While in Chicago for NBA All-Star Weekend, HoopsHype had the chance to sit down with former No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden. We discussed the bust label, his battle with depression and substance abuse, life after basketball, his advice for Zion Williamson, returning to Ohio State to get his degree, his off-court endeavors and more. You can listen to the full interview above or read the transcription below.

Last year, you graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Sports Industry. First of all, congratulations! Why did you decide to return to school and what did it mean to you to earn your degree?

Greg Oden:Thank you! It meant a lot. It was a promise that I made to my mom and now, Im a college graduate! That always feels good to say. Honestly, what originally made me go back is because, at the time, I was thinking about getting into coaching at the college level and you need a college degree, so thats what got me there. Once I got my degree, I felt like I could do a lot more.

Do you still want to get into coaching at some point or have you moved on from that entirely?

GO: Right now, in this moment, Ive started doing other things. But I think coaching is always going to be something thats in the back of my head, just because I love teaching and being around basketball. Since I cant play now, the best way for me to be around the game is on the coaching side. It will happen in the future. But for right now, Im the athlete adviser for a financial education company called Edyoucore. We talk to athletes about taking advantage of what they have now, being more engaged in their finances, looking into investments and being more conscious of their spending because you never know when your career could be over. You might want to save and make sure you have as much money put aside as you possibly can.

Id imagine its rewarding to positively impact so many players and help them avoid going broke.

GO:It feels good. Hopefully they listen! Nobody wants to be that cautionary tale. Its funny, I remember watching the 30 for 30 film Broke and they didnt do a story on me, but they talked about me and how injuries can end a career early. I was sitting there watching it with my friends, like everybody else, and I hear Greg Oden and everyone is looking at me. I was like, What the fu**?! Do I get residuals for this?! Whats going on?! (laughs)

Youve talked about how your self-worth was completely tied to basketball so when the game was taken away from you due to injuries, that was very hard for you. What was that like and how were you able to come to the realization that theres more to life than basketball?

GO: When I was away from the game. It wasnt until I wasnt playing anymore and my life didnt revolve around basketball anymore. Yeah, thats one of the toughest things that you can do. When basketball was taken away from me, I looked up and was like, Who am I? What do I want to do? What do I enjoy doing? I felt like every other college student just this past year when I graduated and I was like, Alright, there goes the excuse that Im going to school. What the hell do I want to do? What do I enjoy doing? Being able to find out who you are, what you enjoy doing and how you can make an impact in this world, its tough.

But, for me, I have a little daughter and a family, so the one thing that I knew I wanted to be is a great dad; I wanted to take care of my family. I was blessed to play the game of basketball, which gives me a little cushion to figure out whats next and try new things and learn what it is that I enjoy doing. I wanted to find something that gives me the most time at home with my family, which is what I love the most. Theyre my main priority.

What are some of the hobbies and interests that you discovered?

GO: I still love going to the movies. I am probably the biggest fan of basketball because all I do is watch games all day, every day. I play a little bit of golf. Im not good yet, but I play a little bit. I work out a lot, just trying to not get fat. (laughs) And I spend a lot of time with my daughter.

Whats your favorite movie?

GO: Okay, so my favorite movie of last year was Knives Out. I loved Bad Boys For Life. Im excited to see Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Since its Valentines Day weekend, my wife and I are going to see The Photograph. Im a big Marvel guy too. I cant wait for the spin-off shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki to come to Disney+.

I dont think fans realize how isolating and depressing the injury-recovery process can be. Ive talked to players like Derrick Rose about how having injury after injury and not being able to do the thing you love takes a toll on a person (physically and mentally). How tough was that, especially when there are a lot of setbacks?

GO: Yeah, trying to get yourself back to where you were is tough, especially when its someone like Derrick Rose because the dude was MVP. When youre trying to get back to that level, back to the No. 1 player in the country, thats really tough. But hes doing an amazing job and hes become an amazing pro. I applaud his heart to even be out there, and I love watching it as a fan. But youre right, youre lonely and you want to be out there with your guys. You want to be able to do the things that the team and the city you play for brought you in to do. You want to bring a championship and do great things on the court, but you just physically cant. Thats tough. Mentally, youre trying to deal with that. Sometimes, if youre at a young age, you dont even know how to deal with yourself and your own thoughts, and now youre all by yourself. How are you handling that? How are you going to get up every day knowing that it hurts? Its really tough mentally.

I think its very brave that youre so candid about those dark times in your life and it may help others who are going through their own struggles. Youve said that when you returned from playing in China in 2016, you were depressed and drinking daily. What was going through your mind then and how did you get out of that funk?

GO: Well, when youre by yourself, you need to cope. I had to think about this: I used to drink a lotand I never thought about this, but it used to numb my body. So I never thought about all of the pain that I was in. And one thing thats big in Ohio is opiate abuse. I had an abundance of pills and I was drinking and taking them. I had to deal with that stuff. I remember calling Coach [Thad] Mattaand just feeling like I didnt even know who I was and I couldnt sit by myself and be quiet. He was like, Just come to the gym, come to practice. I started going back to practice and, honestly, getting basketball back in my life and having something to do every day was something that was huge in helping me get out of that funk. Then, once I was there, he told me, You know, theres this degree-completion program I was like, Hmm, alright. Then, when I was going back to school, I actually had to concentrate and I couldnt be hungover every day. It gave me a path. And once I went down that road, I realized, You dont have to drink every day to feel okay or feel something. Youre just numbing yourself. Then, I had a family. My daughter made me want to live a better life and do things right for her because, eventually, shes going to hear these things about me. Im going to have to talk to her about some of the things that Ive done in my life, but I want to help her be a better young woman and make better decisions in her life.

How important was your support system? It sounds like Coach Matta and your family have played a crucial role in helping you get your life back on track,

GO: Its amazing. Im married now, so its great to have my wife there to tell me when Im doing terrible and when I can do better. And my daughter, just to see the smile on that girls face She doesnt care what youre going through, I have to be Daddy every day. Thats something that everybody needs. We try to act like we dont need people who are there for us, but it helps to have somebody you can talk to, to run things by, to trust and to share your life with. For me, those people are my family.

Fans and some media members throw around terms like bust. You had no control over your injuries, but Im sure some people still said awful things and criticized you. Did you get a lot of mean comments and what was it like dealing with those?

GO: You read those?! First off, I dont read comments at all. I may read the first three comments, which are usually people you know, but I dont scroll down and care about that stuff. Honestly, with the word bust, I used to throw it around when talking about myself. I kind of took the power away from it by saying it, like, I might be a bust, but thats somebodys else personal thought. I had an opportunity and it didnt work out, which was unfortunate. It didnt turn out the way that it was supposed to, but I think I was actually one heck of a basketball player back in the day. Funny story about that word bust: If you go to YouTube and type in Greg Oden highlight video, the best one is actually the one titled Greg Oden: A Bust? Go watch that. Ive watched it. I actually watch it a lot, it makes me feel good about myself! (laughs)

When you were healthy, you were incredible. It was just the injuries that limited you. Former Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard told me a crazy stat: You, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge only played 62 games together because of injuries. In those 62 games, you guys were 50-12. When healthy, you guys were dominant! Do you think about different what-ifs about your career (like how special that team couldve been) or do you try not to focus on those things?

GO: Oh, theres nothing to do except think about the what-ifs! Thats a great stat! That was a good team and I definitely loved playing with those guys. I still text with Brandon Roy every now and then, and I love watching LaMarcus Aldridge play. For him to become an All-Star and the player that he is and to have such a long career, Im just so happy for him. I wish I was able to be part of it and that we couldve grown that team even more for Coach Nate [McMillan], for Kevin [Pritchard], for everybody involved in that Blazers organization. I really wish we couldve stayed together and been healthier, but it just didnt work out that way. But I will always have those great memories and Im forever grateful to the city of Portland and everybody in the organization and Mr. Paul Allen for taking a chance on me and giving me an opportunity to play with those guys.

In The Athletics feature on you, it said that youd watch Kevin Durant play and it would make you cry. Did Durant having so much success as the No. 2 pick in 2007 make things even more difficult for you?

GO: It said that? (shakes head) No, Im happy for KD. I hope and pray that he can come back from this injury and be just like he was before or even better. Im nothing but a fan of KD. I wouldnt say that I cried. I had some feelings inside like, Damn, I was picked first I wish I could be doing those things! I wish I could be the businessman that he is, the good dude that he is. But Ive never felt anger or like, That should be me! Im a fan of basketball and a fan of him. I wish him nothing but the best and I hope he comes back next year and takes Brooklyn to a championship.

If you could go back to when you were dealing with the injuries and give yourself advice, what would you tell yourself?

GO: I would tell myself to be more involved and understand my body more. There were so many setbacks and I feel like if I actually understood what was happening with my body and what each of the injuries entailed, maybe we couldve approached it differently and maybe I could possibly feel a little bit better and still be playing. That would be nice to think. But, honestly, Id tell anybody: Dont just listen to what somebody is telling you, make sure you actually understand what theyre talking about. Why did this happen? What are the next steps? Whats the treatment plan and how am I going to get healthy?

You seem like youre in such a good place mentally right now. What do you attribute that to?

GO: I think its because Im maturing, getting older, actually figuring out who I am and getting comfortable being myself. Its tough when youre young and you get a lot of money and you still havent figured yourself out as a person. Like I told you, in May, I graduated and I was like, Well, what the hell do I do now? But Im happy just being me. Living my life and being me. Whats wrong with being a happy, positive human being? I dont have everything figured out in life, I really dont. But Im enjoying it and Im so blessed that this is the path that I went down, and Im really accepting that. And my wife kind of puts me in my place when I need it. (laughs)

You were labeled a phenom in high school and received a ton of hype. Then, after one NCAA season, you entered the NBA as the No. 1 overall pick. But in college and early in your NBA career, you suffered numerous injuries. This is similar to Zion Williamsons journey so far. Given what youve been through, what would you tell Zion?

GO:Have fun! Enjoy every minute of it, but also make sure that youre understanding whats going on. Make sure that youre taking advantage of the situation that youre in. Have meetings with these owners, talk to the mayor of New Orleans and get in those rooms. Build that brand of Zion while youre the man right now. Really, the biggest thing that I want to say to him is take advantage of this. But have fun. Dont take yourself or all of this noise too seriously. Enjoy it! Also, realize that you put the work in and you deserve this, and keep on working to get even better.

