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081: How to Negotiate Like a Pro w/ Kris Haskins

Kris Haskins is someone Jaren and I met this past year at a conference in LA called VidSummit.

We noticed him because he was wearing this jacket that said “I Buy Houses” on the back. As far as we could tell, he was the only other real estate person at this conference, so we got to know him a little bit and found he was a pretty cool guy.

Kris deals mostly with flipping, renovation, new construction, and raising private money, and in his videos, he takes you along for the ride and explains a lot of concepts in a way that is very easy to understand.

Another thing Kris is great at is negotiation… getting people to accept lower offers and putting together win-win transactions. This is something we don’t actually deal with much in the land flipping business because our offers are more of a “take-it-or-leave-it” thing, but when you’re dealing with houses, negotiation and communication are significantly more important (and really in most of life, negotiation skills can get you a long way).

In this interview, we’re going to talk about Kris’ secret sauce for negotiating and how he’s been able to make a great life for himself as a real estate investor.

https://youtu.be/kkFTSgffrMk

Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: 081: How to Negotiate Like a Pro w/ Kris Haskins (https://youtu.be/kkFTSgffrMk)

Links and Resources

KrisHaskins.com

Kris Haskins YouTube Channel

Facebook Ads Made Simple (Even Your Kids Can Do It)

The Real Estate Negotiating Bible (ebook) by Kris Haskins

The Real Estate Negotiating Bible (hard copy) by Kris Haskins

Ninja Negotiation Audio Recordings by Kris Haskins

Valuetainment YouTube Channel

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

What is a Lease Option?

What is an Accredited Investor

What is “Subject To” in Real Estate?

Neuro-linguistic Programming

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Thanks again for joining me this week. Until next time!

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Episode 081 Transcription

Seth: Kris, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Kris Haskins: What up, Seth? What up, Jaren?

Jaren: Hey man. I’m excited to have you on the show today.

Kris Haskins: Yes, it’s an honor.

Seth: Yeah. So just to kick this off, maybe you can tell us your backstory, like how did you get into real estate, and what made you decide to go down this road?

Kris Haskins: My backstory is I was in the music business, guys. Living a destructive lifestyle, after I graduated from college. Got fired, couldn’t keep a job. I got fired seven times throughout my life. And I’m like, you know what? I just can’t keep a job. So, when I started being a producer-engineer and got a few songs out after doing that for five years, I found out that it was a destructive lifestyle: travel and drink and drugs and sex and doing all the craziness that young people are perceived to do. I’m not saying that they all do it. I’ll never forget God passing around a plate of cocaine at a party. And then after that, I’m like, I gotta get out of here before it sucked me in. And so, I said, instead of living a destructive life, because we are at a publishing deal, we made several hundred thousand dollars.

And then I found myself on my friend’s couch, $80 in my pocket, wondering what happened to hundreds of thousands of dollars gone. I was a hit record producer, doing stuff, traveling now and just broke. I’m like, you know what? I need to learn something. That’s when God revealed to me real estate and the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book. And after that, man, I’m like, you know what? I need to focus my time on things that go up in value as opposed to things that go down in value.

Jaren: Wow, man. It’s awesome.

Kris Haskins: And that’s it. After that, I’m like, you know what? I’m doing the same thing. This time is on my side as opposed as the time being working against me. So, let’s do this.

Jaren: Love it.

Kris Haskins: So here we are.

Seth: Wow. That’s crazy, man.

Jaren: I don’t even know where to peel the onion back on that one, man. Like that was pretty heavy. So, what about “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was so instrumental? Like you said, God used that “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” in real estate to really pivot you in a direction. And I hear that a lot, but I’m just curious because everybody talks about “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” Specifically, what was like the key revelation that made it all turn around for you?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. I found that I finally understood that we make money on things that we own, not because of things that we do. When I finally understood that concept, I’m like, okay, I don’t have to do anything other than own the crap. And I got a check every month. How am I doing that? And I learned the concept. That book was like, I just became a fan and a student of doing things once and getting paid over and over and over again. The music is cool, but the problem with the music business, as it changes, it’s morphing from where I was at from the analog world. Now we’re in the streaming world. You can’t even buy a CD. I’m so glad I got out of that. But the concept, the model of the business, the music business, has changed so much. So, when I found out you could do something once and get paid over and over instead of sacrificing my time, man, I’m like, I didn’t even know people could do that.

Seth: Is it harder to make money in the music business these days or easier or has that changed in some way?

Kris Haskins: Well, Seth, it all depends on how you look at it. Just like real estate. Somebody comes to you and says, “Is it harder to do?” Like, it depends. If you’re focusing on that old business model, trying to get records like these with major record labels and waiting for them to write you a check and then do a publishing deal and all that stuff, yes. If you decide to do it on your own and publish it, because YouTube, I don’t know if you believe this or not, but YouTube is the new publishing. Every play we get paid, every second of the day. So, if you do the new entrepreneurial way, it’s unbelievable.

Seth: Yeah. That actually, sometimes it blows my mind to think about that. The fact that 20 years ago, there were very few people that had a voice. It’s like you had to be a major media outlet or a huge multinational corporation to have the masses hear you. Now it’s like people can Google the words “land investing” and find me on the first page of Google, which is insane. Who am I to have a voice? I try hard to put good information out there, but you couldn’t do this that long ago. So, I don’t know. It’s a pretty incredible thing.

Kris Haskins: That is cool. I think that’s why it’s so powerful. I think that’s why YouTube is so powerful too, because you can have not only a voice, but you can have a show like this and then just drop in. Imagine how many millions of dollars it took to make their old sitcoms, Seth. Dropping in ads. Now we just make a video, boom. Drop an ad. So, things are changing.

Jaren: And people don’t even watch mainline TV anymore. Jimmy Fallon and all those guys, they’re not starting to get on YouTube because all their ratings are dropping. I haven’t had cable probably in at least five years, man. If I have to guess.

Kris Haskins: Me neither.

Jaren: I don’t even watch Netflix. I just watch YouTube. That’s all the TV I watch.

Seth: Yeah. I just watched Disney Plus’ Donald Duck.

Jaren: This guy.

Seth: I’m only kind of kidding with that. Like I actually do watch a lot of Donald Duck these days with a three-year-old and a six-year-old. That’s like prime-time TV around here.

Jaren: Yeah. Mine is Cocomelon. Cause I got a six-month-old. He’s funny. He doesn’t like to watch cartoons. He likes to watch music. It has to have some kind of music component in it. Kris, what are the best parts of your real estate investing strategy and what are the worst part? Like let’s dive into a little bit of what you actually do. And before we started recording, you said that you do new builds and you do flips and you do a lot of stuff. What’s kind of your favorite strategy, your kind of default?

Kris Haskins: Default strategy. So many of them. I like to buy subject to where we take over the mortgage payments. I’m a long-term guy now, but we still do flips in new construction. I call it that’s the sexy part. And I’m sure you guys already know wealth is just so boring. Like if I were to take a picture of me collected randomly, you’re like, get out of here. It’s weird. Because that’s the best part, right?

Seth: Yeah.

Jaren: That’s exactly how I feel about land because you’ll never see a land flipping show on HGTV because it’s just boring. Like what are you going to do? You’re going to like, have an episode of me like, sitting on my laptop, looking at a spreadsheet and be like, yeah, I’m going to offer 35 cents on the dollar on this property. It’s boring. Most people don’t even really consider it a strategy. Like they’re like, yeah, that’s so like you can buy dirt and then just turn around and sell it? But that’s the benefit of that strategy.

Kris Haskins: The big money stuff is boring.

Jaren: The boring factor, it keeps a lot of people.

Seth: Yeah. That’s okay though.

Jaren: Yeah, it works out.

Kris Haskins: He said, well, babe, I enjoy this league. We do tenant lease options. I love where I own my own stuff. I might buy and sell the same house Jaren three times in a year. I don’t mind doing that because we’re getting a down payment. And then on my flip side, we are raising a ton of private money so we can buy anything we want right now as long as the numbers work. I think where the paradigm shift for me changed was when I found out I didn’t have to get on my knees and beg the bank for a loan. When I got that one, I cracked that net. I’m like, you know what? Let me clean my knees off. So now we raise money. We can buy anything based on paying ordinary people a percentage rate for investing with us.

Jaren: That’s awesome, man.

Seth: How does that work with raising money? Who are you talking to? What are they getting out of it? Explain those pieces for us.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. That’s a good question, Seth. Well, the thing is, it’s so weird. The less you need money, I don’t know why the universe works like this. People will give it to you more. So, when I needed it back in the day, nobody didn’t want to give me none.

Jaren: That’s funny.

Kris Haskins: I don’t know if that’s the saying for you.

Seth: Bob Hope was saying, “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” That’s kind of what it boils down to, sort of.

Kris Haskins: That is true. So, we deal with grandma and pop generally speaking, or some younger people. I’ve got one guy who gave me $50,000. Some people give us $100,000. So, they’re interested in getting a high rate of return with low risk. I don’t like risk. You say the house is worth $300,000. I’m just thinking about the one we bought this week. It’s worth low threes. We bought it for two and I was able to raise that $200,000 literally. I mean, you send out an email and a text to these people because we have credibility from doing a million deals over time. So, they just wire the money to closing. And the good thing about it is we don’t touch the money. It goes right to the escrow company or the attorney. They close it out. They are at the back and they get an APR and they’re happy.

Jaren: Yeah. That’s awesome. What do your terms look like?

Kris Haskins: Yeah, generally speaking, we pay our lenders anywhere from 7% to 8%.

Jaren: Awesome.

Kris Haskins: APR. And we have that accruing. Years ago, I got tired of mailing our payments every month. I’m like, you know what? It doesn’t matter if they get a payment this month or that we just hoped to pay them when we sell the house. Does it even matter?

Seth: Do they have to be accredited investors or anything like that or not really? Just anybody that has money can throw at you.

Kris Haskins: They can. I think there’s a certain dollar amount. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s a million. Accredited has a definition.

Seth: Yeah, you got to have a net worth excluding your personal residence of a million or you have to have an annual income of $200,000 as a single person, $300,000 as a married couple. But do they have to be that or not to work with you?

Kris Haskins: No. I don’t have any accredited. I don’t even know if I hang out with people that have a net worth of that in my circle.

Seth: I don’t either, when you come to think of it.

Jaren: I think the legal ease of that though is you just have to have an existing relationship with them. Kris isn’t going out on LinkedIn or on Facebook being like, “Hey, come invest your money with me,” because that’s where you get into legal trouble. If you met somebody at a networking event or through a friend of a friend and they came and they met you and you have an existing relationship, that’s where it’s okay to do it.

Seth: If you ever have a deal where you lose money or I don’t know the profit, maybe that never happens. But if it does, do these people just kind of have to take it on the chin on that deal and hope for better the next time? Or what happens in that case?

Kris Haskins: Here’s the thing I remember before I had any private money, right guys, I’m like, I told the universe and God. I’m like, you know what? If I ever meet some people that will invest with me, I am going to treat their money with utmost respect. I am going to make sure that we pay back every penny we borrow, I’m going to make sure that their loan to value is so low, that if anything happens, they are good. I just beat that into my head, “If I find these people.” This was years ago. If I get these people to invest with me, I’m going to treat their money better than mine. So, every deal we do, I put some cash in it, Seth. I want to make sure that if I get struck by lightning, they can liquidate. I’m bringing some of my cash in here and they don’t even care if I do, they want to lend more, but I want to make sure that they’re completely insulated against any loss.

So, if I bring the money to the deal, that makes it even lower. But yes, that is a possibility. And I will tell you, if you have a private lender, it’s not like a bank. Say your lender was going to make $10,000 for that deal. Did you know it’s okay to ask the lender if they will take $8,000? It’s not against the constitution to do that. So, whatever the scenario is, right? I know I owe you $10,000 Ms. Smith, but would you take $8,500 just for this one so we can kind of move on to the next one? I have never had a lender tell me “No.��

Seth: Really? Interesting.

Kris Haskins: They never tell me “No.” They’re like, you know what? “Thank you.”

Jaren: I can understand that from a private money investor standpoint a little bit. Because it’s like if they were taking their retirement account and throwing it in stocks, like there are quarters and there are situations where they’re going to take a loss in their portfolio. It’s going to go up and down, up and down. And so, if you frame it that way, when you explain it to them, like, look, sometimes bad deals are going to happen. And we just cut our losses and we just turn it over six months, over a year, you’re going to make money because I’m in this to make money. And if you have a track record, I think that could be a pretty easy sell. It makes sense to me.

Kris Haskins: Well, I don’t want to discourage your listeners for thinking that they have to have it existing. I’m not an expert in the ACC and all these rules, but the term existing relationship, I think that is being challenged by social media, Jaren. I think in the past relationship, I think that definition is changing. That’s all.

Seth: That’s some gray area.

Jaren: Yeah. I’ve talked to some attorneys and some guys that do apartment syndications, I work with accredited guys and they all say like, it’s a very loose definition of what an existing relationship is. I got to say, guys, we’re not giving any legal advice. So, don’t believe anything we’re saying. We’re not an attorney.

Seth: One thing I wanted to get into here, because this is something that I don’t know that I’m like an expert at this at all, because I don’t have to do a ton of this as a land investor or the types of real estate that I go after. But when it comes to negotiation, I know this is something you’ve sort of had to develop some mastery at. Particularly when you’re talking to a motivated seller and you’re trying to get on the same page and get them to accept a deeply discounted offer. How do you do that? How do you convince a person? Is it more important just to be talking to the right person in the first place so you don’t have to fight that battle? Or is there some trickery you use or mind games to get the person to become okay? I’m sorry. I’m taking it to extremes here.

Kris Haskins: The positive word is called neuro-linguistic programming. Good gracious. You talk like I’m stealing grandma’s house.

Jaren: A.k.a. manipulation. Tell me about it. Tell me about NLP.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. Well, let me tell you this. This is the reason I wrote this book, “The Real Estate Negotiating Bible,” to be honest with you. There was nothing that existed when I was coming up through the ranks. I’m like, how in the hell do I learn how to negotiate? Every book I bought was about a real tour or homeowner trying to negotiate a good deal to move into an owner arc, right? I just want to be what I want to see in the community. So that’s what we did.

At the end of the day, building rapport is huge, but you have to identify that problem. Why? And I’m sure it’s the same with plan. Why are you selling this thing? The major reason? Why are you selling? Because if your reason for selling isn’t big enough, I can’t convince you to do nothing. Ask my wife. She doesn’t do nothing that you ask her to do. It’s weird. I can get people to sell me, do all types of stuff, I can’t get my wife to make me a sandwich.

Jaren: That’s hilarious.

Kris Haskins: If you think about videos on YouTube are good. If you would see what happens in this house, I would probably have a show on it.

