About Us

For your daily dose of technological updates get connected to Mango Digital via https://mangodigital.solutions/   For every tech hangover, there is a Mangoer. Mango Consulting is one of the leading web design & development companies in the UK. We specialize in the field of mobile app development, content writing, IT support, digital marketing at very much affordable prices.

[med20]

PillPack CEO TJ Parker made about $100 million selling his start-up to Amazon last year, and he’s now in charge of leading Amazon’s pharmacy efforts.

PillPack is building out physical pharmacies and is in talks with insurers to make the online service available to many more consumers.

Amazon and PillPack now represent a common enemy for the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), who worry that their position as industry middleman is threatened.

It was May 2018, and PillPack CEO TJ Parker was in Seattle to meet with a small contingent from Amazon.

Suitors had been swarming around his online pharmacy, which was taking on CVS and Walgreens and growing rapidly in the process. Walmart was deep in talks with the Boston-based start-up, and pharmaceutical maker Novartis was also hovering.

But bankers from Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners suggested that Parker and co-founder and product chief Elliot Cohen fly across country for a meeting with one particular Amazon executive: Nader Kabbani. A 14-year company veteran and guest concert pianist with the Seattle Symphony who’d recently been named Amazon’s vice president of consumables, Kabbani shared Parker’s concern about the pharmacy industry and the dominant players’ inability or unwillingness to put the consumer first.

Eventually, Parker and Kabbani were the only ones doing the talking, as all the other participants faded into the background. And from there it didn’t take long for Parker to decide that the bidding had ended. He was selling the company to Amazon.

On June 28, Amazon announced that it was buying PillPack for an undisclosed sum (later revealed as $753 million), snapping up a company that delivers most of the medications consumers can get from their local drugstore packaged in convenient white packets so people will remember to take them, along with automatic refills and 24/7 customer support.

Shares of CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid tumbled on concern that Amazon was further encroaching on their territory after already taking a huge chunk of the market for toiletries and household goods. In the press release, Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, said the companies would work together to help consumers “save time, simplify their lives and feel healthier.”

What Wilke didn’t say was that Parker, the son of a New Hampshire pharmacist, had plans to surpass $1 billion in revenue by 2020, or that PillPack would soon be negotiating with large insurers to get its service into the hands of many more people while aggressively building out its technology to serve them.

Almost 11 months later and about $100 million richer, Parker’s title is still PillPack CEO, and the only noticeable differences to the outside eye are that his website now says “an amazon company” under the logo and Amazon has a new landing page introducing Prime members to the service. Inside the company, Parker, a 33-year-old pharmacist turned internet entrepreneur, is the face of Amazon’s audacious plan to bust into a prescription drug market that to date has represented perhaps the largest and most glaring gap in its retail empire.

CNBC spoke to a dozen people close to the founders, including investors, friends and PillPack employees for this story, most of whom asked not to be named because of confidentiality agreements. PillPack declined to make Parker or Cohen available for an interview, and neither have spoken publicly since the deal was finalized. Amazon declined to comment and Kabbani didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Here’s a glimpse of what Amazon is now attacking:

Spending on U.S. prescription medications is approaching $500 billion a yearand growing up to 7% annually, according to IQVIA, a provider of health data. Roughly 60% of American adults have at least one chronic illness, such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes, and 40% have two or more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The retail drug market for prescriptions has been dominated by large pharmacy chains, including CVS and Walgreens, and independent pharmacies, which all count on a few middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to negotiate prices, as well as a handful of large drug distributors.

Other than Wilke’s statement on the day of the deal, Amazon hasn’t uttered a peep about what it plans to do with PillPack.

What we know is that Amazon acquired an 800-plus person workforce and a high-growth, very low-margin business that, like a traditional retailer, uses the majority of its revenue to pay for inventory. We also know that Amazon has not only been continuously adding household products to its marketplace, but has also been establishing its own brands for things like batteries, toilet paper, light bulbs and towels. As delivery times come down to one day for Prime members, what’s the point of ever driving to your neighborhood pharmacy?

PillPack has spent years going through the hard work of getting licenses to ship to every state except Hawaii, and built a system that automatically manages refills and works with insurers on behalf of customers. It sorts pills and provides dispensers to make everything as easy as possible for users.

Fred Destin, an early PillPack investor, describes it as a “complicated and expensive” space with a potentially “big prize.” In other words, it’s the type of business that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos loves — huge dollars, antiquated technology and so many regulatory barriers that the “smart money” is staying far away. Bezos also knows something about the industry, having taken a board seat at Drugstore.com in the 1990s after Amazon invested in the company. (Walgreens acquired the online drugstore in 2011 for $429 million and shut it down five years later.)

It won’t be an easy market for Amazon to win. PillPack needs relationships with PBMs like Express Scripts and Caremark, which is owned by CVS, to reach the masses of consumers who get their medicines through insurers. Those businesses were worried about Amazon even before it acquired PillPack, because it’s really the only company that could conceivably break up their control if it were to jump into the distribution market and pressure drug manufacturers to lower prices. PillPack also was a concern because it had the potential to take substantial market share from the incumbents.

“Amazon bought the one company in the space that all the PBMs and other pharmacy businesses were threatened by,” said Yumin Choi, a health-tech investor at Bain Capital Ventures. “The challenge is now they put a stake in the ground and the flag has been planted.”

Amazon has to contend with the added problems that come with a disparate ecosystem of physicians, insurance companies and medical records providers, all with their own silos and disconnected systems. Amazon and PillPack may be able to create a better experience for consumers when it comes to delivering medicines, but playing a role in fixing the other inefficiencies may be out of their purview.

“There’s a lot that’s not under their control,” said Eric Percher, an equity analyst covering the pharmacy supply chain at Nephron Research. It’s not clear if Amazon can change the way “that the patient interacts with the pharmacy supply chain and the payor,” he said.

Not the ‘experience that people deserve’

Parker, who has sandy blonde hair, an unkempt beard and thick-rimmed glasses, doesn’t come across as a hard-charging executive scheming to take down the industry superpowers. Zen Chu, a PillPack investor and adviser who teaches health-care innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joked that he looks more like a member of a Grateful Dead cover band, but with “exceptional clarity of vision.”

The pharmacy business is in Parker’s blood. Growing up, his dad owned a pharmacy in Concord, New Hampshire, where the younger Parker personally checked labels on pill bottles and delivered medicines to nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

He went to pharmacy school at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston and, while there, would periodically go to events at nearby MIT to look for students exploring innovative work in health technology. That’s where he met Cohen, who was attending business school after studying computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. At MIT, Cohen co-founded a program called Hacking Medicine for students interested in medical entrepreneurship.

Cohen wasn’t sold on the idea behind PillPack until he went home and saw his dad, who had undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery while in high school, struggling to manage multiple medications. He texted Parker to say he was in, and the pair spent a weekend putting together a prototype, which won the 2012 Hacking Medicine hackathon and landed them checks from MIT’s Chu and his wife and fellow investor Katie Rae.

In 2014, the year PillPack started serving customers, Parker’s dad joined as one of the company’s first pharmacists in the office in Manchester, New Hampshire, located 20 minutes from Concord. The founders would drive to the local IKEA to get furniture for the pharmacy.

At internal meetings, Parker talked about the opportunities to modernize the pharmacy experience and to develop an aspirational brand, like what Warby Parker created in the stodgy eyeglasses market, rather than constantly reminding people that they’re sick.

“TJ used to talk at all-hands about the local CVS, where you’d see aisles stacked with three-liter bottles of Coke with fluorescent lights and grey carpeting,” said AJ Resnick, a director of analytics at Pillpack from 2015 to 2016. In his mind, that “wasn’t the experience that people deserve.”

Growth was slow for the first couple years because PillPack had to file for licenses in every state and needed to open physical retail stores in certain states to stay in-network with the PBMs. It also had an advertising problem, because ad teams at Google and Facebook mistakenly labeled PillPack as a drug manufacturer, which required it to include all sorts of safety issues that weren’t relevant.

Fortunately for Parker, he’d taken a small check from Kevin Colleran of Slow Ventures, an early member of Facebook’s ad sales team. Colleran connected Parker to the right people at Facebook to clear up the matter and get PillPack off what the investor called “the naughty list.”

“Once they got on Facebook, it helped escalate their growth more than other platforms,” said Colleran, who also became close friends with Parker.

