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One of the things I love about talking with Kevin Bourke is how I am guaranteed to learn something I can use immediately. Kevin has been on the show before (listen here) and is a great supporter of other efforts we undertake, such as sponsoring TEDxSantaBarbara for many years.

In this conversation, Kevin talked about how he and the team at Bourke Wealth Management, look at finances from a big picture view, not just isolating their lens on stock portfolios. He calls it the Family Financial Ecosystem. He takes us on a deep dive of what this means, and once you hear it, you'll wonder why no one has explained this to you before.

Kevin also introduced me to a new word right off the bat - you may need to look it up. It's Decumulation. It's how you thoughtfully and strategically use your savings to fund your retirement, though Kevin explains it much better.

Kevin helped me to understand the differences in how you look at your family finances, especially as it relates to long term planning. He explains where Asset Management fits, how to think about Wealth Management, and how it's different than how someone like him sits as the family CFO and manages the relationships with attorneys, accountants, and anyone involved in your financial ecosystem.

We love it when Kevin spends time explaining complicated topics to us and encourage you to get a copy of his book, Make Your Money Last a Lifetime.

His site: http://bourkewealth.com
His book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Money-Last-Lifetime/dp/0984789529

Dennis Baker is an accomplished marketer and entrepreneur. His latest venture is called POLIS Assist. For the last two years, he and his team have been locating every parking space in Los Angeles County and putting them into an app. Yes, it's true, need a space, use POLIS to find one.

Dennis freely gives of his time and extensive expertise to the non-profit community in Santa Barbara to help them with messaging, strategic positioning, branding, and crisis communications. He has a deep background in marketing and has focused that energy into bringing the POLIS app to the millions of drivers in Los Angeles.

While developing POLIS he and the team have collected parking information on over 500,000 blocks. Dennis talked about one day where he looked at the eight signs in front of a potential parking spot and was confused. Some of the signs said what day he could and could not park, what type of plate he had to have, and other regulations governing the single space. He was maddened by it and decided to fix the problem.

The only obstacle was, there was no central database for street parking, which meant his team had to photograph every street sign on those 500,000 blocks. The volume of street information turned into a big data challenge and opportunity. Dennis says that POLIS is the Waze for Parking.

We appreciate the mammoth effort that has gone into and will continue to go into POLIS. We also thank him for his support of the Santa Barbara Non-Profit Community and his frequent attendance at TEDxSantaBarbara events.

Claudia Weintraub is the Director of the River Oaks Academy, a Personalized Learning Public Charter School, based in Thousand Oaks, California. We sat down with her to understand changes that are occurring in various proposed laws that are going to affect students in Charter Schools throughout the State.

Claudia spent some time updating us on Charter Schools since her first podcast with us in 2015. Lots has changed, specifically in the legislature and the current political climate. Claudia helps educate us, and parents and citizens about the challenges Charter Schools are facing during these challenging times.

What was fascinating to learn was how Charter Schools are a perfect alternative for individual students. The concept of Personalized Learning is an answer for a lot of problems young people face when trying to navigate the structured public school system. Thankfully we have people like Claudia leading the charge and advocating for this innovative way to teach our children.

More information about River Oaks is here: http://www.riveroakscharter.com/

Will Bellomy is himself quite a character, ironically he designs characters for his party game business, Murder Happens. Will joined us in the studio, with guest host, Kimberly Herriman. Kimberly is studying 'Play' as a part of her doctoral research at Antioch University. By day, Will works at Photothermal Spectroscopy in Santa Barbara, designing marketing materials to illustrate the incredibly complex process of their products. It's no wonder he's fascinated with creating complex narratives that anyone can play, with eight of their friends.

This conversation was interesting on several levels. Many of us love solving puzzles, and interactive mysteries, like the ones Will designs are tremendously fun. Will says his stories come from everywhere and hints that an upcoming game stems from an idea he had while talking with an Uber driver.

Kimberly added an interesting voice, as she's doing a lot of research into the psychology of play, and what motivates people to play. You'll learn a lot from listening to her questions. I'm looking forward to playing on of Will's games soon with her, and a bunch of our friends.

Will says his business is just getting going and that he's encouraged that board games are really hot right now especially social games. I think that we're experiencing a backlash against screens.

Glen Derbyshire started taking photographs as a young boy growing up in a military family stationed in Asia. He fell in love with capturing images of events all around him and began his pursuit of lifelong learning, ending up at Brooks Institute here in Santa Barbara.

He is the founder of Studio 2050, a full-service production facility located on the top of the San Marcos Pass in the old Cielo Store. Such a beautiful location has led to a creative vision that extends to a wide variety of production services. Glen and Mark talked at length about his experience with 3D animation. The Studio provides services that include photography, art direction, video production, print production and creative content needed to support his clients' marketing objectives.

You may have seen him and his crew in downtown Santa Barbara in 2015 shooting scenes for the film Papa Hemingway in Cuba.

Longtime Santa Barbara residents will remember the Cielo Store as a stop along the way to a camping trip in the Santa Ynez Mountains, to pick up last minute supplies. Here's an article in the LA Times from 1992 that speaks of the beauty of the region. We're jealous that Glen and his clients get to spend so much time in this stunning location.

We invited Tara Jones Haaf back to the show when we heard that her very successful company, Eat This, Shoot That, has expanded into Solvang. For those of you outside the 805, Solvang is a lovely recreation of a Danish town, nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley, just 45 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. Tara tells Mark and Patrick all about the charming city and the hidden culinary treasures that abound on the tour. Tara says that her tours are an 8-course adventure. We can't wait to go up to Solvang and discover these hidden treats.

Listen to our original episode with her from 2017 to get a full background on what Eat This, Shoot That is all about. We caught up on the business; she's now operating with seven tour guides. She is full of great quotes, including, "Take the picture that got you to go to the restaurant in the first place." Good idea.

Tara gave us some pro tips for taking pictures of food - and they are simple and easy to remember. 1. Get in nice and tight. She suggests getting into the personal space of the dish. 2. Shoot at eye level. Forget perfectly framing those over the dish shots. 3. Front light the plate (have the sun at your back) unless you're taking pictures of glasses of wine, then have the light behind the glass.

Tara also writes for Noozhawk and has an unfair competitive advantage in finding the best places to eat. You can see her many articles here. Her writing talents are also on display in her book that she spoke about in our first show: The 100 Things to do in Santa Barbara Before You Die.