February 18, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Mark Schieldrop - AAA Senior Spokesperson checked in to discuss a pedestrian safety crisis that worsens as fatalities rise.
Kat O’Sullivan – Author of From Doubt to Do: Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility.
John Egan - Content creator and marketer, author of The Stripped-Down Guide to Content Marketing says credit card debt is holding Americans back from estate planning.
David C. Olcott - Workplace Expert & and the CEO of Samurai Success explains Gen Z battling with phone anxiety are taking telephobia courses to learn the lost art of a call.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Mark Schieldrop - AAA Senior Spokesperson checked in to discuss a pedestrian safety crisis that worsens as fatalities rise.
Kat O’Sullivan – Author of From Doubt to Do: Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility.
John Egan - Content creator and marketer, author of The Stripped-Down Guide to Content Marketing says credit card debt is holding Americans back from estate planning.
David C. Olcott - Workplace Expert & and the CEO of Samurai Success explains Gen Z battling with phone anxiety are taking telephobia courses to learn the lost art of a call.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Boston right now at eight oh six, it's twenty
and it feels like four. And by the way, on
top of Mount Washington yesterday the observatory measuring a gust
of one hundred and sixty one miles an hour. Tonight,
the wind is about sixty to eighty miles an hour,
the temperature about twenty below wind chill's pushing sixty below
with freezing fog. Stick around. Time for Nightside, Dan Ray
(00:22):
here to get us to almost midnight. I'm Nicole Davis
WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You're cold, Davis, thank you very much. Freezing fog, freezing
freezing fog. I've never heard of freezing fog before.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The thing is, I've also learned about snizzle in the
past few years, which is an actual meteorological term. I've
been told freezing or like essentially snowing drizzle, But freezing
fog is when you know it's foggy out, but it's
so cold it freezes to the surface of stuff so
you can barely see, and it also freezes all over
everything and makes it slick.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Remind me never to go on vacation to the top
of Mount Washington in January February. Would you make a
note of that.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, I'm gonna work on that right now, and
something tells me probably March or April too, the way
things are going. Yes, yeah, no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Freezing fog. My name is Dan Ray. It's not freezing fog.
That's the condition that the people at the top of
Mount Washington are dealing with. Horror of horrors. Can you
imagine what's the temperature? What's what's it like? It's freezing fog.
Fred whoa good evening, everybody, Welcome on in. Rob Brooks
is back tonight. Rob. You can give yourself a round
of applause. He was off last night, but he has
(01:41):
returned tonight to his views of the spot and I
enjoined that round of applause. Dan Cantano did a great
job last night, Rob, but it's always great to have
you back. Welcome, and my name is Dan Ray. I'm
the host of the program here every Monday to Friday night.
We had a very interesting show last night, and I
want to specifically draw your attention to the nine o'clock
our last night with economics professor who's actually the chair,
(02:05):
the head of the undergraduate Economics Department at Harvard University,
a senior lecturer Jeff Myron, just did a great job
on explaining to us the federal debt, the interaction between
the federal debt and the federally annual federal deficit, and
just a great hour of explanation and some great calls
during that hour too, which is what we always want
(02:27):
a nightside great guests and great calls. We only have
great guests in this hour tonight because we interview four
newsmakers of a sort. They don't necessarily have to be
the lead story on the nightly newscasts, but they're newsmakers
and priding and providing us with some important information. And
we will later on tonight talk about some allegations of
(02:49):
anti Semitism within the Massachusetts Teachers Association. And we'll also
take a closer look at Elon Musk hero or villain.
Some people thank you sa Hero, some people thinks he
think he's a villain, and never the twains she'll meet.
We're going to start off tonight with a friend of
this program, Mark shield Drop, He spokesperson for the Triple
(03:12):
A here in New England. Mark welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
How are you tonight, sir Dan, I'm doing great, Thanks
for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Sadly, we're here to talk about kind of a subject
that should be a concern to everyone, and that is
an uptick in pedestrian fatalities across the country, not just
in New England, and specifically an uptick at night tell
us about.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
It, Yeah, definitely. So our foundation is, you know, really
tried to get our heads around this big problem that's
been increasing. So in twenty oh nine, some time ago,
we reached a lull for pedestrian fatalities, but since then
we reverse course and those fatalities have increased eighty percent
in the past fifteen years. So it's a growing problem.
(04:00):
There's a lot of reasons why there's a growing problem,
but we wanted to kind of find really common threads
between these problems, and really it boils down to urban
arterial roads. That's a mouthful, but think of Route nine
or Route one and think of them at night, and
you think about how many people really depend on that
(04:20):
road to get where they needed to go. You got
cars mixing with a lot of pedestrians and that's really
where a lot of these crashes are occurring. So in
our city centers we're not seeing the increase. It's really
on these roads, you know, a few miles outside of
the city center, where you've got a lot of people
that depend on public transportation. These are socio and economically
challenged communities in many cases, and that's where the bulk
(04:44):
of the problems are. So it's a big problem and hopefully,
you know, talking about it, we can get our heads
around a little bit and make some progress.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, you know, you mentioned Route nine as an example
here in Massachusetts, or are great to Boston, and Route
nine really starts in Brookline, flows through Newton, Chestnut Hill,
and on out through Wellesley and Intoonatic and Framingham. You
don't think of those as depressed socioeconomic areas. Obviously, there
are bus routes there, and there are some ways in
(05:14):
which people can have to cross intersections. You can see
that downtown areas. I guess the cars are probably going
at a slower rate of speed. That might be there
may be people who you know, get bumped by a car,
but the car's going five miles an hour and there's
it's it's not a fatality. Is that a fact of
(05:35):
the amount of speed on these these again what i'll
call them exterior arteries.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Yeah, you're definitely thinking on the right track.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
That has a lot to do with it.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
I mean, we still see pedestrian fatalities in downtown Boston
and Cambridge, and I don't want to minimize those by
any means, but you're right, these these types of roads
that we're talking about are sometimes you're driving on and
it feels like a highway. You know, I think of
Route one when you're in Foxborough. Suddenly you know, you
get an extra lane. You're on a four lane road.
There might be sidewalks, there might not be, but there's
(06:07):
shopping centers, there's bus stops, there's pedestrian activity. So it's
not really a good street, but it's not really a
good road either. It's not a highway, but sometimes it
feels like a highway, and that's really one of the
big issues. And you'll find places where there's no sidewalk,
but you see a well worn path in the grass
that tells you people are walking there, but the infrastructure
(06:30):
is not really supporting them properly, and it's creating a
higher chance of having these unfortunate tragedies.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So this is a national survey. The numbers you're comparing
are national numbers from two thousand and nine, and I
think you said two thousand and two thousand and nine,
and the most recent one is twenty twenty two, so
we don't have numbers for twenty three or twenty four
yet is New England over represented under represented it in
(07:01):
this trend or did it break out that way?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
We're really right in line with the country as a whole.