You played with Mike Conley growing up and you guys had a ton of success together. For those who dont know, you and Mike won three-straight state titles in high school and led Ohio State to the NCAA national championship game in 2007. Are you and Mike still close?

GO: Yeah! I told you about seeing the movie Knives Out. Well, when I saw it, I was the third wheel on a date with Mike and his wife! (laughs) We were in Utah.

What do you make of the Houston Rockets decision to stop using a center, relying instead on PJ Tucker and Robert Covington at the 5?

GO: I think its just the evolution of the basketball player. Now, you have a seven-footer whos able to bring the ball up the court, run the offense, shoot the three to spread out the floor and then he canalsotake you down in the post and dunk on you? I mean, thats just a good basketball player to me. I see what Houston is doing and thats a real advantage for them because they get to play fast. As a seven-footer, its going to be tough for you to guard a backcourt player like that. But also, on the other end, when you get a big who can shoot threes but also knows how to go into the post, hes going to be like, Yeah, PJ Tucker come guard me!Thats going to be tough for them, but theyve got some guys on that team that can really [defend]. I think Coach [Mike] DAntoni is really going to make it work because hes a really good coach, and they have great players who understand and who can adapt. But so will the rest of the league. Other teams and players will evolve as well.

Youre so recognizable. Unlike guards, its harder for you to blend in given your seven-foot frame. What is it like not being able to leave your house without being recognized and how do you deal with that?

GO: I use my daughter sometimes. If I dont want to talk to nobody, I just pick her up and keep it moving. (laughs) No, but really, its been happening to me since I was a kid. If they come at me with respect, I give them the time that I can. But understand that I have things to do and please respect my privacy and my time with my family. Dont be an a-hole about it and Ill give you my time.

Thats should be a general rule for life: Dont be an a-hole.

GO: Yes, it should! Definitely. I forgot where I heard that, but I always say it. Dont be an a**hole. Thats the only thing you need to know. (laughs) Thats the rule of life: Dont be an a**hole!

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Greg Oden Q&A: "I took the power away from 'bust' by saying it" - Hoops Hype

Haafiz Shahimi is a man who plays with fire. The visual artist, who specialises in pyrography printmaking, mesmerises as he harnesses flames to burn imprints onto canvas, as if in a dance with the flickering fire, before he puts it out with a swipe of his hand.

We get a glimpse into this unique process at Core Design Gallery, where Haafiz is holding his second solo exhibition, AWAS. For this, he has temporarily moved his studio to the space, making his self-developed stylepart of the showcase.

While there are a number of local and international artists who work with pyrography, few have experimented or developed their technique to the point this emerging artist has. There is Etsuko Ichikawa, who uses molten glass as a drawing brush, and the famed Cai Guo-Qiang, who works with gunpowder.

Haafizs works distinctively resemble paintings. In fact, to the untrained eye, they often look like a blend of watercolour and ink works, which speaks of the complexity of the pyrographic images. It is a technique he has developed over a decade, with the last five to six years showing particular growth and evolution.

A lot of my new works in this exhibition couldnt have been done back in the day, either because the technology wasnt out yet, or my experiments werent complete yet, and the ideas werent mature enough. So AWAS is kind of like a reincarnation or rebirth of my previous, older works, now coming into this body and form, fully using pyrography, explains Haafiz as we examine his newer pieces.

The work that encapsulates the artists current maturity in technique most evocatively is the first piece one spots as one walks into the gallery. Titled Self-Less, the fiery and dramatic self-portrait, rendered on layered jute, combines both his signature metal plate chops with the use of 90-degree inverted burn and direct petrol burn, a process where he sprays petroleum directly onto the material, then sets it on fire.

Theres an interesting story behind this. An older version of this work is called Self-Fish, which was the first time I worked with jute. The experience really changed me; it opened up a lot of possibilities for me in making works of this style, recounts Haafiz. Where he used charcoal and ink to complete the image in that piece, Self-Less is almost entirely made using pyrography, with only dye employed to prep the jute and gold paint, and pencil sketches to add finishing touches to the large work.

It also represents a philosophical milestone in his journey as an artist. Less is to be humble. The work is, for me, [symbolic] of how far Ive come. I believe when you just work hard, lessen your sense of self, your ego, to not let it get in the way, youll get there.

As one walks through AWAS, the increasing depth and sophistication of imagery becomes apparent in the more recent works. Haafiz points out, In the first ones, there is always a certain rawness, which I think is appealing in its own way, but the second or third ones are more advanced. For me, the hardest part of the process is to come out with the image itself, not the technical aspect of creating it. I find that the more complicated the imagery, the more a sense of visual richness comes through when it comes to using pyrography.

In terms of inspiration, the artist who says he prefers to paint free hand without sketching ahead nowadays draws strongly from nature, as well as Malay or Southeast Asian mythology and folklore. His style takes its cue from batik painting, albeit in a contemporarised context.

By experimenting increasingly with abstraction, Haafiz has found an ideal pairing for his pyrography style, as we see a nuance and softness that evokes Eastern mysticism vibes. He describes it as the process of creating the visual image of a soul.

The element of fire is common within Malay culture. Unlike Western visual arts that have their landscape, figurative, abstract art, or Chinese art which is ink, landscape, calligraphy and pottery the Malay art form draws predominantly from nature and folklore. Also, I am a silat practitioner, so being conscious of the essence of the soul, the roh, is the norm, he observes.

This is most obvious in two works: Buraq and Saka Hitam. The former, being the creature that carries Islamic prophet Muhammad up to the heavens, is traditionally forbidden to be portrayed. Haafiz says that is why he imagines the essence of it instead. The latter features the werecat, or harimau jadian, a shapeshifting mythical animal associated with black magic and witchcraft in Malay folklore.

But perhaps it is Haafizs figurative works that are the most emotive. In an older series, he created portraits with lines burnt onto the canvas with metal rods. The inspiration came from a contractor friend of his. I wanted to incorporate an element of his work, which were the rods used in forming concrete pillars, he shares. The Fall of Time (2015) is also a mark of time passing by, each burnt line signifying both visibility and invisibility, as life fades away gradually.

As we end our tour, the burning question is, why the fascination with fire? Haafiz smiles, The key is the adrenaline. I like cooperating with fire, to let it create the work. The unpredictability and viciousness of it, the heat and distortive element attracts me. My role is to control it and play with it. Its also learning about your limitations, to know where you can go and cannot go with it. Yet I see the possibilities within that something so destructive to turn it into something beautiful.

'AWAS',Core Design Gallery, 87 Jalan SS15/2A, Subang Jaya.Until March 15. Mon-Fri, 11am-6pm; Sat-Sun, noon-6pm by appointment. See here for more information.

This article first appeared on Feb 10, 2020 in The Edge Malaysia.

Original post:
'AWAS': Pyrographer Haafiz Shahimi's new artworks are fuelled by Malay mythology - Options The Edge

What makes Fire In The Radios music especially powerful is that they always seem to be reaching for the starsand preparing to fall. The Philadelphia four-pieces music is driven indie rock with a distinct shimmer on it that reminds one of jangling semi-goths like The Smiths. But guitarist-vocalist Richard Carbones moaned vocals and the use of heartrending minor chords throughout give their sound an inherent sadness. The result is Monuments, their plucky, atmospheric third album thats full of soaring aspirations while feeling firmly rooted in the clumsy realworld.

Before watching our exclusive premiere of EX-SF, we caught up with Fire In The Radio about what theyre going for with album number three.

What are you most excited for fans to hear on Monuments?

The evolution of our songwriting and the work we put into it. We wrote 30 demos that were chiseled down to the 11 songs on the record. It was a great collaboration between us and producer Jesse Ganger (Japandriods/White Lung). We spent quite a bit of time thinking about how we wanted the guitars, drums, and bass to sound. We made a conscious effort to amalgamate influences and push them to a point where we created something unique. Lyrically, Rich and Jonathan [Miller, guitars and vocals] worked hard to write narratives that were compelling and a clearer reflection of who we are as aband.

Is there a track on the album that you think sums up where Fire In The Radio aretoday?

There are two: Ex-SF and Tulare. We have always tried to build diversity into the songs we write. These tracks tend to showcase variations on creating songs that are energetic and melodic, yet retain a popelement.

Youve said that you were driven on this record to write songs the people who placed their trust in you would want to hear. What, in your opinion, do they want? What did you feel like they wereowed?

Hope. This record would not exist but for the people who have supported us and given us the opportunity to make more art. We always say we have friends, not fans. Weve received several messages over the last few years from people telling us how our songs have helped them through hard times or have been a soundtrack to great moments in their lives. Whether these people knew it or not, these messages inspired us to keep going. Its easy in the current climate to feel helpless or small. We wanted to write a record that acknowledged those feelings, while instilling a sense of hope in people who have helped us along theway.

Tell me about the title and the cover. What are the monuments in question, and how did the design of the sleeve come together?

As we were writing this record, Rich sent around a picture he took on the 4th of July. The silhouettes, smoke, and fading fireworks were demonstrative of how traditional monuments have lost their meaning in recent years. At the same time, we liked the juxtaposition that people could be their own monuments, or that songs could serve as monuments to a particular place and time where people were empowered to seek change. This became a guidepost for therecord.

Is there something about Philadelphia that inspires you today? What is it like being a Philly rock band rightnow?

Philadelphia has undergone a fairly significant transformation over the past several years. On the back of a robust artistic community, there has certainly been gentrification that many would say is a negative. At the same time, there remains a vibrant scene that celebrates local music. As a result, there are several great venues to play and bands to collaborate with. Philadelphia has a storied history as a city that celebrates rocknroll, and that still rings truetoday.

Check out our exclusive premiere of Fire In The Radios EX-SFbelow:

Originally posted here:
Fire In The Radio Roll With The Punches In Their Cinematic New Video - Kerrang!

One of the most prominent and proficient cabaret artists in the business today, Molly Pope has had a thriving career as a cabarettist for a decade, garnering accolades and gaining fans, both of which are now reaching outside of New York City into other cities and states, hardly surprising to anyone who has seen a Molly Pope show. For a while, though, New York audiences have been missing the uniquely gifted Pope, as her wish for some downtime and a focus on her first-ever venture into songwriting gave way to a brand-new musical, POLLY MOPE. Last fall, Pope re-entered the scene with Molly Pope, A GAY MAN, AND A PIANO and, come 2020, the one and only Molly Pope is ready to unveil for a wider audience that which has been brewing in her ever-creative mind. As she prepares for a performance of her show at The Duplex next week, Ms. Pope took a call from me during which we talked about her process, her artwork, and the need for a strong woman to make her own way in the world of the arts.

