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Published May 30, 2023

"Bop, the sales robot that guides you around the Salesbop platform"

Maximize your sales team's potential and boost performance with Salesbop's cutting-edge AI sales coaching and training platform

Salesbop, the brainchild of Nikos Dritsakos and Sarah Simionescu, two computer science students at Brock University, is taking the sales coaching and training industry by storm with its innovative AI-powered platform.

Designed for businesses of all sizes, Salesbop delivers personalized coaching by analyzing high-ticket sales call recordings, helping sales reps improve their communication, handle objections, and pinpoint key moments in conversations.

Beyond individual coaching, Salesbop also serves as a valuable sales trainer for managers, providing critical insights into team performance, strategy effectiveness, and individual win rates. This data-driven approach enables managers to fine-tune their sales teams and deliver outstanding results.

"Our vision at Salesbop is to revolutionize the sales industry," says founder Nikos Dritsakos. "The early success of our platform is a testament to the effectiveness of our AI-driven approach, and we're excited to continue helping businesses enhance their sales performance."

Tailored for businesses in industries such as SEO, web design, marketing, software, app development, and consulting, Salesbop's platform emphasizes simplicity, scalability, and results-driven sales coaching and training. Embrace the future of sales coaching and training with Salesbop.

About Salesbop:

Salesbop is a leading provider of advanced sales training tools designed to empower sales teams and individuals to achieve outstanding results. With its innovative platform, Salesbop equips sales professionals with the necessary skills, strategies, and insights to boost sales productivity and drive revenue growth. For more information, visit http://www.Salesbop.io.

Media Contact Company Name: Salesbop Contact Person: Nikos Dritsakos Email: Send Email Phone: +1 (289) 929-6614 Country: Canada Website: salesbop.io

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Salesbop: The AI-Powered Sales Coach and Trainer ... - Digital Journal

Published 1:30 pm Monday, May 29, 2023

Demopolis High School offers career and technical education programs to all students. The programs offered at DHS include: Information Technology, Health Science, Industrial Maintenance, JROTC, Marketing, Education and Training, and Co-Op. The programs at DHS are designed to prepare our students for a broad range of employment opportunities, post-secondary educational opportunities, and are offered under the guidance and instruction of certified teachers. The lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission and participation incareer and technical education programs. All career and technical education programs follow the systems policies of nondiscrimination. The Demopolis City School System does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups.

The school system provides translated copies of the annual public notice of career technical offerings to student(s) and parent(s) with limited English proficiency and will arrange for an interpreter for student(s) and parent (with limited English proficiency if requested. If a parent is deaf or blind or has no written language, the school district will arrange for communication of this notice in the mode normality used by the parent (e.g. sign language, Braille, or oral communication). For more information, contact Connie Davis, CT Director, Demopolis City Schools, email:cdavis@dcsedu.com, phone: (334) 287-4718.

The following are Demopolis City Schools District Contacts ~

504 Coordinator Yolanda Samuel 609 South Cedar Demopolis, AL 36732 334-289-1670 ysamuel@dcsedu.com

Title II & Title IX Coordinator Spring Pacheco 609 South Cedar 334-289-1670 spacheco@dcsedu.com

Information Technology-Computer Science(FBLA)

Exploring Computer Science Exploring Computer Science is an introductory year-long high school computer science course for students in Grades 9-10 focused on foundational computer science concepts and computational practices. Students will be introduced to the breadth of the field of computer science through an exploration of engaging and accessible topics. The course is designed to focus on the conceptual ideas of computing and help students understand why certain tools or languages might be utilized to solve particular problems. The goal of Exploring Computer Science is to develop in students the computational practices of algorithm development, problem solving and programming within the context of problems that are relevant to the lives of todays students. Students will also be introduced to topics such as interface design, limits of computers, and societal and ethical issues. Prerequisite: It is recommended that students have completed Algebra I prior to enrolling or be concurrently enrolled in Algebra I. Exploring Computer Science is designed to be a college preparatory high school course and thus, should provide a rigorous, but accessible, introduction to computer science. No previous computer science experience is required.

Introduction to Computer Science-an introductory-level course for students that desire to program in Python and extend their knowledge of computer science. In this course, students will learn problem-solving strategies, software design, and the foundations of computer science. Not only will this course prepare you for continuing your studies in computer science (for example, by taking AP Computer Science Principles), but it will also teach you how to think like a scientist and solve real-world problems, skills that are important to every 21st-century citizen.