Jaren: Dive into that for us for a minute. Like, let’s run through a scenario if there’s like, an actual real example that you’ve thought of recently where let’s say, you got to lead and the person’s not super interested, or maybe they are interested, but they’re hesitant working with you. Let’s go this route. Let’s say they talk to you and they’re apprehensive to see if you’re actually legit or not because they got a letter from you in the mail. And they’re like, I don’t know if this is a scam or whatever. How do you gain trust and how do you get the deal?

Kris Haskins: I want to be transparent. That very rarely happens today as it used to be in the past. How old are you, Jaren?

Jaren: 29.

Kris Haskins: Okay. You’re still a young guy. We have a huge digital footprint. So now when I show up or if I have any interaction with the deal, they already love me, man. And it’s not because of me personally, it’s just because they can click a button.

Jaren: It’s because of the branding.

Kris Haskins: The digital footprint. Dude, when you show up, they just want to give you a hug.

Seth: Do they know you through Real Estate Roundup or something else? Like you have a separate website with a video and they get to know you that way. How is it that the people know who you are?

Kris Haskins: Just with the digital footprint. They’ll see me with my kids. They always type your name in, right? They want to know who you are.

Seth: I got you.

Jaren: Right.

Kris Haskins: When you get there, you’re the dad, husband. They love you. If you have the right digital footprint on the internet, it’s just unavoidable.

Seth: So, they’re googling “Kris Haskins” and they find something that you put out there and they feel like they kind of know you already before you show up.

Kris Haskins: Oh, yeah. That’s huge for us.

Seth: Interesting.

Jaren: So, what about back in the day though? Like before you had a big digital footprint?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. That could be challenging. I have something called a credibility kit. Whenever I show up, I’ve got a bunch of referrals. I never make an offer without a stack of referrals. Like we bought this house there, because you got to make yourself seem legit, but it can be challenging getting over that hump.

Seth: And referrals, it’s just like a letter or something? Or what does that mean exactly?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. I’ve got them right here. So, these are just people that we’ve bought houses from. They’d say they love you, we take a picture with them.

Seth: Oh, cool.

Kris Haskins: I leave a place where they can write something at the bottom down there.

Seth: Gotcha.

Jaren: That’s awesome.

Seth: And people are okay doing that? They’re just, “Yeah, take a picture of me and use me for the future?”

Kris Haskins: Not everybody. Some people just, they’ll do one of these. I’ll type it up and then they’ll write something at the bottom.

Seth: Cool.

Kris Haskins: You got to have some type of credibility. Jaren, I don’t know if I’m going in the right direction with what we were talking about negotiation.

Jaren: This is helpful. Yeah.

Seth: What other stuff would be in that credibility kit? Is that pretty much it? Or is there other stuff if you’re a totally unknown person to them that would very quickly get them comfortable with you?

Kris Haskins: You’re unknown. I always, always include a picture of my family when you make an offer. So, family man, you can’t be such a bum. You got a wife and kids, right? You’re doing something right.

Jaren: It’s funny you say that because I actually do that with my direct mail stuff and not a lot of people on land do it. And a lot of our coaching clients, I encourage them. I say, hey, if you’re comfortable, some people aren’t. Because they’re like, more private and all that. And I get it. But I tell them if you can put your picture on there and put a picture of you and your wife, because that’s going to make you substantially stand out. If somebody gets a letter and it’s just the same generic letter that all the other investors are using. And then yours has your picture on it, you’re going to substantially stand out. And they’re like, “Oh, this is a real person.”

Seth: If a person doesn’t have a family, say they’re a single person. Do they take a picture with their fish or something?

Kris Haskins: They are in trouble.

Jaren: Their dog.

Seth: You should just give up right now.

Kris Haskins: Maybe the dog, aunt, grandma. I don’t know. a picture.

Jaren: Grandma would work. That would be cute – “This is my grandma. She helps me buy houses.”

Seth: Picture with your probation officer or something?

Kris Haskins: You’re in trouble.

Seth: Anything else in the credibility kit?

Kris Haskins: This letter of intent, picture, referrals, man. I love it. I’m like, you know what? I always preface it by listening. You don’t know who I am. You don’t know what I can do. This is before. Here are other people we have served in the community. And if you’ve never bought a house, I know some of your viewers, your listeners may not have ever bought a house, just get a referral from a friend or family. Just say, “Kris is great. He is a man of his word.” A lot of my clients went into this. You never bought a house, right? Kris is great, man of his word, shows up on time. He does what he says. Little things. You would be surprised how many people just don’t have any referrals.

Seth: Yeah. I could see that going along the way. Circling back to the situation you’re talking about today with your digital footprint. Do you know specifically what people are seeing? Did you put a website out there specifically for this purpose? Or are they are finding your Facebook profile or any idea?

Jaren: Or YouTube channel?

Seth: Yeah. Like what exactly is making them comfortable?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. All of it. Here’s the thing. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Valuetainment at all.

Seth: I don’t know that I am. What is that?

Kris Haskins: They are a huge YouTube channel and they got 200 million views. It’s just large. So, I was able to hang out with the owner a few weeks back and he was saying how important your digital footprint is. You have to make your message known or somebody else is going to do it. It’s just going to pop up – “That Seth, he is so and so. Took my money. I sold my land to him.”

Jaren: That’s like Seth’s worth nightmare.

Seth: Yes, it is. I will lose sleep about that sometimes.

Jaren: Yeah. We go to great lengths to make sure that our reputation is intact, man. We really want to make sure that people, when they come to RETipster, they’re coming to something different.

Seth: The crazy thing about that, I mean, to obsess about it, I’m sure helps somehow. But even then, like you still can’t control it. If somebody decides to go off on you, it’s totally out of my hands. I think that this kind of practice knowing how to get your message out there to drown out other negative voices if they’re there, I can go along. And hopefully there just aren’t any but if there ever were…

Kris Haskins: That’s true. That’s exactly right. You got to print the footprint on all of it. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Russell Brunson, but he says, you’ve got to have an attractive character.

Jaren: I ran on Russell Brunson.

Kris Haskins: And so, I’m like, I’m your attractive character. And it’s not nothing personal, dude. This is just business principles, Jaren. I mean, you have to have an attractive character in every business, just like you guys.

Jaren: It has to be real. It has to be out there. Like you actually have to be like the guy. You can’t be like some fakery stuff. You’ll get found out. But I want to go back to NLP because I’ve always been really interested in neuro-linguistic programming. And do you have a lot of training in that, a lot of background in that? Has that helped you a lot in your negotiations?

Kris Haskins: It’s not like I’m a master. I mean I’m just reading a million books. I got one. I keep one right here. William Ury and all these negotiating books he’s got. “Getting to Yes” and a whole bunch of.

Jaren: For our listeners that might not know what an NLP is, do you want to give a Cliff Notes version?

Kris Haskins: Neuro-linguistic programming.

Seth: Sum it up into one word.

Jaren: Go. Right now.

Kris Haskins: I wish my wife would let me use it. She has seen me do it to people. So, it’s getting them to do something that they ordinarily wouldn’t do. You were there kind of pushing them along a little bit. That’s all.

Seth: Okay.

Jaren: Are you getting that to like do a life example? Like convinced me to go work out tonight or something?

Kris Haskins: Well, we could give it a shot. It’s just a pain. I mean, in the Negotiating Bible, it’s unfortunate, but the pain that once you have that little cut, I took my training with HomeVestors. Are you familiar with the Ugly House guys?

Jaren: Yeah.

Kris Haskins: They have guys, some masters. Dude, when I was in Dallas, I hung out with some freaking master negotiators. These dudes, man, they’ve been around since the 80s, watching them in action pain. You get that little cut. You’ve got to take the knife, turn the knife ever so gently. You have to be very empathetic with that. You don’t want to overdo it. So, getting you to the gym? Yeah. We could try.

Jaren: All right, let’s do it.

Kris Haskins: I have to find out what you can tell me about your kids for us. I know you’ve got some beautiful children, Jaren.

Kris Haskins: I do. I have a son who is 16 months old and then another son on the way. I found out that we’re having a boy. Did you know that Seth? We’re having a boy.

Seth: I didn’t. I knew you were having a kid, but not a boy. So, congrats.

Jaren: Yeah, we are having a boy.

Seth: That’s awesome, man.

Kris Haskins: Congratulations.

Jaren: Yeah. It’s exciting.

Kris Haskins: I’m sure you want your son to be here well until your older ages, right?

Jaren: Yeah.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. So, we try to kind of eat healthy. Do you think going to the gym will extend your life or would cut it short?

Jaren: I don’t know, man. I feel like if I go to the gym, I’m going to like, curl up in a ball and start crying. Because I’m like so stressed out of my life right now. But I’d have that extra pressure, I’m going to cry. But the truth is I need it. I know I need to work out. I know I need to eat healthy, but it’s just so overwhelming.

Kris Haskins: It can be overwhelming. It can be overwhelming. That’s why I keep, Jaren, a gym bag right by the front door. It’s something called an on ramp that we do use. Right? I don’t know if you have any on ramps in the house. So, when I walked by that front door, the bag is, “Come get me, come get me.” In the morning I get up, the bags, they’re waiting for me. Do you think having a bag by your front door might help you? The gym bag with your clothes and your shoes?

Jaren: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. You know what I think it is, man? I just need to want it bad enough. I really want to be in shape, but I like the taste of fried chicken, chicken wings. I’ve been on this kick where it’s been like Buffalo Wild Wings and beer. It’s been terrible.

Kris Haskins: That stuff tastes good.

Jaren: It does. All my family members, they’re all having health problems. My brother needs like, some surgery on his thyroid and everybody’s having all of these kinds of health issues. And I know it’s a ticking time bomb. I know one day I’m going to have a reckoning, but it’s not today. So, I go get myself some Buffalo Wild Wings and I feel bad while I’m eating my chicken. I sit there.

Kris Haskins: Listen to this, Seth. I don’t know if I could push you. I want you to think about the future and with the children. I would love to kind of hang out with you in about 10 years. If you don’t go to the gym, do you see your future any differently hanging out with your kids? My only pain point I can do is with kids. That’s all I got on you right now as I’m processing.

Jaren: You know what it is, man? What eats at me when it comes to my health and my fitness, I know that influence requires me to look a certain way. Influence really drives me. I know that if I ever want to rock a stage, like actually be like a motivational speaker, I can’t do it fat. It’s not going to happen. I can, and my delivery will be like, okay, but I’m going to go work out right now. I’m going to go work out. Because I got to go like do a run or something, man. Because for me, that’s the motivation. I’m not going to tap into my full potential unless I lose weight.

Jaren: Gotcha. So, I needed to take all the conversation off the kids and onto the future. Sounds like you’re entrepreneurial driven as opposed to family driven. And I’m not saying that you don’t have that, but it’s hierarchy.

Jaren: My major driver in life is impact and influence. And I want to like, impact people. I want to make a difference. That’s my driver.

Seth: One thing I’m just noticing there is that Jaren almost kind of just convinced himself there. All Kris was doing, he was just asking questions. Kris wasn’t saying it’s a problem. He’s not saying, “Jaren, you got a problem. You’re in trouble.” He is just asking questions. Granted, that was a fake scenario. So maybe that’s not a hundred percent real. But I think that’s actually the sign of a skilled negotiator is that what this Socratic teaching where it’s like, you ask questions that prompt a person to answer it themselves.

Kris Haskins: Oh, man. I love the questions, man.

Jaren: This is really good stuff. This is like a master class. I love this. This is really good.

Kris Haskins: Questions. I love it. I wish I could marry questions, man, because people just don’t ask enough. I sit down with people. They don’t ask me. I’m like you asked me for a meeting, you don’t ask me questions, I’m gone.

Jaren: Yeah. It’s funny that they’ll sit down and then they’ll just talk for like 40 minutes and tell you all about everything.

Kris Haskins: And no questions asked. When I met with Patrick Bet-David, the guy who owns Valuetainment, I took 40 hours. He told me he takes 20 hours before he meets with his attorney. So, I’m like, I took 40 hours before I met him. I had pages of questions for the dude. I think that’s what winners do though.

Seth: Come prepared. Yeah.

Jaren: That’s interesting. So really what you’re trying to do with NLP is you’re trying to find their driver and through asking strategic questions and through relationships and you have to be settled because you can’t spook them. The minute they feel like you’re manipulating them or you’re trying to pull something over them, then you lost them. You got to establish trust, be kind, be patient. And then when you find their driver, then you leverage that driver towards the end desire that you’re trying to get them to do towards the sale or what have you.

Seth: Now, how does that work? Is there ever a point where you just kind of give up? Like you stop trying to convince or even ask questions to get somebody to take your offer because they’re not the right person, they’re never going to say…

Jaren: Yeah, he said that about his wife.

Seth: There you go. So that’s one example.

Kris Haskins: We still could do that. Yeah.

Seth: How do you know when you’re dealing with somebody who will or won’t consider an offer, that’s going to work for you? Like when do you just cut it and say, “Nope, not working. Talk to you later.” Because for me, that’s what I do immediately. If somebody doesn’t say “yes” I’m like, “Okay, see ya, you’ll be back, but we’re done now.” I’m assuming that’s not how you work. How far do you push it? And what are your telltale signs that we’re not going to come together on this?

Kris Haskins: Well, I feel like I’m preaching to the choir. Time and circumstances will change every seller, right? If you say, no, it just means not right now. But I always leave with the one question, “Ms. Smith, if you don’t sell this thing, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?” That’s the key. If they say, “Well, you know what I should? I should just keep it forever.” If they say “I’ll just rent it out.” Then you can kind of tell I’m looking for, “I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t sell this thing.” If you don’t get $80,000, what are you going to do? Well, I’ll lower it to $60,000.

So, it all depends on what their rebuttal is for that. But yeah, a lot of times we don’t get them on the first try. I very rarely just go out there, get a contract, and come back. It takes time. We’ll call it the slow dance. Usually, they say no, but then we always give them something in writing so they can go home. Nowadays you gotta have something in writing.

Seth: Yeah. If somebody starts off the conversation or early on, they sort of very confidently state what they think the property is worth and it’s really high. Whatever rationale they’re using for that, whether it’s an appraisal or assessed value or the house next door or whatever, is that something you should be discouraged by? Or should that number mean anything to you? How do you get to the bottom of what role that number plays in your conversation or do you just completely ignore it? And if you do ignore it, how do you get them to realize “No, your numbers are actually totally wrong and here’s why. Here’s a lower number that’s more realistic.” How does that conversation look?

Kris Haskins: It can be challenging depending on where that valuation came from. Generally speaking, they don’t have an appraisal, they have the assessed value and I love it. I love it. When they say it’s worth, I’ve yet to meet the seller that says, you know what? I don’t want top dollar for my house. I want you to buy it at a discount. When you show up at the door, right. It doesn’t happen. So, it is our job and our responsibility, our obligation to paint the picture for them, Seth, as you were saying. So yes, I always agree. Whatever they say, I’m always like you’re right. If I know it’s worth $50,000 and they say it’s worth $200,000, “Ms. Smith, you know what? You have the full right to believe your house is worth whatever you want it to be. I mean, you are absolutely right. I can’t deny that. And in fixed upstate Ms. Smith, you know what? Probably it could be worth that. It might be.”