Then consumers caught on. By the time of last year’s acquisition, the business was on track to generate $299 million in annual revenue, with plans to more than double in 2019 to $635 million before reaching $1.2 billion in 2020, according to a pitch deck viewed by CNBC. Those are big numbers for a company founded just five years earlier, and proved there was plenty of demand for what PillPack was offering.

But PillPack was burning through $6 million a month at its peak because of the low profit margins and escalating costs of expansion. Some of the high expenses were tied to the development of a back-end software system called PharmacyOS, which the company was designing to automate the process of prescription renewals, billing insurance, getting authorizations from providers and sending out notifications. David Frankel, an early PillPack backer, calls it the “spaghetti connectivity” of the pharmacy world.

Parker knew in 2016 that Amazon was interested in the space through conversations with executives at the company, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Amazon was also dabbling around the edges of the market and would soon start hiring business leaders focused on pharmacy and selling things like at-home DNA tests and over-the-counter medicines.

Having already raised $115 million, including a $60 million round in mid-2016, PillPack needed more capital to keep the business afloat. Parker was gearing up to raise more cash had the deal with Amazon or another bidder not materialized.

By early 2018, it was becoming clear that Amazon could be an ally or a competitor. Parker chose the former option.

For Amazon, which recorded over $230 billion in sales last year, PillPack doesn’t move the needle at its current size. The value for Amazon is in the promise of plugging the delivery network into the giant e-commerce machine, especially when considering that the average PillPack user in 2018 was worth $5,000 in revenue, through insurance payments and patient co-pays, according to the slide presentation.

That’s far more than the average Prime member, who spends about $1,300 a year on Amazon after the $119 annual subscription, according to a 2017 study. Also, most of PillPack’s users are in their 50s and 60s and they’re loyal customers, giving Amazon an older demographic to target with other product promotions. You could imagine signing in to order your blood-thinning medication and seeing a recommendation for shaving cream, toilet paper or nail polish, all things you’d been buying at the store.

Much more than commerce

Amazon is already using that tactic in reverse, promoting the PillPack service to a targeted group of Prime subscribers. But Amazon can provide a whole lot more to PillPack than access to 100 million-plus Prime users.

One effort underway involves large insurers, who could offer the mail-order service as a perk to their members, and in return provide the company with potentially millions of new customers.

According to a confidential document viewed by CNBC, Blue Cross Blue Shield, a federation of 36 health insurance plans that cover more than 100 million Americans, has reached out to PillPack about providing the service to members. While no deal has materialized, the document says Blue Cross would provide home delivery and other benefits as well as discounts on over-the-counter drugs and possibly a branded medication dispenser.

A Blue Cross spokesperson declined to comment.

Amazon can also add the muscle PillPack needs to stand up to the PBMs, which effectively determine whether a pharmacy is able to get customers. Large employers, insurers and Medicare and Medicaid rely on PBMs to administer prescription coverage, and PBMs have not looked kindly on start-ups delivering medications to the home because many offer their own lucrative mail-order services.

In 2016, Express Scripts, the largest PBM, threatened to remove PillPack from its network, claiming the company was misrepresenting itself as a retail pharmacy instead of a mail-delivery pharmacy. The move would have cut PillPack off from about a third of its customers virtually overnight.

“There were many, many attempts to crush this company,” said Jim Messina, a former White House deputy chief of staff under Barack Obama who was hired by PillPack to navigate the challenges presented by PBMs.

Messina, who joined PillPack’s board in November 2017 along with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, laid out an aggressive campaign that involved setting up the website fixpharmacy.com to rally support from existing customers in an effort to reach key policymakers in Washington. Parker set up a war room at the office, where top staffers put in 16-hour days on the #fixpharmacy crusade. In just over a week, the marketing team, led by former IDEO executive Colin Raney, published multiple videos featuring customers talking about their dependence on the service.

TJ will “go to war and fight for his company and try to do things differently,” Messina said.

However, Express Scripts did have a case. The company had given PillPack a contract to sell as a retail pharmacy, and not by mail. PillPack had some physical locations but it was shipping medications to patients from those pharmacies. Express Scripts eventually agreed to give a mail-order contract to PillPack (which is still in effect), but not before Parker fessed up to an “administrative error” that resulted in the company briefly shipping to states where it wasn’t properly licensed.

Brian Henry, a spokesman for Express Scripts, told Forbes at the time that, “there are standards and regulations and industry practices you have to follow.” He declined to provide further comment to CNBC.

Parker’s history with Express Scripts and unwillingness to back down from a fight was one of the qualities that most attracted Amazon to PillPack, according to people familiar with the matter.

“He thought that the only way to make a change is to shine a light on the dark spots, and he had the information on where those dark spots were,” said Zachariah Reitano, CEO of men’s health start-up Roman, which counts Parker as an investor. “He did it in a way where it benefited the patient, and not just for the benefit of his company.”

Staffing up quickly

PillPack is just a piece of Amazon’s expansive plan to uproot the $3 trillion U.S. health-care industry. The company is also working with J.P. Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway on a joint venture called Haven aiming to improve care and bring down the costs. It has plans to open its own health clinics for employees, and there’s a secretive group called Grand Challenge working on telemedicine and applying machine learning to cancer research, among other futuristic projects. Then there’s Amazon Web Services and the Alexa voice division, which have various efforts underway to pull together medical records and mine data.

But for all the indigestion Amazon has created in the pharmaceutical and health-care industries, the company doesn’t appear to have any grand plan yetto take on the market. Cohen spoke at a recent investment bank event and told those in the crowd that there’s no single person in Seattle who owns the health efforts, according to a person who was in attendance.

The immediate objective for PillPack is to keep growing and hiring. The company didn’t insist on retaining its brand permanently as part of the acquisition, according to a person familiar with the transaction, so it could eventually be renamed to something like Amazon Pharmacy.

Amazon is staffing up the business to serve tens of thousands more customers and adding the necessary pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Amazon has about 50 PillPack job openings listed on its careers site, primarily in Boston and Somerville. Some of the most recent listings are for a packing and shipping specialist and visual designer, and more than half the positions are in software development, including for a “team lead,” tasked with “establishing mechanisms and best practices for a growing team.”

PillPack has bolstered ad spending on TV stations (including CNBC and MSNBC) that reach an older audience, as well as across digital networks like Facebook.

It’s also forging ahead with plans already in place in Phoenix to build out a 175,000-square-foot pharmacy operation, which is about the size of a Walmart Supercenter, to serve as a retail pharmacy and distribution center. The facility has been adding state licenses that will allow PillPack to better serve customers in the western U.S.

When the acquisition was disclosed in June, some analysts speculated that Amazon wanted PillPack because it had pharmacy licenses in almost every state. The consulting firm Kantar said PillPack’s 49 licenses make it “incredibly asset-rich.”

In Arizona, PillPack has been lobbying local officials to allow pharmacy technicians, the people who assist pharmacists, to transfer medications from other pharmacies into PillPack. A handful of employees and a PillPack lawyer showed up at an Arizona State Board of Pharmacy meeting in December to request an exemption from a law that requires pharmacists to handle transfers that come in by phone. PillPack’s representatives said the company already uses technicians for those tasks in New Hampshire (one of the 13 states that allow it) and has a rigorous training program and oversight in place to ensure patient safety.

The PillPack crew didn’t talk about cost savings or the need to rapidly scale, but you could hear the Amazon influence in their argument. For PillPack to function like an Amazon business, it has to get the most of both technology and lower-cost employees. The company was granted a six-month exemption, after which it has to produce a report on findings and error rates.

Moving ‘beyond their core’

Since the acquisition last June, Parker has relocated to Park City, Utah, near the company’s sales and business development office. On most Tuesdays, he flies to Seattle, where he recently bought a house, and stays until Thursday.

He continues to work closely with Kabbani, who has facilitated introductions between PillPack’s team and top Amazon executives in areas like AWS and Haven, people familiar with the matter said.

Though Parker and Cohen report to Kabbani, the founders are very much the ones leading the charge. Kabbani is a respected manager who has risen through the ranks at Amazon, helping build the Kindle self-publishing platform and then leading a variety of last-mile delivery projects, including Flex, the on-demand delivery hiring service. But he doesn’t have much experience in health care or drug supply chain, a fact he made clear to the PillPack team during the acquisition talks, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Kabbani’s logistics expertise is likely to play into PillPack’s effort to expand its on-the-ground presence. The company has physical pharmacies in five states — New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Florida and Arizona — which it needs to legally ship to all the various states and so it can deliver quickly, without having to send packages across the country.

