Episodes

  • Goal Setting Success from Publishing Expert Michael Drew

    Goal Setting Success from Publishing Expert Michael Drew
    Apr 2 2025

    Doug speaks with Michael Drew, a marketing expert who has helped publish thousands of books and put 132 titles on bestseller lists. Drew talks about the true purpose of publishing books, explaining why becoming a bestseller should be a strategy, not a goal. He also reveals the secrets of effective goal setting, customer relationship building, and the fascinating "12 steps of intimacy" framework that transforms how businesses connect with clients.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • Define your goal clearly and establish a measurable metric for success. Many people focus on tactics (like writing a book) without connecting them to meaningful outcomes.
    • Bestseller status is not a goal but a strategy, Michael has helped 132 books reach bestseller lists, but only 7 authors made more money from book sales than marketing costs.
    • For books over 60,000 words, every additional 5,000 words results in losing 10% of potential readers. People buy shorter books they believe they can finish.
    • Only 17% of American households buy at least one book per year, making book marketing strategy particularly important for reaching target audiences.
    • There's a crucial difference between selling (convincing someone to take an action they hadn't planned) and conversion (helping someone take an action they already want to take).
    • Your sole purpose should drive your goals.
    • Build customer journeys that reflect what you would naturally do in intimate settings. Customers can sense when you're pursuing transactions versus relationships.

    BEST MOMENTS

    "Bestseller is not a goal. A bestseller is a strategy, and the tactics that float into that are what support that strategy. The strategy then has to tie back into the outcome, into the goal, into the measurement of success."

    "The talents and skills and abilities that I've been given have not been given to me for me. They've been given to me for my service for you and everyone else."

    "If the book is longer than 60,000 words, like once you hit 60,000 words, every 5,000 words, you'll lose 10% readership."

    "The winners and losers in life are determined when the teams are picked. There are two teams that are essential for your success. The first are the team of people who select you to be on their team. The second are those you select to be on your team."

    ABOUT THE GUEST

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrdrew/

    https://x.com/PromoteABook

    https://www.facebook.com/michaelrdrew

    VALUABLE RESOURCES

    Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/

    Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug

    Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/

    Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here:

    https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success

    BOOKS:

    Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z

    Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/

    Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    47 mins
  • 200th Episode Special

    200th Episode Special
    Mar 26 2025

    Join Doug as he celebrates 200 episodes of the Goals Do Come True podcast. In this special solo episode, he talks about resilience, reinvention and the rewards of setting goals that truly matter. He also talks about his own journey to success and how overcoming difficulties has been key to his own and others' success.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • Anyone who has achieved something great has had to deal with difficulties or adversity.
    • Imposter syndrome and self-doubt are common in many people’s journeys to success.
    • Doug’s near bankruptcy, motorbike accident and recent divorce are all difficult events that he has had to overcome but right now he is happier, healthier and more in love with life than ever before.
    • Goal setting is the foundation of every transformation. You can’t drift into success, it has to be planned, designed and built.
    • Doug has bigger plans for the podcast, continuing to help people create a life they can live on their own terms.

    BEST MOMENTS

    "Every person that has achieved something incredible has had to overcome something difficult”

    “When you let go of what no longer serves you, you make space for something amazing”

    “Your goals really can come true if you have the courage to chase them”

    VALUABLE RESOURCES

    Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/

    Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug

    Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/

    Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here:

    https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success

    BOOKS:

    Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z

    Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/

    Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    6 mins
  • Setting Ridiculous Goals with 'Lord Zoom' John Drinkwater