So, as long as I’m just agreeing with them, I’m just stroking their ego, as we’re going through, then I would bring up the repairs, cost to sell, all that stuff that’s going to chop it down. But we always agree Seth, man.

Jaren: Because that’s how you establish trust. That’s really interesting.

Kris Haskins: There you go. “You’re right. Ms. Smith, sure. At the district it could be worth $200,000.” Then I kind of go down with that one. I’ve never caught them off though.

Seth: Those next steps of bringing up the repairs and cost of selling and stuff like that, are you just sort of in passing when you’re talking to them like, “Oh, it looks like that roof’s going to be $10,000 to replace that.” And you sort of just make subtle mentions of that so they can hear it. Or I don’t know, how do you introduce those numbers in the conversation so that it means something to them and they can sort of come to terms?

Kris Haskins: I love it. It’s exactly why I wrote this book. This is exactly why I wrote this book, Seth.

Seth: By the way, I’d be linking to that book in the show notes at RETipster.com/81. Just so you’re aware.

Kris Haskins: Man, you talking, Seth. I love it. Well, when people say the repairs, I never just say, “Well, what about this? What about that?” I always once again, I’m going back to my questions. Your questions are your secret weapons. They are just your bullets in the gun, right? Ms. Smith, what do you think it would take to do that roof? How much do you think it would take? What’d you think of the bag? I always ask them what they think because it’s irrelevant. Like I’m so irrelevant in this. I’m there just to kind of stroke them on. Because I love it when they give me these small offers, I just love it because I know they’re going to say, “The roof? That’s $2,000. The central heating and air? I’ve got a guy that can do that for $1,500.”

And I just love it, man, because I know that I’m like Colombo. I’m like, “You know what? I’m so glad you have somebody to do that.” I pull out my phone. I just wanted to get that guy’s phone number so he could do that because I’m going to claim this house. I’m going to do this deal. Would you mind if I could hire your guy when I buy it and we’ll give you what you want and he can do that work for us that cheap. Because my guys are going to be three times that. So, I’ll leave it there and then I let them. They can’t answer that one. Generally, they can’t even come back. So yeah, that’s how we beat them. Not beat them. That’s how we are able to negotiate the number down. No way in hell you can get this stuff done for the prices that they usually say.

Jaren: Very interesting.

Seth: Yeah. Some people might like when you were mentioned earlier, the idea is to twist the knife, just get a little bit of blood, kind of thing. Like some people might hear that and think this is manipulative, this is evil and wrong.

Kris Haskins: My wife is one of them. Go ahead.

Seth: Well, I can see why one might think that, but what are your thoughts on that? Is that misguided or inaccurate? And if so, how is this not manipulation?

Kris Haskins: Well, you know what? When I was writing the book, Seth, I had a lot of soul-searching to do. I had a decision to make, as I’m writing the book. I learned from some masters, dude. I’m a peon when it comes to those dudes that are HomeVestors. They teach people all around the country, dog. I had to make a decision. Am I going to make this user-friendly for everybody? Or do I want to arm the new real estate investors with precise tools that they need to go in there and get the best deal for them? I struggle with that Seth, when I was writing it because I don’t want a homeowner to feel taken advantage of. On the other hand, I don’t want my trainee to go in and try to overpay based on the emotion. So, I chose to arm us investors, Seth.

Seth: Yeah. I’ve known some pretty skilled sales people in my life. And this is a narrative that they’re very well aware of. It’s that salespeople are almost seen as like, scum of the earth. Like nobody, nobody when they hold their newborn baby for the first time thinks, “Oh look, this is going to be a salesman. That’s who my child’s going to be.” It’s just kind of seen as, in general, like somebody who’s not trustworthy. But I think a skilled salesperson sort of sees it as I sort of help people see what they don’t realize. And it really serves them in the end. The idea is not to get what I want. The idea is to help them see the light. It sounds like a similar thing here. Would you agree?

Kris Haskins: Similar thing. With houses for me, you have to have some type of negotiation strategy. If you don’t, man, you’re just shooting in the wind.

Jaren: I think it really boils down to the investor’s personal integrity. The reality is when we get a house, that’s dilapidated and we make it better and we resell it. If we talk about flipping or ultimately even through like wholesaling. Even with land, we’re buying and then we’re turning around to selling it to somebody who’s going to develop the property and make it better. We’re serving the community. We’re serving the world in that. We’re taking something that is not good and we’re improving it in some capacity.

And so I think at a high level, we need to take a step back and say, “Okay, well, if you, as an individual have integrity, here are tools that you can use to help make the world a better place, to make money along the way, help the seller.” Because a lot of these motivated sellers, they’re actually in a position that they need to sell this property. They need help. They need the finances to move quickly. To be honest, I’ve been in a spot where I remember when my wife is from Kazakhstan and we were separated for a year and a half when we first got married and finances were tight during that first year. I promise you, if I added an inherited piece of junk rental property, I’d sell that thing for $10,000 with a smile on my face. I would be out of here.

And so, if you’re talking to the right person who has the right situation, you can come in and really help them. And if they’re like, caught up in their head trash or trying to latch onto it, these tools can help you serve them and ultimately serve the community. There can be a way where you do it in full integrity and win-wins. And that’s where I like a lot of the marketing stuff. You mentioned Russell Brunson earlier. There’s a lot of things given like the tone of your voice, like asking certain questions that they are influence tactics. I think it’s manipulation when it branches out to like, you’re trying to convince somebody to do something that ultimately is going to hurt them. And if that’s your motivation, that’s on you man. Like that has nothing to do with NLP. NLP is a tool. These psychological sales tactics, they’re just tools. If I have a hammer, I can build a house or I can kill somebody. It’s not the hammer’s fault.

Kris Haskins: Good point, Jaren.

Seth: Yeah. Has there ever been a situation where you’ve talked to somebody you know they can get a better deal than what you’re going to offer them. Like, they’re not the right fit and you just tell them, “Look, I’m not your guy. Just listen to some MLS and you’ll sell it tomorrow for twice as much as what I’m going to pay you.” Like, does that ever happen or are you always kind of just trying to get the best deal you can and leave it up to them whether or not they say no to that?

Kris Haskins: Oh, no. We are always a consultant when we show up at the property. Matter of fact, the first thing out of my mouth, when I made it there, Seth, is like, “Listen, I don’t even know if I’m going to buy this house or not, okay? So, we’ll walk through here. I’ll make a new friend and we’ll look at the property together. Is that okay with you?” Always frame it up as a question. You guys know.

So, I don’t even know if I’m going to buy the house and if I can’t do it yet, we just refer it to a broker. I would much rather not buy the house to give somebody a bad deal because I don’t get a referral. I need that referral. I say it every time, listen, I need you happy because I need a referral. I need you to sign a referral when we are done. To answer your question, Seth, we refer to them all the time. So, I don’t care, man. I don’t need anything, man. I do not need another house. We’ve got more than enough. We’re blessed. And I want them to know that too.

Seth: Actually, along those lines, what are your most effective ways for finding deals? Where are you getting these houses from?

Kris Haskins: We’ve got a team that does social media stuff. I got to tell you if I had to put my dollar on it, social media, I’m just starting to do text messaging, Facebook ads. We still do bandit signs. I still do a little bit of direct mail, but social media, Seth. I just think that it is the state of the internet. So, if you can get ads in front of people.

Seth: When you say social media, you mean like if you got like a Facebook page and you’re creating ads that send people to some kind of landing page or something, or what does that look like?

Kris Haskins: No, we don’t want to take them off of Facebook. It’s a landing page, but it’s within Facebook. So, if you click on the ad and Facebook has its own little… I don’t know the name of it.

Seth: Is it just showing people a phone number or they can send you a message through that? Or what does a person do to respond to that?

Kris Haskins: Yeah, they can call. Usually what I found out is social internet people, per se, as opposed to direct mail. Like direct mail people they’re ready to get on the phone. I don’t want to drive them to the internet because it’s the wild, wild west. I don’t know what popups are going to show up and somebody might steal them from me. But on the internet, a lot of them want to stay on there. They want to text you and do all that geeky stuff. So, it’s a little different communication barrier, but yeah, they’re staying online texts. Very rarely do I have a phone call from an internet lead. I mean, that’s why they’re on the internet, I guess.

Seth: In this Facebook ad, is that like a video or a picture of you or something? Or what does that look like?

Kris Haskins: Well, I do run some pictures of me, but what I found out, I did not know that if I was this popular people would contact me around the country and want me to coach them or want to get to know me a little bit based on the ads. So, we had to take my face off the ad and put another.

Seth: Yeah, gotcha.

Kris Haskins: But yeah. You have a face “I buy houses” and it’s just generic, it’s really just something to get them to click.

Seth: Cool. Interesting.

Kris Haskins: It ain’t cheap though.

Seth: There is a lot that goes into the Facebook ad stuff in terms of like, who do you target and what do you say and what do you tell them to do. And when they do it, what do you say then?

Jaren: And it’s a lot of testing, man. If we can Seth, let’s go ahead and put that blog article I wrote about Facebook ads in the show notes because I went at a very high level explaining what is happening with Facebook ads for the layperson. At the end of the day even if you hire a professional ads agency, all you’re paying for is somebody to figure it out for you. They may have a lot of experience, like they figured it out a lot of times for other people, but at the end of the day, you’re still paying them to figure it out because I’ve literally seen campaigns running in Indianapolis and convert great. And then they take the exact same campaign and run it in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And it doesn’t convert because the demographic is different and there’s all these variables that go into it. So literally from day one, all you’re doing is you have a funnel and you’re testing ads and try to find the right ad that’s actually going to get people to do it.

Seth: Maybe it’s because that Fort Wayne ad said “Sell your Indianapolis house.”

Kris Haskins: That is funny.

Seth: Your YouTube channel and your website. What made you decide to start doing that? Why? Is it just something you enjoy? And you’ve been doing it for a long time and you’ve got a huge following. So, I’m just curious how that came into the picture.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. We’re blessed, Seth. I have been doing YouTube for a long time, but I didn’t do it seriously until July, 2017. That’s when I met Valuetainment with Patrick Bet-David and now I get to hang out with the guy. So, I’m telling you this dude, he’s amazing. He was doing it teaching for entrepreneurs, right? I’m like, you know what? I could probably teach real estate investors. July, 2017, man. If you just go back in my career, it just blew up when I took content creation seriously.

And Seth, you don’t know this, but I don’t really like social media. I just do it because you have to do it. If you don’t do it, you don’t even exist. So yeah, I took that time, I’m like, you know what? I’ve been grinding since 2004. Let me just kind of share what I’ve learned and let’s see if anybody likes it.

Seth: Yeah man, it looks like it’s helping a lot of people. Kris, it’s been very enlightening. Very interesting. We haven’t had a whole lot of conversations about negotiation specifically. And I know this is a huge thing. I picked up a lot of helpful stuff just listening to this.

Seth: And your credibility packet. That was some really good insight there.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. You guys are masters too, man. I’m picking up some gyms from you too.

Seth: Yeah. When I heard about your book, I was kind of like, ‘Oh cool. Whatever. Everybody has a book.” But after hearing what you were saying, I actually think I’m going to read it. Because I feel like this is the tip of the iceberg of what we’ve talked about here. So, I’m going to take a few days I think and go through that and see if I can glean anything else. Because think of what you can accomplish in life if you’re a master negotiator, that’s unbelievable power.

Seth: Yep. You got it though, Seth. Well, I take it back. I don’t know if I can make an offer and be like, “You don’t want my offer? Okay.” I don’t know.

Jaren: Yeah. I mean land is so unique, man, where deals happen by accident. I mean, I still have calls coming in from six months, seven months ago. And people were just like, “Hey, I got your offer. I want to move forward.” It’s just different because the asset class is just…

Kris Haskins: You’re the only deal in town.

Jaren: Well, there are some places where there’s competition, but it’s a different type of property. It’s similar to like, if you own the boat or you inherited like, a boat. Like it’s nice to have if you use it. But if you live in Canada and you own property in Florida, that you inherited from your great grandmother and you have to pay property taxes on it, you don’t know what to do with it. It’s like, you don’t even know how to sell it half the time. So, the people are just a lot more motivated.

Kris Haskins: Now I’m going to just hire you all to find me some, Seth. I need a lot for my house, for my family.

Seth: Yeah, man. I know. And we can find you something. When you were talking about that Jaren, it makes me think we don’t have to negotiate a whole lot, but what if we did?

Jaren: That’s exactly why I want to read his book.

Seth: Yeah. I think if I don’t want more deals, we can make it happen. We’re just not trying to because you don’t have to.

Jaren: Yeah, that’s true.

Seth: I feel like there’s something there.

Jaren: I hundred percent agree.

Seth: So, Kris, if people want to learn more about you, we’re obviously going to link to your YouTube channel and your book and your website. What is your website?

Kris Haskins: You can just go to either krishaskins.com really right now. I mean, I need to think bigger and get a bigger vision.

Seth: And this Real Estate Roundup, what is that?

Kris Haskins: The Real Estate Roundup. That’s what I started up in 2010. I started just interviewing people. I was like, you know what? Let me round up the best real estate people in my town. That’s when I started kind of like seeing the vision of surrounding myself with the best, but it ultimately turned into coaching and training. So, that’s just my inner circle people. It is a website too and I have the domain. I don’t have it quite set up to where you can kind of go in and join. Always a work in progress, right?

Seth: Awesome. Well again, I appreciate you taking the time to come on the RETipster podcast. And again, everybody check out RETipster.com/81 where you can find all the details about everything we talked about here and go check out krishaskins.com. That’s krishaskins.com. Thanks again, Kris.

Kris Haskins: Thanks, guys.

Seth: So, there you have it folks. That was our interview with Kris. I thought that was very, very enlightening. I’ve read like similar negotiation stuff in the past, but I feel like there’s lots of different spins people can put on it and I kind of liked the spin he put on it. So, what did you think, Jaren?

Jaren: Yeah, I thought it was really insightful. I think at a high level, if you just go in there with the intent to just help, you’re going to uncover a lot of pain points and you’re going to do a lot of the tactics without even trying. So, if you guys aren’t trained, don’t have this interview be a reason to feel like, “Oh, I need to go out and spend a bunch of money to get training or whatever.” It’s good to just listen to podcasts, read some books and have some further advanced instruction on different subjects like negotiations and stuff like that. But if you just go in with the intent to just create win-wins and to help people, you’re going to get there.

Seth: Cool. Well, in usual fashion, we’re going to ask a random question here of Jaren and myself. So, the question is this. If you could have any object or place in the world completely to yourself for one day, what would you choose?

Jaren: Object or place.