So this research really drilled down into a couple of
case studies to try to really get to.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
The bottom of what some of the root causes are.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
And we know, you know, cars are bigger, people are speeding,
and pedestrians there's more cars in pedestrians, but here in
New England we're really following that national track. Just this
year alone in Massachusetts there's been fourteen pedestrian fatalities. And
what's funny is, you know, just speaking to how relevant
this problem is, you know, fourteen people dying already this
(07:35):
year is a lot, but earlier today, prepping for this interview,
the number was thirteen. And just before you called, I said,
you know, let's go into the crash database just to check,
and sure enough that February fourteenth, crash and Worcester on
Grafton Road. I believe it was the sixty three year
old woman tragically lost her life that got out of
the system today, So I had to update my notes
just in one day. So it's a problem with seeing
(07:58):
a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I should probably you shouldn't say funny, but it's ironic.
All of those pedestrian deaths to fourteen have occurred here
in the first six or seven weeks, so it's about
two a week. So if you project that out, that
means we'll probably have one hundred here in Massachusetts. If
there was a plane crash today in anywhere in which
(08:21):
let's say fourteen people were killed, that would be the
headline news and the nightly news story. There was a
plane crash in Toronto yesterday. Thankfully no one died, but
you hear a book these plane crashes with two people
three people on board. But if there was some small
commuter plane that fourteen people, it would be a headline story.
But when it's one person here, one person there, it's not.
(08:45):
And we need to be all a little more careful
while we're driving and also walking, as simple as that.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
That's an amazing analogy. I mean, if you think about it,
every day in this country, basically a loaded seven forty
seven worth of people die in car crashes every day
in this country. So that's a really great perspective to have,
and it kind of speaks to how we're kind of
numb to the issue, I guess, you know, So if
everybody just does their part, you know, communities plan and
(09:12):
address as much as they can. You know, there's a
lot of funning issues out there. But anytime you can
improve pedestrian safety and convinced drivers to try to be
responsible and drive a little slower, you know, I think
we can get those numbers down. But you know, since
by fifteen, we've had seven hundred and seventy one pedestrian
fatalities in Massachusetts, and I think we can do better
(09:32):
than that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Sounds great, Mark, Shield drop of a triple A. You
always bring great information, and this is a sad information,
but it's very important information. Thank you so much, Mark,
as always, Hey.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
My pleasure.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Now you can go on to the fun topic.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Maybe a little less a little more fun, but some
of them are also concerning as well. Thanks Mark, appreciate
it very much. We will be talking with how you
get from doubt to Do with an often named Kate
O'Sullivan Coming back here on Nightside. My name's Dan Ray.
This is Nightside on WBC Boston's news radio ten thirty
on your AM dial.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
to Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Joining us now is Kat O'Sullivan. Kat's been doing this
for a while. She is a speaker. She has written
a book from Doubt to Do, Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility. Kat.
First of all, welcome to Nightside. Thank you for joining
us tonight. How are you.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
I'm doing great, Dan, Good to be with you.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Tell us a little bit about your professional experience, because
I've googled you here and I'm generally someone is either
a therapist or they're a psychologist. Tell us, tell us
about your background, and let's talk about the book.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Well, you know, I kind of jokingly say when people
ask me, you know, like like where did you graduate from?
And I would say MSU and they're like like Minnesota,
and I'm like no, like make stuff up. So I
have not followed a traditional path. My experience is up
(11:21):
close and personal and everything I've done, I've worked in
the corporate world. That didn't last too long because I'm
a change maker and a little too constrictive, and I
moved into the nonprofit world, particularly working with young people
who people were kind of second guessing what they were
(11:45):
capable of. And you know, I've spent much of my
life really in many different arenas helping young people, given
them experiences where they could discover what they're capable of.
And then I moved more into the coaching training development
(12:06):
arena with adults, you know, who were second guessing what
they were capable of, both personally and also professionally. And
worked for many years with business owners who were kind
of at a place in their business where they hit
the wall and they weren't quite sure, you know, what
(12:27):
else was possible for their business and their life as
business owners. And so I have basically spent my entire
life doing what people often said was seemingly impossible. Well,
and that's given.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Me great You have great experience here. It sounds to
me like you've helped people who perhaps have moved to
a second career, maybe in some people who have totally
retooled themselves, retooled their business. So the book, the title
of the book which is what we're going to talk
about right now, is from doubt to do, navigating your
(13:04):
pathway to possibility. Obviously all of us, at different points
in our life are uh I have the problem of
doubting what we can do. So what is the key
to get from doubt to do.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Well? Surprising, It starts with a shift in your mind.
Whenever' facing something new, something maybe it's unexpected, maybe it's
something we're trying to create, you know, the first thing
that happens is doubts, you know, like can I really
(13:44):
do this? I mean, especially at this stage of my life.
I mean I you know, is it possible? And I
have there's two really powerfultions we ask when the feelings.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
In we'll get a little bit of a breakup. Kat
and your your audio here, So I'm gonna have Rob
my producer. Just you may be walking around or maybe
on a headset, but Rob is going to take over here.
And because we we were getting about every third word
and you, we had good connections when you explained your background,
(14:22):
which is really a degree in reality. And now since
you're explaining answering the question of how do people get
from doubt to do it's important that we make sure
that people can hear clearly what you what you have
to say, Rob. If we're close, it'd like to bring
Kat back if we could still working on it. Okay,
(14:42):
well so sometimes that happens here on night side and Okay,
better location, Cat, we hope that Rob has moved you
to a better location. Were you moving around while you
were talking with us?
Speaker 7 (14:57):
No, but I think I'm in a better place writing.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Okay, So again we're just losing a little bit of
time here. I want you to tell me about the book.
How do you help people get from doubt to do.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
So?
Speaker 7 (15:11):
The first thing is really shifting their mindset, and when
some feeling like something impossible, I start with you in
question what if issible? Followed by what if? What am
(15:31):
I not seeing yet? And that word yet is so
powerful because it creates that space where we're like, well, man,
I can't figure it out. I don't know all the
answers yet, but I'm going to figure it out. And
the figuring it out starts with taking one step towards
(15:56):
it is you they want, even if you know the answer,
just a first step the current to do that, and invariably,
when we do, we take that first step, and all
of a sudden, it's like, oh, okay, that were now.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And sometimes you have to have the courage. Sometimes you
have to have the courage to actually apply for that
job or at least inquire about what you need to do,
because a lot of people. You know, again, there has
to be some reality involved here. You can't probably at
(16:40):
the age of fifty, decide to change your career and
become a professional NBA basketball player or a professional NFL
football player. At that age. There are certain things that
that are out of the way, but virtually anything else
is possible. There are even people who have been able
to find a career in in in film or on
(17:01):
stage and have come to uh to that career just
by simply asking or or or even writing a book.
And I think a lot of people are intimidated that
they've been told Noah, they haven't been that successful, and
they sort of go into a shell. And you've got
to break out of that shell. What is the easiest
way for folks to get your book again? I wish
(17:22):
we had had a better connection here. Kat. It looks
to me like you're somewhere in northern California or southern California.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
That's actually I'm in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well that could that could explain it. I gotta I
got a three two three area code on you. I
didn't realize you were out of the country, so.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
That that's in LA. That's a Los Angeles number in
the middle pandemic. My husband and I connect.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Okay, uh, And you're probably in a in a more
rural area, a beautiful rural area where maybe the the
cell phone coverage is a little spotty. So the book
is from Doubt to Do, Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility.