    Setting Ridiculous Goals with 'Lord Zoom' John Drinkwater
    Mar 19 2025

    Doug is joined by John Drinkwater, known as toastmasters Lord Zoom. John talks to Doug about how he became a Zoom expert during the pandemic, creating virtual Toastmasters events including TV productions that drew global audiences. He shares Zoom's AI capabilities, content creation strategies and his unconventional approach to goal setting.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • John describes himself as either fully committed or completely disengaged, which explains his approach to goals as ‘dangerous rabbit holes’ that consume his focus once he commits to them.
    • After closing his business to care for his parents, John joined Toastmasters International for mental stimulation, becoming involved just before COVID forced everything online, positioning him perfectly to become a Zoom expert!
    • When faced with hosting a Toastmasters conference online with no budget, John engineered a complex computer setup that transformed Zoom meetings into a TV-show experience, earning him the nickname "Lord Zoom" and attracting nearly 1,000 viewers globally.
    • John believes effective online presentations should combine public speaking skills, marketing techniques, acting methods, and video production knowledge. Being reasonably good at all four areas beats being excellent at just one.
    • Zoom's built in transcription, caption capabilities and companion AI can work together to capture meeting content and refine it, with the AI able to process transcript content into polished, concise material that preserves the speaker's intent.
    • For ambitious goals, John recommends multiplying your target by 10-100x to make it ‘stupendously stupid’, even if you fall short, you'll achieve far more than with modest goals, while pairing this with more realistic short term milestones.
    • Creating scarcity through limited availability (like offering only 500 spots for a program) generates FOMO (fear of missing out) and makes people more likely to commit, even when pursuing extremely ambitious targets.
    • Rather than giving all content away free, John advises offering enough value to inspire interest, then creating interactive coaching programs where people work through processes together, as group coaching provides multiple perspectives and is more scalable than one-on-one sessions.

    BEST MOMENTS

    "I'm a very binary guy, I either sit there and don't say a word, or you can't shut me up.“

    "I basically just told my customers, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm going to stop trading in a couple of months time because I've decided that I love my parents so much that I want to look after them in their final years... and I disappeared for ten years."

    "If you're going to do it, you need to have an overriding ridiculous goal and whatever your overriding ridiculous goal is, you probably need to multiply it by 10 or 100 to turn it into absolutely stupendously stupid goal."

    "If you think half a million is good, then why not a million? And you think a million is not good, why not aim for five million? Now if I fail miserably and I get five hundred thousand, it's still a brilliant goal."

    "If people are gonna watch you, then you should take some effort to make it more interesting.”

    ABOUT THE GUEST

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndrinkwaterlordzoom/

    VALUABLE RESOURCES

    Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/

    Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug

    Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/

    Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here:

    https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success

    BOOKS:

    Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z

    Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/

    Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Make Big Hairy Audacious Goals! Doug and Tanja Bogataj's Guide to Intentional Achievement

    Make Big Hairy Audacious Goals! Doug and Tanja Bogataj's Guide to Intentional Achievement
    Mar 14 2025

    Doug interviews Tanja Bogataj, a visionary leadership coach who made a bold transition from a government career to entrepreneurship. Tanja shares the challenges of reinventing herself and how she helps other leaders launch their big dreams. The conversation explores goal setting strategies, work/life balance and the importance of support systems. Doug also shares his expert goal setting framework!

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • When setting goals, balance masculine and feminine energies by combining clear structure with intuition, be deliberate with goals but also listen to your inner wisdom about timing and direction.
    • Entrepreneurship provides freedom to create opportunities that align with your passions but also requires different types of courage and creates new challenges not found in a corporate career.
    • Leaders often struggle with having no one to share their challenges with; having a coach or support system is crucial as you can't always burden your team or family with business issues.
    • Being intentional about what you want to achieve helps align your actions with your values. It’s important to understand not just the goal itself but why you want to achieve it.
    • Doug recommends having one primary "big hairy audacious goal," but including smaller achievable goals you can easily achieve to maintain motivation and satisfaction with the goal-setting process.
    • Always prioritise family time in your calendar first, nothing is so important that it should consistently override commitments to family, family time cannot be recovered once lost.
    • Transformation takes time, approximately six months for individuals and up to 12 months for teams, but having a coach can help shortcut patterns of thinking and behaviours that limit progress.