Seth: Yeah.

Jaren: You go first because I always go first.

Seth: I don’t know why, but for some reason the first thing that is coming to mind is either like Disney World or some other amusement park, which is funny because I don’t want to do amusement parks these days. At least I haven’t in a long time, but I just remember thinking that when I was at Cedar Point several times in Ohio, as a kid waiting in line for like two hours to get on a ride. And I don’t know, that’d be really cool to just like run on every ride and just do it. You don’t have to sit and wait all day.

Jaren: Yeah. It would be awesome to like, rent it out for an entire day.

Seth: Yeah.

Jaren: I think that it would be really cool to… I don’t know. What comes to my mind is there’s this place called Mount Athos, which is like an entire island of just monks. Like women I think are allowed to visit the Island, like during the day, but they can’t spend the night there. Don’t quote me on that. I don’t know exactly how that works, but I think it would be really cool to go to Mount Athos. But I guess that’s not to yourself because you have the monks there, so maybe that doesn’t work.

Seth: Amusement part probably wouldn’t be there because people have to help you get on the ride, right?

Jaren: Yeah. I mean that’s the only one that comes to mind is I think it’d be really cool to go there and be like the sole visitor and talk to all the super high-level monks and then the hermits and stuff and bug them and stuff. That would be fun.

Seth: Yeah. It’s kind of a tricky question because most places anywhere that I can think of, the existence of people is sort of a crucial component of what gives it value. Like if you a hundred percent eliminate all other bodies, I don’t know. In some way it would be lacking. You’d be like truly in the wilderness by yourself or something. So, I don’t know.

Jaren: I mean I think an object would be easier. An unlimited supply of Chick-fil-A. That would be pretty dope for a day.

Seth: Actually, I fantasize that someday in heaven we’ll be able to eat anything we want and it will never get full and it won’t make us fat. It would just be like, perfect.

Jaren: That’d be awesome. I mean, I definitely think Chick-fil-A is going to be in heaven. I heard a meme or like a joke on it. It was a meme on Facebook and it said about 2020 and all the crazy stuff that’s been going on. I don’t know if you knew, but there was this big competition between Popeye’s new chicken sandwich and then Chick-fil-A.

Seth: I did not know that.

Jaren: Yeah, it was trending on Twitter. It was like this huge thing. Somebody said, “Listen, when I started messing with God’s chicken, all this started to happen. I’m just saying.”

Seth: Do you really think Chick-fil-A is…? I mean, I agree. It’s very good, but like every fried chicken on Earth, is that really the best there is?

Jaren: Well, I mean, I think that it’s from a fast food restaurant, yes. And it’s very good. When they call it God’s chicken it’s because they don’t work on Sunday and it’s more of their brand. It’s not necessarily the quality of their chicken. But I think that they’re probably within the top three for me. When it comes to fast food chains, they’re the best. But when it comes to like, mom and pop shops, like you can definitely find some better chicken.

Seth: You hear a lot of people hate like, McDonald’s for example, like it’s a garbage hamburger. Like anybody can make something better than that. It sort of is by one measurement. But if you measure it by consistency, you can go to any McDonald’s on Earth and order a double cheeseburger and you know what it’s going to be. Somehow to get all of those different variables and people and ingredients and everything working together so that it’s the same everywhere. Like that’s actually a pretty amazing feat. So, cool, man.

Jaren: Yes, sir.

Seth: Well, again, folks, if you want to check out all the resources we talked about, go check out RETipster.com/81 to see the show notes. And if you’re listening to this on your phone, take your phone out and text the word “FREE.” F-R-E-E to the number 33777. You can stay up to date on all the things we got going on.

So, I want to thank Kris again for coming on the show. It was awesome talking with him. And for everybody out there listening, I hope you’re doing well. And we’ll talk to you next time.

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from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/081-kris-haskins/

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scotwresnet · 5 years ago

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Firstly I’d just like to take this opportunity to remember both Shad Gaspard and Hana Kimura. Both taken tragically early from us. My thoughts go out to all those who are grieving their loss at this sad time and I’d like to dedicate this article to both of them.

I’d also just like to start this edition of SWN Behind the Art by saying that when I initially started doing this series I had no real idea about what direction I was heading in. It probably showed and probably still does but I think I finally now know what I am aiming to do. I feel that within the last couple of editions you can see huge improvements and my aim is to keep getting better. What I’m trying to show you with these articles is wrestling from a different perspective. Whether it’s interviewing wrestlers and letting them show another side to themselves that you wouldn’t normally see whilst watching them in the ring or just getting a fans perspective of what turns you on and excites you in the wrestling world, I hope this section of the Scottish Wrestling Network website is just as welcome an addition to your consumption of pro wrestling content as all the rest. What I’m really trying to say is thank you for reading my articles and I hope they are providing you with some sort of entertainment and maybe some inspiration in your own life. Thank you.

But that’s enough from me… let’s move on to the main event…

I can’t tell you just how much of a pleasure it was speaking to this wonderful woman. I talked to her over a period of time and a couple of the final questions in this interview were only answered recently with recent events sadly in mind. I admire and thank Aivil for the strength of feeling with which she expresses herself and highly admire her sentiments. Thank you Aivil.

Photo credit Sandy Smith Photography

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She’s an artist inside the ring and loves to create outside of it too. I’m so lucky and thrilled to be able to bring you a very special interview with former and, no doubt in my mind, future ICW Women’s Champion Aivil.

I won’t ask you to introduce yourself Aivil because those who don’t know who you are by now should be ashamed of themselves and should go right out and research you work right away. But can you give us a brief biography of where you come from and about how you came to be residing in Scotland.

Hi everyone, thank you for your kind words, but in reality I’m not that special. Just a regular freaky monster 🙂

I was born in Italy and lived there the majority of my life. I moved to Scotland in 2016 for working reasons and with the dream of continuing my wrestling training with some of the very best wrestlers in Europe.

Great. Thank you. Now, Italy has such a rich and illustrious art history doesn’t it? Art must rub of on just about everyone there. I understand you like to draw. What kind of things do you like to draw?

I’ve always been a very creative person. My imagination always runs wild and literally everything (a song, an object, a colour, a person etc) can turn into the most unexpected source of inspiration for me. I like to let my instinct and emotions drive me through everything I do, so my drawings vary a lot.

I love to draw comics and fantasy characters, cyborgs and monsters, but I also like to do portraits, to draw flowers, fashion outfits and there was a time I was also into tattoos sketches.

Nice. Do you have any particular favourite artists? And what about them or their work inspires you?

I love Paolo Barbieri’s art, his elegant trait, the colours, the curves and his ability to improvise on everything. If you guys have never heard of him, go check his art out. It’s stunning! And he’s Italian like me!

To be honest with you, there are so many contemporary artists I love, just to mention a few of them: Kiyo Kyujyo, Luis Royo, Victoria Francés, Xiao Fan Chuan… like I could spend the whole day mentioning artists as I read so many manga and illustrated comics too that it is easy to come up with names. Referring to more classic art, I’ve always loved the colours and the technique of the Impressionists and the perfect proportions and details of the Neoclassicism.

I’d like to touch on your love of manga and comics later on if that’s ok because I understand you like to write also but first I’d like to ask you about your in ring persona. Wrestling is a major art form in itself. It requires a lot of skills that wouldn’t be out of place in say dance or ballet as well as contact sports and it incorporates all the theatricality of acting also. With that being said you include an extra special aspect to your character don’t you? Tell us about your face paint. When and how did that all begin? Has it become a ritual in your performance? And where do you get the inspiration from?

There was never a day I wrestled without my face paint on. For me it’s like wearing a mask that allows me to kick my shyness away for awhile and create that relationship with the crowd that’s so essential in what we do. We are athletes and also storytellers. If we don’t engage with the crowd we’re partially failing as wrestlers. Even though I look very confident from the outside, I have many insecurities. The face paint is a brilliant method, at least for me, to cope with insecurity and let my spirit free.

My inspiration might come from everything around me. Of course, being a clown and a demon priestess, my main inspirations are fellow freaks and Gothic creatures. Paxxo and I, back in the days, took part in a project called Painted for War, where we asked our friends and fans to help us find a character to inspire our next wrestling make up. I think my favourite one to do was Scar, from the Lion King.

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You mentioned clown and demon priestess there. Just how did Jokey and Aivil come about?

Both Aivil and Jokey are fragments of my personality. Of course I took inspiration from books, movies and fantasy characters to create my outfits and build up the gimmicks, but they are part of who I already am. That’s why I feel comfortable showing their colours in the ring. It’s a matter of finding yourself along the journey and not being afraid to show it to the world. Your light, your darkness, your clumsiness, your grace, your faults and your strength points. This is also why it’s important for everybody to remember one thing: beyond the character and the masks we are all human beings, just like you. We might be your superheroes or the best villains on the planet, but we are also people. Words affect us the same way they do with you. Please allow me to use this platform to spread a message of love and support. We, the wrestlers, always try to be at our best for our fans, no matter how difficult our life may be. We perform to deliver you joy, emotions and memories. You are allowed to have an opinion, to like us or not. But remember, you can express your thoughts and be respectful at the same time. We are trying our best. Be kind. Don’t wait till it’s too late to show affection and love. And this last statement goes for everyone.

I couldn’t agree with you more and feel free to express anything you want to say here. That’s no problem at all. You said that you like to read manga and comic books, and like to draw fantasy characters. Are you into writing about them also? You like to write don’t you? What does the act of writing give you?

I do love writing. I am currently working on a book to be honest. I started this project years ago, when I was a teenager. It all began as a way to escape from a reality I wasn’t fitting in. Many things happened since that day and then I left the project aside, for lack of time and inspiration. I wasn’t ready to finish the story, to close that chapter of my life. Recently, during the quarantine, I gathered some courage and I started to go through everything I wrote again and again. It needed some sort of editing, as I have changed through the years and so did my writing and my thoughts about life.

I also write short stories and I find very useful to take notes on my feelings or special life circumstances. As I previously mentioned, when I was around 18 years old I fell in a very dark place. I suffered a lot and it was hard to just think about waking up and be ready to live another day of my life. Writing, among other activities like singing and drawing, helped me be brave and strong enough when all I wanted was to lie on the floor and close my eyes for good. It hurts talking about this, but I am glad you are allowing me to share my experience and my love for writing, because maybe I will be able to reach other people who are suffering the same way and somehow help them. Even just by letting them know they are not alone and there is someone who can understand how they feel.

How important do you think art and self expression is to mental well-being?

Art in general is a beautiful way to express your feelings and get rid of all the negativity that piles up in your brain and in your heart.

It could be any form of art. The simple act of expressing yourself freely will let you feel softer and happier, trust me. Don’t be scared of showing your colours to the world. There is nothing wrong in art.

Sometimes we have to carry heavy burdens, you know. And it gets harder and harder. If you keep everything inside, you will eventually explode. I did. Multiple times.

So whenever you feel the fire burning inside your head and you feel thorns in your heart, let yourself free. Get rid of everything. Of the good and the bad emotions. Turn them into something special and unique. In this way they won’t crush you down. They will lift you up instead, they will empower you and everyone will be able to appreciate you throughout your artistic creations.

The most important thing to do, though, is learning how to love yourself first. And you gotta let people in at some point. Some will hurt you for sure, but that’s the only way the light comes in too. You all have that strength inside of you. Be confident and be brave. You are not alone.

I want to add one last little thing. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing interest in my art and letting me talk about such critical and delicate matters, such as mental health and depression. These are dark times, I hope my words can reach out to a few people in need of help and support them. As my grandma taught me, love is the most powerful medicine in the world.

Thank you. Stay safe and take care of each other.

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What more can I say but thank Aivil profusely for taking the time to talk to me. It was truly an honour.

If you’d like to find out more about Aivil and I highly recommend that you do then you can go to her social media pages here:

Instagram: @twisted_priestess Twitter: @Twisted_Doll_AJ Facebook: Jokey & Aivil

And if you’d like to be featured in SWN Fan Art Corner you can send in your art to:

Instagram: @themaskedembroiderer Twitter: @TEmbroiderer Or email us [email protected] Or use the hashtags #scottishwrestlingart or #scottishwrestlingfanart

Behind The Art #16: Aivil/Jokey

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scottish-wrestling-network · 5 years ago

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But that’s enough from me… let’s move on to the main event…

Photo credit Sandy Smith Photography

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Hi everyone, thank you for your kind words, but in reality I’m not that special. Just a regular freaky monster 🙂

I love to draw comics and fantasy characters, cyborgs and monsters, but I also like to do portraits, to draw flowers, fashion outfits and there was a time I was also into tattoos sketches.

Nice. Do you have any particular favourite artists? And what about them or their work inspires you?

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You mentioned clown and demon priestess there. Just how did Jokey and Aivil come about?

How important do you think art and self expression is to mental well-being?

Art in general is a beautiful way to express your feelings and get rid of all the negativity that piles up in your brain and in your heart.

Sometimes we have to carry heavy burdens, you know. And it gets harder and harder. If you keep everything inside, you will eventually explode. I did. Multiple times.

Thank you. Stay safe and take care of each other.

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What more can I say but thank Aivil profusely for taking the time to talk to me. It was truly an honour.

If you’d like to find out more about Aivil and I highly recommend that you do then you can go to her social media pages here:

Instagram: @twisted_priestess Twitter: @Twisted_Doll_AJ Facebook: Jokey & Aivil

And if you’d like to be featured in SWN Fan Art Corner you can send in your art to:

Instagram: @themaskedembroiderer Twitter: @TEmbroiderer Or email us [email protected] Or use the hashtags #scottishwrestlingart or #scottishwrestlingfanart

Behind The Art #16: Aivil/Jokey

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dsrajawat · 5 years ago

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Realme doesn’t like to waste time in introducing new phones. As a user, the more and better the options, the merrier! Even personally, I love every time I get some device to sink my teeth into. So as the novel 6 Pro reached my hands, I was quick to grill it. The fact that it’s been pushed as a spiritual sequel to the Realme X and not the Realme 5 pro made me all the more curious.

For a starting MSRP of Rs. 17,000, the phone brings a 90Hz dual-punch hole display, Snapdragon 720G, Android 10, and a 64MP quad cam. You may also view it as an alternative to Realme X2 where the AMOLED display has been swapped with a high-refresh-rate LCD panel.

While that ensemble sounds competent, one might wonder there gotta be some compromise, right? Well, there are some trade-offs, that I’ll bring to your attention. And by the end of the review, you’ll know whether you should buy the device or not.

So, C’mon, welcome to my review of the all-new Realme 6 Pro.