This interview has been edited for space and content.

Molly, you've got a show that's running at The Duplex and you've got one coming up at Joe's Pub. I understand that these are not new shows, but that the one at The Duplex is a continually evolving program.

Yes. It's titled Molly Pope, a Gay Man, and a Piano. I have had many different gay men at the piano. I've had female music directors, I've had straight music directors, so it hasn't been exclusively gay. But that certainly is what it usually is. And given that, I thought, "Well, you know, I should have a rotating pattern, why not?" That means that I can swap out songs, each one of the music directors has their own friends and fans, that will certainly help with ticket sales.

You are one of the most popular cabaret artists in the business. Why are you worried about ticket sales?

Oh, you're never not worried. I mean, you're never not worried about ticket sales, honestly. I suppose you could reach a certain visibility where you don't have to worry about it, but I would probably still always be... worried isn't the right term, more just like conscious of it. And you know, until you're sold out, you got to keep promoting.

I couldn't get into your show last fall. Try as I may, I couldn't get in.

So that was actually the first dry run of Molly Pope, a Gay Man, and a Piano, and that was actually the only cabaret show I did in all of last year. When you can promote a show as such, you can sell pretty quickly.

Why only one show in New York in an entire year?

I needed her to take a step back The past two years I took a big step back from doing regular cabaret shows, but that coincided with doing a lot of work on Polly Mope, which is the solo musical, 'cause I've been at this for over a decade and I don't personally subscribe to the notion that you have to keep going no matter what. And I needed a break.

How did it feel having a year off from your craft?

I was working a survival job that paid me a pretty good rat,e and I needed a break from performing, so I invested all of my energy into paying down as much debt as I could, for about two years, because working on a solo musical was quite different from putting together my regular kind of cabaret show. So the creativity was still there, it just took a different form and I think it was really good for me. And, not surprisingly, one of the effects was that I found myself thinking I have put so much energy into this survival job and I started thinking maybe I don't want to perform. But then I had that aha moment of, Oh no, it's actually because I put all of my energy into a survival job and now I need to sort of like recalibrate, maybe go back the other way and change up the energy commitment to the survival job and give myself more energy for performing.

Did the time away give you a fresh view when you came back?

I think so. I think it also just gave me some perspective and understanding of what I do that is unique and specific to me. The great thing about cabaret is it's all apples to oranges. You really can't compare two performers because what everybody's doing, by the nature of cabaret, is very specifically them, and it felt good to sort of go, "Okay, I have a thing that I do and I do it really well and I'm not going to try to do or be something else because someone else is having success doing it." That's a great lesson to learn.

You have created a brand that is so unique that it's given you a greatly respected reputation -- did you come out of the gate with that brand or is that something that you had to develop over time?

I think I came out of the gate with, definitely, a really strong visual. I did my hair in a beehive for probably six years, and a cinch-waist full skirt, very mid-century. It was a coincidence, but it sort of fell alongside Mad Men being hugely popular -- that was not my intention. And I think what has happened is I've slowly stripped that away. Number one, I didn't want to keep doing the same look and the same vibe, and I had a couple of people... actually, I did a one-off at 54 Below and Julie Halston was there, who I don't know, but I was all done up and I got up and sang my song when I came off stage she said, "You don't need to do all that stuff". And I said, "What?" She said, "All this hair, makeup, whatever... just sing." And I said, "What?" And that was a really important moment, clearly because I remember it. So it's still very much that tiny vibe. And those are all of my reference points. I still try to give you a look that's very reminiscent. Honestly, I feel like it's almost more like a 1940's kind of look. But I don't rely on the visual presentation as much as I used to. I think it was really great that I started out with a really strong visual and now I can tone it back and bring it to something a little more natural.

The vintage mood seems to be really important to you. When did that develop in your personality?

I was extremely close with my grandma, my mom's mom. I joke, but it's true that as an adolescent I had more fun hanging out with her and watching TCM. Sometimes... I was a teenager but she would crack a bottle of white wine and we would just drink a bottle of white wine and stay up until one o'clock in the morning watching TCM. I got all of my musical tastes from her. I think it was to an extent that I can be organic - I think that it, very much, is in me. With my grandma, I always thought we were actually like really good friends, contemporaries, sometimes even more so than a grandmother and her granddaughter.

Do you remember what your grandmother's favorite movie was?

Ooooh, her favorite movie... We watched so many. I can say there was a lot of Nat King Cole, a LOT of Nat King Cole. I think I probably listened to Nat King Cole more than any other singer. And she liked Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland. It's sort of all those big names.

Is your grandmother still living?

She's not.

Did she get to see you perform?

Not as much as I would have liked, she passed away at the end of my freshman year of college, so she did get to see me as Dolly in Hello, Dolly! and Mame in Mame during high school, but she never got to see me make the evolution into being a cabaret and nightclub performer. She actually sang with a big band at one point when she was pretty young, so I think I inherited a lot of her, including the singing

It must make you feel very good, knowing that every time that you walk on stage, what you're doing is informed by this beautiful relationship you had with her.

Oh yeah. And I have a ring and a necklace of hers that I wear every single day.

That's really lovely. You just said you played Dolly Levi and you played Mame when you made the transition from doing characters in musical plays to writing your own material for cabaret, did you feel like you were going to have to leave behind one thing to create the next?

I have played characters and done plays and musicals, some really great ones, but it became clear that, especially when you're 24 and you sound like a mid-career Ethel Merman, it's difficult to be cast because the way my voice sounded and the way I look, casting directors just could not get over their perceived disconnect, shall I diplomatically say. And at that point there were two Friday night musical theater open mics: there was Mostly Sondheim at TheDuplex and there was The After Party up at the Laurie Beechman and I would go every Friday night. And when I started out, I would have to wait until like 1:30 in the morning to get up and sing. But I kept going and eventually I was sort of a sub guest host for Mostly Sondheim. And the process wasn't really sitting down and writing stuff, it was more, "Okay, I need to keep people within the room and drinking until 4:00 AM." And you figure out really quickly what's funny and what's not funny and what works and what doesn't work. So it was really like I learned by doing,

When did you write your first full-length cabaret?

The first one I did, I think it was 2007, it was called The Diva-Lution of Molly Pope.

I remember it.

I was really proud of that title. I had a friend of mine named Matt direct it - he was sort of coaching me - but in terms of actually writing stuff, certainly with the solo musical because you have to write a book for the show, I don't know that I could pinpoint when I started writing for myself because it's such a natural evolution, like "Oh, I made that joke into the microphone. Okay. Well, I should keep that."

When you create a new show, do you completely leave behind the old ones or do you occasionally revisit them and bring them back?

Oh yeah. I mean not necessarily a show in its entirety, but bits and songs, I do bring them back. I think that Molly Pope, a Gay Man, and a Piano is pretty much 100% new, but there are things that I've thought, "Oh, I want to bring that back sometime."

Tell me about Molly Pope, a Gay Man, and a Piano.

It actually grew out of working on Polly Mope, the solo musical. I premiered Polly Mope last May at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and I was used to my shows being a fairly small affair, you know, like two people involved: me and a music director. In this case, I was afforded the truly incredible opportunity to have a lighting designer and a set, and a stage manager, and all of a sudden there were 15 people in the room and I started to say, "When do I get back to just me, a gay man, and a piano at The Duplex? 'Cause it felt like, while I was having this crazy fulfillment in this new area of my creativity, I was feeling like I was supposed to get back to basics.

I heard you sing the song Polly Mope at Poetry/Cabaret, I remember before you sang it, you said something about sounding like Ethel Merman -- is she one of the voices that inspired you as you were studying musical theater or is that just the sound with which you were born?

That's just the sound that came out. She definitely was not a major influence.

And how do you feel about having that kind of voice in an era of Ariana Grande's?

Well, I'd say that's why I do cabaret. That's why I create my own work because I'm not interested in --- I can't belt C's. I can hit a C the way Judy Garland can hit a C -- like, at the end of the Born in a Trunk medley. That is a specialty. I need to plant my feet and get ready for that. And I would say 90% of musical theater roles I would be right for, they need you to be able to belt C's for days. And for a long time, I tried to get my voice to do that, but it doesn't want to do that. And I also don't like waiting around for someone to hand me an opportunity. So that's why cabaret was so great 'cause it's wonderful -- I can sing whatever I want, regardless of the context from the source material, and I can sing it in whatever key I want.

I've noticed that the word Cabarettist is frequently applied to your name. That's actually not an English word. That's a German word that's been anglicized for you. Who made that brilliant decision?

I think it was me. I know Amy Jo Jackson... I think that she uses the term as well but with a K, and it was sort of a side effect of... a lot of people were using chanteuse to describe themselves and that didn't really feel right, and any other term like that didn't seem quite right. I really like the word Cabarettist because it's a reference to the cabaret form of show, and I thought, all right, even if it's not a word, and I have had press people be like, "Well, we can't use this word." And I said, "Well, yes you can."

I absolutely agree with you. The word applies to you perfectly and changing it to a C so that it fits the American language is really a perfect choice.

Yeah, it's just an accurate label. This is my medium and this is the kind of performer I am.

How many shows do you have right now that you could perform at the drop of a hat?

The drop of a hat? That would be challenging. I would probably need a day to brush up. I did a sprawling show, my one and only show of 2018, Molly Pope Live at Carnegie Hall at The Duplex. I'd probably be able to brush up that pretty quickly 'cause it was all sort of greatest hits. But for years I did shows with just like random titles, always my name in the title. There was Molly Pope Okay. There was Molly Pope, Goddammit. So just any excuse to throw together a set.

When you have a name like Molly Pope, you have to use it.

Yeah, it is. It is a pretty helpful name.

Yeah. How did you come up with Polly Mope?

My dad is a big fan of spoonerism, which is when you swap the first letters or the first couple letters of a two-word phrase. So growing up, at Christmas he would say Cerry Mistmas and not Merry Christmas. At the end of The Night Before Christmas, my cousin would always say nood gight instead of good night. So I grew up switching... like Burger King becomes Kurger Bing and fruit punch is puit frunch. That's something that my brain automatically does in a lot of instances, and as I got older and,as it became clear that I was struggling with something which, at this point, is diagnosed as manic bipolar two, I thought, "God isn't that ironic, that my name spoonerizes to Polly Mope." It just felt so accurate.

Are you still pursuing acting away from the cabaret industry?

