May 14, 2020 16:05 ET | Source: ATA Creativity Global

BEIJING, May 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATA Creativity Global (ACG or the Company, Nasdaq: AACG), an international educational services company focused on providing quality learning experiences that cultivate and enhance students creativity, today announced preliminary unaudited financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 (First Quarter 2020), and its adoption of a share repurchase plan.

First Quarter 2020 Highlights

Adoption of Share Repurchase Program

The Companys Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program, under which ACG is authorized to repurchase up to US$1 million of its issued and outstanding American Depositary Shares (ADSs), effective immediately through the end of 2020.

The repurchases will be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices, in negotiated transactions off the market, in block trades, pursuant to a 10b5-1 plan (which if adopted, will allow ACG to repurchase its ADSs during periods in which it may be in possession of material non-public information) or otherwise. The purchases will be made subject to restrictions relating to volume, price and timing under applicable law, including the anti-manipulation provisions of Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The timing and extent of any purchases will depend upon market conditions, the trading price of its ADSs and other factors. ACG expects to implement this share repurchase program in a manner consistent with market conditions and the interest of its shareholders. ACGs Board of Directors will review the share repurchase program periodically and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size accordingly. The program may be suspended or discontinued at any time. The repurchase program does not obligate ACG to make additional repurchases at any specific time or situation.

Management Commentary

Mr.Kevin Ma, Chairman and CEO of ACG, stated, ATA Creativity Global started the year in a position of continued financial strength and increasingly efficient operations following the acquisition and integration of Beijing Huanqiuyimeng Education Consultation Corp. (Huanqiuyimeng) in the second half of 2019. We are fortunate to have the solid foundation needed to navigate the challenges businesses all over the world are facing as a result of COVID-19, and we continue to operate our business under these unusual circumstances while putting the health and safety of our students and employees first. We also continue exploring M&A opportunities as appropriate, though only so much can be done during the vetting process in the current environment when site visits and in-person meetings are prohibited. We are prepared to continue supporting our students via online platform and are looking into ways in which we can maximize the potential of online technologies to increase our sales pipeline and better serve our students with an expanded and more flexible curriculum.

Mr. Ma continued, The approval of a share repurchase program by our Board of Directors reflects our confidence in the Companys future and our commitment to creating long-term value for our shareholders. Our current cash position provides us with the flexibility to implement this share repurchase program while executing on our growth strategies and other strategic opportunities.

Outlook/Impact of COVID-19

Mr. Jun Zhang, President of ACG, stated, We saw steady enrollments in our portfolio training programs during First Quarter 2020 despite the challenges presented by COVID-19. Even in this environment, students wish to continue to pursue their studies in art and creativity, and we are providing them with access to top-notch instructors around the country and additional academic/emotional support via remote online platform. ACG has a flexible operating infrastructure, which allows our business to scale appropriately to meet changes in demand from our students. We can utilize such operating flexibility to streamline costs, such as adjusting teacher structure to reduce teaching costs during any downturn, while almost immediately ramping up to satisfy the needs of students coming back into our programs. While the long-term impact of COVID-19 remains relatively uncertain, we do expect that the virus will impact our educational travel service as many of our partner institutions will not hold their regular summer programs. We are pleased to announce that we expect to have alternative options for students this summer, such as online programs partnering with certain well-known overseas art schools and institutions and newly developed art-themed domestic travel programs. Above all, we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and employees, and remain cognizant of how COVID-19 is impacting our people and operations.

Operating Review

Enrollment Update

ACGs main line of business primarily consists of training for students focused on arts and creative studies (the Portfolio Training Program). Teachers guide students in preparing a collection of artwork that demonstrates how a students skills and ideas have developed over time and helps universities and colleges evaluate the students potential. These courses are delivered either in person through ACGs nationwide training center network or via online platform. The Portfolio Training Program consists of time-based programs and project-based programs.

ACG student enrollment for First Quarter 2020 was 681, of which 404 were enrolled in the Portfolio Training Program.

A total of 26,410 credit hours were delivered during First Quarter 2020, of which 16,655 credit hours were delivered for time-based programs and 9,755 credit hours were delivered for project-based programs.

The following is a summary of the credit hours delivered for the Portfolio Training Program, for the period beginning January 1, 2020, to March 31, 2020, compared to those for the prior-year period:

During First Quarter 2020, 277 students were enrolled in ACGs other programs, which mainly consist of overseas study counseling services and foreign language training services.

First Quarter 2020 Financial Review GAAP Results

Note: Impact of Huanqiuyimeng Acquisition on and Certain Adjustments to the Companys Financial StatementsFollowing the completion of the Huanqiuyimeng business acquisition whereby Huanqiuyimeng became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company in 2019, the financial results presented in this press release incorporate financial contributions from Huanqiuyimeng for First Quarter 2020. In addition, the Company has appliedacquisition accountingand made purchase price allocation (PPA) adjustments to various assets acquired and liabilities assumed from the Huanqiuyimeng business acquisition.

ACGs total net revenues for First Quarter 2020 were RMB32.7 million (US$4.6 million), compared to RMB1.6 million in the prior-year period, driven primarily by revenue from the Huanqiuyimeng business. Net revenues for this quarter include a negative adjustment of RMB6.0 million resulting from amortization of the difference between the carryingvalue of deferred revenues in Huanqiuyimengs book and the fair value of deferred revenues assessed from the PPA process applied to the Huanqiuyimeng business acquisition (PPA Adjustment to Net Revenues). Revenues from portfolio training programs were RMB18.7 million, or 57.3% of total net revenues, during the period. Revenues from other educational services and the K-12 business were RMB14.0 million, or 42.7% of total net revenues during the period.