But, before we fire away, have a cursory glance upon the in-box contents and the spec table

Realme 6 Pro Unboxing

Here’s what you get inside the Realme’s signature Yellow packaging –

Handset

Charger

USB-C Cable

Sim Ejector tool

Protective case

User guide booklets

Realme 6 Pro Review: Price and Specifications

Model Realme 6 Pro Display 6.6-inch, 90Hz LCD, 1080 x 2400 (full HD+), Gorilla Glass 5, 400 Nits Brightness, 90.60% screen to body ratio, 400PPI Chipset Snapdragon 720G RAM 4GB/6GB/8GB LPDDR4x Storage 64GB/ 128GB UFS 2.1; Dedicated card slot (256GB) Software Android 10, Realme UI Rear camera 64MP F1.8 (primary); 8MP F2.3 (ultrawide-angle); 12MP F2.5 (20X Digital Zoom Telephoto); 2MP F2.4 (4cm macro) Selfie camera 16MP, F/2.0 + 8MP F/2.2 Fingerprint sensor Capacitive (Side-mounted) Dimensions and weight 163.9mm x 75.8mm x 9.4mm; 195 grams Battery 4300mAh, 30W fast charging Price

6 + 64 – Rs. 16,999

6 + 128 – Rs. 17,999

8 + 128 – Rs. 18,999

On with the review then,

Realme 6 Pro Review: Design and Display

Realme 6 Pro Review: Performance

Realme 6 Pro Review: Cameras

Realme 6 Pro Review: Audio, Battery and Connectivity

Realme 6 Pro Review: Verdict

Realme 6 Pro Review: Design and Display

While it’s distant relative OnePlus popularized the 90Hz refresh rate last year, Realme discounts that lubricity to less than one-third the price. The 6 Pro parades a large 6.6-inch display with FHD+ resolution and fluid responsiveness. But, that smoothness is bartered against AMOLED found on the Realme 5 series.

Upon a close probe, I realized this panel shares a plight worse than its peers. The colors are inaccurate and pale, even so, that Realme 6 (review) has a better display. Bizarre! ‘Tis even harder to notice when you’re outdoors.

The back has a familiar oblong with sensors and a realme logo linear to it towards the bottom. The camera To make things different, Realme 6 Pro sports a dynamic lightning texture at the back. That’s fancy to tote around!

The device is also easy to handle one-handed and fits comfortably in the palm. A lite profile even when its mostly glass build, save for plastic mid-frame. The left frame has the volume rocker and sim shelf, the right frame has a power key cum fingerprint reader and the base is where the phone’s solo speaker, USB-C port and 3.5mm jack resides. The buttons are easily reachable and responsive (even the fingerprint scanner).

So, let’s unlock it now!

Realme 6 Pro Review: Performance

I was looking forward to using this phone ever since I came to know it is running on the latest slice of Snapdragon – 720G.

Tasks like app-loading, multi-tasking, scrolling through Zuckstagram flew with ease. However once a while, the rectangle smart bloke did pause and ponder. Still, won’t label it a spoilsport. It garnered decent results on benchmarks and battlefields (PUBG) too. The battle royale game ran at 30 frames (not bad, not wow either) and here’s various other yardsticks data –

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The performance is fueled by LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 in multiple configs to choose from. But, the real crowd-pleaser experience-wise would be Realme UI. And that’s a stark contrast in my opinion from ColorOS on Realme X and 5 Pro. If you go back to mine or any other reviews back in the days, the OS used to hold a place in the cons section. Not anymore!

ALSO READ: UFS 3.1 vs UFS 3.0 Comparison: What’s New and Different?

Android 10 treat and Realme’s own optimization trickery makes it one of the best software rendition in the Android world. A mix of my favs – Dark Mode (3rd party app-compatible), resizable windows, Digital Wellbeing, floating windows, game space, etcetera. That said, hey Realme, you can still let go of some things. A bevy of bloat and smart assistant, are, for instance, ghosts of ColorOS still haunting Realme UI. A personal opinion, yet it’s something worth quibbling.

The phone ships with the latest security update too. This is something left understated mostly but definitely confidence-inducing for the Android platform in general.

Speaking of which, dependable camera(s) is almost always a crucial criterion for a confident smartphone purchase. So,

Realme 6 Pro Review: Cameras

Click Click, you get two cameras on the front and four at the back. Won’t bore you by repeating the specs. Let’s jump straight into the real-day frames.

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The 64MP Samsung GW1 sensor is a capable producer. The daylight shots below are beautiful with a respectable proportion of shadows, highlights, mid-tones, and sharpness.

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I have observed a shift in the green hue amid normal and ultrawide snaps. Rest, let the photos talk for themselves.

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Details are sketchy once you go all in. But, frankly, having varied sensors is in itself a big shot. Here, they are serviceable.

Despite the night, the cameras manage to pull some genuine good shots. Nightscape piques the colors and along with it, comes some noise. Look at grains on the sky in the image below.

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Here are few more Nightscapes from the Realme 6 Pro –

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Moving to macro, the last sensor of the lot can capture details as close as 4cm. The results were passable.

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Bring in some humans to the fore and the camera won’t disappoint, although the dynamic range needs work. The portrait shots are worth sharing on social media. But, the blur can look a bit unnatural. The good thing is the presence of a slider to adjust the background bokeh.

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And that’s a good thing about the camera UI. Scroll and you’ll find ample options to toy around. You get options like Time Lapse, Slo-mo, Panorama, Expert mode, full-64MP mode, and ultra-steady clips up to 4K@30fps.

Realme 6 Pro Review: Audio, Battery, and Connectivity

The sound outta the solo speaker at the foot is as secluded and soft as you would expect. But, for what it’s worth these days, Jack is here! So put on your cans or in-ears to enjoy the content. Or else go cordless and you’re backed by Bluetooth 5.1 and associated codecs (AAC/APTX/APTX-HD). Go gaga!

Sitting in between the grille and hole is a USB-C socket. That’s where you dock the in-box 30W fast charger. Yes, if the 4300 mAh juice bank drains out, it can refill to 100 in an hour. Back to zero can easily take you through a regular day! Even if you push the device to limits, that charger is liberating to have.

Amongst other things, the phone bags ISRO’s NavIC navigation system out of the box. It’s not something we could explicitly test. Nevertheless, theoretically speaking, that’s better location accuracy in congested urban areas.

Oh, yeah calls were okie-dokie. No problem whatsoever. But, let’s cut the call now as its time for the final say.

Realme 6 Pro Review: Verdict

You see Realme 6 Pro has a lot of features going for it. The dual-punch-hole is a pleasing change from the cookie-cutter notches of yesterdays. Even though the plastic part does cheapen the build ever-so-slightly. Then there is functional and feature-filled software, reliable optics, and the rest of its performing hardware.

And by now you know that the weak sauce is that display. I hope it can be fixed by some tuning. Cuz, if not, that’s a killjoy for sure!

So, yeah, a better display and speaker output would have done wonders. But beyond that, if you love a good bargain just like the next guy, this my friend is an amazing value for money.

Pros

Reliable cameras

Feature-rich software

Covers essential connectivity options

30W fast charging backs an already huge battery

Snappy biometrics

Cons

Display quality

Mediocre audio output

Realme 6 Pro FAQ

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro offer Gorilla glass protection?

A. Yes, the Realme 6 Pro display is shielded by Gorilla Glass 5.

Q. Is the Realme 6 Pro water-resistant?

A. No, the Realme 6 Pro is not water-resistant.

Q: Does the Realme 6 Pro support NaVIC?

A: Yes, the Realme 6 Pro supports ISRO’s NaVIC. Find more about it here.

Q. Is there a notification LED on the Realme 6 Pro?

A. No, the Realme 6 Pro doesn’t have a notification LED light.

Q. Is there an IR blaster on the Realme 6 Pro that can be used to control TVs and other devices?

A. No, there is no IR blaster on the Realme 6 Pro.

Q. What is the AnTuTu score of Realme 6 Pro?

A. In our test, Realme 6 Pro 5G scored 283254 points in the AnTuTu benchmark.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support MicroSD card storage expansion? Is it a dedicated slot?

A. Yes, there is support for dedicated expandable storage up to 256GB.

Q. Is there Widevine L1 support on the Realme 6 Pro for HD playback on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc?

A. Realme 6 Pro has DRM Widevine L1 support and is HD streaming ready. However, as of now, I couldn’t run Netflix and Prime Videos at HD quality.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support wireless charging?

A. Unfortunately, no Realme 6 Pro doesn’t support wireless charging. So, that lack of reverse wireless charging goes without saying.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support call recording?

A. Yes, Realme has baked in an automatic call recording feature in the Realme 6 Pro. Find this option hidden within System apps> Calls> Call recording.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support USB OTG?

A. Yes, you can connect the external pen drive to the Realme 6 Pro using the USB OTG feature.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support NFC?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support NFC.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support aptX codec?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support the aptX codec.

Q. Does the Realme 6 Pro support VoWiFi?

A. Yes, Realme 6 Pro does support the VoWiFi.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support Camera2API and Google camera app (GCam)?

A. Realme 6 Pro comes with Level 3 Camera2API support out of the box and thus, GCam should work just fine.

Q. Does Realme 6 Pro support FM Radio?

A. Yes, the Realme 6 Pro does support FM Radio.

Realme 6 Pro Review Realme doesn't like to waste time in introducing new phones. As a user, the more and better the options, the merrier!

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thereviewsarein · 6 years ago

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Canadian country music star Chad Brownlee is wrapping up the year with big news for 2020. The BC native is prepping to hit the road next year on the Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere Tour, and he’s not going alone.

Last week, Brownlee teased that he had big news coming. “Not all of it, but some of it.”, he said. And here we are.

Guys, I finally have some news for you on Monday. Not all of it, but some 😏 #2020Tour

— Chad Brownlee (@ChadBrownlee) December 12, 2019

The Monday news drop is great for Brownlee’s Ontario fans as it gives us seven spring dates across the province to see the Back In The Game artist live. We mentioned that he’s not coming alone, right? Well, he’s not. Hot off her amazing season on Dancing With The Stars, and bringing big hits like What Ifs and Next Boyfriend, Lauren Alaina will come north with Brownlee for these dates (and hopefully more). And to top it off, Ontario’s own Jade Eagleson will appear as a special guest on the Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere Tour.

We’ve been fortunate enough to see all three of these country music performers live, and putting them all together on one show seems like a really great idea to us.

Check out some of our favourite photos of the trio from Toronto’s Budweiser Stage, Country Thunder Calgary, and the Country Music Association of Ontario Awards Tailgate Party!

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As of right now, this is all we know. BUT, if we were going to make some presumptions or guesses about some things… here’s a short list.

✰ Chad Brownlee has a lot of friends on the Canadian country music scene, which means the possibility of surprise guests is always in play.

✰ There’s a 0% chance that this is an Ontario only tour (Brownlee’s team has already confirmed this) – and we expect that a significant number of dates will be announced west of London’s Budweiser Gardens on August 25, 2020, and hopefully east of Ottawa’s TD Place as well before all is said and done.

✰ Brownlee’s 2019 album Back In The Game will be well represented in the setlist. But we’d still guess that hits like I Hate You For It, Hearts On Fire, Love Me Or Leave Me, and maybe even Hood Of My Car will be there too.

✰ Chad’s been known to do a cover or two as well. Maybe 2020 will have him giving fans a little something new in the bonus song area.

The announcement of the Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere Tour is big news for Brownlee as he continues to push forward in the new chapter of his career. It’s also an awesome chance for fans who saw him in an abbreviated moment during Dallas Smith and Dean Brody’s Friends Don’t Let Friends Tour Alone run in 2019 to get a full show instead of a two-song sample from the dude who took Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere all the way to #1 on the charts.

Tickets for the Ontario dates of the 2020 tour go on sale on Friday, December 20, 2019, at 10 am. Check out Chad Brownlee’s website for more details and to be ready!

Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere Tour, Ontario Dates

‣ March 25, 2019 – London, ON – Budweiser Gardens

‣ March 26, 2019 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre

‣ March 27, 2019 – St. Catherines, ON – Meridian Centre

‣ March 28, 2019 – Peterborough, ON – Peterborough Memorial Centre

‣ March 30, 2019 – Oshawa, ON – Tribute Communities Centre

‣ March 31, 2019 – Kitchener, ON – Centre In The Square

‣ April 1, 2019 – Ottawa, ON – TD Place

Chad Brownlee Announces 2020 Forever’s Gotta Start Somewhere Tour Canadian country music star Chad Brownlee is wrapping up the year with big news for 2020. The BC native is prepping to hit the road next year on the Forever's Gotta Start Somewhere Tour, and he's not going alone.

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americanahighways · 6 years ago

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photos by Jimmy Faber

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Todd Snider is that rare combo: a consummate songwriter and showman all in one. With a catalog of 16 albums dating back to 1994, along with countless writing credits to his name, he recently returned to his roots, so to speak, with Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3. Shelving his backing band The Hardworking Americans, Snider takes a barebones folky (as in, “what the folk?!”) approach to the Vol. 3 sessions (volumes 1 and 2 were recorded but have not yet been released) that highlights the layered irony of his lyrics, along with his masterful phrasing and peerless comedic timing.

It also highlights a new predilection for the supernatural and suspiciously serendipitous events. His song “The Ghost of Johnny Cash,” which is central to the album, describes John Carter Cash’s vision of Loretta Lynn dancing with the ghost of his father outside the family cabin, as Melissa Clarke’s recent interview with Snider details. Suffice to say, this turn to supernatural inspiration is a bit surprising in a self-avowed agnostic hippie. But as Snider told John Carter Cash before the latter related his dancing Loretta Lynn story, “I’m not really a ‘haunted’ person, but I’m not against it.”

Aside from his apparent openness to supernatural events, Snider also has a well- known history of drug addiction with related trips to rehab, assorted weirdness and broken relationships — including a traumatic divorce in 2014 — that makes one wonder which version of Todd Snider is going to show up when he performs.

Luckily it was a sober, energetic and especially quick-witted Snider who showed up for the Ardmore performance March 14, the second show of his current tour. Unlike his appearance at The Birchmere a week later (also reviewed in Americana Highways), he didn’t bring his dog Cowboy Jim on stage with him, and he didn’t go barefoot. He also wasn’t sporting (thankfully) that frightening, ungroomed beard that showed up in some of the early promotional shots for Cash Cabin.

What he DID bring to the Ardmore Music Hall was his guitar, some new stories, his congenial goofiness, and his sometimes gently satiric, at other times outrageously outspoken worldview. Part Will Rogers-ish voice of the common man, part hippie Zen master and part hard-partying stoner savant, Snider’s infamous between-song banter is droll, painful, prodding and heartfelt by turns. His tall tales almost always end with a pointed punchline (typically a self-mocking or ironically self-undermining one) that you didn’t quite see coming. This just enhances their powerful, reverberative effect.