Cohen’s focus has largely been on PharmacyOS, which PillPack launched in 2017 as a “brand new operating system that we built from the ground up,” replacing lots of old, off-the-shelf technology.

According to an internal presentation PillPack executives created before the Amazon deal, the company was pitching PharmacyOS as its next big growth driver, and two people familiar with the matter said it was one of the main pieces that interested Amazon. PillPack has been trying to get the technology in the hands of pharmaceutical makers, doctors and insurance companies to automate and streamline their processes as well, so it’s not just used internally.

“Such a move would mean they’re expanding far beyond their core solution to the tens of millions of people who take generic medicines,” said Stephen Buck, a former vice president at drug distributor McKesson, after CNBC described the document. Buck, who’s now CEO of health-tech start-up Courage Health, said it suggests that “PillPack is going to be a much bigger player in pharmacy.”

Just after the deal came together and before taking up his new post in Seattle, Parker wanted to celebrate. He invited some friends and their family members to his home in the Boston suburb of Somerville, a short walk from PillPack’s headquarters, to enjoy a summer barbecue.

Parker and Cohen cooked steaks and veggies on the grill in the garden. Meanwhile, Kabbani took a seat at the piano in the living room and entertained the kids in attendance with classical music. Destin, the early investor, was there with his 12-year-old son, who showed off some of his card tricks. The boy was such a hit with Kabbani that the Amazon executive jokingly offered him a job.

“It didn’t feel like a commercial transaction,” said Destin, the founder of venture firm Stride.VC. “It felt like a family barbecue and that touched me. It reminded me that it’s about people having faith in other people and taking risks on their behalf.”

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New post in LET'S CREATE AFRICA (L.C.A.): his is fun open-ended job within an exciting team which needs some travel out to support our country teams in Africa. Responsibilities Operational Management in all Countries for Database administration, servers, desktop computing services and networks, including, but not limited to Microsoft Office 365; SQL Server; Active Directory; Serenic Navigator ERP, Navision Replicator; Jet Reports; servers and network equipment including VOIP equipment; Management and Deployment of IT Infrastructure, Software, Systems and Servers/hardware. Ensure all scope of work is in line with organization goals and objectives. Provide technology strategic support to the organization while resolving all user requests. Skills / Qualification Requirements Navision expert who can troubleshoot from older versions yet comfortable with new versions University Degree/Diploma in the field of Computer Science and/or relevant IT field. Microsoft Certifications and Trainings like MCSE, MCTS and Comp TIA A+ Microsoft Dynamics Certification with at least 6 years’ experience. Experience in administration and use of Serenic Navigator version 5.1 ERP is needed Any Accounting and HR/payroll functional knowledge e.g. CPA will be an added advantage Training in project management will be an added advantage CCNA Certification or working knowledge of Cisco Networking will be an added advantage Best fit for the role will have… A real tech-savvy passionate team player with the ability to be hands on and figure out solutions on the go. “Can do” attitude and highly motivated by doing meaningful work with our beneficiaries. Effective interpersonal skills, naturally friendly with a customer-centric mindset. Proactive, Self-taught, Innovative individual with the ability to present ideas in user-friendly language. Analytical and problem-solving abilities, with keen attention to detail. Project management skills a definite asset. Contact Us Send your CV and Cover Letter to: hr@kickstart.org quoting the position on the subject line by close of business 20th March 2019. [3/15, 19:59] Nelson Komba: Customer Service Agent Vacancy in Kenya Job Title: Customer Service Agent A customer service representative, or CSR, will act as a liaison, provide product / services information and resolve any emerging problems that our customer accounts might face with accuracy and efficiency. Responsibilities: Manage large amounts of incoming calls/emails/chats/social media queries Identify and assess customers’ needs to achieve satisfaction and first hand resolution Build sustainable relationships and trust with customer through open and interactive communication Provide accurate, valid and complete information by using the operational tools Handle customer complaints, provide appropriate solutions and alternatives within the time limits and department KPI’s; follow up to ensure resolution; follow up with the customer to provide resolution feedback Keep records of customer interactions, process customer accounts and file documents in CRM system Follow department communication procedures, guidelines and policies Take the extra mile to engage customers and is familiar with customer care WOW approach Actively participate in team meetings and shift briefings and provides valuable customer feedback to line managers Identifies current issues and ongoing problems that needs to be addressed, communicates the same to the line manager Knowledge, Skill Set & Qualifications Required Proven customer support experience or experience as a client service representative in large organizations handling high customer traffic. Minimum experience of 1 year is required. Track record of over-achieving quota Strong phone contact handling skills, written communication and active listening Familiarity with CRM systems and practices Must be organized and able to handle large number of customer care inquires Customer orientation and ability to adapt/respond to different types of characters Excellent communication and presentation skills Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage time effectively Must be https://ift.tt/2Wd4FQA

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Emord’s Sacred Fire of Liberty, First Amendment, Hate Speech, Impeachment hearings, Real ID, FDA attacks Homeopathy, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, vScience Bites, Gardasil and MORE!

Oct 24, 2019 3-5PM ET

Thursday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:

Sacred Fire of Liberty!

It’s that time of the week where we get to explore the political healing that this country needs so desperately! Jonathan Emord is back to help us dissect the latest political news that’s fit to print:

Majority of Americans Want to Scrap First Amendment, Polling Finds New Campaign For Free Speech polling results demonstrate just how vulnerable free speech protections are in the United States.CFS polling results show:

51% of Americans think the First Amendment is outdated and should be rewritten. The First Amendment protects your right to free speech, free assembly, and freedom of religion, among other things.

48% believe “hate speech” should be illegal. (“Hate speech” is not defined—we left it up to the individual participant.) Of those, about half think the punishment for “hate speech” should include possible jail time, while the rest think it should just be a ticket and a fine.

80% don’t actually know what the First Amendment really protects. Those polled believed this statement is true: “The First Amendment allows anyone to say their opinion no matter what, and they are protected by law from any consequences of saying those thoughts or opinions.”

Boston mulls banning b-word after woman cries of hurt feelings A Democrat serving Boston, state Rep. Dan Hunt, has successfully pushed forward for vote a bill, House No. 3719, aimed at banning use of the b-word (rhymes with ditch, hitch and — Happy Halloween to the kiddies — witch). Well now, at the risk of leading the city of the original freedom fighting tea partier down another path of censorship — holy sh—. (Rhymes with twit.) Ain’t that a new twist on freedom of speech. The ban, it should be noted, wouldn’t affect those who use the word in loving context, as in a guy introducing his new gal pal to his group, “Hey, meet my new b—.” Nope; the ban only applies when the word’s about to be slung to demean. “A person who uses the word ‘bitch’ directed at another person to accost, annoy, degrade or demean the other person shall be considered a disorderly person, in violation of this section, and shall be subject to … penalties, ” the pertinent section of the proposed amendment to Section 53 of Chapter 272 of existing General Laws states.

House Republicans storm secure room, demand access to impeachment inquiry proceedings House Republicans on Wednesday stormed the secure room where lawmakers have been conducting the impeachment probe against President Trump, upending a scheduled deposition as they demanded fairness from the Democrats running the show. The move enraged Democrats, who said as part of their protest the Republican lawmakers carried electronics into the secure area, creating a potential security lapse. They demanded the 30 or so Republican protesters face ethics charges. GOP lawmakers brushed those complaints aside, saying the hearing they disrupted, involving Defense Department official Laura Cooper, was not classified, and saying Democrats have broken the rules of fairness by shutting them out of the impeachment process. “House Democrats are bypassing constitutional norms and basic standards of due process with their impeachment obsession,” said Rep. Mark Walker, North Carolina Republican. “The president is not above justice. But, as you know, neither is he below it.”