Gross profit for First Quarter 2020 was RMB11.7 million (US$1.7 million), compared to RMB0.4 million in the prior-year period. Gross margin was 35.8% during the period, compared to 25.3% in the prior-year period, prior to the Huanqiuyimeng business acquisition. Excluding the PPA Adjustment to Net Revenues stated above, gross margin for First Quarter 2020 would have been 45.8%.

Total operating expenses for First Quarter 2020 were RMB38.4 million (US$5.4 million), which includes RMB5.0 million in expenses amortized from intangible assets recognized from the Huanqiuyimeng business acquisition, compared to RMB16.5 million in the prior-year period, primarily due to increased selling, general and administrative expenses of RMB27.6 million related to the acquired Huanqiuyimeng operations.

Loss from operations for First Quarter 2020 was RMB26.5 million (US$3.7 million), compared to RMB15.4 million in the prior-year period as a result of the increased operating expenses mentioned above.

Net loss attributable to ACG for First Quarter 2020 was RMB20.5 million (US$2.9 million), compared to RMB12.9 million in the prior-year period.

For First Quarter 2020, basic and diluted losses per common share attributable to ACG were both RMB0.35 (US$0.05), compared to RMB0.31 for the prior-year period. Basic and diluted losses per ADS attributable to ACG were both RMB0.70 (US$0.10), compared to RMB0.62 in the prior-year period.

Non-GAAP Measures

Adjusted net loss attributable to ACG for First Quarter 2020, which excludes share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange loss (non-GAAP), was RMB19.8 million (US$2.8 million), compared to adjusted net loss of RMB10.9 million in the prior-year period.

Basic and diluted losses per common share attributable to ACG excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange loss (non-GAAP) for First Quarter 2020, were RMB0.34 (US$0.05). Basic and diluted losses per ADS attributable to ACG excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange loss (non-GAAP) for First Quarter 2020 were RMB0.68 (US$0.10).

Please see the note about non-GAAP measures and the reconciliation table at the end of this press release.

Other Data

The number of weighted average ADSs used to calculate both basic and diluted earnings per ADS for First Quarter 2020 was 31.3 million. Each ADS represents two common shares.

Balance Sheet Highlights

As of March 31, 2020, ACGs cash and cash equivalents were RMB152.8 million (US$21.6 million), working capital deficit was RMB94.5 million (US$13.3 million), and total shareholders equity was RMB283.6 million (US$40.0 million); compared to cash and cash equivalents of RMB154.2 million, working capital deficit of RMB81.3 million, and total shareholders equity of RMB305.6 million, respectively, as of December31, 2019.

Conference Call and Webcast Information (With Accompanying Presentation)

ACG will host a conference call at 9p.m.Eastern Time on Thursday, May 14, 2020 (9 a.m. Beijing time on Friday, May 15, 2020), during which management will discuss the results of the quarter ended March 31, 2020. Investors are welcome to send any questions in advance of the conference call either through the webcast portal or via email to the Companys contacts listed below.

To participate in the conference call, please use the following dial-in numbers about 10 minutes prior to the scheduled conference call time:

A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed at the investor relations section of ACGs website atwww.atai.net.cnor by clicking the following link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/274/34650.

An accompanying slide presentation in PDF format will also be made available 30 minutes prior to the conference call on the same investor relations section of ACGs website. To listen to the webcast, please visit ACGs website a few minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download, and install any necessary audio software.

A replay will be available shortly after the call on the investor relations section of ACGs website and will remain available for 90 days.

About ATA Creativity Global

ATA Creativity Global is an international educational services company focused on providing quality learning experiences that cultivate and enhance students creativity. ATA Creativity Global offers a wide range of education services consisting primarily of portfolio training, educational travel, overseas study counseling and other educational services through its training center network. For more information, please visit ACGs website atwww.atai.net.cn.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, forecast, future, intend, look forward to, outlook, plan, should, will, and similar terms and include, among other things, statements regarding ACGs futuregrowth and results of operations; ACGs strategy of becoming a leading international education service provider; ACGs plans for mergers and acquisitions generally; the benefits of the Huanqiuyimeng Acquisition; ACGs ability to operate efficiently and maintain continued financial strength under unusual circumstances; ACGs growth strategy and subsequent business activities; market demand for ACGs portfolio training programs and other education services; the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on ACG and its operations; ACGs plan and anticipated benefits of the measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 outbreak; and the implementation and the benefits of the share repurchase program.

The factors that could cause the Companys actual financial and operating results to differ from what the Company currently anticipates may include its ability to develop and create content that could accommodate needs of potential students, its ability to provide effective creative related international education services and control sales and marketing expenses, its recognition in the marketplace for services it delivered and branding it established, its ability to integrate the acquired business, its ability to maintain market share amid increasing competition, its ability to identify and execute on M&A opportunities within the education sector, the economy of China, uncertainties with respect to Chinas legal and regulatory environments, the outbreak of COVID-19 and other factors stated in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The financial information contained in this release should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in the Companys annual report on Form20-F for its fiscal year ended December31, 2019, and other filings that ACG has made with the SEC. The filings are available on the SECs website atwww.sec.govand at ACGs website atwww.atai.net.cn. For additional information on the risk factors that could adversely affect the Companys business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects, please see the Risk Factors section of the Companys Form20-F for the fiscal year ended December31, 2019.