In so much as I am asked to do stuff. I don't have an agent. I don't have a manager. I've never had great luck with either, which, I also take responsibility in that because I'm not really good at that side of all of this, and also terrible at auditioning. So I get asked to do stuff and I am happy to, and I've done some really, really great plays over the past couple of years, but it's not really something that I'm actively pursuing. I am so much more invested in creating my own work.

Creating your own destiny is always more rewarding.

Yeah.

I guess the ideal situation for you is to have someone see you in one of your own shows and say, Hey, how would you like to take two months off from cabaret and come play Fanny Brice for us?

If I could belt those C's, which I can, theoretically, yes. (Laughing)

Well, not being a singer, I wouldn't know a C from a D.

(Laughing) Well good. You should come to one of my shows and I'll tell you everything is a C.

I have your shows on my calendar! As a woman and a strong woman who likes to control her own destiny, do you make time every single day to write or is it something that happens when inspiration hits?

It's more when a deadline hits. I mean, sometimes I'll jot something down to be used in the future. But I am definitely someone who, until I have a deadline, AKA show booked, it's really difficult for me to have any discipline about creativity.

Well, then it should make you happy to know that I've interviewed at least four other people who have the same system.

Yup!

They book the show so that they have to write the show.

Yeah.

So you have your life and when the time is right, you sit down and you say, I'm going to be a cabaret artist right now. That must be very relaxing.

Well, again, it's on my timeline. My ears are always open for a song to catch my ear and I have a giant list in my phone of songs that I might want to sing someday. I jot down in an endless note on my phone if there's an idea for a bit or a joke or something like that. And I guess that it really is, you know, cause I'm 38 and I'm going to say I'm in a different place than where I thought I would be when I got to New York City almost 20 years ago. But where I am is: I'm not pounding the pavement and I don't necessarily carve time out of every single day to sing, but I feel like I have more control over it.

Polly Mope is all original material, but you just said that you hear songs that you want to sing. Do you make your shows out of a combination of original material and material that was written before?

Polly Mope is the first time I have ever attempted songwriting. And that started in earnest at the Kimmel Center, I think it was summer of 2017, cause I felt wildly out of my depth but I knew that this was an opportunity to evolve, to try songwriting. Because originally I did conceive of the show and I did a version of it in Provincetown, and it was all covers. But I was presented with this opportunity, this residency and I thought, "Well, you might as well try, and if you fail, fine, but you will at least have tried to see what you could do." (Laughing) Now I also realized, "Hey, I have a bunch of really talented friends I should ask them if they want to collaborate with me," which I did. And that's what made everything possible because I had really wonderful people who I trusted to not look down on me because I had never written songs before. And I think that's how I held on to a cabaret thread because there are a lot of songs I have written with my music director Matt Aument. But then I also wrote songs with five or six other people. So it doesn't sound like the same people wrote every single song.

Listening to you describe it, it sounds like a piece of theater. Is there a chance that it could be booked into a space where it could sit down for a while?

Oh, I would love that. I call it a solo musical that's disguised as a cabaret.

What is it about cabaret that drew you to it?

Just the independence of it. There are no rules, there absolutely are no rules and there is actually no such thing as making a mistake in cabaret. It's how you deal with a mistake. And because the nature of it being live and so intimate, I finally learned that the audience kind of loves you even more if something goes wrong and you deal with it, you're a real-life human being in front of them and you keep going.

Molly Pope, a Gay Man and a Piano plays The Duplex February 27, March 26, April 23, May 28 at 9:30 pm. For information and tickets please visit The Duplex website

Polly Mope plays Joe's Pub on March 16th at 7 pm. For information and tickets please visit the Joe's Pub website

Find Molly Pope online at her website

Photos of Molly Pope by JD Urban

View original post here:
BWW Interview: Molly Pope of MOLLY POPE, A GAY MAN, AND A PIANO at The Duplex - Broadway World

Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again: Three Comments on the Executive Order

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A draft of an executive order titled Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again is moving forward towards possible signing by President Donald J. Trump. The proposed document favors Classical Greco-Roman design typologies for federal buildings in Washington, DC and elsewhere throughout the USA. This order would revise the current rules that regulate the design of federal buildings contracted through the GSA (General Services Administration a Federal agency managing the construction, administration, and upkeep of US Government buildings and real estate). It was initiated by the National Civic Art Society, a Washington, DC based nonprofit organization that disapproves of what the US government has been building for decades. According to the New York Times, the chairman of the National Civic Art Society, Mr. Marion Smith, stated that: For too long architectural elites and bureaucrats have derided the idea of beauty, blatantly ignored public opinions on style, and have quietly spent taxpayer money constructing ugly, expensive, and inefficient buildings.

By Michael W. Mehaffy, Ph.D.

Whether or not one is a supporter of President Trump (and I personally am not) this action is likely to provoke a much-needed debate about the mandating of style. It is interesting to hear some architects howling over this proposed action, at the same time that they have often sought to impose their own preferred style a variant of modernism or neo-modernism. Often this has been done through interpretation of the Venice Charters Article 9, that new works must bear a contemporary stamp, which they interpret as mandating modernism. (They conveniently ignore Article 6, which states that wherever the traditional setting exists, it must be kept... No new construction, demolition or modification which would alter the relations of mass and color must be allowed.)

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, perhaps we should all step back and take a deep breath, and assess what really matters in new design. Is it solely the predilections of the architect community, in their sovereign judgments of what is good (often modern) architecture? Or are there broader goals, and a broader community that should have a voice? Is there a necessity to consider the evolutionary gifts of the past, and the evidence for their continued ability to deliver beautiful, enduring, sustainable habitat?

The time has come that the profession must produce a better answer to this question.

Michael W. Mehaffy is Senior Researcher with the Ax:son Johnson Foundation and the Centre for the Future of Places at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and an author, educator, urban designer, planner, and strategic development consultant with an international practice. He has held teaching and/or research appointments at seven graduate institutions in six countries, and he is on the editorial boards of two international journals of urban design. After graduate study in architecture with pioneering architect Christopher Alexander at U.C. Berkeley, he received his Ph.D. in architecture at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He recently wrote about the Venice Charter and its use to enforce style here:

By Nikos A. Salingaros, Ph.D.

It is well-accepted that the publics preference for a wholesome, restorative architecture in our greatest public institutions has been ignored during the past several decades. In its stead, we have seen monstrous, unfriendly buildings funded by the US Federal Government. Worse than the erection of inhuman and ugly environments is the fact that those images have come to represent the Nation. In their visual impact, how different is the impression they give of American Democracy from the totalitarian dictatorships that have used the same brutal and faceless architecture to express their power over their citizens?

As soon as word of the presidents executive order on creating a more beautiful and human official face for the United States as expressed in its major government buildings was out, all hell broke loose. The usual group of architectural bullies who had intimidated past administrations into accepting absurd or totalitarian designs for public buildings felt their continuing hegemony threatened. They of course are protesting, crying out about loss of freedom of expression and other stock justifications for their past bullying. Journalists and architectural critics joined in the chorus of protests, again with the usual emotional trigger phrases about pluralism, deceptively ignoring how for years those architectural bullies stamped out any attempts at pluralism.

This has become an attack on traditional architecture, using the president as a target, which is a smoke screen. The architectural problem for public buildings is serious but not political, and this proposal is the first optimistic solution to be offered in decades.

Nikos A. Salingaros is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a well-known architectural theorist and urbanist. Author of several books on architectural and urban theory, he directs Masters and Doctoral students in architecture at universities around the world. He shared the 2018 Clem Labine Traditional Building Award with Michael Mehaffy, and is the Winner of the 2019 Stockholm Cultural Award for Architecture. He received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Stony Brook University. He was the principal editor of Christopher Alexanders four-volume book The Nature of Order. Salingaros recently published a review of James Stevens Curls book Making Dystopia.

By Ann Sussman, R.A.

President Trump and the National Civic Art Societys recommendation to make federal buildings beautiful again shunning modern architecture and reverting to classical traditions is a very good one. Not only because it will make the nations capital more coherent, it will make Washington, DC a more memorable place generally, and one which people enjoy seeing and being in.

We live in a remarkable time in the early 21st-century where we can better understand how the human experience functions, including how perception happens. New biometric tools let us track in real time how stressful or soothing new buildings are, and how the body implicitly responds without our conscious awareness to our surroundings. This new science has brought to the fore the fact that though we live in modern times, our bodies remain ancient, and that evolution has pre-set our response to visual stimuli more than most realize. Classical and traditional architecture meets our bodies and brain where they are, in an evolutionary sense, providing the bi-laterally symmetrical, hierarchical facades that we are hard-wired to easily see and enjoy taking in. Modern architecture, with its blankness, random arrangements, and asymmetries, does not.

We now know that many post-war buildings stress the brain and that creates stress responses, leading to everything from headaches to pedestrians avoiding entire new sections in a city. Apple founder Steve Jobs once said: The broader ones understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. That is true not only for computers but also for the places we call home. The more we know about ourselves, and our animal nature, the more we can accommodate it by creating successful human habitat.

Ann Sussman, RA, an author, researcher and college instructor is passionate about understanding how buildings influence people emotionally. Her book, Cognitive Architecture, Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment (2015) co-authored with Justin B. Hollander, won the 2016 Place Research Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). In 2019, she co-sponsored the 1st International Conference on Urban Experience and Design at Tufts University (Ux+design2019), bringing together creative thinkers to explore evidence-based design practices and biometric tools for assessing the human experience of place. She has given more than 80 lectures at regional conferences and universities, including at Greenbuild/Berlin in 2018 and Greenbuild/Amsterdam in 2019. This year shes scheduled to present a biometric workshop at the AIA National Conference in Los Angeles in May. Currently, she teaches an introductory course on perception, Architecture & Cognition, at the Boston Architectural College. Her articles explaining how biometrics reveal how the human brain and body respond to architecture include:

This article was originally published on Architexturez.net.

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Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again: Three Comments on the Executive Order - ArchDaily

Feb 22, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Fiverr International Ltd earnings conference call or presentation Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 1:30:00pm GMT

Fiverr International Ltd. - VP of Strategic Finance

Fiverr International Ltd. - Co-Founder, CEO & Director

Fiverr International Ltd. - CFO

* Bradley D. Erickson

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst

Good day, and welcome to the Fiverr Q4 Fiscal 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jinjin Qian. Please go ahead.

Jinjin Qian, Fiverr International Ltd. - VP of Strategic Finance [2]

Thank you, operator, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us on Fiverr's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Please note that this call is being webcast on the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Full details of our results and additional management commentary are available in our shareholder letter, which can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.fiverr.com. Joining me today on the call are Micha Kaufman, Founder and CEO; and Ofer Katz, CFO.