The author Kat kat Osullivan. I'm sure it's available on
(18:11):
Amazon and probably at bookstores close to you. You can always
ask Kat again. I apologize. I wish we had a
better connection, but I think we understand that one of
the things from Doubt to Do is to just put
a side doubt and say I think I can do
this and give it a shot. It never hurts to ask,
(18:32):
it never hurts to try, and sometimes sometimes that pathway
is a lot easier than perhaps you believe or you feared.
Thanks so much for joining us, Kat, Thank you.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Take care all right, all.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right, Well that was a little bit of a curveball folks.
We didn't know that Kat was going to be in Mexico.
But that's what Nightside is all about. Sometimes we have surprises.
When we come back on to talk about credit card debt.
You got any credit card debt? We're going to talk
with John Egan, he's a content creator and marketer, and
why credit card debt is holding back Americans from estate planning.
(19:09):
I don't quite understand the connection, but I'm sure John
Egan is going to be able to explain it to us.
And it looks to like an area code that we
may have a real good connection. Right after the news
here at the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
The hour, you're on Night Side with Dan Ray on
w z Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Well, all of us know that Americans use credit cards
a lot. I used mine today. I'm sure you probably
are using yours. But with us now is John Egan,
who's a content creator and a marketer, author of a
I'm not sure if this is a book or a guide. John.
It's called The Stripped Down Guide to Content Marketing. I
(19:50):
don't think that's what we're talking about, or are we.
I thought we're going to be talking about credit card
debt holding Americans back from estate planning.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Correct, Yes, that's what we're talking about. We're not talking.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
About this isship. What's the relationship between credit card debt
and estate planning?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Well, I think some people feel as though they are hampered.
They are hampered by debt, and therefore, why do I
need an estate plan They don't feel like they have
the level of assets that would require a state planning.
(20:30):
Then you've got folks who may fear that, oh, if
I set up an estate plan, you know, then that
dictates who's going to end up paying my credit card debt.
All that gets worked out, But the problem is if
you don't have an estate plan, then your wishes aren't met.
(20:50):
And a state planning could be a will, a trust,
and they're not difficult to set up. Especially these days,
there's lots of online providers that work through the process
of developing an estate plan, or you can go into
an attorney who specializes in estate planning.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So there's I got to be honest with you, John,
As a member of the bar here in Massachusetts for
a long long time, I would advise everybody if you're
going to do some estate planning, whether it is just
a simple will and maybe some sort of trust go
through an attorney's office. You see a lot of the
stuff on television for you know, twenty nine dollars and
ninety cents or whatever. I think that that that's fraught
(21:33):
with potential complications. Are you? Are you an attorney? By
the way, off it off.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
My backgrounds in personal finance. So that's why I'm talking
to you today. And I actually had personal experience with
estate planning because my mother died ten years ago and
for the longest time I was nagging her about putting
together a will or a trust or what have you.
And I'm an only child, so it would have fallen
(22:05):
completely to me to deal with her estate. In December
of twenty fourteen, she did put together a trust lo
and behold. Less than a year later she passed away,
and so without that trust in place, things would have
been much more complicated.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
If there were.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
What people need to understand is that in whatever state
you live, if you die without any formal you know,
will in or trust or estate planning, whatever however you
want to characterize it, every state has an what's called
an intestacy statute, in which the state has a formula
which all your assets, maybe the value of your home,
(22:50):
your automobile, your bank accounts, whatever it will be dictated
by the state as to how that will be distributed.
And you know, you want to be able to they say,
the dead hand rules from the grave, but you want
to make sure that whatever you have accumulated in life,
(23:12):
it would be disposed of upon your passing to the
people who are are most important.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
To you and well.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And my mother's wishes were granted simply because she had
taken the step of seeking help from in the state
planning attorney and having those documents drawn up. And I
cannot even imagine what a legal headache it would have
been if all of this had to go to court
because she had no will and no and or no trust.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Sure that would have gotten a lot more expensive. And
depending on the amount of assets that your mom mom had,
those assets would would be depleted. The other thing which
people don't realize is, you know, unless you're doing an
irreplicable trust in your state estate planning, you can do
(24:04):
revocable trusts, and you can do wills, and you can
change those as your economic you know, situation changes, as
your marital situation perhaps changes, uh there there there can
be you know changes as you know if you if
you're doing something at forty, it should be reviewed every
few years anyway and changes. Yeah, so people I think,
(24:29):
don't you think people get a little intimidated by this
because they don't quite know what it means.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Is that well, they don't know what it means and
they don't want to think about death. And that's understandable.
But do your loved ones as favor and get an
estate plan in place, because I can tell you you're
dealing with a lot of other stuff after loved one
passes away. Emotions, funeral arrangements, you know, any number of
(24:58):
other things that there may be a family feud over something.
You don't need the added complication of trying to figure
out who's supposed to get grandma and old you know,
jewelry collection versus you're supposed to get her collection of art.
(25:20):
You know, it just it can lead to such division
with among friends and family that it just makes so
much sense for somebody to do their loved ones a
favor and get a state planning done before the inevitable happens,
(25:41):
which is you pass away, but you don't know when
that's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
A lot of us don't want to admit it. But
to the best of my knowledge, no one gets out
of this place alive.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I'm not There's not been a news alert to that
effect that effect as far as I know.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah, those are of us who you know, happen to
be a Catholic or Christian. We have a faith in
one man who died and was resurrected. But putting that aside,
the rest of us are not going to be in
that same situation. And you're right now. Tell me about
(26:23):
your The Stripped Down Guide to Content Marketing. I know
that doesn't necessarily relate to what we're talking about here,
but I suspect that you might like to talk about it,
and if that has a value to my audience. Tell
people how they could get a copy of The Stripped
Down Guide to Content Marketing.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Well, you can get it on Amazon and it's in paperback, hardback.
It's been out since twenty twenty out gosh, three years,
twenty twenty two. It's about basically how to get your
message out as a bank, and that could be you
as a brand, or that could be a company or
(27:04):
a nonprofit through things like blog posts, white papers, case studies, videos,
social media. There's a lot to understand about it, and
a lot that needs to happen to get it right
because a lot of people do it wrong. And so
my intent in writing this book was, this is the
(27:26):
book I wish I had when I got involved in
content marketing, which when I got involved in content marketing,
I don't even know if the words content marketing applied
to what I was doing. But I joined a company
to help run their websites and develop content for those websites.
And so I did that with at two other companies,
(27:47):
and now I do that independently. And you know, you
could be a small business, you can be a huge company,
you can be a lawyer, a doctor, what have you?
As are you're involved somehow in content marketing and its
phrase that may not exactly be on at the top
(28:11):
of mind for people, but every day you're engaging with
content marketing and some form or fashion.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah. The other thing too, which has often said, is
you only get one chance to make a first impression.