The forward-looking statements in this release involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections about ACG and the markets in which it operates. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release, to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that its expectations and assumptions expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot assure you that its expectations and assumptions will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

Currency Convenience Translation

The Companys financial information is stated in Renminbi (RMB), the currency of the Peoples Republic of China. The translations of RMB amounts for thequarter ended March 31, 2019, into U.S. dollars are included solely for the convenience of readers and have been made at the rate of RMB7.0808 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate as of March 31, 2020, in New York for cable transfers in RMB per U.S. dollar as set forth in the H.10 weekly statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. Such translations should not be construed as representations that RMB amounts could be converted into U.S. dollars at that rate or any other rate, or to be the amounts that would have been reported under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement ACGs consolidated financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, ACG uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: net income (loss) excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange gain or loss, and basic and diluted earnings (losses) per common share and ADS excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange gain or loss.

The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. ACG believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information about its performance by excluding share- based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange gain or loss, which may not be indicative of its operating performance.

ACG believes that both management and investors benefit from these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate managements internal comparisons to ACGs historical performance. ACG computes its non-GAAP financial measures using a consistent method fromperiod to period. ACG believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. A limitation of using non-GAAP net income (loss) excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange gain or loss and basic and diluted earnings (losses) per common share and per ADS excluding share-based compensation expense and foreign currency exchange gain or loss is that share-based compensation charges and foreign currency exchange gain or loss have been, and are expected to continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense in ACGs business.

Management compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The table captioned Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures to the Most Comparable GAAP Measures shown at the end of this news release has more details on the reconciliations between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to the non-GAAP financial measures used by ACG.

For more information on our company, please contact the following individuals:

ATA CREATIVITY GLOBAL AND SUBSIDIARIES UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

ATA CREATIVITY GLOBAL AND SUBSIDIARIES UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS)

RECONCILIATIONS OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO THE MOST COMPARABLE GAAP MEASURES

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ATA Creativity Global Reports 2020 First Quarter Financial Results, Announces Adoption of Up to US$1 Million Share Repurchase Program - GlobeNewswire

Applications for funds are available immediately at nakedwines.com/covidsupport, the company said.

A simple recent cooking demonstration turned into a $3 million surprise donation for the restaurant workers relief fund launched by Sonoma County celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

Fieri was tapped to appear on the fifth episode of Some Good News, the viral YouTube series created by actor John Krasinski to celebrate heartwarming stories of hope and kindness during the coronavirus pandemic. Joining lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, Momofuku chef David Chang and actor Stanley Tucci, the stars worked in their own kitchens to create a virtual potluck by making four viewers favorite family recipes.

The show, made in Krasinskis home and styled to resemble a news broadcast, tells the stories of everyday and not so everyday heroes doing good deeds during the pandemic. Sundays episode, which honored the restaurant industry and people working to feed the nation, garnered more than 1.2 million views in its first 24 hours online.

Krasinski stunned Fieri with a surprise $3 million donation from Pepsi during the program, bumping Fieris national Restaurant Employee Relief Fund from $17 to $20 million.

The Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County is giving $35,000 in emergency grants to organizations providing frontline healthcare during the COVID-19 crisis. With the support of a $20,000 matching grant from Mark Freed of Talon Creek Foundation, the Healthcare Foundation moved quickly to launch the Emergency Healthcare Fund to raise crucial funds for those most in need in the community. Boosted by Freeds matching grant, the Foundation raised over $15,000 more from the community, with donations continuing to arrive in support of ongoing needs.

Grants from the Emergency Healthcare Fund are being distributed to the following organizations:

Alliance Medical Center: $24,000

Alexander Valley Healthcare: $6,000

Reach for Home: $5,000

A group of alcohol beverage trade groups coordinated efforts to lobby Congress for more relief to help survive due to the business slowdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The groups include the Wine Institute, the Brewers Association, and the Distilled Spirits Council among others. They formed an umbrella organization called the Craft Beverage Coalition.

They are calling for changes in federal law that include:

Suspension of all federal excise tax payments on domestic and imported alcohol products for all of 2020.

Making permanent the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act that provides a reduction in federal excise tax, weighted to benefit smaller providers.

Additional funding to support no- and low-interest loan and grant programs that have been taken under recent emergency actions.

Create temporary tax incentives that encourage consumers to return to on-premises dining and drinking establishments when public health officials give clearance, such as reinstating the expanded business entertainment tax deduction and creating a new, temporary travel tax credit equal to 50% of any expense for meals, lodging, recreation, transportation, or entertainment while traveling.

Napa Valley Grapegrowers is providing protective masks, posters for the workplace, and vineyard signs to ensure the health and safety of the vineyard and winery workforce.

The NVG and the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation have developed a full toolkit of resources in English and Spanish for vineyard crews and winery workers. Resources include these:

View post:
North Bay business briefs on how businesses are helping out and retooling for coronavirus; VingDirect courses on wine DTC - North Bay Business Journal

In an industry where a few hours downtime can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis has hit the manufacturing sector like a sledgehammer.