    BEST MOMENTS

    "I knew something about coaching, but nothing about entrepreneurship."

    "We're not brain surgeons, nothing we do is that important that we cannot have a date night."

    "Trust yourself when you either go for one goal and to be open, flexible to change it and learn how to do it better or what needs to be done. Just go with the wisdom of life and living."

    ABOUT THE GUEST

    https://www.tanjabogataj.com

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanjabogatajcoaching/

    https://x.com/BogatajTanja

    https://www.facebook.com/tanjabogatajcoaching/

    VALUABLE RESOURCES

    Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/

    Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug

    Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/

    Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here:

    https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success

    BOOKS:

    Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z

    Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/

    Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    51 mins
  • Why Your Face Holds the Key to Achieving Your Goals with Tammy Cho

    Why Your Face Holds the Key to Achieving Your Goals with Tammy Cho
    Mar 5 2025
    Doug speaks with Tammy Cho, a former healthcare leader who became an international bestselling author and self-love and energy leadership mentor. Tammy reveals how face and body analysis can identify the invisible blocks preventing goal achievement and personal fulfilment. She shares her journey from burnout and disconnection to energy alignment, explaining how our physical features mirror our emotional states and impact our goal attainment. Discover why your face might hold the key to unlocking your full potential and how energy leadership can transform your approach to goals from the inside out. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tammy's burnout as a nurse left her emotionally disconnected from her baby daughter's milestones, revealing that even conventional success (becoming a millionaire) couldn't fill her inner emptiness.Face and body analysis examines how physical features reflect our emotional history. The left side of your face shows your private world, while the right side reveals what you present publicly.Most people blame failed goals on lack of motivation, but the real issue is misalignment between your authentic self and your conscious desires.Your body stores unprocessed emotions as physical markers. Asymmetrical facial features can reveal disconnections between your head and heart that silently sabotage goals.Energy exists in multiple forms; thoughts are electrical impulses, emotions are energy in motion and managing this energy creates a stronger foundation for achieving goals.Before setting goals, practice acceptance of where you currently are. Goals set from an unaligned state create a flawed foundation from the start.Feeling empty despite outward success is your "soul calling". A signal that deeper alignment is needed for everything to flow naturally.Many high achievers fix physical symptoms of burnout but neglect emotional and spiritual healing, creating an ongoing cycle of disconnection that undermines their goals. BEST MOMENTS "At that point, me and my husband became millionaires in real estate and I still was disconnected and unhappy." "A lot of people when they go move about to set intentions and goals for their lives and they don't hit it or they're not getting there fast enough and they blame it on lack of motivation, procrastination." "If you're wanting to set goals over and above your set point, and create a deeper impact in the world, it's so important to go beyond that." "If you feel like you've been on somewhat of a hamster wheel, or you feel like, why am I doing everything right and it's not working? Or you're getting everything done and there's a part of you that feels like there's something missing, but you can't put a finger on it. It's actually your soul calling." "Choose your reaction to an event and choose a positive reaction to an event, and then you'll spiral up instead of spiralling down." ABOUT THE GUEST Email: tammy@pathtotheheart.com Facebook: //www.facebook.com/divinetruthandloveInstagram: //www.instagram.com/path2theheart/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tammycho-pathtotheheartWeb: pathtotheheart.com Link Tree: linktr.ee/Pathtotheheart link to podcast. https://pathtotheheart.com/podcast VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/ Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/ Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here: https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success BOOKS: Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/ Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    39 mins
  • How to Prevent Burnout with Dennis Franczak CEO of Bright Matter