Vaccines now being used to harvest biometric identities of everyone; Big Brother merges with Big Pharma It’s all happening, just as we predicted. Big Pharma is officially partnering with the tech industry to pair “immunization” with digital biometrics, meaning humans will soon be microchipped, tracked, and ultimately controlled through a global identification matrix. The ID2020 Alliance, as it’s being called, is a digital identity program that aims to “leverage immunization” as a means of inserting tiny microchips into people’s bodies. In collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, also known as GAVI, the government of Bangladesh and various other “partners in government, academia, and humanitarian relief,” the ID2020 Alliance hopes to usher in this mark of the beast as a way to keep tabs on every human being living on Earth. Similar to how cattle are marked with ear tags, this globalist alliance wants all humans to be “vaccinated” with digital tracking chips that will create a seamless monitoring system for the New World Order to manage the populations of the world with ease.

Real ID laws are a back door to adult vaccine mandates across the U.S., experts say While the pro-vaccine mainstream media is busy trying to convince the masses to willingly inject themselves with Big Pharma’s toxic vaccine cocktails, the Deep State is marching towards total vaccine tyranny — starting with stamping out free speech, and ending with vaccine mandates. And this isn’t just a theory; pro-liberty experts have just uncovered a startling truth: The Real ID Act of 2005 has already created a “backdoor” to vaccine mandates for adults in the United States. This is bad news for anyone who believes in freedom and a person’s right to making their own decisions regarding their medical care. The Deep State is trampling all over the Constitution in an effort to gain more power, no doubt in a last-ditch effort to usurp control of the American people.

Statement on the agency’s efforts to protect patients from potentially harmful drugs sold as homeopathic products The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes that consumers may use various types of unapproved drugs, such as homeopathic drug products, to treat or relieve different diseases and conditions. These products are often marketed as natural alternatives to approved prescription and nonprescription products and are widely available in the marketplace. Homeopathic products, however, are marketed without FDA review and may not meet modern standards for safety, effectiveness, quality and labeling. FDA uses a risk-based approach to monitor these products and to evaluate reports of adverse effects.  Homeopathy is an alternative medical practice developed in the late 1700s that is based on the principle that a substance that causes symptoms in a healthy person can be used in diluted form to treat symptoms and illnesses, also known as “like cures like.” Homeopathic drug products are made from a wide range of substances, including ingredients derived from plants, healthy or diseased animal or human sources, minerals and chemicals, including known poisons.

Hour 2 – vScienceBites With Dr. Sherri Tenpenny!

“Small bites you can remember – to bite them in the behind”

Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny, is the founder of Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, a clinic first established in Strongsville, Ohio in 1996 under the name of OsteoMed II. Her goal is to provide the best of integrative medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Tenpenny is a graduate of the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio and received her training as an osteopathic medical doctor at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri. Dr. Tenpenny is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. She has undertaken many advanced courses in alternative medicine, including acupuncture and complex homeopathy.

Prior to her career in alternative medicine, Dr. Tenpenny served as Director of the Emergency Department at Blanchard Valley Regional Hospital Center in Findlay, Ohio, from 1987 to 1995. In 1994, she and a partner opened OsteoMed, a medical practice in Findlay limited to the specialty of osteopathic manipulative medicine. In 1996, Dr. Tenpenny moved to Strongsville, Ohio, expanding her practice to include traditional, complementary and preventive medicine. Dr. Tenpenny is board certified in three medical specialties. She was boarded in Emergency Medicine from 1995 to 2006. She chose to not re-certify in Emergency Medicine – a time consuming and expensive undertaking – because she never plans to work again within Emergency Medicine.  She has been board certified in Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (AOBNMM) since 1995 and became board certified in Integrative and Holistic Medicine in 2012 (ABIHM).

Remember Friends, The Power to Heal is Yours!

Trinity Health Freedom Expo Oct 26-27 2019 Tinley Park, IL

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Digital privacy at stake? 10 Tips to avoid leaving tracks around internet

Google and Facebook collect information about us and then sell that data to advertisers. Websites deposit invisible “cookies” onto our computers and then record where we go online. Even our own government has been known to track us.

When it comes to digital privacy, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We’re mere mortals! We’re minuscule molecules in their machines! What power do we possibly have to fight back?

That was the question I posed to you, dear readers, in the previous “Crowdwise.”

Many of you responded with valuable but frequently repeated suggestions: Use a program that memorizes your passwords, and make every password different. Install an ad blocker in your web browser, like uBlock Origin. Read up on the latest internet scams. If you must use Facebook, visit its Privacy Settings page and limit its freedom to target ads to you.

What I sought, though, was non-obvious ideas.

It turns out that “digital privacy” means different things to different people.

“Everyone has different concerns,” wrote Jamie Winterton, a cybersecurity researcher at Arizona State University. “Are you worried about private messaging? Government surveillance? Third-party trackers on the web?” Addressing each of these concerns, she noted, requires different tools and techniques.

Duck Google

“The number one thing that people can do is to stop using Google,” wrote privacy consultant Bob Gellman. “If you use Gmail and use Google to search the web, Google know more about you than any other institution. And that goes double if you use other Google services like Google Maps, Waze, Google Docs, etc.”

Like many other readers, he recommended DuckDuckGo, a rival web search engine. Its search results often aren’t as useful as Google’s, but it’s advertised not to track you or your searches.

And if you don’t use Gmail for email, what should you use? “I am a huge advocate for paying for your email account,” wrote Russian journalist Yuri Litvinenko. “It’s not about turning off ads, but giving your email providers as little incentive to peek into your inbox as possible.” ProtonMail, for example, costs $4 a month and offers a host of privacy features, including anonymous sign-up and end-to-end encryption.

Jam Google

The ads you see online are based on the sites, searches, or and Facebook posts that get your interest. Some rebels therefore throw a wrench into the machinery — by demonstrating phony interests.

“Every once in a while, I Google something completely nutty just to mess with their algorithm,” wrote Shaun Breidbart. “You’d be surprised what sort of coupons CVS prints for me on the bottom of my receipt. They are clearly confused about both my age and my gender.”

It’s “akin to radio jamming,” noted Frank Paiano. “It does make for some interesting browsing, as ads for items we searched for follow us around like puppy dogs (including on The New York Times, by the way.)”

Barry Joseph uses a similar tactic when registering for an account on a new website. “I often switch my gender (I am a cisgender male), which delivers ads less relevant to me — although I must admit, the bra advertising can be distracting.”

He notes that there are side effects. “My friends occasionally get gendered notifications about me, such as ‘Wish her a happy birthday.’” But even that is a plus, leading to “interesting conversations about gender norms and expectations (so killing two birds with one digital stone here).”

Avoid unnecessary web tracking

It’s perfectly legitimate, by the way, to enjoy seeing ads that align with your interests. You could argue that they’re actually more useful than irrelevant ones.

But millions of others are creeped out by the tracking that produces those targeted ads.

If you’re in that category, Ms. Winterton recommended Ghostery, a free plug-in for most web browsers that “blocks the trackers and lists them by category,” she wrote. “Some sites have an amazing number of trackers whose only purpose is to record your behavior (sometimes across multiple sites) and pitch better advertisements.”

Careful on public Wi-Fi

Most public Wi-Fi networks — in hotels, airports, coffee shops, and so on — are eavesdroppable, even if they require a password to connect. Nearby patrons, using their phones or laptops, can easily see everything you’re sending or receiving — email and website contents, for example — using free “sniffer” programs.

You don’t have to worry about Social, WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessages, all of which encrypt your messages before they even leave your phone or laptop. Using websites whose addresses begin with https are also safe; they, too, encrypt their data before it’s sent to your browser (and vice versa).

(Caution: Even if the site’s address begins with https, the bad guys can still see which sites you visit — say, https://www.NoseHairBraiding.com. They just can’t see what you do there once you’re connected.)

The solution, as recommended by Lauren Taubman and others: a Virtual Private Network program. These phone and computer apps encrypt everything you send or receive — and, as a bonus, mask your location. Wirecutter’s favorite VPN, TunnelBear, is available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It’s free for up to 500 megabytes a month, or $60 a year for up to five devices.

Use Apple

“I don’t like Apple’s phones, their operating systems, or their looks,” wrote Aaron Soice, “but the one thing Apple gets right is valuing your data security. Purely in terms of data, Apple serves you; Google serves you to the sharks.”

Apple’s privacy website reveals many examples: You don’t sign into Apple Maps or Safari (Apple’s web browser), so your searches and trips aren’t linked to you. Safari’s “don’t track me” features are turned on as the factory setting. When you buy something with Apple Pay, Apple receives no information about the item, the store, or the price.