Prerequisite: Basic familiarity with how to operate a computer and use applications. Its also recommended that you have the before starting this course. Course fee $25

Credential Offered: Information Technology Specialist Python

AP Computer Science Principles College-level advanced course following the curriculum established by the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) program for computer science; focuses on the innovative and multidisciplinary aspects of computing as well as the computational thinking practices that help students see how computing is relevant to many areas of their everyday lives; introduces students to the creative aspects of programming, abstractions, algorithms, large data sets, the Internet, cybersecurity concerns, and computing impacts.

Prerequisite: Successfully completed a first-year high school algebra course with a strong foundation of basic linear functions, composition of functions, and problem-solving strategies that require multiple approaches and collaborative efforts.

CTE Lab in IT-is designed to enhance the students general understanding and mastery of the cluster. This course is designed as a learning laboratory to support students individual interests and goals. This laboratory will take place in a traditional classroom.

Foundational standards are an important part of every course. Through these standards, students learn and apply safety concepts, explore career opportunities and requirements, practice the skills needed to succeed in the workplace, develop leadership qualities and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), and learn and practice essential digital literacy skills. The foundational standards are to be incorporated throughout the course. $25 course fee.

Potential Credential Offered: Federal Aviation Part 107 License

*Dual Enrollment is available and scholarshipped for students who meet minimum GPA requirements

Health Science-Health Science (HOSA)

FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTH SCIENCEis recommended for 9th or 10th grade This course introduces students to a wide range of health careers. Integrated academics combined with health care knowledge and skills provide the framework for a strong health care delivery system in the twenty-first century. Recommended for students who want to prepare for further study in an array of health-related fields at the postsecondary level.Can substitute for the Health Education diploma requirement. $27.00 course fee

MEDICAL TERMINOLOGYis recommended for 10th or 11th grade. This one credit course is designed for students to develop health care-specific knowledge for a medical field. This course used an integrated approach for teaching the language of medicine by incorporating medical terminology with anatomy and physiology and the disease process. $27.00 course fee

SPORTS MEDICINE INTERMEDIATEisrecommended for 11th& 12thgrade Sports Medicine Intermediate is a one credit course that teaches fundamental skills to include therapeutic exercise regimens within the field of sports medicine. Students will explore the study of sports medicine and the relationship to risk management and injury prevention. Students will demonstrate an understanding of anatomy and physiology, with emphasis on the musculoskeletal system. The importance of health promotion, wellness, injury and disease prevention will be emphasized. Students will examine sports medicine facilities, policies, procedures, and protocols utilized in patient care. $27.00 course fee

PATIENT CARE TECHNICIANisrecommended for 12thgrade. Patient Care Technician is a one credit course that provides students the opportunity to become effective and efficient multi-skilled healthcare providers. Students will develop a working knowledge of advanced patient care skills, vital signs, 12-lead EKGs, oxygen therapy, basic phlebotomy via simulation, and specimen collection and processing. Essential workforce skills and safety will be emphasized, as well as, professional ethics and legal responsibilities. Students will ascertain employability skills and soft skills required by business and industry. Upon successful completion of required theory, lab, and simulation, students may be eligible to sit for Patient Care Technician Certification. $27.00 course fee

HEALTH SCIENCE INTERNSHIPis recommended for 12th grade -A one-credit course focusing on basic knowledge and skills necessary for beginning health care workers. Health Science Internship reinforces and applies knowledge learned in classroom and laboratory settings. Content Standards 1,3,4,5,6, and 9 must be taught for this one-credit course.

NURSE AIDE TRAININGis a two-credit course and is senior level. Students pursue skill mastery in the classroom, laboratory, and clinical area. The Nurse Aide Training program and Health Science instructor must be approved by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), Division of Health Care Services, for students to be eligible to take the National Nurse Aide Assessment. Students must successfully complete an approved program and pass the National Nurse Aide Assessment certification exam in order to become a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA).