    How to Prevent Burnout with Dennis Franczak CEO of Bright Matter
    Feb 26 2025
    Doug interviews Dennis Franczak, a transformative c-suite executive who shares his journey through burnout and recovery. Dennis opens up about how his single minded focus on business success cost him his marriage and nearly everything else until he hit rock bottom. Now, as CEO of Bright Matter, he helps other executives avoid the same pitfalls through his 12-week program. This honest conversation is all about vulnerability, legacy building and the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with work before it's too late. KEY TAKEAWAYS Burnout often manifests as stepping out of important routines, falling behind on communications, and feeling disconnected from your organisation. These are all warning signs that executives frequently ignore.High performing executives resist showing vulnerability, which prevents them from seeking help; Dennis recommends watching Brené Brown's TED Talk on vulnerability as a starting point for leaders who need to break this pattern.Dennis's 12-week program works in three phases: understanding personal motivations, examining the relationship with work, and defining legacy, helping executives develop a North Star that guides decision making.Creating a legacy focused goal helps transform leadership from being self focused to purpose driven. Dennis aims to positively impact 100 people through each executive he works with, creating an exponential ripple effect.Self care practices like journaling and meditation can help executives process emotions and make better decisions by creating space between feelings and reactions.The fear of appearing vulnerable prevents many struggling executives from seeking help; acknowledging you're off your game and talking to someone you trust is the crucial first step toward recovery.Tracking daily feelings alongside self care activities using a simple scorecard helps identify which practices most effectively contribute to productivity and wellbeing.Practicing gratitude can give perspective during difficult times, remembering our finite time on earth and focusing on making a positive impact can transform how we approach challenges. BEST MOMENTS "What happens is when you start to get burnout, you start missing your goals... all the little fuses were starting to trip. Yet, I didn't notice them until the whole darn fuse box blew up." "High performers and executives don't have an opportunity to really think about their legacy when they're in the grind day to day." "The loss of the marriage was my fault because I was completely out of whack with my work life balance... I became very selfish in that and it cost me my marriage and my wife for years tried to bring me back to reality." "I go by this thing called a rule of 100. For every executive that I work with, I want my work to have a positive impact on 100 people in their lives.” "We only have a limited amount of time on this planet... be grateful for what you have, the people you have in your life. And the experiences you're having that are going to allow you to be the best version of yourself." ABOUT THE GUEST Dennis Franczak Transformative C-Suite Executive and Operations Leader Bright Matter Advisor https://brightmatteradvisors.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfranczak/ https://www.facebook.com/dfranczak VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/ Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/ Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here: https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success BOOKS: Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/ Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    40 mins
  • Making Business Simple Again with Del Parsons

    Making Business Simple Again with Del Parsons
    Feb 19 2025
    Doug interviews Del Parsons, a business coach and marketing mentor. Del shares her inspiring journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, triggered by a pivotal conversation with her husband over cocktails in Portugal! With discussions about goal setting, business growth and balancing entrepreneurship with parenting a child with additional needs, Del gives her ideas and insights into building a successful business while maintaining work life balance. KEY TAKEAWAYS Goals need to match your inner purpose, not others' expectations. Del shifted from corporate style targets to personal objectives that truly motivated her, leading to sustainable business growth.Business success follows simple processes. Del reveals that it's our overthinking that complicates things, following clear steps and taking action creates results.Find mentors and peers who challenge you. Del emphasises joining groups where you're not the smartest person in the room but can still contribute meaningfully.Set revenue goals based on your lifestyle needs. Instead of chasing arbitrary numbers like "six figures," Del suggests focusing on what you actually need for your desired life.Regular planning creates momentum. Through weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews, Del shows how consistent reflection keeps your business on track.Change your environment for better planning. Del discovered that stepping away from her desk leads to clearer thinking and more effective goal setting.Experience builds unshakeable confidence. After years in business, Del developed deep trust in her ability to overcome any challenge and rebuild if necessary.Measure impact beyond money. Del explains why tracking the lives you change often matters more than financial metrics for sustainable business growth. BEST MOMENTS "Everything's figureoutable and I think that is no bad thing and no bad kind of lesson to live your life by." "Building the business is a series of processes that you take action on. It's a logical pathway, it's always the people and the thought processes that get in the way." "If I was to sit, flip back to eight years ago when I felt really trapped in a corporate job and I didn't know where to go and how to do it and what I could create as a business, I'd have never pictured what I have now." "You put one foot in front of the other and keep going." ABOUT THE GUEST www.delparsonscoaching.co.uk/50ways Del Parsons is a chartered marketer and certified mastercoach. She set up her business back in January 2017 with the simple mission to support female founders to develop the skills, confidence and self belief to get out there and market their business and sell their stuff. Having supported hundreds of female founders of service businesses to grow their figures to six figures and beyond Del supports her clients not only with her skills as a coach but also through her lived experience of growing and scaling multiple seven figure businesses. As a working parent to a teenage son with autism and dyslexia Del is a champions other entrepreneurial parents who have to juggle the additional needs of their children alongside the demands of their businesses. https://www.linkedin.com/in/del-parsons-business-coach/ https://www.instagram.com/delparsonscoaching/ https://www.facebook.com/del.parsons01 VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/ Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/ Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here: https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success BOOKS: Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/ Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    53 mins
  • Transform Your Goals Through Self Care and Healing with Amanda Lemmage