And if you are going to set out on oh
maybe a side hustle, or indeed, if you're going to
start a new you know, very serious business, why not
pick up a copy of the guide, The stripped down
guide to content marketing, as you said, available on Amazon
(28:42):
and yes, and and keep in mind that you need
to do some mistake planning as well. So we covered
both topics, John, I think we did it. Okay, fine,
fair enough.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I never thought I'd be talking about both at
the same time, but they're both important topics.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
You bet you, John Egan, Thanks very much. I appreciate
your time tonight. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Thank you so much. Dan, very welcome.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Really get back. We're going to talk about gen Z
Bien dealing with a case of telephobia phone anxiety. Now,
I look, I'm looking forward to this. We're going to
talk with a workplace expert and the CEO of Samurai
Success and international executive organizational and personal coaching firm. Gen Z.
(29:28):
For those of you who might not know, are people
who were born sometime like in the mid nineties right
up until today. So there are people who are either
actually from excuse me, from the mid nineties until twenty twelve.
So we're talking you could be as young as it
as twelve or thirteen, or as old as your late twenties.
(29:52):
That's the cohort. We're talking about teens and twenty somethings
and why they are. We'll get all of that with
David Allcott right after this break on night Side.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
nights night Studios on WBZ the News Radio.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Okay, this is one that I'm really interested in. Members
of gen Z. These are people as young as teenagers
and can be as old as somewhere in the mid
to late twenties. They deal with they have telephobia, dealing
with phone anxiety with us. As David all Costs, He's
a all Caught is a workplace expert and the CEO
(30:37):
of Samurai's Success, an international executive, organizational and personal coaching firm.
What's wrong with these gen Zers? David?
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Too much.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Much screen time or what?
Speaker 6 (30:50):
Dan? First of all, thanks for having me back on
the show, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
You've probably heard the adage that practice makes perfect. Well,
I think it well in our experience, it actually has.
Practice makes permanent. So when you practice certain things over
and over again, when you're good at them or bad
at on it, they're just make it permanent. They're not perfect. Right.
So the idea here is that if I'm practicing texting
(31:16):
and emails all the time, and I'm not practicing face
to face communication with other people on the phone or
receiving phone calls. I'm actually going to have this thing
where when you don't practice something, it actually affects my
confidence in fear rushes in to fill that gap.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's that makes all the sense in the world, but
it's it's kind of sad.
Speaker 7 (31:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I have two kids who are not gen Zors. They're
a little older, they're in their thirties, and they're always
trying to make me text, and it takes me longer
to text than it does have a quick phone conversation.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
I'm with you, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
And when we were I'm a little probably older than
you because I think I'm older and everybody. When we
were kids, the telephone was what became one of our
early toys. We would do telephone pranks. We would call
some of the older people on the street and say
we were from the you know, the electric company, and
ask them if they refrigerators running, and they'd say, oh, yes,
(32:14):
it is running. Well, why don't you catch it? You know,
there were lessons, there were ways to reach the outside
world that that were you know. Of course, these kids
are way out of there, so how are we going
to make them telephone? The phone booth on the street?
Corners gone, So they have no idea what that is.
Ever was you know, the idea of Superman jumping into
(32:37):
a phone booth and changing We all knew that what
that was. What's going to happen twenty thirty years from
now when gen Z is running the world.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
It's a great question, you know, going back to like
the nineteen sixties, which I grew up through and sounds
like you did too. Remember we had this huge rebellious
phase going on where people were protesting our street from
the Vietnam War and everything else. And remember those people
grew up to be the bosses of the country. So
we've got a real chance for our generations to be
able to move through this phase and do this next
(33:11):
thing about stepping up in this level of responsibility. So
that's what I'm hopeful for. The thing that's going to
change some of that we're not clear about is how
technology is going to affect that.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Well, now we're talking about the day of AI coming
at us and all of those changes and the robotic
changes which which would get us, which would take us
down a rabbit hole which is too deep. But is
it conceivable for Generation Z never to get comfortable with
(33:44):
a telephone? I mean cell phones, smartphones? They're comfortable with
those phones?
Speaker 6 (33:49):
I assume no, they are as a matter of fact.
It's interesting because you know, I was talking to the
gentleman of the day and he was talking about how
gifted he was being able to work with the AI,
and I kind of sat them down for a minute.
I was like, well, okay, tell me more about that.
He says, well, this, and I do this, and I
do this, And I said, so you're having to ask
questions to that AI to make it work. So he
(34:12):
is the prompter of that, which was really interesting because
AI doesn't prompt itself yet. When we get into quantum computers,
that's a real possibility. But this technology that you and
I were talking about, Dan, is this ability to ask
quality questions. And that's such an important part of understanding
human technology. Because we asked great questions, we get great answers,
great responses. We do the same thing on the machine world,
(34:34):
and we can't ask great questions. We're not going to
get the answers rafter.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
One of the things that's great about the telephone, and
obviously with the smartphone and cell phones and satellite all
of that, I can you know, I'm old and if
you remember, you had dial phones, Okay, And now I
find myself last summer with about fifteen tourists. We're in
Naples Airport and we have a problem. There was a
(35:02):
communication problem, and there's a problem with some of the tickets,
the airline tickets that we had, and we were trying
to get back to the US. So I'm able to
on a Sunday morning with my cell phone called the
head of the travel company who's half a world away
in the United States. Now, that never would have happened.
(35:24):
If this had occurred thirty years ago or forty years ago,
we would have been stuck on that airport. Maybe we
never would have gotten out of the airport. I don't know.
Maybe we would have talked our way out of it
some way. But just the facility to be able to
have a telephone which can get you back to somebody
who then can call somebody and solve a problem. What
is the the gen z who's going to do? They're
(35:46):
going to sit there and they're going to try to
send a text to someone which might have might not
get through. I'm a little worried here about gen z Is.
I know the telephone has been around longer, and they
probably look at the telephones as old fashioned and something
(36:06):
their parents and grandparents used. But there's new incarnations of
the telephone. I just don't get it. They are using
the telephone, but they're not using it to speak directly
to another person. They're using it almost as well. Their
idea say it almost like the people who were sending
(36:27):
most codes of most code one hundred and fifty years
ago telegraphs, they're sending text messages. Why would they not
be comfortable with the verbal interaction? Is what I'm asking,
And I'm wondering if you can shed any light on
that for me. Sure.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
As a matter of fact, you know, when you think
about gen ZS and this other generation, I will tell
you he actually turns circles around me when it comes
to technology. They're so smart Dan about this stuff. The
missing component is something you and I grew up with,
which is how do you interact with people once you're
want to get something done? And that's as long as
there's humans, we're going to have to do that. So
two parts of communication, right, one is the content and
(37:07):
denzs have that stuff down because they can text information,
Google stuff like crazy, just you know, circles around me
all day long. It's the presentation skills that they're really lacking,
and those presentation skills is what we actually bring to
the table. And there's plenty of programs out there and
workplace environments where you can get that information.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Okay, tell me about your group summarized success, Who can
in help and how do people get in touch with you?
Speaker 6 (37:34):
So that's way this is at Samurai Success dot com.
But we really are an executive coaching firm that really
focuses on small and medium sized businesses, people who really
want to understand the mastery of business, not just the
money aside, because truth is, money's usually pretty easy for
most of our clients. It's keeping the money and then
structuring that for longevity and something we call project destiny.