Fellow Nashvillean Reed Foehl (pronounced “fail” — though, as he told the audience, he likes to preface it with the word “never”) opened for Snider with a set of well-crafted and emotionally affecting ballads on such serious subjects as his father’s decline and his mother’s battle with lymphoma. His father’s love of John Prine, Foehl related between songs, inspired him to pen the Prine-like “Chances Are” about his time spent taking care “of the ones who took care of me / And my highly dysfunctional family.” Several of his other songs shared that focus on mortality, loss and the slow-fast warp of time’s passage, including one containing the refrain “It’s a goodbye world, passing through it” and the stirring ballad “Wake Up the Dead.”

It was thus almost a relief when Snider showed up with his shuffling Chaplinesque gait to brighten the evening with his expected mix of levity, political edginess and hard-earned wisdom re: that hopeless bunch of mammals we call humanity. Dressed in a blue workshirt, chuka boots and his trademark floppy hat, Snider launched right into “East Nashville Skyline,” with its description of crossing over to that neighborhood’s unique “state of mind” with its “discount cigarettes, liquor and wine.” The crowd whooped approvingly as Snider sang about how the radio “kicked us off of the air / So that more Sheryl Crow could come on… Come on!” — and it was off to the races from there.

Snider essentially writes four types of songs: comedic send-ups; explicitly political numbers; songs packed with bittersweet social observations, typically told from the point of view of the down-and-out and/or outcasts; and poignant, sometimes deeply personal, ballads. Of course, being a contrarian he also mixes zinger one-liners into his serious songs and serious notes into his comedic zingers, but despite those hybrids those four categories seem to hold true.

He mixed those categories artfully at AMH, with a slight lean towards the last two. Among the more comedic numbers were “Barbie Doll,” “Beer Run,” “I Can’t Complain,” “Alright Guy,” “Just in Case” and “Iron Mike’s Main Man,” while songs from the bittersweet/socially observant category included “Sunshine,” “Looking for a Job,” “D.B. Cooper,” “Play a Train Song” and the aforementioned “East Nashville Skyline.” The explicitly political numbers came in a row, starting with the obligatory “Conservative, Christian, Right Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males,” followed by the rapid-fire tour de force “A Timeless Response to Current Events” (with its refrain “Ain’t that some bull… shit?”), then “Talking Blues” from Vol. 3, and later on the long, seemingly improvised (though actually not) rap “The Blues on Banjo,” with its bitter, crowning exclamation: “So zippety- do-dah, muthafucker; zippety-ay!”

Snider’s artful interweaving of those three song types leant extra force to his more personal/serious numbers. These included the touching ballad “I Waited All My Life for You,” the moving “Old Times” (which Snider sang passionately), and his first encore number, “Force of Nature.” That last song, off the new album, contains the quintessential Todd Snider lines: “May you always play your music / Loud enough to wake up all of your neighbors / And may you play at least loud enough / To wake yourself up.” (Amen to that!)

Along with “The Ghost of Johnny Case,” which requires a whole new category of its own, the final song of Snider’s four-song encore was a stunner. He actually took on — head on, as they say — the perennial obnoxious concert-goer’s favorite request: “Free Bird.” Snider’s slow acoustic version of that time-worn cliché of a tune gave it a whole new life, I thought; he seemed to wring every last, surprising emotion out of it, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a threadbare hat. He left the stage jumping up and down excitedly as the crowed roared its passionate appreciation.

You gotta hand it to him: despite the shambolic, sometimes (intentionally?) unpolished demeanor, Snider is an inspired, pro’s pro of a performer when he’s got his act together. Let’s hope his happy streak of great songwriting and focused sobriety continues.

—————

Tour dates, videos, recordings and merchandise can be found at: https://toddsnider.net/home/

Americana Highways’ interview with Todd Snider can be found here: Interview: Todd Snider on Cash Cabin Sessions, Dreams and Songwriting

Americanas Highways two earlier reviews of Todd Snider’s show are here: Show Review: Todd Snider Enthralls Fans at Birchmere with Reed Foehland here: https://americanahighways.org/2019/02/19/show-review-todd-snider-sold-out-show-at-okcs-tower-theatre-with-canine-sidekick-and-kevin-gordon/

Show Review: Todd Snider Spins Hard Times into Gold at the Ardmore Music Hall @Toddsnider @lorettalynn @johncartercash @johnnycash @melissalclarke #ToddSnider #JohnnyCash #LorettaLynn #americanamusic @reedfoehl @ardmoremusicpa photos by Jimmy Faber Todd Snider is that rare combo: a consummate songwriter and showman all in one.

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frontstreet1 · 7 years ago

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HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush, who shaped history as America’s 41st president and patriarch of a family that occupied the White House for a dozen years, is going to his final rest Thursday in Texas.

More than 11,000 people paid their respects to Bush as his casket lay in repose all night at a Houston church where his family worshipped. Some visitors waited for hours to pay tribute to Bush, who will be buried following a funeral at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church.

Thursday’s service began with “America the Beautiful” and a robust rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

It attracted local sports stars including Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt and was featuring eulogies from Bush’s grandson, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the only member of the famous family still holding elected office, and James Baker, his former secretary of state and a close friend for decades. Hymns being sung were chosen and loved by the former president, said the church’s pastor, Rev. Russell J. Levenson Jr.

Performing were some of Bush’s favorite country music stars including the Oak Ridge Boys doing “Amazing Grace” and Reba McEntire offering “The Lord’s Prayer” as three days of official ceremonies in Washington gave way to more personal touches for the former president in Texas.

As a military band played, pallbearers carried the flag-draped casket of former President George H.W. Bush into Houston’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, where the Bush family regularly worshipped. (Dec. 5)

The nation’s capital bid him goodbye Wednesday in a Washington funeral service that offered high praise for the last of the presidents to have fought in World War II — and a hefty dose of humor about a man whose speaking delivery was once described as a cross between Mister Rogers and John Wayne.

Bush’s casket returned for the services in Houston, a ride on a special funeral train and eventual burial at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place is alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia at age 3.

In the service at Washington National Cathedral, three former presidents and President Donald Trump looked on as George W. Bush eulogized his father as “the brightest of a thousand points of light.”

The cathedral service was a tribute to a president, a patriarch and a faded political era that prized military service and public responsibility. It was laced with indirect comparisons to Trump but was not consumed by them, as speakers focused on Bush’s public life and character — with plenty of cracks about his goofy side, too.

“He was a man of such great humility,” said Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming. Those who travel “the high road of humility in Washington, D.C.,” he added pointedly, “are not bothered by heavy traffic.”

Trump sat with his wife, a trio of ex-presidents and their wives, several of them sharp critics of his presidency and one of them, Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic foe. Apart from courteous nods and some handshakes, there was little interaction between Trump and the others.

George W. Bush broke down briefly at the end of his eulogy while invoking the daughter his parents lost in 1953 and his mother, who died in April. He took comfort in knowing “Dad is hugging Robin and holding Mom’s hand again.”

It was a family that occupied the White House for a dozen years — the 41st president defeated after one term, the 43rd serving two. Jeb Bush stepped up to try to extend that run but fell short when Trump won the 2016 Republican primaries.

The elder Bush was “the last great-soldier statesman,” historian Jon Meacham said in his eulogy, “our shield” in dangerous times.

But he also said that Bush, campaigning in a crowd in a department store, once shook hands with a mannequin. Rather than flushing in embarrassment, he simply cracked, “Never know. Gotta ask.”

Meacham recounted how comedian Dana Carvey once said the key to doing an impersonation of Bush was “Mister Rogers trying to be John Wayne.”

None of those words would be a surprise to Bush. Meacham read his eulogy to him, said Bush spokesman Jim McGrath, and Bush responded to it with the crack: “That’s a lot about me, Jon.”

The congregation at the cathedral, filled with foreign leaders and diplomats, Americans of high office and others touched by Bush’s life, rose for the arrival of the casket, accompanied by clergy of faiths from around the world. In their row together, Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton stood with their spouses and all placed their hands over their hearts.

Simpson regaled the congregation with stories from his years as Bush’s friend in Washington. More seriously, he recalled that when he went through a rough patch in the political game, Bush conspicuously stood by him against the advice of aides. “You would have wanted him on your side,” he said.

Simpson said Bush “loved a good joke — the richer the better. And he threw his head back and gave that great laugh, but he never, ever could remember a punchline. And I mean never.”

George W. Bush turned the humor back on the acerbic ex-senator, saying of the late president: “He placed great value on a good joke, so he chose Simpson to speak.”

Meacham praised Bush’s call to volunteerism — his “1,000 points of light” — placing it alongside Abraham Lincoln’s call to honor “the better angels of our nature” in the American rhetorical canon. Meacham called those lines “companion verses in America’s national hymn.”

Trump had mocked “1,000 points of light” last summer at a rally, saying “What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? And it was put out by a Republican, wasn’t it?”

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney praised Bush as a strong world leader who helped oversee the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union and helped bring about the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, signed into law by his successor, Clinton.

With Trump, a bitter NAFTA critic, seated in the front row, Mulroney hailed the “largest and richest free trade area in the history of the world.” The three countries have agreed on a revised trade agreement pushed by Trump.

On Wednesday morning, a military band played “Hail to the Chief” as Bush’s casket was carried down the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where he had lain in state. Family members looked on as servicemen fired off a cannon salute.

His hearse was then driven in a motorcade to the cathedral ceremony, slowing in front of the White House. Bush’s route was lined with people much of the way, bundled in winter hats and taking photos.

Waiting for his arrival inside, Trump shook hands with Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, who greeted him by saying “Good morning.” Trump did not shake hands with Bill and Hillary Clinton, who looked straight ahead.

Bill Clinton and Mrs. Obama smiled and chatted as music played. Carter was seated silently next to Hillary Clinton in the cavernous cathedral. Obama cracked up laughing at someone’s quip. Vice President Mike Pence shook Carter’s hand.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that the day marked “a celebration for a great man who has led a long and distinguished life.” Trump and his wife took their seats after the others, briefly greeting the Obamas seated next to them.

Bush’s death makes Carter, also 94 but more than 100 days younger, the oldest living ex-president.

By WILL WEISSERT, NOMAAN MERCHANT and CALVIN WOODWARD – Dec 6. 2018 – 11:18 AM EDT ___

Weissert reported from Austin, Texas. Woodward reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Ashraf Khalil and Darlene Superville in Washington and Juan A. Lozano and David J. Phillip contributed to this report.

Texas Bids Bush Farewell With Sports Stars, Funeral Train HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush, who shaped history as America’s 41st president and patriarch of a family that occupied the White House for a dozen years, is going to his final rest Thursday in Texas.

#41st president #funeral #Funeral Train #George H.W. Bush #St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

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mdenumberone-blog · 7 years ago

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Whew.

Hey.

Can I have this water here? Is this anybody’s? I’m claiming that, right there.

[Grabs water]

Alright.

Got some notes here… did I just drop the mic back? Oh, I’m good, okay.

Keep that on me, otherwise you guys can’t hear me.

[Drinks water]

Give me like 25 seconds here.

[Drinks water and coughs]

Give me like 10 more seconds.

Ah, ah man. This thing. Can we turn this up a little bit so I’m not I don’t have to like turn my head into it? Can you like… how about now? Test, test, hey there you go, yeah, I’ll talk to you later, you’re doin’ a good job.

Ah man, okay. Can we reset the clock so I have another minute extra…? Please…?

Thank you.

[Starts standing up]

There we go, okay, hey, I wanted to start sitting down anyway.

[Sits back down]

Um, guys, pat yourselves on the back right now. Okay? Let’s do it. Come on, everybody, I’m not gonna make you, I’m not gonna let you stop until I see everybody doin’ it, let’s pat ourselves on the back. There we go. You two! You’re patting each other, that’s cheating. Ah, you, you couldn’t keep your hands off her, could you? Yeah, hey, I don’t blame ya, “she’s a cutie”.

Hey guys, right there is for saving the worlds, worlds, world, I’m looking at young minds right now, you guys are all intelligent, I know that you did good in school, I didn’t do that. You especially. You’re very smart.

Look at us. We’re the machine that keeps the world going. Okay?

I’d like to start this talk off with a parable. A story if you will. I was at a college, a second tier, not an ivy league school, a second choice school, and I was in a class. And there was a student in that class, okay? And the, the teacher, he was spouting some horrible non-sense, about how, it was something about how women’s rights are not legitimate, something that everybody knew was false, but if anybody had spoken up, he would’ve taken extreme joy in failing them. Okay? Nobody spoke up. One person raised his voice. Once person started talking. The teacher couldn’t believe it, the classroom couldn’t believe it either. But in the end, he had logic on his side. And at the end of the day, he proved his point. That student was Albert Einstein.

And that same sense of [SHHHHHHIIII] (stops himself from laughing)

[SLAPS FACE VIGOROUSLY 5 TIMES]

And that same sense of childlike play and INNOCENCE that we know from Albert Einstein, I can sense it in this room today.

TEDx Drexel university. Dreexel, Drexel university. Next X.

So you gotta be thinking to yourselves right now, “who’s this 22 year old kid up on stage, with a chip on his shoulder, and his heart on his sleeve, and the world in his eyes”?

Well, that’s a tough question, asking somebody to define who they are.

I much prefer to ask: “what inspires that person”?

What inspires you? What inspires you? What inspires you? I want an answer, what inspires you? [Person in crowd responds] You better find something man. [Person in crowd says “The possibilities”] Don’t worry about it. [Clears throughts] “Possibilities…”

Um…

What inspires me is teaching African refugees how to program Javascript. What inspires me is finding out how to use maglev trains to get resources to the moon! These are the challenges of tom-that tomorrow’s gonna face. Okay? How are we gonna get clean drinking water to 2 billion Chinese people? Ya got an answer? Get inspired. I’m gonna be picking on you.

[Points to same person in the crowd from earlier]

The second thing that inspires me are ideas. Ideas are amazing. Ideas are like currency. Ideas are what drives the world. Ideas are what we need to get to the next stage. And not just great inventions like the train, little things like this microphone, that enables me to speak to the unwashed masses. TED talks, TED talks are another GREAT idea. Where would, where would, where would we be right now?

And we have to talk about it, because great ideas don’t come in all shapes and sizes. 9/11, September 11th. And we’re gonna use some reverence here and not be silly about this, but, look at what they accomplished with no weapons and just 11 guys who didn’t even speak English! And that proves that sometimes great ideas are actually horrible ideas.

So, I’m Sam Hyde. I’m an important thinker. I’m a creator, innovator, artist, idea. But above all else, I’m a passionate childlike innovator. I’ve been all around the grlobe. Globe.

[Mumbles “globe” quietly]

I’ve been all around the globe working on cutting edge projects of all kinds, and I’m here to ask you one question, “where are we at”? Where are we? We’ve got all this great technology. We’ve got 7 billion people in the world! And according to U.N. projections, it’s gonna go up to 50 billion people! That’s a lot of mouths to feed. And I don’t think they’re gonna be able to feed themselves, so we better start coming up with some ROBOTS to bridge that GAP.