Apple can afford to tout these features, explained software developer Joel Potischman, because it’s a hardware company. “Its business model depends on us giving them our money. Google and Facebook make their money by selling our info to other people.”

Don’t “Sign in with Facebook”

Mr. Potischman never registers with a new website using the “Sign in with Facebook” or “Sign in with Google” shortcut buttons. “They allow those companies to track you on other sites,” he wrote. Instead, he registers the long way, with an email address and password.

(And here’s Apple again: The “Sign in with Apple” button, new and not yet incorporated by many websites, is designed to offer the same one-click convenience — but with a promise not to track or profile you.)

Identity theft, from a pro

My call for submissions drew some tips from a surprising respondent: Frank Abagnale, the former teenage con artist who was the subject of the 2002 movie “Catch Me if You Can.”

After his prison time, he went began working for the F.B.I., giving talks on scam protection, and writing books. He’s donating all earnings from his latest book, “Scam Me If You Can,” to the AARP, in support of its efforts to educate older Americans about internet rip-offs.

His advice: “You never want to tell Facebook where you were born and your date of birth. That’s 98 percent of someone stealing your identity! And don’t use a straight-on photo of yourself — like a passport photo, driver’s license, graduation photo — that someone can use on a fake ID.”

Mr. Abagnale also notes that you should avoid sharing your personal data offline, too. “We give a lot of information away, not just on social media, but places we go where people automatically ask us all of these questions. ‘What magazines do you read?’ ‘What’s your job?’ ‘Do you earn between this and that amount of money?’”

Why answer if you don’t have to?

The lightning round

A few more suggestions:

“Create a different email address for every service you use,” wrote Matt McHenry. “Then you can tell which one has shared your info, and create filters to silence them if necessary.”

“Apps like Privacy and Token Virtual generate a disposable credit-card number with each purchase — so in case of a breach, your actual card isn’t compromised,” suggested Juan Garrido. (Bill Barnes agreed, pointing out the similar Shopsafe service offered by from Bank of America’s Visa cards. “The number is dollar and time limited.”)

“Your advertisers won’t like to see this, so perhaps you won’t print it,” predicted Betsy Peto, “but I avoid using apps on my cellphone as much as possible. Instead, I go to the associated website in my phone’s browser: for example, www.dailybeast.com. My data is still tracked there, but not as much as it would be by the app.”

There is some good news: Tech companies are beginning to feel some pressure.

In 2017, the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation (G.D.P.R.), which requires companies to explain what data they’re collecting — and to offer the option to edit or delete it. China, India, Japan, Brazil, South Korea and Thailand have passed, or are considering, similar laws, and California’s Consumer Privacy Act takes effect on January 1.

In the meantime, enjoy these suggestions, as well as this bonus tip from privacy researcher Jamie Winterton:

“Oh yeah — and don’t use Facebook.”

For the next “Crowdwise”: We all know that it’s unclassy and cruel to break up with a romantic partner in a text message — or, worse, a tweet. (Well, we used to know that.) Yet requesting an unusual meeting at a sidewalk cafe might strike your partner as distressingly ominous.

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from CVR News Direct https://cvrnewsdirect.com/digital-privacy-at-stake-10-tips-to-avoid-leaving-tracks-around-internet/

[biofunmy]

Why Does Everything Smell, So Peacefully, of Lavender?

Not long ago Erin Wexstten, the 35-year-old founder of Oxalis Apothecary, a plant-based skin care brand, ticked off all the ways she uses lavender in her life.

“I personally have lavender everywhere,” she said. “Hand soap, dish soap. I have sachets you stick in the drawer. It makes the underwear smell nice. Dried bunches. They make for a beautiful piece in a vase.”

Ms. Wexstten has spread the lavender love through her products, including Feel Good Potion, containing essential oil of lavender, and Reverie body oil, deodorant and a wildflower clay mask, which contains lavender in powder form as a gentle exfoliant.

“I call lavender the quiet queen — she’s purple majesty,” Ms. Wexstten said. “It’s an abundant plant. It isn’t a precious, exotic plant. It’s used everywhere.”

Indeed, these days there’s hardly a household, grooming or wellness product that hasn’t been infused with lavender’s sweet, antiseptic-clean aroma: candles, diffusers, shower gels, liquid hand sanitizer, face mists, eye masks. It’s even in food and — shudder — cocktails.

To feed the demand, hundreds of lavender farms have sprouted up in recent years far from their well-known location of Provence, France: in places like Maine, Kansas and West Virginia, where growing lavender on coal-stripped mountains is being explored as a land reclamation project.

The lavender selfie, typically a young woman wearing a prairie dress and a straw hat posing amid rows of purple blooms arcing to the horizon, has become an image ubiquitous on Instagram every June and July during harvest season.

The lavender field has become such a visual cliché on social media that Simon Porte Jacquemus, the French fashion designer, decided to subvert it by holding his spring 2020 fashion show in an actual field in Provence. “I wanted a place that looked like a postcard — almost too much like a postcard, even,” he told WWD.

Even when you’re not seeking it out, lavender has become hard to escape. A look around my own apartment revealed three bars of lavender bath soap; a lavender “relax” aromatherapy bar by Treestar; a vial of Ms. Wexstten’s Feel Good Potion; Sleep Well Therapy Balm by Scentered; Dr. Kerklaan Natural Sleep Cream with CBD extract and calming sensation citrus and lavender; a lavender-scented candle; a bouquet of dried lavender in a vase in the bathroom; and a small pillow stuffed with lavender to be placed under one’s nose at bedtime.

Many of these items are my wife’s. But lavender has entered the men’s grooming world too, in products like Jack Black post-shave cooling gel and overnight balm from the Art of Shaving. (And the bath soap was mine.)

Nature’s Chill Pill

If not a precious plant in modern times, lavender once carried the whiff of semi-luxury. If you stayed in a nice European hotel, your room had crisp linens scented with lavender. That bath soap would have been a special imported treat costing $15 a bar, not something I might have gotten at the corner CVS.

Lavender was a key ingredient in the bougie domestic fantasy sold by retailers like Williams Sonoma and L’Occitane en Provence. It wafted gently over the entire oeuvre of Peter Mayle, the author of “A Year in Provence,” among other books.

Now you can buy Downy Infusions Lavender Serenity fabric softener.

Linda G. Levy, the president of the Fragrance Foundation, an organization that promotes and supports the perfume industry, has noticed lavender as a highlighted ingredient in luxury fragrances like Libre, new from YSL, as well as popular perfumes like Ariana Grande’s Cloud, which features a top note of lavender and won the foundation’s fragrance of the year award this past June.

“Lavender is easy for consumers to translate,” Ms. Levy said. “It’s something they can understand without having to do a lot of research.”

Unlike ylang-ylang or vetiver, two other frequently used botanicals, “you hear ‘lavender’ and a visual comes to mind,” she added.

For Ms. Levy, it conjures a trip she took to Fayence, in the south of France. “Litter on the street there is lavender,” she said. For someone else, lavender may bring to mind a grandmother who used a sachet to freshen a dresser drawer.

Jeannie Ralston, a New York journalist turned Texas lavender farmer who wrote a memoir about her experience, “The Unlikely Lavender Queen,” believes lavender’s popularity comes, in part, from the way it activates all the senses, especially when standing amid rows of it.

“You’ve got the smell, but to look at it, it’s almost like a pointillist painting,” Ms. Ralston said. “It’s a beautiful, sensual experience to be in a lavender field.”

Dahlias planted tightly to the horizon can be beautiful, too. And roses also evoke grandmotherly nostalgia. But lavender promises something those plants don’t, something very much desired in this age of fractious politics, climate dread and unceasing demands on our time: escape.

Though the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans believed in its benefits, as both a cosmetic and a medicinal plant, lavender’s true time has come in the stressed-out early 21st century.

Clinical studies in both animals and humans have shown the plant to have calming effects, reducing anxiety and helping to bring on sleep. The key ingredient is linalool, an alcohol component of lavender odor. Sniffing it has been likened to popping a Valium.

Dr. Andrew Weil, the integrative medicine guru, hangs dry bundles of lavender in his bedroom as a sleep aid and cooks with the herb. In yoga studios, it’s a common practice for the instructor to end class by daubing essential oil of lavender on spent students’ temples. And the oil has long been used in aromatherapy.