*Dual Enrollment is available and scholarshipped for students who meet minimum GPA requirements

Manufacturing-Industrial Maintenance(Skills USA)

Introduction to Manufacturingfocuses on the fundamental knowledge and skills needed in the manufacturing industry. Emphasis is placed on job safety, use of manufacturing materials, primary manufacturing processes, secondary manufacturing processes, and manufacturing systems. Upon successful completion of this course, students perform basic tasks related to the manufacturing industry. This entry-level course may be taken in any program within the Manufacturing cluster.

Foundational standards are an important part of every course. Through these standards, students learn and apply safety concepts, explore career opportunities and requirements, practice the skills needed to succeed in the workplace, develop leadership qualities and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), and learn and practice essential digital literacy skills. The foundational standards are to be incorporated throughout the course.

Safety and Health Regulationsis designed to provide students with information on the importance of government and industry regulations as well as individual responsibilities for performing activities safely. Students identify common safety hazards found in the workplace and examine their own roles in minimizing and avoiding unsafe practices. Specific topics include flammable and combustible liquids, emergency egress and fire protection, electrical safety, environmental control, machine guarding, tool safety, first aid, hazard communication, personal protective equipment, walking and working surfaces, and material handling and storage. This entry-level course may be taken in any program in the Manufacturing cluster. $25.00 course fee

CTE Lab in Manufacturing-s designed to enhance the students general understanding and mastery of the cluster. This course is designed as a learning laboratory to support students individual interests and goals. This laboratory will take place in a traditional shop/classroom environment. This course may be taken in any program within the Manufacturing cluster.

Foundational standards are an important part of every course. Through these standards, students learn and apply safety concepts, explore career opportunities and requirements, practice the skills needed to succeed in the workplace, develop leadership qualities and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), and learn and practice essential digital literacy skills. The foundational standards are to be incorporated throughout the course.

*Dual Enrollment is available and scholarshipped for students who meet minimum GPA requirements

Government and Public Administration-JROTC

ARMY JROTC Leadership Education and TrainingI (LET-I)

A one-credit course that provides first-year cadets with classroom and laboratory instruction in the history, customs, traditions, and purpose of Army JROTC. Emphasis is placed on leadership skills, principles, values and attributes, and diversity. $35 course fee.

ARMY JROTC Leadership Education and TrainingII (LET-II )

A one-credit course designed to provide intermediate instruction in leadership and citizenry, and the expansion of skills taught in LET I. Emphasis is placed on communication techniques, cadet challenges, American citizenship, map reading, and the role of the U. S. Army. $35 course fee.

Prerequisite: Completed Level I

ARMY JROTC Leadership Education and TrainingIII (LET-III)

A one-credit course designed to provide advanced instruction in leadership and citizenry, communication, history and career opportunities, and technology awareness. Students will have hands-on experiences as teacher/leaders within the cadet battalion. $35 course fee.

Prerequisite: Completed Level II

ARMY JROTC IV Leadership Education and TrainingIV (Let-IV)

A one-credit course that provides opportunities for students to demonstrate leadership potential in an assigned command or staff position within the cadet battalion organizational structure. Emphasis is placed on negotiation skills and management principles. $35 course fee.

Prerequisite: Completed Level III

CTE Lab in Government & Public Administration-is designed to enhance the students general understanding and mastery of the cluster. This course is designed as a learning laboratory to support students individual interests and goals. This laboratory will take place in a traditional classroom.

Foundational standards, are an important part of every course. Through these standards, students learn and apply safety concepts, explore career opportunities and requirements, practice the skills needed to succeed in the workplace, develop leadership qualities and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), and learn and practice essential digital literacy skills. The foundational standards are to be incorporated throughout the course. $35 course fee.

Prerequisite: Completed Level III

*Dual Enrollment is available and scholarshipped for students who meet minimum GPA requirements

MarketingMarketing(DECA)

Project Managementis designed to introduce students to the myriad facets of Program and Project Management, test the character of each student as they juggle the complexities and conflicting demands, and initiate the development of difficult decision-making, for a successful program. Project management is one of the most critical components of a successful business. It affects revenues and liabilities, and it ultimately affects customer or client satisfaction and retention. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques for project activities, to meet the project requirements.Marketing is a required prerequisite for this course.$25.00 course fee

Credential Offered: Certified Guest Services

Marketing Principlesis designed to provide students with an overview of marketing concepts. The course addresses the ways in which marketing satisfies consumer and business needs and wants for products and services. Areas emphasized include economics, entrepreneurship, information management, finance, marketing, product and service planning, promotion, pricing, selling, interpersonal skills, and international marketing.$25.00 course fee