The west’s sick addiction to fossil fuel. Is going to make this planet uninhabitable for the future generations. Uhh. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. It’s essentially what’s going on is we’re too selfish, and we’re driving our cars too much, and that’s getting nature out of the picture.

Now we looked at the data, we looked at the data, and what we found surprised us. What we found, right there, what we found was that culture is a sewer. We’ve got lewd media. We’ve got nasty bedroom things on TV. And they’re sexualizing young girls, and it’s getting to the point where even I have a problem with it. And that, it shouldn’t be that way.

Folks, we’re all world citizens. Is there another…? There we go. We’re all world citizens, living together, with one social contract, one economic future, we’re all tied together. There’s no more individual anymore, it’s just the hive. So we have to stick together. We have to stick together, and learn how to share. We have to learn how to share.

Now studies show that we work hard. It’s true. Everybody in this room’s a hard worker. You’re a hard worker, you’re a hard worker, you’re a hard worker. I know cuz you’re here, okay? But studies show that we don’t play hard enough. We gotta play harder! It’s, because it’s that sense of childlike playing, ehh, that’s gonna save us in the end, Albert Einstein.

But, hunger, poverty, okay, we’re on this route now.

CAN YOU CONTROL THE SLIDES? GET ON THE RIGHT SLIDE! Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. It’s fine. There we go, trash economy. Go back. GO BACK!

I was in Rwanda. I was lil-I was with a little startup you may have heard of. Tesla. Okay? Elon Musk was there. Team of innovators, artists, creators, ideas, thinkers. We were there. And we were giving iPads to this village of Africans. And it so fffffrrreeeeaaaakkkyyy because uh, there’s something to it, you just “doop doop”, swipe it, and it works. But these guys, we gave, we gave them like 2 hour tutorials and they couldn’t figure out how to use the freakin things. The problem is us. The so-uh, the… people in this room right now, the solution is us, the problem is greedy corporations, uhh, we do things that matter, New York Times… I’ll just skip ahead here….

BY MY CALCULATIONS we have 5 years until the world ends, unless we can start to reverse things like POLLUTION AND WAR. POLLUTION, WAR, THESE ARE BIG PROBLEMS. FIX IT, NOW!!!

Close your eyes. Everybody in this room close your eyes. I’m not gonna do anything weird or sss-uh, ss-uhhh sensual with you. Close your eyes, we’re gonna change some minds right now. Everybody close your eyes okay? Close em. Seam em up good. You! Especially you! I want those eyes closed. Get on it. Make sure your friend has her eyes closed too. Now look, this is a pivotal moment in human history. Right now, in this room, Dreexel university, TEDx, next X, this is the time to be doing this. Take this moment in. Breathe deeply okay. Neurons are firing in your brain right now, you’re more alert, you’re astrally projecting, you’re getting a little bit high on the sound of my voice, I have a nice tamber to it, I know that I’m a good public speaker. You’re drinking bullet proof coffee. And you don’t even realize you’re getting all jagged up in the head listening to my presentation, you’re gonna remember this forever. 2070 future! Now! WHAAAT?! WHUUT?

2070 predictions. The next 50 years are gonna be some serious. Stuff.

Sea floor farming. 75% of the world’s surface not being used by agriculture. On the sea floor, you’re gonna have sea beets, sea yams, sea cabbage, have ya ever had a sea salad? Have ya ever had sea cheesy baked potatoes that BLEW YOUR SOCKS OFF? Cuz you’re gonna be. 2070 coming up.

Trash economy. The abundance of trash. What are we gonna do with it? Are we gonna put it on an island? Are we gonna make it somebody else’s problem? Or are we going to take the initiative, and take this problem by the horns? Trash economy. You use cubes of trash as money. Everybody becomes rich, it’s a gold rush.

Walk with me. Most of the major cities will be replaced with vast pleasure domes, used exclusively by the excelceites, who are the neo-upperclass. While the displaced hoards of lower-class depth-grobblers will live underground in tiered cities, endlessly toiling away for nuggets of neo-plasmin.

Video games are going to get more realistic.

[Sniffles into microphone]

Super fuel-efficient vehicles getting 80, 100 miles per gallon? It’s not that crazy. You think I’m nuts right now for suggesting something high tech like that? [Looks at person in crowd who shakes head] Flip side of that coin, gas, 10 dollars a gallon. [Flips out and air kicks a couple times in anger] You can’t win them all, but we can make do, cuz we’re gonna have solar power also.

Race riots. Extreme racial tension and unrest. Uh… it’s called the knockout game, and eventually white people are gonna get tired of playing it. That’s all I’m saying.

A new… ah skip that one. Um… oh yeah, got two minutes left, okay. Playing games with me, huh? Can we get the original 18 minutes back on here…? You caught me. I’m unprepared.

Now, 2070. Due to the massive birth increase, we’re gonna have a shortage of milk. What this means is, the neo-earth-good-government-league is gonna have to genetically modify all humans, male and female, to lactate once a month. Once every month, you’re gonna be going to a lactation processing center where they’ll hook ya up to all kinds of weird things. Uh, now, due to some fluke, about 3% of the population produces milk, uh, about 500% as much milk. So they’re gonna have to be farmed constantly. And it’s very painful, but they’re gonna be rounded up by FEMA and their milk will serve the greater good.

Guys, what’s the one problem right now that’s not gonna be around in 2070? The elderly and the disabled. Cuz we’re just GONNA KILL EM! WE’RE JUST GONNA KILL EM!

So we looked at the data. Uhh, we got robots policing the streets, 2070, we got gay marriage. Surprise, surprise, bigots! Okay? Sorry, in 2070, gay people are gonna be allowed to get married. Get used to it.

Make me sick sometimes.

Sodastream will do for soda what 3D printing did for assault rifles.

And I think you’re gonna be seeing a whole lot more of these great Apple products. The iMac.

[Breathes heavily]

You’re probably thinking this is some pretty deep stuff, and you’re right.

[Breathes more]

State enforced homosexuality. I don’t have a problem with that, it’s equal.

Facebook as your birth certificate.

Mac iPads built into every school desk of every child.

3D printers are kid’s toys, and the newest 3D printer your kid is gonna be printing up 3D Muslim barbie dolls.

2070, gay men have actually developed reproductive organs inside of their… area… and a new generation of children are born from inside gay men.

Uh, what else we got here…

[Breathes deeply]

Good luck searching for Al-Qaeda on the internet, you’d have better luck going next door and asking them in person.

Uhh, what else we got here… You are not gonna like that one. Nobody’s gonna like that one.

Let’s do this here.

Can we get one final pat on the back everybody? Pat yourselves on the back. Please do it. You are gonna be the future, that’s a good thing. You’re going places kid… You’re going uh… [Whispers “man, we’re so screwed”]

2070, Israel, straight up ripped off the map. [In Jewish accent screams “BYE! BYE BYE!!! BYE!!!”] Not my choice, it’s… probably what’s gonna happen. Okay.

Anybody else got any predictions? What do you think’s gonna happen? [Points to member of the crowd that didn’t know their inspiration earlier]

Now it’s, now it’s time for you, cuz you are the, the you, you plural, is the star, like YouTube here, like the Time magazine cover. You guys are the star, I’m just some crazy guy, I’m not cool. What predictions do you have? 2070. Make a real one, let’s have something real here. [Uninspired man says something in response] You don’t know that. I’m gonna have your mind uploaded to my uh, my uh BlackBerry. You’ll be here. I’m gonna… you’ll be cryogenically frozen, I know it. Anybody have any predictions? What do ya think’s gonna happen in 2070. [Indian man says “I think it’s going to be better than what we have right now”] I… I think there can’t possibly be anything worse than what we have right now. [Indian man says “which implies it’s going to be better”]

[Shakes hands with Indian man]

Thanks for having me here.

[Crowd applauses immensely]

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bluesdoodles · 7 years ago

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I am sitting right now in front of my laptop to write about the performance of Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band at the Half Moon in Putney with youtube open and “In the Midnight Hour” blasting through my headphones. I could write a whole column only about how my body get hypnotised by the saxophone players, the rhythm section of drums and bass plus guitar and Geno’s voice which goes down your spine like warm caramel cream… It is very seldom that I am upset to not have been able to grove and shake around but taking photos.. but .. you can only do one thing at a time.. which means .. I do HAVE to see them again and you too if you are hungry as well for soul clapping, foot stomping, laughing and grooving away your funky butts!

The whole adventure started with the superb support from “The Sha-La-La’s” who did a great job with their enthusiasm for live music. With songs like “(Gotta find) a better way” and “Get up on yourself” they raised the bar for the whole evening to an energy busting grooving level. It was the perfect combination! After a little break, the stage was ready for the main act.“Ladies and Gentlemen .. from Indiana USA.. Mr Geno Washington!” With the opening tunes of “Philly Dog”, an enthusiastic applause from the anticipating crowd waved to the stage and with the song “Ride Your Pony” on his lips, Geno entered the stage. A two hour set of kicking the soul on fire and transporting me and my fellow audience colleagues trough a grooving musical time machine had begun. Kick it! And everything started with some RESPECT for Stevie Wonder with his “Everything is alright – uptight” and all were paying their respect of course by joining in with some serious soul clapping. Nobody had to be reminded! Foot stomping and shaking to beat the groove out of the Half Moon was on the table. I have read and heard a lot about how precious the UK grass roots music scene is and how much support is needed.. This evening we had the back room packed with people from all over the place to support live music! And this is what you get on a Friday night when supporting live music at the Half Moon in Putney: a seriously kicking live feeling with lots of hep cats, the spine-chilling voice of Geno, grooving Sax-Soul-Horn players from Alan and his friend, beating the groove up bass player Steve with joining in drummer Geoff plus topping it Guitarist Billy!

The set was full of funk and soul for the enjoyment of EVERYONE who was there. The next songs on the list were a revival of the grandiose classic live album “Hand clapping, foot stomping, funky butt- Live!”, plus some fabulous extras in form of very entertaining stories from the road and beyond.. If you call a classic ‘one of the best or most important of its kind’ this album is a true classic that misses none of the famous attributes and the good thing is, you have the same atmosphere today when going to see Geno and the band blowing over the top on stage. The song “Roadrunner” should be a standard at all kinds of working environments for lifting the Morale. When the two Saxophone players hit it nobody is able to stand still, not even with 39 degrees fever! … how do you feel .. feel alright! “Hold on I’m coming’” and “I can’t turn you lose” were next on the list and at least at this point in time all who were there were dancing and shaking around. There was really not a single person who stood beside doing nothing. You can’t resist this beat! You just have to jump and shout and nobody is around to tell you off!! So “Don’t fight it”, as the title says, and keep grooving! And that is exactly what we were doing especially with the following songs. It was during “In the midnight hour” that I couldn’t resist and put down my camera for a moment to shake to the groove of the song and feel the energy that was blasted into the room.

With the vocal version of “Green Onions” Geno gave a tempting and hypnotizing performance of his remarkable voice! It bonds the attention together and created a spiritual atmosphere. By all these wonderful musical inspirations, don’t be lost brothers and sisters when the time comes for “Papa’s got a brand new bag” and “I feel good” to see the light of serious funky Soul… respect to the Godfather James Brown. “Knock on wood” .. I don’t wanna lose all these good things .. With people like Geno and his band enjoying it to kick the beat out of their fellow fans you don’t need to worry! There’s no introduction needed for “Everybody needs somebody”… “I hope you all enjoyed the show and remember people no matter who you are … “ next time they entertain you in London will be the 14th December at Nell’s Jazz and Blues, West Kensington… “I need You.. You .. and You!!” Generously letting the gorgeous after gig dinner cool down he granted us with the final song “Jumping Jack Flash” which would have made Mick jealous! More funky words are not needed if I only can convince some of you to grab your friend and hop down to where they are playing next!! enjoy!

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*With a special Thank You to the Blues Brothers movies for non-stop writing inspirations. Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band live at the Half Moon in Putney or “Shake your Tail Feather”

Geno Washington live at the Half Moon in Putney I am sitting right now in front of my laptop to write about the performance of…

#Geno Washington #Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band #Half Moon Putney #Live Music review

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nazih-fares · 7 years ago

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Ah, racing games. I’ve always enjoyed racing games, but I often lose interest after a few hours. Once you’ve taken part in a few dozen races, it kind of starts to feel repetitive. Racing games have tackled this in several ways over the years, and I think the result is a racing market which is much more niche. Most racing titles on the market nowadays cater to the fans of driving simulators, and the game’s selling point is that you really feel like you’re driving a series of cars, except you don’t need a few million dollars to enjoy the privilege.

The more arcade racing games are still there, but there aren’t as many as there used to be. This, of course, means there’s a potential market for arcade racers. With Need for Speed steadily putting out racing titles of varying quality, and The Crew 2 building on the success of the first instalment, it seems like there’s some more interest in racing titles of late. The folks who design Forza Motorsports figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to capitalize on that, I imagine. But instead of creating something that’s totally arcadey, they decided to make a racing series that was based on the core Forza games, but more focused on the arcade experience. Hence Forza Horizon.

Forza Horizon 4 is the latest instalment in a series of games that have been fairly well-received. The reason for this is that the Forza games offer a nice, unique middle ground. They offer an arcade racing experience, but they still have the DNA of a racing sim. So you get to feel like you’re playing a flashy racing game like Forza, but you have more accessible controls and a simpler customization system.

Speaking of flashy, Forza Horizon 4 is all about making a good first impression. The game welcomes you to the Forza Horizon festival, a fictional event billed as ‘the world’s biggest race’, with style and flair. After a brief cutscene, the word ‘Autumn’ flashes across the screen as we see the camera pan across a nice autumnal landscape, and you’re dropped right into the action and given a short race in a pretty boss sports car. Forza Horizon is simply breathtaking in its visuals, and my pc was able to run it at ultra without a hitch, so it’s also insanely optimized.

In fact, optimization is the name of the game with this title. In the case of Forza Horizon 4, it was actually built with the snazzy new Xbox One X as the ‘lead’ or main console. So if you fire it up on Xbox One X, you get a choice between two modes, one called performance mode running at a fixed 1920×1080 (with a buttery 60fps) and one known as quality mode, which pushes the dial to the full 3840×2160 (4K as it’s commonly known) at 30fps. Forza Horizon 4 is just a jaw-dropper on the Xbox One X, with better motion control, and HDR of course. You can pick up the tiniest details like dirt rising or snow reacting to the weather.

After the autumn sequence, you’re treated to the other three seasons, and you get a different vehicle for each. Winter sees you piloting a 4×4 through a series of snowy paths, spring puts you behind the wheel of a suped-up rally car that drifts like a sailboat, and summer puts you back in the sports car. The game very quickly introduces its wide variety of vehicles and welcomes you proudly.

After that, you’re turned loose on the world of Forza Horizon, as you’re given a choice of cars (I went with the Audi coupe) and told to go make your fortune. Forza Horizon 4, like many great racing titles, bases its single-player experience around ‘career’ mode. The races are chosen via an open-world map that you drive around, so if you want to get to your next event, you’ve gotta drive there. Since you’re a scrappy young racer looking to make his (or her) mark on the world, every race allows you to build up your influence and get more points to put towards upgrades and other rewards.