Now, artisanal wellness brands and billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies alike have packaged and marketed lavender to a freaked-out populace. No longer is it just a nice way to freshen your linen drawer. It’s become a magic ingredient: a plant-based Prozac put into therapy balms, sleep creams and stress-relief moisturizing lotions, like the one from Aveeno, a division of Johnson & Johnson, which claims on the purply bottle that it “calms & relaxes.”

For consumers, especially millennials fluent in Goop-speak and hungry for ways to unplug from 24-7 work and digital lives, lavender has come to mean calm.

Anit Hora, 39, the founder of M.S Skincare, a vegan skin care line made in Brooklyn, sprays lavender mist around her office when things get hectic, and has hung dried bunches in her bathroom, pressing them to scent her shower. She also named the brand’s restorative lavender body oil Aum, after the yoga chant more commonly spelled “ohm.”

“It’s very calming to chant ‘ohm,’” Ms. Hora said. “And that’s the effect I wanted this to have.”

Ms. Wexstten’s Feel Good Potion is “there to reduce stress and anxiety in a world full of chaos,” she said. (The label instructs users to “apply to temples, third eye and wrists. Breathe deeply.”)

While Ms. Wexstten doesn’t think there’s a lavender boom, she said, “I think people are paying attention more, handling their self-care. In an old-world apothecary, lavender is not a new thing.”

Barbara Close, 59, grew up going to such apothecaries with her aunt, who lived outside Paris, and became familiar with the European tradition of using lavender and other herbs for grooming and health purposes.

“She loved to take me to these little herboristeries,” or herb shops, Ms. Close said. “They’d make her passion flower tincture.”

In 1995, Ms. Close founded Naturopathica, which operates day spas in Manhattan and East Hampton and sells skin care products and herbal remedies. It began as an herb shop like the ones she had known in France. “We had tinctures and teas, essential oils,” she said. “Back then, it was a strange concept for most people.”

Twenty-five years later, once-obscure herbs like echinacea are sold at CVS, adaptogens like Siberian ginseng and reishi are being touted as answers to any number of problems, and don’t get us started on turmeric. “Lavender,” Ms. Close said, “has gone along with that growth.”

According to the alternative medicine guides and lavender farmer websites, the herb is a cure-all for many, many ailments: anxiety, insomnia, migraines, depression, flatulence, hair loss and more.

“Some books have two, three pages of attributes that lavender possesses, and a lot of it seems far-fetched,” said Charley Opper, 68, an owner of Cache Creek Lavender Farm in Rumsey, Calif.

Mr. Opper makes body mist, bath soap and 21 other products from the lavender he grows, and he sticks with the folkloric wisdom that dates back to Pliny the Elder. “What I tell people is it’s a sleep aid, a relaxant and it does have anti-bacterial properties to it,” he said.

In all his years, Mr. Opper said, “I’ve only run into one or two people that said they did not like” the scent of lavender. And he has found a receptive audience for both his products and his message by driving three hours south each weekend, where a demographic of plugged-in, maxed-out tech workers are eager to buy nature’s chill pill.

“I go to Silicon Valley, and I market my products in Palo Alto and Menlo Park,” Mr. Opper said. “The essential oil that I sell at my stand is well sought after at this point.”

Crop This

But where does the most special, elite lavender come from? The royal purple fields of Valensole, France? Partly, yes. But also: Bulgaria.

Though the country has been slow to catch on as an Instagram destination, its temperate climate is ideal for growing lavender. To some noses, the Bulgarian strains are preferred over the French.

“It has a more distinct, exotic scent,” said Ms. Wexstten, who sources Bulgarian lavender for her products. “It doesn’t have that candy-like scent that a lot of lavender can have.”

The largest seller of essential oils in the world, the Utah-based doTerra, operates a distillery in Bulgaria, and production has increased exponentially to match demand, said Dr. Russell Osguthorpe, the company’s chief medical officer. The company sold about 38 kilograms of lavender oil in 2008, and sourced 152,000 kilograms to support sales in 2018.

“We have spent a long time optimizing our lavenders for their aroma because we use them in aromatherapy. You might even call it a pharmaceutical standard. Not all species of lavender are created equal.”

(Not all lavender is even grown in a field: It’s likely that the $3 bottle of lavender oil at the chain drugstore, or the liquid hand sanitizer at the supermarket, derives its lavender scent from synthetic perfume made in a laboratory.)

If the small and medium-size lavender farms stretching from the Sequim Valley in Washington State to the East End of Long Island don’t significantly contribute to industrial-scale production, they perform another role. No longer do Americans have to go to France to stand in a lavender field or picturesquely fill a straw basket with all-natural products.

When Ms. Ralston and her husband, Robb Kendrick, a photographer, started their commercial lavender farm in Texas, back in 2000, the couple had little experience with lavender. But the herb proved easy to grow and easier still to monetize.

“We ended up with 97 different lavender products,” Ms. Ralston said, ticking off a list that included bath balms, bath salts, bath oils, essential oils, eye creams, sachets and “lavender smokes,” or dried and bundled stalks to put on a fire. “We actually sold lavender-scented pencils at one point. And my husband said, ‘That’s enough.’”

One year, at the annual lavender festival the couple started, 17,000 people tramped through their fields in the Texas Hill Country.

“Lavender seems to be crack cocaine for a certain set of the population,” Mr. Kendrick said to Ms. Ralston at the time.

Thy sold the lavender farm to an employee in 2006 because they wanted to live for a time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and raise their sons to be bilingual. But Ms. Ralston, a founder of the digital magazine NextTribe, said there are times she wishes they had held on, watching how the American lavender craze has, yes, blossomed.

Aimee Crane, who four years ago started Bee Loved Lavender farm, has brought culinary lavender to northeast Ohio. Jim Morford has brought homemade soaps, lotions, creams and infused teas to Kansas (“You really have to want to grow it in our hot climate,” Mr. Morford said). And Kaia Nustad has brought the joy of lavender to the Carmel Valley in California (and to Etsy).

Last year, Ms. Nustad hosted 54 weddings on her eight-acre plot, and has sold thousands of lavender bouquets to brides. “Millennials love it for weddings,” she said. “It’s the new boho thing.”

Ms. Nustad discovered lavender’s popularity by accident, in 2014, when she visited a farm near the “lavender trail” in Washington. And two years after planting her own farm, she still asks herself what it is about lavender that makes people respond the way they do.

But, she reasoned, “I’ve never had a sad person on my farm. When you look out over the fields, it’s calming. It’s that serene calming feeling, like when you stare over the ocean.”

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/i-always-felt-like-i-was-the-funny-friend-of-girls-that-i-fancied-chris-odowd-reflects-his-teen-years/

'I always felt like I was the funny friend of girls that I fancied' - Chris O'Dowd reflects his teen years

Dawn O’Porter and Chris O’Dowd attend the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Patron of the Artists Awards 2017 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on November 9, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA Foundation ) Dawn O’Porter (L) and husband Chris O’Dowd attend the red carpet premiere of EPIX original series “Get Shorty” at Pacfic Design Center on August 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images) Presenter Dawn Porter and fiance Actor Chris O’Dowd attend Fashion Kicks in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, Beechwood Cancer Care Centre Stockport and the Chefs Adopt a School Project at Lancashire County Cricket Club on May 1, 2012 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage) Actor Chris O’Dowd and wife Dawn Porter attend “The Sapphires” after party during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at The Brandt House on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Todd Oren/Getty Images for Weinstein) Chris O’Dowd and Dawn Porter attend the Elle Style Awards at The Savoy Hotel on February 11, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage) Chris O’Dowd attends the “Juliet, Naked” New York Premiere at Metrograph on August 14, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images) Chris O’Dowd in Get Shorty Actors Chris O’Dowd, Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke attend the “Juliet, Naked” New York Premiere at Metrograph on August 14, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images) Chris O’Dowd with his wife Dawn O’Porter Chris O’Dowd and Dawn O’Porter attend the launch party for The Pool, a unique multi-media platform for busy women co-founded by renowned editor and journalist Sam Baker and broadcaster Lauren Laverne, on April 23, 2015 in London, England. www.the-pool.com (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images for The Pool)

‘I always felt like I was the funny friend of girls that I fancied’ – Chris O’Dowd reflects his teen years

Independent.ie

Chris O’Dowd ambles into a café to meet me a week before he turns 39.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/i-always-felt-like-i-was-the-funny-friend-of-girls-that-i-fancied-chris-odowd-reflects-his-teen-years-37518598.html

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Chris O’Dowd ambles into a café to meet me a week before he turns 39.