Before we start, I would like to remind you that certain matters discussed today are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of Fiverr. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements can be found in Fiverr's periodic public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the Risk Factors section in Fiverr's final prospectus under Rule 424(b) filed with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements in this conference call are based on the current expectations as of today, and Fiverr assumes no obligation to update or revise them whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.

And now I'll turn the call over to Micha.

Micha Kaufman, Fiverr International Ltd. - Co-Founder, CEO & Director [3]

Thank you, Jinjin. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to join us on the call today.

2019 was a fantastic year for Fiverr. We delivered 3 consecutive quarters of consistent and strong financial results as a new public company. This exceeded the aggressive goals that we set at the time of the IPO.

For the full year, revenue grew 42% year-over-year, and our EBITDA margin improved by nearly 1,100 basis points. This is even more impressive when we consider the pace of our product launches throughout the year and the scaling of operations as a public company. Fiverr is a company that delivers on its promises, and we have a solid business model with high levels of consistent buyer behavior.

The freelance economy is growing rapidly around the world. Fiverr is enabling and harnessing this momentum. Our business model is seen as a simple and beautiful 2-sided marketplace. We are a technology company at core, and we had an amazing year of product innovation in 2019. From Fiverr Learn, which directly connects learning with work opportunities, to Fiverr Studios that enables virtual collaboration among our skilled freelancers, to the recent Fiverr Logo Maker that puts the power of AI into the hands of our design community, we made some bold strategic bets that reimagine how work can be done on our platform.

User response to these initiatives have been strong, and you should anticipate continued innovation from Fiverr in the years ahead.

Our continued investment in quality, matching and improving the buyer and seller experience has also paid off. This accelerated momentum in the second half of the year. We also executed well against both our category and international expansion strategies. During the year, we launched over 100 new categories and 7 new industry stores. This served as a strong engine for pushing top-of-funnel growth and provides our existing customers with many reasons to explore our new options and return to buy more.

During 2019, we expanded our team's footprint in the U.K. and in Germany. Our marketplace has always been global. However, having a team on the ground that executes localized product and marketing strategies, combined with our enhanced ability to transact in multiple currencies, puts us into a completely different level, and we are already enjoying these benefits. As we kick off 2020, we will continue to execute on our growth strategies, growing our buyer base, going upmarket, expanding categories, innovating our products and international expansion.

We are currently focused on several areas that we are very excited about, and I would like to highlight a few of them now. First is international expansion. Until now, our website was only in English, but that is changing. A few days ago, we launched our first 2 localized sites: de.fiverr.com for German language speakers and es.fiverr.com for Spanish language speakers. This is just the beginning. What we plan to do next is to convert all user-generated content, including gig listings as well as the seller experience.

We're also going to start optimizing localized marketing to become more efficient and effective in driving local adoption. Localization is a long-term investment for us. And we are super excited about the potential market opportunities beyond the U.S. user base. I'm happy that we were able to roll out these 2 new languages ahead of what we promised.

Next is going upmarket. Today, Fiverr has over 2.4 million active buyers, the majority of whom are entrepreneurs in very small companies, with 15 employees or less. There are over 30 million SMBs in the U.S. alone. So we are barely scratching the surface. As with many disruptive technologies, we see a natural path of adoption from the bottom up. Small businesses are typically more cost-conscious and are naturally early adopters who take advantage of new technologies first. As we go upmarket, we want to expand our addressable market and extend our reach to the next tier of users, which we define as organizations of up to 200 employees.

We have invested in tackling these new buyer segments with products such as Fiverr Studios, which help accommodate larger projects; team accounts that allow larger teams to collaborate on Fiverr; Fiverr's VID program, which provides dedicated support for our high-value buyers; industry stores that grows awareness among business users and targeted performance marketing campaigns to acquire these business users. All of these products and marketing investments are geared towards growing market share among larger businesses without the need of a sales force. And you should expect to see more of this theme throughout 2020.

The next initiative I would like to highlight is Fiverr's technology infrastructure. Fiverr's mission is to change how the world works together. And our marketplace is evolving from a simple transaction platform to an ecosystem of products that bring businesses and freelancers together. You've already seen us releasing products like Learn, And Co and ClearVoice to our marketplace to help our buyers and sellers become more successful.

In 2020, we will invest in strengthening our core infrastructure so we can unlock our data assets, innovate even faster and create more synergy among our products. You will see continuing investment in proprietary quality search and catalog technology. You will also see us investing in personalization and recommendation engines.

And finally, we have made strong internal progress on promoted listings. This will be the first time we give our sellers a tool to proactively promote themselves on our platform. It is something our sellers have requested for a long time, and we believe they will be excited about the product as well. We are taking sufficient time to make sure we get this right from the user experience perspective, and I'm happy to announce that we will be rolling out the beta for promoted listings in April. The rollout of the beta of this product will be an important step in the evolution of the Fiverr marketplace. To sum up, these investments will allow for continued growth, enable more rapid international expansion and the development of new technologies in automation, advertising and collaboration.

I am very excited about 2020. We expect another strong year of growth and progress towards profitability. I look forward to our next call and to sharing our progress with you. We look forward to seeing many of our investors on the road and at the JMP Securities conference in San Francisco next week.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Ofer, who will share with you a few highlights and our financial outlook for 2020. Ofer?

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Ofer Katz, Fiverr International Ltd. - CFO [4]

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Thank you, Micha, and good morning, everyone. We are very happy with the financial results we delivered in 2019 and the growth we are experiencing across all underlying metrics.

As Micha mentioned, full year 2019 revenue grew 42% year-over-year to $107.1 million. This was driven by 17% growth in active buyers, 17% growth in spend per buyer and a 100 basis point improvement in take rate.

The growth in active buyer and spend per buyer is consistent with the balanced approach we have spoken about before. More importantly, we saw acceleration trends in those 2 metrics in the back half of the year. The investments we've made in quality, matching and personalization are paying off. We also continued to see strong organic and paid trends at the top of the funnel. Going forward, we expect we would continue to grow active buyer and spend per buyer in balanced fashion.

Our take rate for Q4 was 26.7%, up 100 basis points year-over-year. To break it down a little more, the 26.7% take rate primarily consist of approximately 25% we charge on the marketplace transaction. The remaining contributions come from Fiverr Learn, And Co, ClearVoice and incremental revenue from currency fees on the marketplace, which we expect can continue to make modest contribution to the overall take rate throughout 2020.

Moving to expenses. In 2019, we made a significant progress on our path for profitability. Our gross margin continues to be strong and consistent at 80% level. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was negative $18 million, an improvement from the loss of negative $21 million in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA margin gained 1,100 basis points from the prior year, primarily driven by a 330 basis point improvement in R&D and 780 basis point improvement in sales and marketing.

On a full year basis, we saw a modest increase in G&A as a percentage of revenue due to IPO and public company related costs, but these costs have stabilized and showed improving leverage in Q4, a trend we expect to continue into 2020. Overall, we expect continued leverage gain across all operating expenses in 2020 narrowing EBITDA loss on both dollar and margin basis.

We are providing strong guidance for the year. We expect 2020 revenue in the range of $139 million to $141 million, representing year-over-year growth of 30% to 32%. We expect adjusted EBITDA to continue to improve to negative $15 million to negative $13 million, representing a negative 11% to negative 9% of adjusted EBITDA margin. This is an improvement of 680 basis points over 2019 at midpoint, and we intend to continue making progress towards profitability.

We expect 2020 quarterly revenues will be distributed with a similar cadence to 2019 revenue.

In Q1 of 2020, we expect revenue of $32 million to $33 million, representing 35% to 39% year-over-year growth. Q1 adjusted EBITDA guidance is negative $5.5 million to negative $4.5 million. We expect adjusted EBITDA margin to increase throughout the year, consistent with prior year pattern.

As part of our 2020 revenue guidance, we are taking the following key factors into consideration: first, consistent revenue contribution from our existing cohorts; second, organic revenue growth from new buyers through a growing network effect; third, incremental revenue from new buyers from paid marketing channels. This is based on planned marketing budget and payback efficiency consistent with historical level; and lastly, continued take rate expansion from products such as Fiverr Learn, And Co and ClearVoice.

We've been able to build a diversified business, and as part of that, we added new components to our platform with several product offerings. Some of them were introduced at the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019, which will be lapping a full year by the end of Q1 2020. We expect the impact on the overall revenue growth will be normalized starting from Q2 2020. The potential revenue impact from new products such as promoted listings, the additional gains from our continued investment in marketing efficiency, incremental revenue from global expansion efforts and potential conversion improvement from new products in our pipeline are not included in our guidance as the timing and magnitude of these contributions are uncertain.

We ended 2019 with excellent results, and the strong business momentum give us confidence in driving continued growth in 2020 and beyond. With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator to open it up for questions. Operator?

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.

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Douglas Till Anmuth, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD [2]

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First, I was just hoping you could talk about your marketing and customer acquisition a little bit. You talked about tROI the last 2 quarters at less than 4 months. So maybe you could just expand on some of the key drivers there, in particular some of the growth in the affiliated program as well.

And then secondly, can you just talk more about how you're balancing growth and profit going forward? We've been thinking about EBITDA positive some time in 2022. Is this something you can pull forward? If you could just talk about your kind of outlook and philosophy there.

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Micha Kaufman, Fiverr International Ltd. - Co-Founder, CEO & Director [3]

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Doug, thanks for the question. So when we think about the marketing and customer acquisition, what we've really pushed during the year that has been very effective for us is the right balance of how we invest across different channels and how we use marketing automation to optimize every campaign that we're running. And that has yielded a great result, that some of that reflects in tROI that was kept very low and some in the quality of the buyers that we were acquiring. What we've done along the lines of opening new channels is pretty much doubled our affiliation program, and that has been a very successful driver for us.

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Ofer Katz, Fiverr International Ltd. - CFO [4]

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In terms of the second part of the question about growing profit going forward, I think that you've probably noticed we made a significant progress in 2019 in terms of improving EBITDA margin. It has been improved by 1,100 basis points all the way from 28% in 2018 to 17% by the end of 2019. But having said that, growth continued to be our top priority. Bear in mind that despite of the impressing financial result of last year, we are still a very young company, and we think that the TAM -- the big TAM is ahead of us.