Crisis or not, manufacturing companies today are no strangers to extreme pressure and intense volatility owed to ever-shortening business and product lifecycles. The belts must keep moving, margins are constantly tightening, and the industry is looking to technology that enhances efficiency and drives productivity. But considerations go beyond:

Manufacturing companies are transforming from efficiency-oriented operations to resilient organizations driven by a tighter connection to their markets and customers, according to Kevin Prouty, VP, Energy and Manufacturing Insights at IDC.

Their decision making must be near real time and based on mass customization and customer experience [CX], whether a physical product, a performed service, or a sales engagement.

At the heart of this technology: automation. Manufacturers want robots, autonomous vehicles and fewer cables they want to be quicker, more agile; they want to minimize (if not entirely eliminate) downtime and gain the flexibility they need to scale and react to market changes with agility.

But they also want to ensure their workforces arent replaced, but upskilled and agile in order to work in concert with machines in these new, smart powerhouses.

It is for this reason that manufacturers are now placing their confidence in forward-thinking firms like Rockwell Automation, a true world-heavyweight that now plays a central role in the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector in more than 100 countries worldwide.

At Rockwell Automations Digital Transformation Virtual Forum, May 26, a team of diverse specialists will explore innovative, digital-first solutions that will span three core aspects of modern industrial operations.

Leveraging 25 years of automation and process control sales and marketing experience in Asia Pacific, John Watts, Regional Sales Director of Information Software, Pacific Rim, will illustrate how companies can keep their systems operational in times of crisis, and become more resilient to future interruption.

Attendees will learn about Manufacturing Excellence from Kriengsak Parsurakul, Industrial Control & Power Control Manager, Southeast Asia, navigating how to maximize output and utilization of key assets, and leverage predictive maintenance functionality to actively reduce unplanned downtimes.

In connected factories, the threat of cyberattacks has become a new and fearsome foe. Debraj Chakraborty, Business Development Manager for Network Security & Services, Southeast Asia, will tackle how next-generation remote assistance tools and managed remote services are becoming airtight.

Lastly, Javier Garcia Lopez, Business Development Manager of Information Software, will explore and lend solutions to the complexities unique to the automated industrial enterprise workforce and how employees can be constantly developed and upskilled with new approaches such as virtual and AR-based training.

Find out more about the interactive Digital Transformation Virtual Forum today. Attendees registering using the following link will also receive a complimentary copy of the industry-leading IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Manufacturing 2020 Predictions Report.

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Crisis or not learn how next-gen manufacturing rumbles on, live with Rockwell Automation - Tech Wire Asia

Sometimes people dont want to hear the truth, wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, because they dont want their illusions destroyed. Welcome to the United States.

The first principle of the American creed is that world is redeemable.We believe that we are exempt from the constraints of the human condition. I disagree. As Albert Camus suggests: We areSisyphus.

Whatever their faith, ideology or party, most Americans are utopians. Since the Puritans washed ashore and John Winthrop foresaw a city upon a hill, the American experiment has been a perfectionist project, an exceptional escape from nature and history. No matter if you believe in free markets, a welfare state, democratic socialism or anarchism, your agenda is grounded upon an unshakable faith in human perfectibility and the inevitability of creating a heaven on earth.

Every so often, a calamity of such magnitude occurs that it shakes the foundations of our taken-for-granted reality. COVID-19 is such a moment. The United States is awash in cognitive dissonance: Our illusion is that America is redeemable, that the Promised Land is just around the corner; the truth is that we are embedded in nature and history, tossed about by their unpredictable vicissitudes.

Monte Bute

In all societies, power struggles between groups are ubiquitous and perennial. The powerful are predators who prey upon the vulnerable they always have, and they always will. In all environments, natural and human-made calamities are ubiquitous and perennial. No amount of Shangri-La prophylactics will shield us from injustice and cruelty, from death and destruction.

To acknowledge this is not a brief for quietism; by no means does unblinkered realism absolve us from acting against suffering, cruelty, and injustice. Nevertheless, we are Sisyphus, forever condemned to push the rock of righteousness up the mountain, only to see it roll back down, perpetually. The world is not redeemable.

But what if we have it all wrong? What if redemption is not a forever after thing? Perhaps it is more like extendedepiphanies, interludes in which we transcend our mundane lives.

For sure, communities do not experience forever-after redemptions; nevertheless, they do have redemptive episodes. Throughout history, exemplary communities have stood up against pestilences, disasters, and social catastrophes like war, human slavery, ethnic cleansing, and climate change. Regrettably, too often these redemptive communities have faced unresponsive dominant communities and nation states. In this time of COVID-19, our essential workers are redemptive communities, inspiring the rest of us to listen to our better angels, ignoring the shrill voices of our demons.

During this plague, the selfless acts of courage rise to a heroic level when speaking of health care workers, first responders, transit workers, and workers in essential industries. At a more prosaic level, we must not overlook a contagion of kindness, the millions of small acts of care and compassion that emerge like blades of spring grass. Amidst all the death and destruction, this too is a redemptive moment in American history.

Still, Camus closes The Plague with a cautionary note:

None the less, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of a final victory. It could be only the record of what had to be done, and what would assuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending fight against terror and relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.

The world remains a hellish place. It cries out for our attention. We must create what Martin Luther King Jr. called beloved communities who answer those pleas by pushing the rock of righteousness toward the peak, acting against suffering, cruelty, and injustice. I am one with Camus: The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagineSisyphushappy.