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As I mentioned, the game’s racing controls are pretty intuitive, and I was able to get around without much bother. The car’s steering does feel kind of weighty though, so it’s closer to say GTA than it is to Burnout. However, after a while, I had gotten the hang of the handbrake system, and I was hugging corners like a pro. Forza Horizon 4 earns its arcade stripes by featuring a scoring system that prominently shows you how many points you gain by doing different actions. This can range from good actions like drifting smoothly or leading the race to bad actions like slamming into rivals or tearing up someone’s lawn with your awful driving (this action is affectionately nicknamed Landscaping).

Forza Horizon 4 offers a very detailed vehicle upgrade system, and you can totally see the engine of Forza under the hood of Horizon 4 (a racing car analogy in a racing car game, what are the odds). The customization system was a little intimidating for me at first, but after a while, I got the hang of it and learned to upgrade my vehicle effectively to match my playstyle.

Career mode is pretty entertaining, and you’re given a bit of investment in the story to help you plod along. My favourite races were definitely the ones that were more off-road, and as more events were unlocked, I really enjoyed having a number of options. I will say that it felt a bit harder to get upgrades later on, as the points didn’t seem to increase exponentially as I moved on throughout Forza Horizon 4. There wasn’t much grinding, but I would have been happier with a more balanced point system.

Forza Horizon 4 was reviewed using an Xbox downloadable code of the game provided by Xbox. The game was tested on both regular Xbox, Xbox One X as well as on PC thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere feature, on a machine running Windows 10, with an 8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 fitted on a 4th Generation Intel i7 4790 3.6Ghz CPU and topped with 16GB of RAM. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published (click here for more information about our review policy).

Forza Horizon 4 is an excellent blend of arcade racing and racing sims, and it’s probably the best instalment of the Horizon series thus far. It offers a breathtaking open world to drive through and some very accessible racing for mainstream fans, along with a bit of tinkering for people that like their racers a bit more technical. Ah, racing games. I’ve always enjoyed racing games, but I often lose interest after a few hours.

#Driving Game #Editor&039;s Choice #Featured #Forza Horizon #Microsoft Studios #Playground Games #Turn 10 Studios #Videogame #Videogame Reviews #Xbox #Xbox Play Anywhere

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bettydgunter90 · 5 years ago

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081: How to Negotiate Like a Pro w/ Kris Haskins

Kris Haskins is someone Jaren and I met this past year at a conference in LA called VidSummit.

In this interview, we’re going to talk about Kris’ secret sauce for negotiating and how he’s been able to make a great life for himself as a real estate investor.

https://youtu.be/kkFTSgffrMk

Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: 081: How to Negotiate Like a Pro w/ Kris Haskins (https://youtu.be/kkFTSgffrMk)

Links and Resources

KrisHaskins.com

Kris Haskins YouTube Channel

Facebook Ads Made Simple (Even Your Kids Can Do It)

The Real Estate Negotiating Bible (ebook) by Kris Haskins

The Real Estate Negotiating Bible (hard copy) by Kris Haskins

Ninja Negotiation Audio Recordings by Kris Haskins

Valuetainment YouTube Channel

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

What is a Lease Option?

What is an Accredited Investor

What is “Subject To” in Real Estate?

Neuro-linguistic Programming

Share Your Thoughts

Leave a note in the comments section below!

Share this episode on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn (social sharing buttons below!)

Help out the show:

Leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts Your ratings and reviews really help (and I read each one).

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

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Thanks again for joining me this week. Until next time!

Right-click here and “Save As” to download this episode to your computer.

Episode 081 Transcription

Seth: Kris, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Kris Haskins: What up, Seth? What up, Jaren?

Jaren: Hey man. I’m excited to have you on the show today.

Kris Haskins: Yes, it’s an honor.

Seth: Yeah. So just to kick this off, maybe you can tell us your backstory, like how did you get into real estate, and what made you decide to go down this road?

Jaren: Wow, man. It’s awesome.

Kris Haskins: And that’s it. After that, I’m like, you know what? I’m doing the same thing. This time is on my side as opposed as the time being working against me. So, let’s do this.

Jaren: Love it.

Kris Haskins: So here we are.

Seth: Wow. That’s crazy, man.

Seth: Is it harder to make money in the music business these days or easier or has that changed in some way?

Kris Haskins: Me neither.

Jaren: I don’t even watch Netflix. I just watch YouTube. That’s all the TV I watch.

Seth: Yeah. I just watched Disney Plus’ Donald Duck.

Jaren: This guy.

Seth: I’m only kind of kidding with that. Like I actually do watch a lot of Donald Duck these days with a three-year-old and a six-year-old. That’s like prime-time TV around here.

Seth: Yeah.

Kris Haskins: The big money stuff is boring.

Jaren: The boring factor, it keeps a lot of people.

Seth: Yeah. That’s okay though.

Jaren: Yeah, it works out.

Jaren: That’s awesome, man.

Seth: How does that work with raising money? Who are you talking to? What are they getting out of it? Explain those pieces for us.

Jaren: That’s funny.

Kris Haskins: I don’t know if that’s the saying for you.

Seth: Bob Hope was saying, “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” That’s kind of what it boils down to, sort of.

Jaren: Yeah. That’s awesome. What do your terms look like?

Kris Haskins: Yeah, generally speaking, we pay our lenders anywhere from 7% to 8%.

Jaren: Awesome.

Seth: Do they have to be accredited investors or anything like that or not really? Just anybody that has money can throw at you.

Kris Haskins: They can. I think there’s a certain dollar amount. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s a million. Accredited has a definition.

Kris Haskins: No. I don’t have any accredited. I don’t even know if I hang out with people that have a net worth of that in my circle.

Seth: I don’t either, when you come to think of it.

Seth: Really? Interesting.

Kris Haskins: They never tell me “No.” They’re like, you know what? “Thank you.”

Seth: That’s some gray area.

Kris Haskins: The positive word is called neuro-linguistic programming. Good gracious. You talk like I’m stealing grandma’s house.

Jaren: A.k.a. manipulation. Tell me about it. Tell me about NLP.

Jaren: That’s hilarious.

Kris Haskins: If you think about videos on YouTube are good. If you would see what happens in this house, I would probably have a show on it.

Kris Haskins: I want to be transparent. That very rarely happens today as it used to be in the past. How old are you, Jaren?

Jaren: 29.

Jaren: It’s because of the branding.

Kris Haskins: The digital footprint. Dude, when you show up, they just want to give you a hug.

Seth: Do they know you through Real Estate Roundup or something else? Like you have a separate website with a video and they get to know you that way. How is it that the people know who you are?

Kris Haskins: Just with the digital footprint. They’ll see me with my kids. They always type your name in, right? They want to know who you are.

Seth: I got you.

Jaren: Right.

Kris Haskins: When you get there, you’re the dad, husband. They love you. If you have the right digital footprint on the internet, it’s just unavoidable.

Seth: So, they’re googling “Kris Haskins” and they find something that you put out there and they feel like they kind of know you already before you show up.

Kris Haskins: Oh, yeah. That’s huge for us.

Seth: Interesting.

Jaren: So, what about back in the day though? Like before you had a big digital footprint?

Seth: And referrals, it’s just like a letter or something? Or what does that mean exactly?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. I’ve got them right here. So, these are just people that we’ve bought houses from. They’d say they love you, we take a picture with them.

Seth: Oh, cool.

Kris Haskins: I leave a place where they can write something at the bottom down there.

Seth: Gotcha.

Jaren: That’s awesome.

Seth: And people are okay doing that? They’re just, “Yeah, take a picture of me and use me for the future?”

Kris Haskins: Not everybody. Some people just, they’ll do one of these. I’ll type it up and then they’ll write something at the bottom.

Seth: Cool.

Kris Haskins: You got to have some type of credibility. Jaren, I don’t know if I’m going in the right direction with what we were talking about negotiation.

Jaren: This is helpful. Yeah.

Seth: If a person doesn’t have a family, say they’re a single person. Do they take a picture with their fish or something?

Kris Haskins: They are in trouble.

Jaren: Their dog.

Seth: You should just give up right now.

Kris Haskins: Maybe the dog, aunt, grandma. I don’t know. a picture.

Jaren: Grandma would work. That would be cute – “This is my grandma. She helps me buy houses.”

Seth: Picture with your probation officer or something?

Kris Haskins: You’re in trouble.

Seth: Anything else in the credibility kit?

Jaren: Or YouTube channel?

Seth: Yeah. Like what exactly is making them comfortable?

Kris Haskins: Yeah. All of it. Here’s the thing. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Valuetainment at all.

Seth: I don’t know that I am. What is that?

Jaren: That’s like Seth’s worth nightmare.

Seth: Yes, it is. I will lose sleep about that sometimes.

Jaren: Yeah. We go to great lengths to make sure that our reputation is intact, man. We really want to make sure that people, when they come to RETipster, they’re coming to something different.

Jaren: I ran on Russell Brunson.

Jaren: For our listeners that might not know what an NLP is, do you want to give a Cliff Notes version?

Kris Haskins: Neuro-linguistic programming.

Seth: Sum it up into one word.

Jaren: Go. Right now.

Seth: Okay.

Jaren: Are you getting that to like do a life example? Like convinced me to go work out tonight or something?

Jaren: Yeah.

Jaren: All right, let’s do it.

Kris Haskins: I have to find out what you can tell me about your kids for us. I know you’ve got some beautiful children, Jaren.

Kris Haskins: I do. I have a son who is 16 months old and then another son on the way. I found out that we’re having a boy. Did you know that Seth? We’re having a boy.

Seth: I didn’t. I knew you were having a kid, but not a boy. So, congrats.

Jaren: Yeah, we are having a boy.

Seth: That’s awesome, man.

Kris Haskins: Congratulations.

Jaren: Yeah. It’s exciting.

Kris Haskins: I’m sure you want your son to be here well until your older ages, right?

Jaren: Yeah.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. So, we try to kind of eat healthy. Do you think going to the gym will extend your life or would cut it short?

Kris Haskins: That stuff tastes good.

Jaren: My major driver in life is impact and influence. And I want to like, impact people. I want to make a difference. That’s my driver.

Kris Haskins: Oh, man. I love the questions, man.

Jaren: This is really good stuff. This is like a master class. I love this. This is really good.

Jaren: Yeah. It’s funny that they’ll sit down and then they’ll just talk for like 40 minutes and tell you all about everything.

Seth: Come prepared. Yeah.

Jaren: Yeah, he said that about his wife.

Seth: There you go. So that’s one example.

Kris Haskins: We still could do that. Yeah.

Jaren: Because that’s how you establish trust. That’s really interesting.

Kris Haskins: There you go. “You’re right. Ms. Smith, sure. At the district it could be worth $200,000.” Then I kind of go down with that one. I’ve never caught them off though.

Kris Haskins: I love it. It’s exactly why I wrote this book. This is exactly why I wrote this book, Seth.

Seth: By the way, I’d be linking to that book in the show notes at RETipster.com/81. Just so you’re aware.

Jaren: Very interesting.

Kris Haskins: My wife is one of them. Go ahead.

Seth: Well, I can see why one might think that, but what are your thoughts on that? Is that misguided or inaccurate? And if so, how is this not manipulation?

Kris Haskins: Similar thing. With houses for me, you have to have some type of negotiation strategy. If you don’t, man, you’re just shooting in the wind.

Kris Haskins: Good point, Jaren.

Seth: Actually, along those lines, what are your most effective ways for finding deals? Where are you getting these houses from?

Seth: When you say social media, you mean like if you got like a Facebook page and you’re creating ads that send people to some kind of landing page or something, or what does that look like?

Seth: Is it just showing people a phone number or they can send you a message through that? Or what does a person do to respond to that?

Seth: In this Facebook ad, is that like a video or a picture of you or something? Or what does that look like?

Seth: Yeah, gotcha.

Kris Haskins: But yeah. You have a face “I buy houses” and it’s just generic, it’s really just something to get them to click.

Seth: Cool. Interesting.

Kris Haskins: It ain’t cheap though.

Seth: There is a lot that goes into the Facebook ad stuff in terms of like, who do you target and what do you say and what do you tell them to do. And when they do it, what do you say then?

Seth: Maybe it’s because that Fort Wayne ad said “Sell your Indianapolis house.”

Kris Haskins: That is funny.

Seth: And your credibility packet. That was some really good insight there.

Kris Haskins: Yeah. You guys are masters too, man. I’m picking up some gyms from you too.

Seth: Yep. You got it though, Seth. Well, I take it back. I don’t know if I can make an offer and be like, “You don’t want my offer? Okay.” I don’t know.

Kris Haskins: You’re the only deal in town.

Kris Haskins: Now I’m going to just hire you all to find me some, Seth. I need a lot for my house, for my family.

Seth: Yeah, man. I know. And we can find you something. When you were talking about that Jaren, it makes me think we don’t have to negotiate a whole lot, but what if we did?

Jaren: That’s exactly why I want to read his book.

Seth: Yeah. I think if I don’t want more deals, we can make it happen. We’re just not trying to because you don’t have to.

Jaren: Yeah, that’s true.

Seth: I feel like there’s something there.

Jaren: I hundred percent agree.

Seth: So, Kris, if people want to learn more about you, we’re obviously going to link to your YouTube channel and your book and your website. What is your website?

Kris Haskins: You can just go to either krishaskins.com really right now. I mean, I need to think bigger and get a bigger vision.

Seth: And this Real Estate Roundup, what is that?

Kris Haskins: Thanks, guys.

Jaren: Object or place.

Seth: Yeah.

Jaren: You go first because I always go first.

Jaren: Yeah. It would be awesome to like, rent it out for an entire day.

Seth: Yeah.

Seth: Amusement part probably wouldn’t be there because people have to help you get on the ride, right?

Jaren: I mean I think an object would be easier. An unlimited supply of Chick-fil-A. That would be pretty dope for a day.

Seth: Actually, I fantasize that someday in heaven we’ll be able to eat anything we want and it will never get full and it won’t make us fat. It would just be like, perfect.

Seth: I did not know that.

Jaren: Yeah, it was trending on Twitter. It was like this huge thing. Somebody said, “Listen, when I started messing with God’s chicken, all this started to happen. I’m just saying.”

Seth: Do you really think Chick-fil-A is…? I mean, I agree. It’s very good, but like every fried chicken on Earth, is that really the best there is?

Jaren: Yes, sir.

So, I want to thank Kris again for coming on the show. It was awesome talking with him. And for everybody out there listening, I hope you’re doing well. And we’ll talk to you next time.

The post 081: How to Negotiate Like a Pro w/ Kris Haskins appeared first on REtipster.

from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/081-kris-haskins/

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