So we've been very consistent about our commitment, but also our proven ability to increase the efficiency as we scale. We run a marketplace model with a very high gross margin and highly scalable so that we plan to continue to be committed to push for profitability in a very consistent and a steady pace as we have done in the last few quarters all the way to breakeven and beyond.

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Douglas Till Anmuth, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD [5]

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Okay. If I could just follow up quickly, Ofer. I think, at the end of your remarks, just talking about the outlook, you mentioned a couple of things that were not included in the guidance. Can you just repeat that? I think you said promoted listings and maybe a couple of others. I just want to make sure we got that.

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Ofer Katz, Fiverr International Ltd. - CFO [6]

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So the way we build the guidance is based on the things we know. And we have enormous community -- repeat community that keep being active in the marketplace generating a fixed stream of revenue over a very long period. Then we also know, based on historical data, how efficient is our marketing spend. And we keep -- we plan to keep the investment looking forward and bringing more cohorts on top of the existing. But we do plan to release a few product [that will help] us. Those that we have already spoken about includes promoted listings that we plan to release for beta on April, within a few weeks. Because we are uncertain of magnitude and our plan to softly release in a very -- certain categories at the beginning, we didn't include this type of product into our guidance.

Same goes to international expansion. We've just released a few days ago 2 language. It's the first time that Fiverr enabled buyers to engage and buy in different language other than English. We have, on the road map, a few additional improvement of this experience, a few more language. But yet, the guidance doesn't include impact of this type of product release.

Having said that, bear in mind that the product -- the road map of -- the product road map includes few more product, but it's too early to discuss. So all in all, I think, just to summarize, just to recap, the guidance is based on what we know and future products are not included in this aggressive plan for next year.

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Operator [7]

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Our next question comes from Ron Josey with JMP Securities.

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Ronald Victor Josey, JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst [8]

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Micha, I wanted to follow up on your commentary, and Ofer as well, just around promoted listings, what you're just talking about. With the rollout -- the beta expected in April, can you just talk about what you've seen in early testing that gives you the confidence it's ready to go in April? And then maybe any insights on the actual data, how you plan to continue to test the product to make sure it's doing what you think it would be helpful to understand just the rollout for promoted listings. And also just on the tROI question that Doug was asking, clearly, we're seeing improvement in brand awareness and the industry as a whole continues to move online. Any insights on just Fiverr's brand awareness just given the marketing spend this past year would be helpful as you perhaps reach outside of some of the major cities out there.

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Micha Kaufman, Fiverr International Ltd. - Co-Founder, CEO & Director [9]

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Ron, thanks for the question. So as to promoted listings, we've been talking about that in the previous few quarters. And I think that we shared with you that we've studied this matter and have been learning how other marketplaces have been successfully rolling out the system. And I think that based on these learnings, we have been able to develop the system internally. It is worth noting that this is going to be the first time in which Fiverr actually gives its sellers the ability to promote themselves and participate in increasing their success. And so we get a lot of excitement from the community and high interest in doing that.

And the rollout plan, essentially, is to start with a number of categories: first, test the system, but test it with real services and real sellers to see the impact and to start optimizing. I think we -- I've mentioned before that optimizing a system of promoted listings is a journey and it will take a few good quarters to get it right. And this is one of the reasons why we're not factoring any wishful thinking around that into our guidance.

As to -- I think the second question was about brand awareness. So this is an area where we've invested in 2019, including the fact that the IPO itself was a pretty big brand awareness event. And we've done brand awareness campaigns in Germany and in the U.K. And what we see is we see an increase in brand awareness that translates into organic traffic in a way that has been very successful for us. And if -- a couple of years ago, when we started doing brand awareness, we were really starting from awareness. Now a lot of our branding campaign are going down to consideration and to conversion. And that has been translating also into the efficiency of our paid marketing.

Brand marketing and paid marketing go side by side and have a strong influence on each other. And I think that what we've seen is we've seen that paid off really well and also resulting in a lot of organic activity that has to do with the virality of the service. All of that, as I've said, translated into mostly organic traffic, which is the way you typically measure brand awareness.

So getting all of that success and seeing how that was contributing to the acceleration from the first half of last year to the second half, we're seeing that momentum carried over to the first quarter of this year, which is influencing our guidance for Q1 as well.

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Operator [10]

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Our next question comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

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Jason Stuart Helfstein, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst [11]

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I have 2. So clearly, you're seeing good marketing leverage and you've talked about that. You talked in the letter just about the expansion of the German and Spanish local websites. Will that weigh -- you talked about that being a long-term investment. Will that weigh on marketing efficiency during 2020? And just how do you think about those opportunities relative to the current marketing flywheel? And then second, what do you think is the most important factors for growth in 2020 as you think about the new products that you launched last year because there were a good amount of things that you'd put out in the marketplace?

Read the rest here:
Edited Transcript of FVRR.N earnings conference call or presentation 19-Feb-20 1:30pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

The next decade will determine what kind of a world we will create.We can do nothing in the face of a climate crisis that is showing its strength through devastatingfires, floods and extreme heat,and usher in a dystopian world of choking pollution and huge swaths of unliveable land.

Or we can act. Everyone, from individuals, to companies, to cities, to countries, works to cut their emissions in half by 2030, steering us away from catastrophe and towards a low-carbon, healthier, happier world.

These are the two worlds Christiana Figueres sets out in her new book The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, written with her former senior adviser Tom Rivett-Carnac.

Figueres has every reason to feel despair. As the lead U.N. negotiator for the landmark Paris climate summit in 2015, she pulled off the seemingly impossible. She wrangled with 196 nations to produce a historic climate agreement, with countries agreeing to genuine commitments to slash emissions.

AP Photo/Markus Schreiber Christiana Figueres at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2020.

Fast forward to 2020 and the world is a different place. President Donald Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement if he gets a second term, the Madrid climate summit in December ended in failure and watered down promises, and most global leaders are refusing to step up to the urgency of the climate crisis.

Yet Figueres remains stubbornly positive. Here she talks to HuffPost about the dire situation we are in, and why she has written an ode to optimismin the face of an existential crisis.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Whats at stake over the next decade is nothing less than the future of the planet and of humanity on the planet. Thats no exaggeration, that is no hyperbole. That is actually scientific fact.

It is in this decade that we will either reach a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that is so dangerous that we will not be able to manage the negative consequences for years to come and the increasingly destructive forces of nature will wreak havoc upon, not just infrastructure and biodiversity, but also on the ability of humans to live on this planet.

Or, the other choice is that we wake up to the fact that during these 10 years we can decisively change the course of those greenhouse gases, we can bring them down to one half of what they are now, and along that journey, we can actually do a lot of good.

AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali A protest against climate change, in Parliament Square, London, on Feb. 14, 2020.

We can increase public health, we can increase the quality of urban life, we can increase the comfort and smartness of transportation. And actually, I also think that we can rise as a human species; we can rise to a higher level of consciousness and a higher level of understanding of who we are on this planet.

So its a pretty simple choice if you ask me, we just have to make the choice!

I put fear into a broad family of sentiments: fear, grief, despair, hopelessness, helplessness. All those sentiments that we usually think of as being negative sentiments, I actually think that theyre very helpful, because what they do is they raise the alarm, they raise the flag that something is wrong. They wake us up and force us to come out of our comfort zone.

The question then is, where do we go from there? If we wake up from that comfort zone and push ourselves on to a meaningful path toward constructing a different world, then we have done the right thing by future generations.

Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images A firefighter sprays water while battling the spread of the Maria Fire as it moved quickly towards Santa Paula, California, on Nov. 1, 2019.

If we realize that were in grief, despair and helplessness, and we consciously choose to stay there and we give up, and we say actually this is too much, this is overwhelming and were not up to it then that will become our reality, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We stand at the most crucial crossroads, not only in the evolution of the planet, but in the future human experience on this planet, and we need to make a conscious wakeful choice. Because if we dont, we will be dragged by business-as-usual forces that take us to the first absolutely horrible world.

Optimism has actually become a very controversial term within the climate field. So its important to understand what we mean by optimism.

We dont mean naive ignorance of what the consequences are. We also dont mean an irresponsible sense that things are going to work out and we dont have to do anything.

What we mean by optimism is, firstly, a conscious choice to acknowledge, understand and educate ourselves about what the reality is out there and the consequences that we may be facing.

The second part is to make a mindful decision that we are going to change the course of where were currently going. It is like weve been going down a highway at full speed and all of a sudden we have an exit sign, and we have to decide, are we going to exit or we just going to go down the highway?

We call it a stubborn or gritty optimism because we have to understand that taking this exit and constructing a completely different trajectory is not going to be easy. It is difficult. Anything that is new and different and unknown is always difficult. So we have to be gritty; we have to be determined; we have to be very focused on what we want to attain and how were going to attain it.

Theres absolutely no space for giving up. We have to construct a different future. But the good news is that we can and we have 10 years, and it is amazing what we can do in 10 years if we make the decision now and start right away.

Well, the fact is that these dont operate in completely unlinked universes. They feed on each other.

I cannot tell you how many CEOs tell me that they are preparing for a low-carbon future for two very clear reasons.Theyre recognizing consumer demand [for low-carbon products] is increasing, certainly in industrialized countries, but also in developing countries. And secondly, they want to be able to access young brains and young brains do not want to work for companies that are irresponsible.

The same thing can be said for governments, and the ultimate individual power that we all have, in democracies at least, is voting. When we begin to see that there is a critical mass of people for whom climate change responsibility is a voting issue, governments begin to act accordingly.

The United States is a very interesting case. Four years ago, there was barely any mention about climate change, even among the Democratic candidates. Today, four years later, every single aspirant to be the Democratic nominee has a solid, climate change platform. Why? Because they know that voters in the United States are beginning to get more and more concerned, and they know that they have to be responsible in order to get those votes.

What individuals do trickles up both to corporations, as well as to government.

I would say that is completely wrong. There is much more quality of life to be had from a low carbon economy.

Lets start with cities. Cities that turn their transport systems, their infrastructure, their built environment, their living spaces to low carbon are actually much more livable because theyre less congested, theyre less polluted, they have more greenery all leading to much better breathing conditions. They will be cities that are more energy self-sufficient, more water self-sufficient. Its just a much much better quality of life.

Dan Friedell/WTOP via AP Flowers bloom on the green roof at the World Wildlife Fund building in Washington D.C.

A world that goes beyond two degrees [warming], to three or four degrees, is a world of increasing health challenges: whether it is pollution that causes asthma, causes all kinds of respiratory diseases, causes a diminishment in IQ because brains cant develop. Or if it is the rampant increase in dengue and malaria and other diseases that will spread due to warming temperatures.