But by his own biological calendar, that birthday is long gone. In O’Dowd years, he’s already 52. “It’s like, ‘Am I not f**king 40 yet?’ I turned 39 when I was about 26. I feel like I’ve been very old for a very long time,” he says, squinting his close-set eyes. “I was the youngest and last kid [of five], left at home as my parents were breaking up. As a 15-year-old, I took on the behaviour of the man of the house. I was a child-man. That’s why I’ve played a lot of man-children.”

His overgrown boys have included tech slacker Roy Trenneman, his breakout role in Channel 4’s cult comedy The IT Crowd, record label jerk Ronnie in Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, and an assortment of oafs (not least a bad boyfriend in Girls). But since his turn in Bridesmaids in 2011, O’Dowd has become a regular in Apatow’s Hollywood gang of everymen. It was Apatow who suggested O’Dowd for the role of his latest emotionally stunted male: Duncan, a narcissistic music nerd in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked.

This is the first of two projects with Hornby. “I’m starting to feel like his muse,” he says chuckling, but he’s keen to dis-identify with the Hornby-esque male. “I don’t have the arrested development of his characters,” he insists. “I was brought up in a matriarchal household. My mother is a therapist, so we had mature conversations about behaviour and identity. Hornby characters believe, ‘You are what you like’. That’s increasingly part of the male psyche as we are clutching for an identity. We were told for centuries that our identity was tied up with machismo and now we are seeing that machismo has a lot of drawbacks.”

O’Dowd’s public image as the affable Irish slacker who merely stumbled into breaking America does not exactly tally with his dynamic CV. But he’s still conscious that “today’s cockerel is tomorrow’s feather duster”. On his writing desk at home in LA he keeps a photo of a “spit bucket” full of 30 half-masticated burgers for an ad he once did, to remind himself that his success is “not just a given”. He admits to suffering less from impostor syndrome than “an Irish inferiority complex. The British can be a bit snooty about Irish people, even now. They’ve seen the danger of the Irish that the Americans haven’t. Americans just see the Irish as jesters.”

It doesn’t bother him, he says, that he’s still seen as a comic actor despite a raft of dramas over the last five years. But some things do. In fact he can get quite riled, for starters, on the subject of Catholicism. In 2014, in John McDonagh’s Calvary, he played a wife-beating butcher wreaking vengeance on the church for being sexually abused by a priest as a boy. O’Dowd didn’t track down historical Irish victims for his research, he tells me, partly because he already knew so many. “They are not that uncommon. I know many people who priests have exposed themselves to.” He is a vehement atheist, and says the “small turn-out” for Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland in August is “the shape of things to come. For hundreds of years, the Catholic Church provided an identity for Ireland at a time that we were suppressed. The need is no longer there. So if they are going to keep f**king kids, they are in trouble.”

Dawn O’Porter (L) and husband Chris O’Dowd attend the red carpet premiere of EPIX original series “Get Shorty” at Pacfic Design Center on August 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Read more: Review: Chris O’Dowd is pricelessly funny from start to finish in ‘Juliet, Naked’

The state of oratory is another one of his bugbears: he once wanted to be a political speechwriter. “Theresa May is such a terrible speaker. There’s so much verbosity and such a lack of creativity. Obviously in America, it’s become so juvenile. Taking ideology out of it, the conversation is dumbing because it’s so poor in its execution.” And Brexit: “Increasingly I’m like, ‘F**k the People. F**k you, if you didn’t get that they were lying to you’. It’s like a clown told me a story and I chose to believe it… It’s such a low ebb of human civilisation, a really dangerous time for Anglo-Irish relations. Boris Johnson wants a bridge to Ireland? What’s that going to solve?” Suddenly he stops, worried about moaning.

O’Dowd was born in Boyle, Co Roscommon, to Sean, a graphic designer, and psychotherapist Denise. He was left to the tyranny of his three sisters at 11, after his older brother left home. They amused themselves by painting make-up on their sleeping brother before sending him to school. As a survival mechanism O’Dowd developed a “big personality” in tandem with his fast-growing body. “I was 6ft tall by the time I was 11. I was a looming, towering figure of ridicule”. He played Gaelic football for the county. But, he says, he was never a “Jack the lad”.

By 13, he was already helping raise his 17-year-old sister’s baby. “I always felt like I was the funny friend of girls that I fancied. I found a position of comfort in that.”

By his own account, O’Dowd stumbled into acting after he accompanied a friend to an audition at University College Dublin, where he was studying politics and sociology. He paid his way through drama school with hod-carrying: “It was a very odd time: I’d get up at 5am to work on a building site, then go to a flamenco f**king class.”

There followed breaks in theatre, Vera Drake (2004) and a three-year stint on Irish drama The Clinic. But it was his role in The Festival in 2005 that brought him to the attention of Graham Linehan, who was casting for The IT Crowd.

Since the series began in 2006, the image of “techies” has gone from basement to virtual rock stars. “Our perception of what IT guys are has changed from Bill Gates to Elon Musk.” He’s not entirely sorry that Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been “getting their comeuppance” recently. “I just think that it’s odd that people who seem so socially stunted have got so much control over our lives.” In 2009 he took a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, where he stumbled upon the “naturalistic” comedy creator Judd Apatow backstage at a Louis CK gig. “I said, ‘F**k me, that’s Judd Apatow. I think he’s the reason I came over here.”

Read more: Dawn O’Porter says she was too proud to come home after her US series was dropped

Chris O’Dowd in Get Shorty

The other life-altering encounter in Los Angeles was with Scottish TV presenter and writer Dawn Porter; she changed her name to O’Porter when they married in 2012. There were only brief bachelor days before then, with co-star Jason Segel as his wingman. They once tried to pull the same girl with “verbatim the same text. It said, ‘Why don’t you swing over and we’ll pop open a bottle of vino on the deck’. We’d been hanging out and drinking a lot, so we must have started sharing a vernacular.”

Segel is godfather to O’Dowd’s first son Art, three, brother of one-year-old Valentine, and is a regular at the O’Porter’s weekly Sunday roasts for 20 in West Hollywood. O’Dowd has little tolerance for British cliches about LA. “People think that everyone in LA lives in Beverly Hills and has surgery. It’s the same as when Americans talk about the British as if everybody knows the Queen.”

He’s currently in pre-production for Hornby’s State of the Union, a TV series co-starring Rosamund Pike, following a couple in marriage counselling.

He was reminded of the salad days of his own marriage while unpacking boxes at their new London home. “We found some tea towels printed with a picture of us dressed as bridezillas for Halloween, and Paul Newman’s saying, ‘Keep the arguments clean and the sex dirty’. Now everything else is dirty.” Perhaps, despite two kids, Hollywood stardom and twinkling charm, O’Dowd is discovering you can’t have everything.

Juliet, Naked is currently showing

Chris O’Dowd attends the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival After Party For Love After Love At Up And Down at Up&Down on April 22, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)

Indo Review

Source: https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/i-always-felt-like-i-was-the-funny-friend-of-girls-that-i-fancied-chris-odowd-reflects-his-teen-years-37518598.html

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RentMoola

In an ever-changing world of digital innovation people have come to expect streamlined processes and procedures when conducting their daily routines, both business and personal. Writing cheques as a form of payment is one of those old-fashioned traditional methods that have noticeably fallen out of favour as consumers and rental agencies look for quicker, more convenient ways to make payment transfers.

Vancouver-based RentMoola, the brainchild of brothers Philipp and Patrick Postrehovsky, has developed an excellent improvement on the cheque-writing method and encourages Canadians to pay their rent or condominium fees with their credit card, debit card or other similar means.

For the vast majority of people rent is the single largest reoccurring monthly payment in their lives. RentMoola’s global payment network allows tenants and owners to transact rental payments by such methods as debit, credit, ACH and more. All major credit cards including Visa, Mastercard and American Express are accepted as well as RentMoola’s proprietary RM eCheck and RM Cash.