    Transform Your Goals Through Self Care and Healing with Amanda Lemmage
    Feb 12 2025
    Doug is joined by Amanda Lemmage, the founder of Skingevity Med Spa and Wellness Clinic. Through personal narratives of resilience and healing, Amanda shares her story from early childhood trauma to becoming a wellness advocate and entrepreneur. She reveals her thoughts about the connection between inner healing, mindset, and achieving goals. Amanda's approach to holistic wellness, combining spiritual growth with practical self care strategies, gives a framework for personal transformation and success. Her story of turning personal challenges into a mission to help others heal demonstrates how adversity can become a catalyst for positive change. KEY TAKEAWAYS Amanda discovered that starting each day with intentional quiet time and meditation, even just 10 minutes, transformed her ability to handle challenges and achieve her goals.Through her wellness journey, she learned to break down ambitious goals into manageable pieces, focusing on one achievement at a time rather than getting overwhelmed by the bigger picture.After experiencing significant personal loss, Amanda found that maintaining a strong faith practice became her anchor, providing stability and guidance through life's challenges.Drawing from her experience running a med spa, Amanda advocates for regular wellness practices like infrared sauna sessions, having seen firsthand how they reduce stress and enhance immune function.As a business owner, she discovered that implementing structured routines while maintaining flexibility actually created more opportunities for spontaneity and growth in both her personal and professional life.Through developing her wellness practice, Amanda learned to focus on her natural strengths and delegate tasks outside her expertise, leading to more efficient business operations and better client outcomes.After struggling with high cortisol levels herself, Amanda now helps others understand how simple 10 minute environment changes can significantly impact stress levels.Her journey taught her the value of patience in achieving goals, recognising that certain experiences, though challenging, serve as essential stepping stones to greater success. BEST MOMENTS "I notice not feeling so great was not helping to achieve those goals that I may have set in place, so I really started to tune in and just notice taking care of myself and my mind and spirit really allowed me to persevere." "When I stay focused and I'm in my mindset, having a clear mind has really allowed me to propel just in my personal journey, as well as in my professional journey as well." "The world is a little heated out there right now, and we can choose. We really have the opportunity to choose how do we want to feel, you know, regardless of what's going on around us." "Finding what is my forte and what are my strengths that I can excel on and be successful in those areas, and then like you said, delegate or hire for the other things." ABOUT THE GUEST meetamandalemmage.com http://linkedin.com/in/amanda-lemmage-4a388683 @AmandaLemmage https://www.facebook.com/amandalem?mibextid=LQQJ4d Newly released book: https://designrr.site/?i=123l2&t=c892e5 VALUABLE RESOURCES Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/ Email: doug@dougbennett.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDoug Facebook Wealth Tribe: https://join.dougbennett.co.uk/ Download Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here: https://bit.ly/Struggle-Success BOOKS: Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/ Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.
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    33 mins