[If we dont tackle climate change] we will have hugely escalating health costs. If we avoid all of that, we will have health savings that we can then invest into smarter energy, more green in cities, better food we will be able to support the funding of many measures that address climate change.

So, it is not true that a low carbon society is a poor quality society, it is exactly the opposite.

It is simply a choice, an active choice of starting with small things in our daily lives and being much more mindful of the impact, and making a decision to have a smaller impact on what you buy and how much you buy.

Oh my goodness. Do we really need everything that we buy? When is enough, enough? Do we really need the fourth or fifth or sixth pair of shoes? Or the fourth or fifth or sixth sweater?

We are alreadygetting out of single-use plastics in many countries. Thats a really good start. But we should move away from single-use anything: single-use fashion, single-use appliances, single-use furniture. We should get out of that single-use mentality and understand that a sharing economy, a circular economy, is the only way to go.

And we reach that conclusion as soon as we are much more mindful about our carbon footprint and how we walk upon this earth.

Figure out what your carbon footprint is per year, then start to identify what you can do today, tomorrow and the next day to begin to lower that carbon footprint.

Food is a very clear one. If youre still eating red meat every single day, you do yourselves a favor, you do your body and your health a favor, by starting to diminish red meat. Choose one day where you dont need red meat, and then a second day, a third day.You can also start to be much more mindful about the foods that you eat, which, in as much as theyre seasonal and local, have a lower carbon footprint.

In your home you can be much more conscious about energy consumption. We dont tend to think about energy, which is amazing because we do track our finances, and we know where our salary goes and what we spend it on. We should also know what we spend on energy.

J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Solar panels on the roof of a house in Rockville, Maryland.

Be mindful of the fact that you dont necessarily have to have all the lights on in every single room in the house when youre not in that room. Be mindful of the fact that you can insulate your home much better so that in the winter, you can heat your home more efficiently.

You can also choose what quality of energy you use. Move toward more renewable energy, whether you use it from the grid or whether you put solar panels on your roof.

Then of course transport is a big issue. Are we being conscious about the way we transport ourselves, whether by land or by air? There are just so many things that we can do to just cut down on unnecessary transport. And if it is necessary, then share that transport mode, so that the emissions are also shared.

I would actually point to two things. The first is the fact that just a few days ago, we had confirmation that global greenhouse gases, contrary to all expectations that they were going to be increasing in 2019, were flat. And that is very good news.

It doesnt mean that with that flattening out of emissions that weve actually done our job.One year does not a trajectory make, so the question to be answered over the next few years is: Have we started to de-link economic growth from growth in carbon emissions? Because that is what we need to do.

And the second cause for optimism is the fact that financial markets seem to finally have understood that investments in high carbon assets are just hugely risky, and that there is less risk and more reward in shifting capital over to low carbon assets.

You have the asset owner Alliance, which is a group of the largest institutional investors in the world, totaling more than $2 trillion, which has already come out and said we understand that in order to protect the value of our assets we have to move over to a net zero carbon portfolio by 2050.

You also have the letter from Larry Fink,who heads up the largest asset management company in the world, BlackRock, which manages $7 trillion. He says he has understood that high carbon is highly risky. BlackRock will no longer be investing in coal, they will be shifting their investments, and theyre asking all other asset managers to do so.

The conclusion that climate change is real, and it is affecting us already, we have 10 years to address it, and I personally can contribute to the solution.

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac will be published on February 25, 2020 and can be preordered here.

For more content and to be part of the This New World community, follow our Facebook page.

HuffPosts This New World series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com.

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We Have 10 Years Left To Save The World, Says Climate Expert - HuffPost

Janet Li is Wealth Business Leader for Asia at Mercer, which is one of the very largest advisory and service providers to the global institutional investment industry, with its clients handling more than USD15 trillion of assets under advisement. Remarkably, Li finds time to play with her three children, aged between three and 10, as well as handling the hefty responsibilities of her prominent leadership role and volunteering with industry groups. She met with Hubbis to offer her invaluable insights into the evolution of wealth management in this region, to define Mercers position in Asia, and to highlight how she has never felt held back by being a female, despite being more of a rarity during her early career.

About Mercer

Mercer delivers advice and technology-driven solutions that help organisations meet the health, wealth and career needs of a changing workforce. Mercers more than 25,000 employees are based in 44 countries and the firm operates in over 130 countries. Mercer is a business of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), the worlds leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people with 76,000 colleagues and annualised revenue approaching USD17 billion.

Mercer is the worlds largest institutional investment advisor with more than USD15 trillion in assets under advisement and USD304.5 billion in assets under delegated management. The firm is also a global leader in the provision of actuarial and related services.

Li begins by explaining why Mercer has, in recent years boosted its commitment to global private wealth management.

Historically, we have been focussing more on institutional clients, including some of the biggest players such as sovereign wealth funds, government entities and corporate pensions. But we have seen the opportunity to move into the private wealth space, where wealth is being accumulated so very quickly.

She reports that Mercer has an on-the-ground presence in 10 Asian markets, including key hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore. Mercers colleagues working across retirement, investment and asset management solutions include actuaries who help pension schemes, researchers, and also consultants who work directly with the clients, delivering advice on their portfolios. We also have portfolio managers where the clients delegate the management of their assets for us to manage, she notes.

First institutional clientsand now private wealth

Li reports that Mercers institutional business centres on specific services to the retirement and investment services sectors. For example, each defined benefits pension plan needs actuarial services, so Mercer advises on retirement scheme structuring, benefits review and harmonisation. And on the investment side, Mercer helps institutional clients with their portfolio design, from asset allocation to portfolio construction, selecting the right managers, the right providers, as well as providing delegated management to suit the clients needs.

There are so many fund managers globally, she remarks, and every organisation only has limited resources, so they need external support in finding the optimal investment opportunities. Our clients come to us because we are independent and manage any potential conflicts carefully.

She explains that the Mercer research operation is reckoned to be the largest globally. The role of Mercers research team is to analyse fund managers, to look at their products, and then formulate a view on the product, but it is not a quantitative-driven process. We have a four-factor research process where researchers examine asset managers by qualitative review, Li reports. The quantitative factors are used more to validate their research.

Leveraging resources

She elucidates, noting that institutional investors and private banks nowadays are all resource-pressured and time-constrained, hence Mercers role to support them in finding the best investment opportunities. In some cases, she notes, clients actually delegate the full function to us because outsourcing may be more efficient for them, and it means we are answerable for the returns.

Mercers range of services spans from simply providing its database of asset managers, through to advisory, and at the other end of the scale, Mercer offers delegated management, where their clients can outsource everything to Mercer, which then becomes accountable for whatever objectives the clients set.

The Mercer FundWatch service

Mercer launched a new service for the private wealth side in 2018, called Mercer FundWatch, which rates funds using easy-to-understand star ratings and which is available openly through the website.

The mission here is simply to support private wealth in making better selection of products and to support the gatekeepers in choosing products for their platforms.

Li explains that there are stringent requirements for private banks and other private wealth platforms with regard to selection and due diligence. Accordingly, being able to reference Mercers research helps internally and with the regulators.

We differ from our peers in that we are more qualitative-driven and forward-looking, and they are typically more quantitative, Li elucidates.

Challenges offer opportunity

Li sees great challenges and yet, opportunities ahead. She notes that the private banks are increasingly challenged by other wealth management platforms and fintech arrivals offering AI-enabled robo-advisory, making it ever more vital from their brand perspective that they become more relevant to their clients.

Their end-clients, she explains, are therefore seeing a much broader range of potential providers and products that they can access directly. So, in order for the private wealth banks and other firms to differentiate themselves, they must become more innovative, more quality-driven, and make sure they can bring in better investment opportunities faster than their competitors, as well as offering better service and experience. Mercer can help them in these areas, so there is great opportunity.

Li agrees that fee compression on products is taking place, as products become more easily available and more commoditised. There are perhaps too many products and funds out there, actually, she adds, and allied with the product-pushing mentality in Asia, there is not a sufficiently long-term approach for the end-clients, which in many cases results in resources being spent on chasing product fees for the short-term.

But there is a rapidly growing focus on performance, which has become more acute in the more difficult global financial markets since 2018.

Enhancing the offering

Clients call us most often when their asset managers underperform, which opens the door for us to mine into the research side to see whether the criteria developed for their fund manager selections are being followed, she said.

In other words, we can assess whether performance weakness is short-term, or more fundamentally flawed.

Li says that on the institutional side, there is a greater understanding of the ebbs and flows of investments, but on the private wealth front there is more pressure to take action in the event of weak performance. Actually, she explains, we often advise against stop-loss selling, as often under-performance is an opportunity to buy more. So we frequently counsel against too much short-term trading, especially as there are always entry and exit costs to consider, and we also try to help clients leverage their positions with the fund or product providers and negotiate lower fees.

Objectivity central to the value-added

Li concludes the discussion by reiterating Mercers core proposition as the identifier of high-quality asset managers and good products for their clients. We have a long history of success in this regard, she states, and we are objective, and of course we cover the entire spectrum from small to the largest funds and providers. We have a unique position in being able to offer these solutions to our end customers.

Janet Lis Three Key Priorities for Mercer in Asia

Asias retirement savings gap

The ageing population of Asia means a major challenge to the savings culture here, Li reports. We all need to ensure there is sufficient money going into the system.

This can take the form of, for example, mandatory contributions to provident schemes, which are tricky politically for governments, funding private sector pensions, and the third pillar, which must be strengthened significantly by means of voluntary contributions into products designed specifically for retirement during the accumulation stage of life as well as in the decumulation stages, Li continues.

Li explains that Mercer is offering advice to governments and corporations in the region. For the governments, she reports, it is more system development and system design. For the corporations, it is all about helping them devise better retirement schemes and solutions for their employees, for talent retention, and to attract talent. And on the private wealth side, we look at product design, and inflows.

The diversification process

The second priority is to help clients build portfolio diversification. Many investors here actually do not have a very clear or in-depth understanding about what they are investing in outside the mainstream, or about the risks they are taking on. Expertise and knowledge need to be enhanced amongst investors in the whole alternative investment space.

Li explains that this is particularly important given the difficulty of finding alpha in the public market space, and asset managers, especially the fundamental research asset managers, are struggling because markets are more momentum-driven and less fundamental. With this environment and the search for return, clearly many institutional clients are seeking to diversify, but often have a limited understanding of how these asset classes work in practice. The J-curve can often be deeper than originally expected.