RentMoola was inspired by the everyday experiences of its co-founders, when they found that paying their rent became a cumbersome experience, due to the fact that landlords generally demand only cheques or debit payments, with no credit card options. That’s when RentMoola’s core value was born – solving the age-old problem of paying and collecting rent for tenants and landlords. This simple idea grew the company into one of North America’s leading fintech companies, and RentMoola is changing the landscape of paying rent all around the world.

The RentMoola innovative payment solution was created in 2012 and the business platform was launched in April, 2013. In just a short period of time RentMoola has established itself as one of North America’s leading fintech companies and is revolutionizing the landscape of paying rent in Canada and throughout the world. With operations across the country, the company is focusing its attention on enlisting large property-management firms.

Landlords view RentMoola’s system as an excellent option because it allows them to obtain their money up front, with little risk of default and no fees to be concerned about. For the tenant, there is a flat fee of $1.99 with the use of a debit card and there is a 2.75% surcharge if the transaction is executed on a credit card. The benefit to the renter is the chance to collect points and loyalty rewards on the card, as well as perks added by RentMoola. It’s a method that also provides flexibility and can serve as a form of bridge financing.

The Canadian Business Journal recently managed to catch up with Philipp Postrehovsky, co-founder and COO of RentMoola about the company’s tremendous success. It’s been especially busy for Philipp and his wife these past few months. In addition to their three-year-old daughter they recently welcomed the arrival of their newborn son.

“Both my brother and I had the same issues with having to remember post-dated cheques,” he begins. “Patrick was living in China and I was renting in Vancouver. We’d always thought about working together and decided this would be the perfect opportunity.”

The Postrehovsky brothers both experienced those pain points, which are still felt today by millions of people across North America and around the world.

“We thought there had to be a better way to pay your rent from anywhere, any time. At the time credit-card acceptance didn’t really exist, at least not here in Canada. We pioneered the process of allowing people to pay rent with credit cards and multiple other payment methods,” says Postrehovsky.

If a property management company has been collecting rent by cheque it can now be done so with preauthorized debit (PAD). It’s a method used in a wide variety of industries throughout Canada.

There had been virtually no innovation or evolution and so RentMoola saw a prime opportunity to develop a paperless system for the property management industry.

“Now, instead of having to fill-out a preauthorized debit form, which still requires a VOID cheque, we’ve completely eliminated that with an online solution within a few seconds on your smartphone. We launched this a few months ago and it has been very popular with many of our property management clients,” says Postrehovsky.

The main reason for property managers not offering credit-card options was the high service fees for credit card option which would eat into their already tight profit margins. RentMoola has flipped the servicing model around, and the service fees are paid by the tenants, not the property managers, while the tenants can take advantages of the rewards provided by their credit card and company’s own MoolaPerks reward program.

BMO Partnership

This past May, RentMoola launched its next generation pre-authorized debit payments (PAD) solution designed specifically for the property management industry. In partnership with BMO Financial Group, RM PAD+ digitizes the pre-authorized debit enrolment for monthly rent payments. The paperless solution eliminates the need for forms and void cheques.

RM PAD+ combines RentMoola’s award-winning payments platform with BMO’s industry leading PAD solution to deliver a secure payment method with a significantly enhanced user experience for both the tenant and the property management company. Tenants can also access RentMoola’s MoolaPerks rewards program.

“We are excited to bring RM PAD+ to the Canadian multi-family rental and apartment market. There has been no innovation in pre-authorized payments for decades until now. As a fintech leader, RentMoola is delivering on its mission of providing a rewarding and paperless payments solution while helping realize significant time and expense reductions to owners and operators,” explained Patrick Postrehovsky, RentMoola Co-Founder & CEO, in a media release. “RM PAD+ allows the tenant to also easily make one-time payments, which until now has been another pain point.”

RentMoola has a complex tech system running in the background that has been rebuilt three times to this point as technology continues to advance and the requirement for scaling. It’s an online payments engine designed for the medium to enterprise-level property management companies in North America and there is also the tenant side that we excel at as well.

Neither of the Postrehovsky brothers are software developers but they’ve proven to be astute entrepreneurs. Philipp comes from a marketing, operations and product background while Patrick comes from a sales and finance background, so the skillsets complement one another quite well. Prior to RentMoola, Postrehovsky worked at other fintech companies on the product and marketing side and he was able to transfer that experience and those skills with him on this venture.

“We had all the skills except tech so we found individuals that could help us in that space,” says Postrehovsky.

Due to the limited innovation in this industry, Postrehovsky believes that financial institutions are recognizing the benefits of partnering with fintechs such as RentMoola to ensure a more successful, streamlined future that makes life easier for everyone involved in the property management space.

“BMO has been very supportive of RentMoola and really understands the opportunity,” he says. You have our layer of technology, which is catered to the user, and you have that core banking infrastructure that works, but was lacking the innovation aimed at customers. We’ve taken the two layers and combined them to make an excellent customer experience. It’s a win-win on all fronts and we’re very happy to be working with them.”

Residential Targeting

In dealing with both rental management companies and tenants, RentMoola is primarily targeted towards the residential sector. Some companies that RentMoola deals with also owns commercial properties, but Postrehovsky estimates 90% of their business is residential with anywhere between one and 3,000 units but RentMoola has some clients that go all the way up to almost 40,000 units. About 75% of the current business is in Canada and 25% in the U.S., although the company’s single largest client is based in California.

“We are a made in Vancouver story and have had great support from the community. Due to its size, the Greater Toronto Area and the Lower Mainland of Greater Vancouver have been especially good for us,” says Postrehovsky.

The RentMoola system has proven to be an excellent resource tool for both rental management firms and renters alike.

“One of the clear benefits is convenience. Over and over again in testimonials from our users they really appreciate the convenience and they can pay their rent from their phone whenever they want. That is very important to them,” explains Postrehovsky.

By using a rewards credit card the user is able to leverage that existing rewards program but Postrehovsky wanted to ensure that if payment was being made by other methods such as the RM eCheck solution that those tenants would also be able to enjoy some type of reward.

“In the U.S., our cash solution has been very popular through a product called RM Cash, which allows you to pay your rent with cash at any 7-11 or CVS Pharmacy,” reveals Postrehovsky.

Once again, the fundamental benefit is convenience. A tenant can pay rant at 1am, if desired. It’s a service that has worked out tremendously well for both the tenants and property managers.

Future Plans

Postrehovsky is confident there is still a tremendous growth opportunity to pursue in both Canada and the United States. Just two years ago more than $600 billion paid in rent in America and it’s estimated that more than 50% of that total is still not being paid online. The Canadian online payments industry is generally acknowledged as being more mature that in the U.S., but nonetheless there still remains ample opportunity to capture a sizable portion of the population that still pays by way of the old, traditional methods.

“We don’t have an app because we are mobile friendly on our website at www.rentmoola.com. We’ve chosen that route because we see more and more than many people are just using a handful of apps and they get lost amongst each other,” he says.

Payment can be made from a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. RentMoola’s mobile usage continues to expand every month. The site is extremely user friendly and for that reason an app is not required.

“For our older demographic we do have individuals that are available on the phone and we can help walk them through the process of paying securely. We really pride ourselves on leading the industry with excellent customer service,” says Postrehovsky.

“We’re planning on bringing the RM Cash solution to Canada whereby you’ll be able to make a payment at any Canada Post location. We will also be looking at adding other payment methods that focus on certain demographics from Asia,” adds Postrehovsky.

As the definitive market leader in Canada, Postrehovsky also believes there is great potential in the U.S. as well as overseas, especially in expatriate regions, which was one of the incentives for launching the business five years ago. With only a handful of legitimate competitors and over $600 billion in rent payments annually, the U.S. market is primed for a convenient service such as this.

The fintech industry moves at the speed of light, and mergers and acquisitions are common practice within the industry, so the Postrehovsky brothers don’t rule out having their company being bought out by a large, multinational conglomerate.

“By 2020, I could see us being acquired,” Postrehovsky candidly states. “There are large companies like PayPal that have been focusing on acquiring companies that have become successful on niches. We are focused on a niche but it happens to be a very large payment hook niche – that being rent.”

PayPal is expected to spend $3 billion on acquisitions over the next few years with a lot of activity taking place within the global payments space. An acquisition of RentMoola would serve to enhance the support of long-term growth and continue to help scale the business on an international scale.

www.rentmoola.com

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