Having enough time and money to do what you really
(37:56):
want to do in this lifetime.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Sounds great, David Alcott, appreciate it very much. Samurai success
dot com sounds great. Hopefully some folks we'll reach out
either by telephone or by text.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Either way we'll be prepared.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Thanks David. David, oh, God, appreciate it for everything. To
talk to you. Soon when we get back, we will
get into the portion of the program that you can
participate in. Going to talk about the Massachusetts Teachers Association,
a very influential group of teachers here in Massachusetts who
now it has been alleged, have been given anti Semitic
(38:34):
learning materials on the Israeli Hamas war. We've got guests
coming up.
In Boston right now at eight oh six, it's twenty
and it feels like four. And by the way, on
top of Mount Washington yesterday the observatory measuring a gust
of one hundred and sixty one miles an hour. Tonight,
the wind is about sixty to eighty miles an hour,
the temperature about twenty below wind chill's pushing sixty below
with freezing fog. Stick around. Time for Nightside, Dan Ray
(00:22):
here to get us to almost midnight. I'm Nicole Davis
WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You're cold, Davis, thank you very much. Freezing fog, freezing
freezing fog. I've never heard of freezing fog before.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The thing is, I've also learned about snizzle in the
past few years, which is an actual meteorological term. I've
been told freezing or like essentially snowing drizzle, But freezing
fog is when you know it's foggy out, but it's
so cold it freezes to the surface of stuff so
you can barely see, and it also freezes all over
everything and makes it slick.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Remind me never to go on vacation to the top
of Mount Washington in January February. Would you make a
note of that.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, I'm gonna work on that right now, and
something tells me probably March or April too, the way
things are going. Yes, yeah, no problem.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Freezing fog. My name is Dan Ray. It's not freezing fog.
That's the condition that the people at the top of
Mount Washington are dealing with. Horror of horrors. Can you
imagine what's the temperature? What's what's it like? It's freezing fog.
Fred whoa good evening, everybody, Welcome on in. Rob Brooks
is back tonight. Rob. You can give yourself a round
of applause. He was off last night, but he has
(01:41):
returned tonight to his views of the spot and I
enjoined that round of applause. Dan Cantano did a great
job last night, Rob, but it's always great to have
you back. Welcome, and my name is Dan Ray. I'm
the host of the program here every Monday to Friday night.
We had a very interesting show last night, and I
want to specifically draw your attention to the nine o'clock
our last night with economics professor who's actually the chair,
(02:05):
the head of the undergraduate Economics Department at Harvard University,
a senior lecturer Jeff Myron, just did a great job
on explaining to us the federal debt, the interaction between
the federal debt and the federally annual federal deficit, and
just a great hour of explanation and some great calls
during that hour too, which is what we always want
(02:27):
a nightside great guests and great calls. We only have
great guests in this hour tonight because we interview four
newsmakers of a sort. They don't necessarily have to be
the lead story on the nightly newscasts, but they're newsmakers
and priding and providing us with some important information. And
we will later on tonight talk about some allegations of
(02:49):
anti Semitism within the Massachusetts Teachers Association. And we'll also
take a closer look at Elon Musk hero or villain.
Some people thank you sa Hero, some people thinks he
think he's a villain, and never the twains she'll meet.
We're going to start off tonight with a friend of
this program, Mark shield Drop, He spokesperson for the Triple
(03:12):
A here in New England. Mark welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
How are you tonight, sir Dan, I'm doing great, Thanks
for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Sadly, we're here to talk about kind of a subject
that should be a concern to everyone, and that is
an uptick in pedestrian fatalities across the country, not just
in New England, and specifically an uptick at night tell
us about.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
It, Yeah, definitely. So our foundation is, you know, really
tried to get our heads around this big problem that's
been increasing. So in twenty oh nine, some time ago,
we reached a lull for pedestrian fatalities, but since then
we reverse course and those fatalities have increased eighty percent
in the past fifteen years. So it's a growing problem.
(04:00):
There's a lot of reasons why there's a growing problem,
but we wanted to kind of find really common threads
between these problems, and really it boils down to urban
arterial roads. That's a mouthful, but think of Route nine
or Route one and think of them at night, and
you think about how many people really depend on that
(04:20):
road to get where they needed to go. You got
cars mixing with a lot of pedestrians and that's really
where a lot of these crashes are occurring. So in
our city centers we're not seeing the increase. It's really
on these roads, you know, a few miles outside of
the city center, where you've got a lot of people
that depend on public transportation. These are socio and economically
challenged communities in many cases, and that's where the bulk
(04:44):
of the problems are. So it's a big problem and hopefully,
you know, talking about it, we can get our heads
around a little bit and make some progress.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, you know, you mentioned Route nine as an example
here in Massachusetts, or are great to Boston, and Route
nine really starts in Brookline, flows through Newton, Chestnut Hill,
and on out through Wellesley and Intoonatic and Framingham. You
don't think of those as depressed socioeconomic areas. Obviously, there
are bus routes there, and there are some ways in
(05:14):
which people can have to cross intersections. You can see
that downtown areas. I guess the cars are probably going
at a slower rate of speed. That might be there
may be people who you know, get bumped by a car,
but the car's going five miles an hour and there's
it's it's not a fatality. Is that a fact of
(05:35):
the amount of speed on these these again what i'll
call them exterior arteries.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Yeah, you're definitely thinking on the right track.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
That has a lot to do with it.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
I mean, we still see pedestrian fatalities in downtown Boston
and Cambridge, and I don't want to minimize those by
any means, but you're right, these these types of roads
that we're talking about are sometimes you're driving on and
it feels like a highway. You know, I think of
Route one when you're in Foxborough. Suddenly you know, you
get an extra lane. You're on a four lane road.
There might be sidewalks, there might not be, but there's
(06:07):
shopping centers, there's bus stops, there's pedestrian activity. So it's
not really a good street, but it's not really a
good road either. It's not a highway, but sometimes it
feels like a highway, and that's really one of the
big issues. And you'll find places where there's no sidewalk,
but you see a well worn path in the grass
that tells you people are walking there, but the infrastructure
(06:30):
is not really supporting them properly, and it's creating a
higher chance of having these unfortunate tragedies.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So this is a national survey. The numbers you're comparing
are national numbers from two thousand and nine, and I
think you said two thousand and two thousand and nine,
and the most recent one is twenty twenty two, so
we don't have numbers for twenty three or twenty four
yet is New England over represented under represented it in
(07:01):
this trend or did it break out that way?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
We're really right in line with the country as a whole.
So this research really drilled down into a couple of
case studies to try to really get to.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
The bottom of what some of the root causes are.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
And we know, you know, cars are bigger, people are speeding,
and pedestrians there's more cars in pedestrians, but here in
New England we're really following that national track. Just this
year alone in Massachusetts there's been fourteen pedestrian fatalities. And
what's funny is, you know, just speaking to how relevant
this problem is, you know, fourteen people dying already this
(07:35):
year is a lot, but earlier today, prepping for this interview,
the number was thirteen. And just before you called, I said,
you know, let's go into the crash database just to check,
and sure enough that February fourteenth, crash and Worcester on
Grafton Road. I believe it was the sixty three year
old woman tragically lost her life that got out of
the system today, So I had to update my notes
just in one day. So it's a problem with seeing
(07:58):
a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I should probably you shouldn't say funny, but it's ironic.