Monte Bute teaches sociology and social science at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.

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COVID-19 is a cruel reminder of the human condition - MinnPost

During stressful times like these, its natural to feel like everything around you is broken. Everyone is out of sorts. The economy seems frozen. Your clients personal and business finances are in disarray. The headlines are nothing but doom and gloom. But at times like these, when it seems like were in a war zone, its a great opportunity to rebuild.

Did you ever wonder why museums and people with extensive art collections put broken pottery on display? Its because many times, the artisan who painstakingly repaired the broken pottery by using gold, rather than cheap glue, made the piece even stronger, more beautiful and more valuable than it was originally. For about 500 years, the Japanese have called this technique Kintsugi (joining with gold) or wabi-sabi, which essentially means embracing the imperfect. The same philosophy can be applied to your clients. The crisis has caused all kinds of damage to peoples business and personal finances. Sure, you can help clients apply for PPP and EIDL loans and other types of disaster relief. But those are just Band-Aid solutions cheap (but necessary) economic glue.

You can really demonstrate your value by helping clients rethink all the ways they do things and by showing them how to put the pieces back together so theyre even stronger than they were before the crisis.

Stronger through adversity

If youre able to become an anti-fragile CPA, shocks and disruptions wont stop you; theyll just make you stronger, more creative and better able to adapt to each new challenge you face. I know its not easy to make yourself or your clients anti-fragile. Its a lot like starting a new fitness routine. Your muscles will only get stronger by continually stressing the tissue. You want to tax your muscles just enough to cause slight damage slightly tearing them so they can repair themselves naturally to get ready for the next level of stress. If youre consistent about following your workouts, youll be able to handle more and more stress with each session as your muscles get stronger and more pliable.

Same goes for your practice.

As any Navy Seal will tell you, you have to put people through trauma together in order to build close-knit teams. This pandemic is a great acid test. Yes, were all in this together, but not everyone is handling it the same way. Your trusted relationship with clients isnt built when times are good. Its about the decisions you help them make or not make during times of crisis.

Owning your mistakes

At the end of the day, were all flawed individuals. When you work closely with clients on a tight deadline, mistakes can happen. Even more so during stressful and unpredictable times like these. When mistakes happen, dont make excuses or try to rationalize them. Be accountable and do whatever it takes to make the situation better. Thats what clients remember.

As I explained in Adopting a Ritz Carlton mentality, what sets great firms apart is how they react when breakage occurs. They own their mistakes. They apologize to clients and go above and beyond to fix them ASAP. By establishing a great client service reputation for your firm, theres another big benefit youll have some leeway when your next mistake inevitably happens.

When working with your clients during times of duress, always think about ways you can put gold in their seams after their business or personal finances have taken some hits. How do you help them put everything back together so its even better than before?

Think about your best clients. How many times have you helped them through a real crisis or trauma? Not many, I bet. But now is one of those times when theyre really counting on you and you can add great value. Theres no one in a better position to help them repair the damaged pieces of their financial circumstances and make them stronger than before.

Peoples stress levels are through the roof today. We have economic stress. We have policy stress. We have personal stress. People really cant control any of these stressors so theyre going to need a lot of guidance. These arent things theyve had to deal with before. Make sure youre filling the seams and helping to rebuild with gold, not glue.

You dont get a lot of credit for taking care of things when everythings going well. You get the credit when you go to battle for your clients. Right now, were in a war. As legendary philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

Keep fighting for your clients.

Excerpt from:
Your firm and the pandemic: Better after broken - Accounting Today

So far, there is no evidence that Peterson displayed any of the so-called aberrant behaviors that define addiction. But again, all we have to go on is reports from his daughter, whose family has a strong financial incentive to spin away any suggestion that the man who made his name engaging in a kind of intellectual Spartan cosplay is hopelessly addicted to a sedative. In fact, Mikhaila has jokingly alluded to how bad an addiction diagnosis would be for her fathers lucrative self-help brand, which purports to rid adherents of weakness through grit and self-sacrifice. We figured we should let people know [the facts] before some tabloid finds out and publishes [that] Jordan Peterson, self help guru, is on meth or something, Mikhaila said in a video update after Peterson checked himself into rehab in the U.S.

Still, as soon as Petersons initial stint in rehab became public in 2019, threads sprang up in Peterson-related forums about whether his fans should think less of him in light of his struggles with benzodiazepines. He was using a drug to escape the pain of reality, period. Call it whatever you like, but it doesnt change the facts, wrote the user KingLudwigII on Reddit. In fact, dependence and addiction are health issues, not character defects, and if you pressed Peterson on that point, hed probably agree. However, that message is a tough sell to many of Petersons fans, who are drawn to his macho image and his personal story of triumph over adversity.

By August or September 2019, Petersons health had deteriorated to the point that the family was more worried about him than his cancer-stricken wife, Mikhaila said in an appearance on RT, the Russian propaganda network aimed at audiences outside of Russia.

There are established ways of treating a dependence on benzodiazepines, a class of sedativesincluding Klonopin (clonazepam), Valium (diazepam), and Xanax (alprazolam)used for anxiety, insomnia, and epilepsy. Introduced to the U.S. market in 1960 as an alternative to barbiturates, benzodiazepines can be useful in treating a variety of conditions from panic attacks to muscle spasms. They can be very helpful for short-term and intermittent use, but their benefits tend to wane when they are used every day. They can also cause physical dependence within four weeks. If a person whos physically dependent on benzodiazepines stops taking the drugs suddenly, they can suffer from withdrawal symptoms including severe anxiety, agitation, and even life-threatening seizures.