Disruption opens new doors

The world of digital and fintech disruption also presents both challenges and opportunities for Mercer. Whilst investment return is still important, investors are also looking at their user experience and ease of access. Li reports. When users are provided the right tools, the money is sticky and we have already seen successful cases of such in the region. The ability to spearhead and bring innovative design to fintech will make the winners of tomorrow, and, as a technology-driven firm ourselves

Getting Personal with Janet Li

Born in Hong Kong, Li studied there all the way through to graduation from The University of Hong Kong with a degree in Economics and Finance. Before joining Mercer, she worked in another consultancy company, Willis Towers Watson, for some 17 years.

I have been lucky to work and partner with many different senior individuals from various organisations. This has helped me grow in knowledge, skills and more importantly as a person, she reports.

Married with three children aged 10, seven and three, Li has little time for hobbies outside work. My exercise is chasing the children around the park, she jokes, it is pretty exhausting, running around with them, playing hide and seek, just keeping up with their energy.

Li says she enjoys the challenge in developing people and forming high performing teams. Diversity is important, but without inclusion, it means nothing, she explains and cited seeing many businesses and teams fall apart because inclusion was not observed properly. It is easy to say than do and it requires conscious understanding of unconscious bias, which is an important leadership quality.

Li recalls that in her early career there were few women in leadership positions in the industry and particularly Asian local faces. Today, she reports, there are many more home-grown professionals and many more women. My father passed away back in 2011, and I recall with gratitude that he raised me to be able to forge my own way in life, not to be limited in any way by being female, he taught me to drive towards achievement. With a family of my own now, I appreciate his support and advice more and more.

Read this article:
Asian Wealth Management and Asian Private Banking - Mercer Asia - Building out the Institutional and Private Wealth Business - Hubbis

It's something you have to hear to believe.

Frost area farmer Blake Weber, 43, is a fourth-generation farmer who has a side hobby that has helped him calm the trying stressors of farming. Weber uses a multitude of soothing instruments to create relaxing, meditative sounds.

The Blue Earth Area graduate lives in Spirit Lake, Iowa, with his wife Megan and eight-year-old daughter, Kaity. When he's not in Spirit Lake with his family, or out at the Frost farm helping his dad, Barry Weber, you can find Weber in his sound studio located in Elmore.

Local farmer Blake Weber sits in his music studio where he experiments with sounds to reduce stress and anxiety. Weber uses a number of instruments including sound bowls, hand drums, synthesizers and more.

When he is not at his home in Spirit Lake, Iowa, or farming with his father in Faribault County, Blue Earth Area graduate Blake Weber likes to relax in his music studio in a house in Elmore. Weber finds playing music helps to destress from all the things going on in the world.

In Elmore, Weber has a small house filled with beautiful, intricate instruments and sound equipment to create incredibly mellow soundscapes that help him and those who enjoy his music with decompressing, relaxation, and relieving stress.

Some of the instruments he uses are hand pans, Native American flutes, kalimbas, rav-vasts or singing bowls, and a multitude of synthesizers to create his unique tones and rhythms.

"Tonal therapy is actually something lots of cultures use," he says. "You use resonant frequencies that can affect the cell structures of your body. Certain tones, called binaural tones, have been used with Buddhist monks for hundreds of years. The singing bowls I use were hand-hammered in Nepal."

Weber also has a tongue drum, which is like an inverted steel drum, that was hand-cut in Russia.

Some of the work he has been able to do outside of benefiting himself and his friends and family include playing for Beers and Yoga classes at Lake Okoboji in Iowa, helping with a guided meditation seminar, and has recently been commissioned to create soundtracking for a student film.

For Weber, music is not just about self-expression, but it has also helped him physically with symptoms of stress in his life.

"I started really getting into, and experimenting with, tonal sound a few years ago. We have high blood pressure in our family, and I was not exempt from that. I had high blood pressure," he shares. "Not anymore. My heart rate has gone down from 80 beats per minute to about 60 beats per minute. I track my heart rate and using music to relieve stress and express my feelings has been beneficial."

Weber has no formal musical training. He says his love of music started when he was just four years old, when he sat at his Grandpa Wayne's organ and just started tinkering with keys and pedals.

"When I was a little older, I found my mom's acoustic guitar and started fiddling with that," he shares. "In high school, I saved up my bean walking money to purchase an electric bass and my friends started a band. I really liked just meeting with my friends and practicing music."

Around 2010, Weber came back to his family farm to help out full-time with his dad after leaving a job that left him unsatisfied.

"I mean, technically I've been working on the farm since I was eight years old," he says. "But I've been helping my dad begin his retirement from farming back in 2010. That's when farming was pretty good."

Recently, the stressors of farming have become all but too evident to himself and his farming friends across the community.

"A lot of us guys are out there just trimming fat to stay above water. And some guys can barely do that. People are using less fertilizer, using less seed, just to try and stay afloat. It's a pretty stressful time to be a farmer, and music has really helped me to control that stress and express my frustrations," he says. "It's something that has worked for me. Music is important because it is one of the best ways humans can communicate emotions without hurting one another, either with words or with actions. Through this journey, how I live has changed it has made me appreciate life more."

During the winter, Weber's down time in farming, he likes to head to Elmore and experiment with different sounds, different tones, and soundscapes. There's no real rhyme or reason as to how he goes about his music, he just experiments and enjoys the process.

"Meditation is a consequence of music," he says. "You have no choice but to stay in that moment. Kaity really likes playing with music, too. And I think it's incredibly important for kids to play with music, experiment with sound, and find what they like. There are so many physical and mental benefits to playing music."

He hopes his fellow farmers can potentially benefit from the therapeutic component of sound, as well.

"It's whatever kind of music you like," he says. "It doesn't have to be soundscapes, it can be a country western song, but just sit down and enjoy it. Get into it. Listen to it. Try making your own music and your own sound it is pretty great how much stress it relieves. I was in the same place as many of my fellow farmers, but it's getting better."

Weber also says he enjoys his coffee shop banter with his fellow farmers, and says showing up for coffee with the guys, or sitting down to lunch or supper with neighbors is just as beneficial as music.

"When you are around like minds, with similar situations, having that community and that connection is life-saving," he says. "Any farmer who is struggling, just get out there with your fellow farmers and start talking, you'll realize you have more in common than you think. We go through a lot of tough thinking, and when we can find an outlet that helps us continue our lives on this side of the dirt, all the better. Music is just one avenue."

So while Weber is hard at work through the spring, summer, and fall planting corn and beans for the farm, it's during the down times of inclement weather and the winter season that this local musician has learned to destress and express through his multitude of stringed instruments, sound creators, and other intricate music machines.

To listen to some of Weber's sounds, check out his Facebook page, Blake Weber Sound, and really to experience the awe-inspiring sound that resonates from his instruments one truly should check out this musician's talents first-hand. It really is something you have to hear to believe.

More:

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Baseline Tap House A personal favorite of mine at the Disney Parks.

When I visit Walt Disney World Resort, I always look forward to spending a few hours at Baseline Tap House. People watching, listening to relaxing music, sipping on my favorite drink, and munching on a delicious pretzel. Yep, it is by far the perfectcombination.

Now, I know Baseline Tap House can become very crowded, very quickly, but if you time it right and have a bit of patience, I promise it is worth it. In my opinion, this is one of the best spots on Walt Disney World property.

Kick back, relax, sip on a good craft beer (or maybe even a glass of wine), munch on some amazing Disney food, and enjoy my favorite bar Baseline Tap House. So why do I love this little pub so much? Lets dive in.

This adorable pub is located on Grand Avenue in Disneys Hollywood Studios, right next door to Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, on your way over to Star Wars: Galaxys Edge. The theming of the bar gives off a modern-day Downtown Los Angeles vibe, yet it re-imagines the beautiful Grand Avenue area of Disneys Hollywood Studios.

If you are all for a cute little mom-and-pop pub, this is the place to be. Inside, you will find a decent size bar with seating located around the walls, but my personal favorite is the seating outside.

The terrace offers a variety of seating where you can relax those feet and shade yourself from the hot Florida sun and just people watch.

The music is also very unique. Baseline Tap House plays a variety of modern day artists, such as Justin Bieber, but it is not what you are thinking. These songs are re-imagined to a more relaxing vibe as you sip on your adult beverages, which brings me to

Baseline Tap House offers a wide variety of California craft ales, lagers and cider. Disney guests can also opt for the beer flight, in which they can choose any four beers on the menu (pictured above). I love getting the craft beer flight as I feel it is a good value and a fun experience trying all of the different craft beers offered.

I also typically opt for the Blood Orange Cider (the last choice on the right in the photo above) as I find it is extremely refreshing, especially on a hot Florida day. another recommendation of mine, the Golden Road Hefeweizen. This craft beer is very light and flavorful.

But thats not all. If you arent a beer guy, Baseline also offers California wines on tap (such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay) or specialty cocktails!

And if you are traveling with little ones, the bar also offers non-alcoholic beverages such as soda on tap. Kids can choose from a delicious black cherry soda or wild strawberry lemonade!

And of course The food! Now, Baseline does not offer a full menu, so dont think this is a great place for dinner. However, they do offer some amazing small plate and snack options that are perfect for sharing with the whole family.

My personal favorite The Bavarian Pretzel, which is served with Beer-Cheese Fondue and Spicy Mustard (but I always opt for double cheese as I am not a huge fan of mustard). Pair this with a delicious Blood Orange Cider and you have yourself the perfect afternoon treat!

The pub also offers a California Cheese and Charcuterie Plate served on a charcuterie board, a Coffee-rubbed Rib-eye Steak Puff with Olive Salad and spiced almonds.

There is just something so special about Baseline Tap House that stands out to me from the other locations on property. Maybe its because Im a sucker for a good mom and pop pub. Or maybe it is because I love sipping on a beer, munching on a pretzel, and people watching with my friends and family.

But overall, I find Baseline Tap House very relaxing and a great place to take in some of the Disney atmospheres for a little while. Instead of running around the theme parks, killing those feet and sweating in the hot Floridian sun, stop by Baseline Tap House, even for one drink, and I promise, youll thank me later.

If you want to try out Baseline Tap House on your next Walt Disney World Resort vacation, but arent sure where to begin planning, then dont hesitate to reach out to our friends over at Academy Travel.

Click here to get your free travel quote today, and to get started planning that next magical Disney vacation.

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Op Ed: Baseline Is Hands Down One Of The Best Places On Disney Property - Inside the Magic