All of those pedestrian deaths to fourteen have occurred here
in the first six or seven weeks, so it's about
two a week. So if you project that out, that
means we'll probably have one hundred here in Massachusetts. If
there was a plane crash today in anywhere in which
(08:21):
let's say fourteen people were killed, that would be the
headline news and the nightly news story. There was a
plane crash in Toronto yesterday. Thankfully no one died, but
you hear a book these plane crashes with two people
three people on board. But if there was some small
commuter plane that fourteen people, it would be a headline story.
But when it's one person here, one person there, it's not.
(08:45):
And we need to be all a little more careful
while we're driving and also walking, as simple as that.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
That's an amazing analogy. I mean, if you think about it,
every day in this country, basically a loaded seven forty
seven worth of people die in car crashes every day
in this country. So that's a really great perspective to have,
and it kind of speaks to how we're kind of
numb to the issue, I guess, you know, So if
everybody just does their part, you know, communities plan and
(09:12):
address as much as they can. You know, there's a
lot of funning issues out there. But anytime you can
improve pedestrian safety and convinced drivers to try to be
responsible and drive a little slower, you know, I think
we can get those numbers down. But you know, since
by fifteen, we've had seven hundred and seventy one pedestrian
fatalities in Massachusetts, and I think we can do better
(09:32):
than that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Sounds great, Mark, Shield drop of a triple A. You
always bring great information, and this is a sad information,
but it's very important information. Thank you so much, Mark,
as always, Hey.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
My pleasure.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Now you can go on to the fun topic.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Maybe a little less a little more fun, but some
of them are also concerning as well. Thanks Mark, appreciate
it very much. We will be talking with how you
get from doubt to Do with an often named Kate
O'Sullivan Coming back here on Nightside. My name's Dan Ray.
This is Nightside on WBC Boston's news radio ten thirty
on your AM dial.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
to Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Joining us now is Kat O'Sullivan. Kat's been doing this
for a while. She is a speaker. She has written
a book from Doubt to Do, Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility. Kat.
First of all, welcome to Nightside. Thank you for joining
us tonight. How are you.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
I'm doing great, Dan, Good to be with you.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Tell us a little bit about your professional experience, because
I've googled you here and I'm generally someone is either
a therapist or they're a psychologist. Tell us, tell us
about your background, and let's talk about the book.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Well, you know, I kind of jokingly say when people
ask me, you know, like like where did you graduate from?
And I would say MSU and they're like like Minnesota,
and I'm like no, like make stuff up. So I
have not followed a traditional path. My experience is up
(11:21):
close and personal and everything I've done, I've worked in
the corporate world. That didn't last too long because I'm
a change maker and a little too constrictive, and I
moved into the nonprofit world, particularly working with young people
who people were kind of second guessing what they were
(11:45):
capable of. And you know, I've spent much of my
life really in many different arenas helping young people, given
them experiences where they could discover what they're capable of.
And then I moved more into the coaching training development
(12:06):
arena with adults, you know, who were second guessing what
they were capable of, both personally and also professionally. And
worked for many years with business owners who were kind
of at a place in their business where they hit
the wall and they weren't quite sure, you know, what
(12:27):
else was possible for their business and their life as
business owners. And so I have basically spent my entire
life doing what people often said was seemingly impossible. Well,
and that's given.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Me great You have great experience here. It sounds to
me like you've helped people who perhaps have moved to
a second career, maybe in some people who have totally
retooled themselves, retooled their business. So the book, the title
of the book which is what we're going to talk
about right now, is from doubt to do, navigating your
(13:04):
pathway to possibility. Obviously all of us, at different points
in our life are uh I have the problem of
doubting what we can do. So what is the key
to get from doubt to do.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Well? Surprising, It starts with a shift in your mind.
Whenever' facing something new, something maybe it's unexpected, maybe it's
something we're trying to create, you know, the first thing
that happens is doubts, you know, like can I really
(13:44):
do this? I mean, especially at this stage of my life.
I mean I you know, is it possible? And I
have there's two really powerfultions we ask when the feelings.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
In we'll get a little bit of a breakup. Kat
and your your audio here, So I'm gonna have Rob
my producer. Just you may be walking around or maybe
on a headset, but Rob is going to take over here.
And because we we were getting about every third word
and you, we had good connections when you explained your background,
(14:22):
which is really a degree in reality. And now since
you're explaining answering the question of how do people get
from doubt to do it's important that we make sure
that people can hear clearly what you what you have
to say, Rob. If we're close, it'd like to bring
Kat back if we could still working on it. Okay,
(14:42):
well so sometimes that happens here on night side and Okay,
better location, Cat, we hope that Rob has moved you
to a better location. Were you moving around while you
were talking with us?
Speaker 7 (14:57):
No, but I think I'm in a better place writing.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Okay, So again we're just losing a little bit of
time here. I want you to tell me about the book.
How do you help people get from doubt to do.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
So?
Speaker 7 (15:11):
The first thing is really shifting their mindset, and when
some feeling like something impossible, I start with you in
question what if issible? Followed by what if? What am
(15:31):
I not seeing yet? And that word yet is so
powerful because it creates that space where we're like, well, man,
I can't figure it out. I don't know all the
answers yet, but I'm going to figure it out. And
the figuring it out starts with taking one step towards
(15:56):
it is you they want, even if you know the answer,
just a first step the current to do that, and invariably,
when we do, we take that first step, and all
of a sudden, it's like, oh, okay, that were now.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And sometimes you have to have the courage. Sometimes you
have to have the courage to actually apply for that
job or at least inquire about what you need to do,
because a lot of people. You know, again, there has
to be some reality involved here. You can't probably at
(16:40):
the age of fifty, decide to change your career and
become a professional NBA basketball player or a professional NFL
football player. At that age. There are certain things that
that are out of the way, but virtually anything else
is possible. There are even people who have been able
to find a career in in in film or on
(17:01):
stage and have come to uh to that career just
by simply asking or or or even writing a book.
And I think a lot of people are intimidated that
they've been told Noah, they haven't been that successful, and
they sort of go into a shell. And you've got
to break out of that shell. What is the easiest
way for folks to get your book again? I wish
(17:22):
we had had a better connection here. Kat. It looks
to me like you're somewhere in northern California or southern California.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
That's actually I'm in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well that could that could explain it. I gotta I
got a three two three area code on you. I
didn't realize you were out of the country, so.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
That that's in LA. That's a Los Angeles number in
the middle pandemic. My husband and I connect.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Okay, uh, And you're probably in a in a more
rural area, a beautiful rural area where maybe the the
cell phone coverage is a little spotty. So the book
is from Doubt to Do, Navigating Your Pathway to Possibility.
The author Kat kat Osullivan. I'm sure it's available on
(18:11):
Amazon and probably at bookstores close to you. You can always
ask Kat again. I apologize. I wish we had a
better connection, but I think we understand that one of
the things from Doubt to Do is to just put
a side doubt and say I think I can do
this and give it a shot. It never hurts to ask,
(18:32):
it never hurts to try, and sometimes sometimes that pathway
is a lot easier than perhaps you believe or you feared.