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What Happened to Jordan Peterson? | The New Republic

YouTube Jordan B. Peterson's daughter gives a health update.

Jordan B. Peterson is now expected to recover after a dangerous and very arduous journey back from benzodiazepine addiction, which occurred because of an averse reaction to the medication, his daughter told fans in a YouTube video updating the authors health.

Peterson is a well-known author and clinical psychologist who wrote the bestseller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

The YouTube video from February 2020 on Petersons YouTube channel is called Peterson Family Update. It was posted on February 7, 2020 and has more than 700,000 views already. Jordan Petersons daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, speaks in the video.

Heres what you need to know:

Hi Everyone. Its been months since weve given an update on Jordan or my familys health and its time for one, so here it is, Jordans daughter says in the video.

The last year has been extremely difficult for our family. Dad was put on a low dose of benzodiazepine a few years ago for anxiety following an extremely severe auto immune reaction to food.

When his wife was diagnosed with cancer, he took a higher dosage, his daughter says, and thats when the problems began.

He took the medication as prescribed, she says in the video. Last April, when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the dose of the medication was increased. It became apparent that he was suffering from both a physical dependency and a paradoxical reaction to the medication. A paradoxical reaction means the drugs do the opposite of what theyre supposed to. These reactions are rare but not unheard of.

She added: For the last 8 months, hes been in unbearable discomfort from this drug, made worse when trying to remove it because of the additional withdrawal symptoms.

A physical dependence let to a terrible condition where the person feels an endless irresistible restlessness bordering on panic and inability to sit still. The reaction made him suicidal. After several failed treatment attempts in north American hospitals, including attempts at tapering and micro tapering, we had to seek an emergency medical benzodiazepine detox, which we were only able to find in Russia, his daughter says.

It was incredible grueling and it was further complicated by severe pneumonia, which weve been told he developed in one of the previous hospitals.

He spent four weeks in the ICU in terrible shape. With the help of some extremely confident and courageous doctors he survived. The decision to bring him to Russia was made in extreme desperation when we couldnt find any better option. The uncertainty around his recovery has been one of the most difficult and scary experiences weve ever had.

Hes now recovering, but theres a lot of physiological damage he needs to recover from, she said. Hes improving and hes off the horrible medication. His sense of humor is back, hes smiling again for the first time in months, but he still has a long way to go to recover fully. It appears were going to get through this by the skin of our teeth.

She concluded by saying she wanted to make a couple of things clear. Neither our family nor the doctors here believe this is a case of psychological addiction. Benzodiazepine physical dependence due to brain changes can occur in a matter of weeks. It can be made even worse by paradoxical reactions that are difficult to diagnose and can be extremely dangerous.

In conclusion, she said, Weve been told and hope that dad will recover fully, but it will take time, and he has a ways to go. Were extremely lucky and grateful that hes alive. The next update will come from him directly. Thanks again for all the support.

Excerpt from:

Jordan B. Peterson Health Update: Author Is Recovering ...

A controversial psychology professor and self-help author who has spent much of his career railing against political correctness is recovering from an addiction to tranquilizers, his daughter said.

Jordan Peterson, 57, emerged last week from an intensive care unit in a Russian hospital after being treated for a dependence on benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety medication.

Peterson sought alternative treatments in Russia after being repeatedly misdiagnosed in North American hospitals, including a clinic in New York, Mikhaila Peterson said in a video script she shared with Canadas National Post newspaper.

He nearly died several times, the daughter said, adding her father had been taking the drug for years to treat anxiety brought on by a severe autoimmune reaction to food. Doctors increased his dosage last year to help him cope with stress after his wife, Tammy, was diagnosed with cancer.

The daughter and her husband took Peterson, a professor at the University of Toronto who has long battled depression, to Moscow last month; he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put into an induced coma for eight days, according to the National Post. She described her fathers withdrawal as horrific.

In the past, Peterson said he was able to beat back depression with the meat-heavy diet his daughter encouraged him to adopt. Cutting out greens altogether improved both his mental and physical health, he said in a 2018 interview.

The Twelve Rules of Life author has been released from the hospital and is taking anti-seizure medication, his daughter said. Although he has trouble walking and typing on his own, he is on the mend, she said.

Hes smiling again, she said.

Continued here:

Jordan Peterson recovering from tranquilizer addiction

May 13, 2020 16:31 ET | Source: Imperium Group

New York, NY, May 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Instagrams user base continues to climb, reaching 1 billion users in 2018. Instagram sponsored posts are steadily rising, with 6.1 million total sponsored posts expected by 2020. And, the Instagram influencer market has swelled, approaching $2.3 billion by 2020.

No doubt, Instagram presents marketers one of the ripest channels for influencer marketing. Many top brands are running Instagram influencer marketing campaigns89% of marketers list Instagram as the most important influencer marketing channel. But who are they working with?

There may be hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of top Instagram influencers across practically any category imaginable. While factoring in the niche appropriate for your brands campaign is important, its worth knowing the top Instagram influencers across the board. These Instagram stars take the meaning of sensational to new heights, partnering with major brands to work on creative and impactful influencer marketing initiatives.

We had a chance to chat with entrepreneurs that are poised to disrupt their industry.