Thanks so much for joining us, Kat, Thank you.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Take care all right, all.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right, Well that was a little bit of a curveball folks.
We didn't know that Kat was going to be in Mexico.
But that's what Nightside is all about. Sometimes we have surprises.
When we come back on to talk about credit card debt.
You got any credit card debt? We're going to talk
with John Egan, he's a content creator and marketer, and
why credit card debt is holding back Americans from estate planning.
(19:09):
I don't quite understand the connection, but I'm sure John
Egan is going to be able to explain it to us.
And it looks to like an area code that we
may have a real good connection. Right after the news
here at the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
The hour, you're on Night Side with Dan Ray on
w z Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Well, all of us know that Americans use credit cards
a lot. I used mine today. I'm sure you probably
are using yours. But with us now is John Egan,
who's a content creator and a marketer, author of a
I'm not sure if this is a book or a guide. John.
It's called The Stripped Down Guide to Content Marketing. I
(19:50):
don't think that's what we're talking about, or are we.
I thought we're going to be talking about credit card
debt holding Americans back from estate planning.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Correct, Yes, that's what we're talking about. We're not talking.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
About this isship. What's the relationship between credit card debt
and estate planning?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Well, I think some people feel as though they are hampered.
They are hampered by debt, and therefore, why do I
need an estate plan They don't feel like they have
the level of assets that would require a state planning.
(20:30):
Then you've got folks who may fear that, oh, if
I set up an estate plan, you know, then that
dictates who's going to end up paying my credit card debt.
All that gets worked out, But the problem is if
you don't have an estate plan, then your wishes aren't met.
(20:50):
And a state planning could be a will, a trust,
and they're not difficult to set up. Especially these days,
there's lots of online providers that work through the process
of developing an estate plan, or you can go into
an attorney who specializes in estate planning.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So there's I got to be honest with you, John,
As a member of the bar here in Massachusetts for
a long long time, I would advise everybody if you're
going to do some estate planning, whether it is just
a simple will and maybe some sort of trust go
through an attorney's office. You see a lot of the
stuff on television for you know, twenty nine dollars and
ninety cents or whatever. I think that that that's fraught
(21:33):
with potential complications. Are you? Are you an attorney? By
the way, off it off.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
My backgrounds in personal finance. So that's why I'm talking
to you today. And I actually had personal experience with
estate planning because my mother died ten years ago and
for the longest time I was nagging her about putting
together a will or a trust or what have you.
And I'm an only child, so it would have fallen
(22:05):
completely to me to deal with her estate. In December
of twenty fourteen, she did put together a trust lo
and behold. Less than a year later she passed away,
and so without that trust in place, things would have
been much more complicated.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
If there were.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
What people need to understand is that in whatever state
you live, if you die without any formal you know,
will in or trust or estate planning, whatever however you
want to characterize it, every state has an what's called
an intestacy statute, in which the state has a formula
which all your assets, maybe the value of your home,
(22:50):
your automobile, your bank accounts, whatever it will be dictated
by the state as to how that will be distributed.
And you know, you want to be able to they say,
the dead hand rules from the grave, but you want
to make sure that whatever you have accumulated in life,
(23:12):
it would be disposed of upon your passing to the
people who are are most important.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
To you and well.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
And my mother's wishes were granted simply because she had
taken the step of seeking help from in the state
planning attorney and having those documents drawn up. And I
cannot even imagine what a legal headache it would have
been if all of this had to go to court
because she had no will and no and or no trust.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Sure that would have gotten a lot more expensive. And
depending on the amount of assets that your mom mom had,
those assets would would be depleted. The other thing which
people don't realize is, you know, unless you're doing an
irreplicable trust in your state estate planning, you can do
(24:04):
revocable trusts, and you can do wills, and you can
change those as your economic you know, situation changes, as
your marital situation perhaps changes, uh there there there can
be you know changes as you know if you if
you're doing something at forty, it should be reviewed every
few years anyway and changes. Yeah, so people I think,
(24:29):
don't you think people get a little intimidated by this
because they don't quite know what it means.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Is that well, they don't know what it means and
they don't want to think about death. And that's understandable.
But do your loved ones as favor and get an
estate plan in place, because I can tell you you're
dealing with a lot of other stuff after loved one
passes away. Emotions, funeral arrangements, you know, any number of
(24:58):
other things that there may be a family feud over something.
You don't need the added complication of trying to figure
out who's supposed to get grandma and old you know,
jewelry collection versus you're supposed to get her collection of art.
(25:20):
You know, it just it can lead to such division
with among friends and family that it just makes so
much sense for somebody to do their loved ones a
favor and get a state planning done before the inevitable happens,
(25:41):
which is you pass away, but you don't know when
that's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
A lot of us don't want to admit it. But
to the best of my knowledge, no one gets out
of this place alive.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I'm not There's not been a news alert to that
effect that effect as far as I know.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah, those are of us who you know, happen to
be a Catholic or Christian. We have a faith in
one man who died and was resurrected. But putting that aside,
the rest of us are not going to be in
that same situation. And you're right now. Tell me about
(26:23):
your The Stripped Down Guide to Content Marketing. I know
that doesn't necessarily relate to what we're talking about here,
but I suspect that you might like to talk about it,
and if that has a value to my audience. Tell
people how they could get a copy of The Stripped
Down Guide to Content Marketing.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Well, you can get it on Amazon and it's in paperback, hardback.
It's been out since twenty twenty out gosh, three years,
twenty twenty two. It's about basically how to get your
message out as a bank, and that could be you
as a brand, or that could be a company or
(27:04):
a nonprofit through things like blog posts, white papers, case studies, videos,
social media. There's a lot to understand about it, and
a lot that needs to happen to get it right
because a lot of people do it wrong. And so
my intent in writing this book was, this is the
(27:26):
book I wish I had when I got involved in
content marketing, which when I got involved in content marketing,
I don't even know if the words content marketing applied
to what I was doing. But I joined a company
to help run their websites and develop content for those websites.
And so I did that with at two other companies,
(27:47):
and now I do that independently. And you know, you
could be a small business, you can be a huge company,
you can be a lawyer, a doctor, what have you?
As are you're involved somehow in content marketing and its
phrase that may not exactly be on at the top
(28:11):
of mind for people, but every day you're engaging with
content marketing and some form or fashion.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah. The other thing too, which has often said, is
you only get one chance to make a first impression.
And if you are going to set out on oh
maybe a side hustle, or indeed, if you're going to
start a new you know, very serious business, why not
pick up a copy of the guide, The stripped down
guide to content marketing, as you said, available on Amazon
(28:42):
and yes, and and keep in mind that you need
to do some mistake planning as well. So we covered
both topics, John, I think we did it. Okay, fine,
fair enough.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I never thought I'd be talking about both at
the same time, but they're both important topics.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
You bet you, John Egan, Thanks very much. I appreciate
your time tonight. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Thank you so much. Dan, very welcome.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Really get back. We're going to talk about gen Z
Bien dealing with a case of telephobia phone anxiety. Now,
I look, I'm looking forward to this. We're going to
talk with a workplace expert and the CEO of Samurai
Success and international executive organizational and personal coaching firm. Gen Z.
(29:28):
For those of you who might not know, are people
who were born sometime like in the mid nineties right
up until today. So there are people who are either
actually from excuse me, from the mid nineties until twenty twelve.
So we're talking you could be as young as it
as twelve or thirteen, or as old as your late twenties.
(29:52):
That's the cohort. We're talking about teens and twenty somethings
and why they are. We'll get all of that with
David Allcott right after this break on night Side.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
nights night Studios on WBZ the News Radio.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Okay, this is one that I'm really interested in. Members
of gen Z. These are people as young as teenagers
and can be as old as somewhere in the mid
to late twenties. They deal with they have telephobia, dealing
with phone anxiety with us. As David all Costs, He's
a all Caught is a workplace expert and the CEO
(30:37):
of Samurai's Success, an international executive, organizational and personal coaching firm.
What's wrong with these gen Zers? David?
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Too much.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Much screen time or what?
Speaker 6 (30:50):
Dan? First of all, thanks for having me back on
the show, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Welcome.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
You've probably heard the adage that practice makes perfect. Well,
I think it well in our experience, it actually has.
Practice makes permanent. So when you practice certain things over
and over again, when you're good at them or bad
at on it, they're just make it permanent. They're not perfect. Right.
So the idea here is that if I'm practicing texting
(31:16):
and emails all the time, and I'm not practicing face
to face communication with other people on the phone or
receiving phone calls. I'm actually going to have this thing
where when you don't practice something, it actually affects my
confidence in fear rushes in to fill that gap.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's that makes all the sense in the world, but
it's it's kind of sad.
Speaker 7 (31:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I have two kids who are not gen Zors. They're
a little older, they're in their thirties, and they're always
trying to make me text, and it takes me longer
to text than it does have a quick phone conversation.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
I'm with you, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
And when we were I'm a little probably older than
you because I think I'm older and everybody. When we
were kids, the telephone was what became one of our
early toys. We would do telephone pranks. We would call
some of the older people on the street and say
we were from the you know, the electric company, and
ask them if they refrigerators running, and they'd say, oh, yes,
(32:14):
it is running. Well, why don't you catch it? You know,
there were lessons, there were ways to reach the outside
world that that were you know. Of course, these kids
are way out of there, so how are we going
to make them telephone? The phone booth on the street?
Corners gone, So they have no idea what that is.
Ever was you know, the idea of Superman jumping into
(32:37):
a phone booth and changing We all knew that what
that was. What's going to happen twenty thirty years from
now when gen Z is running the world.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
It's a great question, you know, going back to like
the nineteen sixties, which I grew up through and sounds
like you did too. Remember we had this huge rebellious
phase going on where people were protesting our street from
the Vietnam War and everything else. And remember those people
grew up to be the bosses of the country. So
we've got a real chance for our generations to be
able to move through this phase and do this next
(33:11):
thing about stepping up in this level of responsibility. So
that's what I'm hopeful for. The thing that's going to
change some of that we're not clear about is how
technology is going to affect that.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Well, now we're talking about the day of AI coming
at us and all of those changes and the robotic
changes which which would get us, which would take us
down a rabbit hole which is too deep. But is
it conceivable for Generation Z never to get comfortable with
(33:44):
a telephone? I mean cell phones, smartphones? They're comfortable with
those phones?
Speaker 6 (33:49):
I assume no, they are as a matter of fact.
It's interesting because you know, I was talking to the
gentleman of the day and he was talking about how
gifted he was being able to work with the AI,
and I kind of sat them down for a minute.
I was like, well, okay, tell me more about that.
He says, well, this, and I do this, and I
do this, And I said, so you're having to ask
questions to that AI to make it work. So he
(34:12):
is the prompter of that, which was really interesting because
AI doesn't prompt itself yet. When we get into quantum computers,
that's a real possibility. But this technology that you and
I were talking about, Dan, is this ability to ask
quality questions. And that's such an important part of understanding
human technology. Because we asked great questions, we get great answers,
great responses. We do the same thing on the machine world,
(34:34):
and we can't ask great questions. We're not going to
get the answers rafter.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
One of the things that's great about the telephone, and
obviously with the smartphone and cell phones and satellite all
of that, I can you know, I'm old and if
you remember, you had dial phones, Okay, And now I
find myself last summer with about fifteen tourists. We're in
Naples Airport and we have a problem. There was a
(35:02):
communication problem, and there's a problem with some of the tickets,
the airline tickets that we had, and we were trying
to get back to the US. So I'm able to
on a Sunday morning with my cell phone called the
head of the travel company who's half a world away
in the United States. Now, that never would have happened.
(35:24):
If this had occurred thirty years ago or forty years ago,
we would have been stuck on that airport. Maybe we
never would have gotten out of the airport. I don't know.
Maybe we would have talked our way out of it
some way. But just the facility to be able to
have a telephone which can get you back to somebody
who then can call somebody and solve a problem. What
is the the gen z who's going to do? They're
(35:46):
going to sit there and they're going to try to
send a text to someone which might have might not
get through. I'm a little worried here about gen z Is.
I know the telephone has been around longer, and they
probably look at the telephones as old fashioned and something
(36:06):
their parents and grandparents used. But there's new incarnations of
the telephone. I just don't get it. They are using
the telephone, but they're not using it to speak directly
to another person. They're using it almost as well. Their
idea say it almost like the people who were sending
(36:27):
most codes of most code one hundred and fifty years
ago telegraphs, they're sending text messages. Why would they not
be comfortable with the verbal interaction? Is what I'm asking,
And I'm wondering if you can shed any light on
that for me. Sure.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
As a matter of fact, you know, when you think
about gen ZS and this other generation, I will tell
you he actually turns circles around me when it comes
to technology. They're so smart Dan about this stuff. The
missing component is something you and I grew up with,
which is how do you interact with people once you're
want to get something done? And that's as long as
there's humans, we're going to have to do that. So
two parts of communication, right, one is the content and
(37:07):
denzs have that stuff down because they can text information,
Google stuff like crazy, just you know, circles around me
all day long. It's the presentation skills that they're really lacking,
and those presentation skills is what we actually bring to
the table. And there's plenty of programs out there and
workplace environments where you can get that information.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Okay, tell me about your group summarized success, Who can
in help and how do people get in touch with you?
Speaker 6 (37:34):
So that's way this is at Samurai Success dot com.
But we really are an executive coaching firm that really
focuses on small and medium sized businesses, people who really
want to understand the mastery of business, not just the
money aside, because truth is, money's usually pretty easy for
most of our clients. It's keeping the money and then
structuring that for longevity and something we call project destiny.
Having enough time and money to do what you really
(37:56):
want to do in this lifetime.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Sounds great, David Alcott, appreciate it very much. Samurai success
dot com sounds great. Hopefully some folks we'll reach out
either by telephone or by text.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
Either way we'll be prepared.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Thanks David. David, oh, God, appreciate it for everything. To
talk to you. Soon when we get back, we will
get into the portion of the program that you can
participate in. Going to talk about the Massachusetts Teachers Association,
a very influential group of teachers here in Massachusetts who
now it has been alleged, have been given anti Semitic
(38:34):
learning materials on the Israeli Hamas war. We've got guests
coming up.
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