Jorge Pelayo - @iamjorgepelayo

Jorge Pelayo is a half Cuban and Puerto Rican American who went from serving breadsticks to building a successful business. After seeing challenges growing up he made a commitment to become a young millionaire. He has built a team of over 3,500 licensed Agents across the United States that does 8 figures in sales annually. He is a Chairman Council with PHP Agency Inc. His agency has helped over 50,000 clients protect themselves and plan for their futures. He focuses on teaching aspiring entrepreneurs on how to build their own businesses. As a business coach, hes helped several people cross six figures and more.

Aside from helping clients and agents, he loves helping people. His first mission was to Haiti with an organization called, Hearts for Haiti. He saw first hand the need that exists in the world and decided he wanted to dedicate his life to serving people. His passions are family, salsa dancing, whiskey, wine, food, chess, movies, and traveling. He is in the process of writing his first book so stay tuned. His hobby is real estate development and has recently built his first few properties from the ground up. He speaks on leadership, sales, organizational management, and personal transformation and recently shared the stage with Kobe Bryant, George Bush, Billy Bean, Jordan Peterson, and Patrick Bet-David at the 2019 PHP Convention.

Douglas Lusted, CEO of AdStash

A successful Canadian tech entrepreneur, Douglas Lusted has been transforming offline advertising with new innovative products for the better part of the last decade. He is the CEO of AdStash, a free platform that is generating thousands of brick & mortar venues additional revenue by monetizing their digital screens/signs with advertising. Douglas also previously co-founded LINKETT, which landed him on Forbes 30 under 30 list at the age of 21 as well as on Entrepreneur.coms 27 under 27 list. info@adstash.com

Dillon Breslin, CEO of ROUND2

Among the newest wave of tech entrepreneurs, Breslin found a way to enter the 90B dollar a year sporting goods industry by proprietarily ranking sports gear and equipment, individualizing each athlete's search. ROUND2, the marketplace he co-founded in 2018, has already received recognition from top tech accelerators like Capital Innovators and the Oklahoma City Thunder Launchpad.

One of the hottest sports tech startups is ROUND2. Founded by Dillon Breslin and former MLB draft pick Brian Fletcher, ROUND2s sporting goods marketplace uses AI and automation to rank gear and equipment, customizing every search for each athlete. ROUND2 is a portfolio company of Capital Innovators, a top tech accelerator and looking to rapidly expand in 2020 and beyond.

Shazir Mucklai, CEO of Imperium Group

Shazir Mucklai, a 23-year old, Goldman Sachs alum, who took investment banking and private equity and coupled it with an act for public relations. Shazir first debuted his book on Amazon when he was 16 and went on to become the youngest writer for Forbes at 17 and has generated over 8 million unique views on publications he has written for. Mucklai now represents over 200 celebrities, brands, and media production houses and is an award-winning influencer, an activist investor, a former analyst at Goldman Sachs and is currently in law school while growing his public relations digital arbitrage firm.

Contact:

Shazir Mucklai CEO Imperium Group shazir@imperium-pr.com

See the article here:

Imperium Group Features Top Disruptors and Entrepreneurs of 2020 - GlobeNewswire

I was in Mountain View, toward the end of 2019, in front of a plain gray building awaiting the presence of The Ciardellas and The San Vicentes. My nerves were clawing me to pieces. I felt like, to paraphrase Martin Sheens character in Apocalypse Now, Id split from the whole program. Gone rogue. Crossed some kind of line.

Cause I was about to sit among these couples and take in Candace Owens

You likely know The Ciardellas and The San Vicentes: Larry and Christina, Victor and Pearla. Victor ran for State Senate in 2018. Larrys the assistant Chief at Spring Valley Fire, and was a long-time Milpitas Planning Commissioner.

The five of us walked into a room full of Trumpers. Candace Owens, for the uninitiated, is the black leader of what shes termed the Blexit movement, consisting of black people whove grown tired of the Democratic Party. Far be it from me to summarize Blexits positions, but they largely boil down to a version of What have you done for me lately? In other words, the Democratic Party, despite being vocally aligned to people of color, hasnt been the provably more effective party at raising black peoples wages over the past several decades, or ensuring for them a more secure or fruitful way of life.

Owens is smart as a whip, fast as a lightning bolt, and charismatic as holy fire. If youre on the left, as I am, and you can bear your political bubble being pierced for a moment, you can watch this brief video of Owens in action, schooling a pair of white women on the ground-level realities of white supremacy.

The video shows where weve arrived at, on the left: white people lecturing black people on how much they should fear white supremacy. And if a black persons a Republican, forget it: shes an apostate, a denial case, a pathetic Aunt Tom. Every word she fires back at the lecturer, no matter how compelling, can be denied on the basis of her unacceptable party affiliation.

The left is eating itself, its been said lately. This is because the left is insular and thus blind. I know no form of enjoyment more delicious than watching two lefties who largely agree with one another arguing over the tiny ways in which they disagree. Ive not only witnessed this; Ive been forced to partake in it. My Republican friends either nod respectfully upon hearing my views or avoid debating altogether. My Democrat friends swerve into paranoia and judgment if I diverge from them by 1% on any given issue. It makes sense, though: I mean, who else would they argue with? After all, they refuse to speak with, much less listen to, the opposition.

Speaking of which: Better still is what happens when insular Democrats are outright exposed to Republicans. They grow panic-stricken. Their blood turns to ice. Republicans are supposed to be out therenot right here!

This has become like a freaking cartoon.

I dont want to be insular, much less blind. I want to know Ciardella. I want to know San Vicente. I dont wish to be TRIGGERED. Nor do I wish to be surprised again, the way I was back in late 2016, when the Orange Man took it and I didnt sleep for half a week.

Id prefer to know where my friends on the right are coming from. And I befriend them not as an anthropological experiment, but because (heres the crux of it) in many ways I feel safer among them than I do among their left-wing counterparts

Did I feel safe at the Candace Owens event? With no shortage of irony, Owens was pretty much the only black person in the room. And I meanwhile thought my thick, dark eyebrows were serving as a flashing sign that read Hebrew.

These were white people, all around me, the ones the left-wing media had long been warning me about. The privileged ones. The evil ones. And of coursethe racist ones. And the ones whom it was OK to be racist toward, as their status as the oppressors of people of color made reverse racism definitively impossible.

The left started mainstreaming these sentiments in 2014, in the late Obama years. That was the point when the precepts of intersectional feminism, also known as intersectionality, started being spouted from many left-wingers lips. Bear in mind: I respect and value intersectionality. Per its framing, by way of systematic injustice, white people oppress people of color, straight people oppress LGBT+ people, and males oppress females, as well as those of other genders. Even a brief observation of how our government and economy tend toin generalcultivate an easier and smoother path through life for white people, straight people, and male people (and most of all, naturally, those that check all three boxes) grants validity to the intersectional view of reality. My problem with intersectionality is not its grip on basic horrifying truths.

It is its readiness to wield the language of war rather than the language of peace.

Case in point: the word oppressor. As a straight white male, Im told repeatedly that this is what I am. Painful to take in, since I hold no person under lock and key (except for my 5-year-old, but sometimes he runs out the front door!). Moreover, my wifes half-black, half-Asian. Our children are black-Asian-Jewish (Im mashing race, ethnicity, culture, and religion here in service of my broader points). Am I my wifes oppressor or her partner? Can I possibly be both? Should she sneer at me when she passes by me in the hallway? What of my children? Are they half oppressed (their black-brown side) and half oppressor (their white-Jewish side)?

And what of Jews, in general? Some of my Jewish friends, citing the alarming violence against our people, refer to themselves as oppressed. Myself, citing how white privilege has largely afforded Jews a strong and stable position in the U.S. economyI find the idea of oppressed American Jews to be melodramatic.

More to the point: I could have received intersectionality differently. Instead of quibbling with it, I could have conformed in full to the mindset of my left-wing comrades. Could have played up my multiracial household. Could have played up my Jewish upbringing and culture. Could have played up bisexual instances from my formative years. Could have even played up the joy I get from cross-dressing! My straightness, my whiteness, my malenessall dealt with, all contextualized for and tailored to the lefts approval, all effectively apologized for.

To hell with that.

I reject the lefts simplistic, war-like, and undiplomatic insistence on framing every political discussion through an intersectional lens. I find it demeaning, dehumanizing, and disrespectful to hear my straightness, my whiteness, and my maleness blamed for all of societys major ills, as though theres a direct line from longstanding systemic evils to me sitting on my couch eating potato chips (i.e., just sitting around Being What I Was Born As).

The left deems Trump a symptom of our oppressive system: for them the man is Exhibit A. The right, meanwhile, deems Trump an effective pushback against and a perfect answer to the lefts emergent politics of disrespect.

Whats more difficult to understand and often too subtle to detect is that both things happen to be true at the exact same time.

I wrote a novel about this. Its called RED DENNIS. Its about a straight white male who gets radicalized as a result of being demonized. Its not a left-wing book, much less a right-wing one. Cause in my mind both the wings are melting, and sometimes there can just be a story about a guy (or can there?).

Watching Owens, I had a panic attack. I felt like an undercover cop. When I panic, my stomach juts up into my chest, tightening everything and making me feel like my hearts stopped beating. I panicked when she dished harsh truths (i.e., Trumps tweets are a part of what keeps him in power). I panicked when she evaded harsh truths (i.e., landing punchlines regarding transgender people despite their sky-high suicide rate).

Most of all, I panicked cause Im a man without a functional political language, exhausted from speaking the language of the left (wherein constant reassurances that you despise Trump and Republicans are mandatory) and turned off by the priorities ascendant on the right (touting small government in a time of environmental and respiratory disrepair, preservingIm gonna say it!white hegemony and majority status).

This doesnt make me a moderate. Im not in between. I lose sleep over climate change. I vote for women by default when I dont know much about the candidates. I havent eaten meat in 18 years.

Yet there I go againreciting my resume. Volunteering my qualifications so my lefty friends can trust me.

This game grows tired. Pandemic or no pandemic, Trump could win yet again. And if he does, the left, unseeing and unknowing, with their war-like language and their politics of disrespect, will have very much helped to keep him there.

After all, if not for the ills of the left, Candace Owens would not have a career right now. Like with Joe Rogan, or Jordan Peterson, or Dave Rubin, or Ben Shapiro, or Tim Pool, or so many others, so long as the lefts disrespect goes unchecked, the content pushing back against it wont run out.

Speaking of which, here is more.

Steer clear if you get easily triggered. Or on second thought, jump right in.

Go here to see the original:

RED DENNIS & The Politics of Disrespect - The Milpitas Beat