Credential Offered: Certified Guest Services

Business Software Applications Iemphasizes the skills required to create, edit, and publish industry-appropriate documents. Areas of instruction include the integration of word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, database management, and presentation software as well as the use of emerging technologies. Competencies for the co-curricular student organizations, DECA and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA-PBL), are also embedded in this course. Students will have the opportunity to gain industry-recognized credentials to document basic computer skills needed for future education or employment.$25 course fee

Credential Offered: Microsoft Office Specialist

Digital Marketingintroduces students to digital marketing techniques, tools, and methods, including email, websites, applications, social media, and other electronic means. This course focuses on how to develop and conduct digital marketing campaigns. Emphasis is placed on creating, implementing, and critiquing online advertising, email marketing, websites, social media, mobile marketing, search-engine optimization, video and images, podcasts, webcasts, and creating and repurposing content for use in digital environments. $25.00 course fee

Credential Offered: National Professional Certification in Customer Service and Sales

*Dual Enrollment is available and scholarshipped for students who meet minimum GPA requirements

Education & Training-Teaching & Training

Education & Training-Education and Training is a one-credit course. This course is the prerequisite for all pathways included in the Education and Training cluster. The course is designed for students who are interested in pursuing careers in education. Course content includes the organizational structure of education, careers, the role of the teacher, characteristics of effective teachers, communication skills, the teaching and learning processes, learning styles, research, characteristics of positive classroom environments, human growth and development, curriculum development, student characteristics, teaching techniques, learning activities, educational initiatives, technology, and careers. Observational experiences are a required component of this course.

Career and technical student organizations are integral, cocurricular components of each career and technical education course. These organizations serve as a means to enhance classroom instruction while helping students develop leadership abilities, expand workplace-readiness skills, and broaden opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Co-Opis a one-credit work-based experience which requires a minimum of 140 continuous and successful hours of employment performed under the supervision of a workplace mentor and the work-based learning/cooperative education coordinator. Requirements to participate in Co-Op: student must be in the 11th or 12th grade, minimum of 16 years of age, transportation to job, earned CCR status, be a completer (3 courses in 1 CT program), be on track to graduate, 3 teacher references, a job, *all required documentation must be submitted at the time of registration.

Demopolis City School System does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.

The following are Demopolis City Schools District Contacts: 504 Coordinator: Yolanda Samuel Address: 609 South Cedar Demopolis, AL Phone: 334-289-1670 email:ysamuel@dcsedu.com

Continue reading here:
Career Technical Educational Opportunities for Students Attending ... - Demopolis Times

A new Korean Drama from JTBC is here, and the fans have spoken in the Doctor Cha Episode 13 Twitter reactions. Also known as , this series stars Uhm Jung-hwa, Kim Byung-chul, Min Wook-hyuk, Myung Se-bin, Song Ji-ho, Jo A-ram, Baek Joo-hee, Park Jun-Keum, Kim Mi-kyung, Lee Seo-yoon, So A-rin, Park Chul-min, Kimg Byung-choon, Lim Hyoung-soo and Kim Yea-eun, alongside other cast members.

This Korean Drama series is directed by Kim Dae-Jin and written by Jung Yeo-Rang. This show shows the protagonist making a drastic lifestyle choice. After putting a pause on her medical resident career to become a homemaker, Cha Jeong-suk decides to start her training all over again when her husband, In-ho, a chief surgeon at the university hospital, cheats on her.

This episode was once again chaotic as hell. We start by seeing In-ho passing out and losing his mind about Jeong-suk asking for a divorce. It got so bad that he wasnt even passed out for real. He was just pretending to be passed out so he could get attention. He then decides to prolong this attention by sending the wife gifts that he knows she might have liked under different circumstances. Working twice as hard to make his voice heard with Jeong-suk, he even tells Seung-hi that all his efforts are currently on getting his wife back.

She allows him to do it. In fact, she asks him to give all his efforts into getting his wife back because shell be right there waiting for all of this to blow right back in his face. Fans were so annoyed that In-ho could say something so insensitive in front of his girlfriend. He could have been discreet or, better yet, not felt that at all. However, this is how he navigates through the world. Amidst all of this, Jeong-suk has been thriving. She has been working hard at the job, getting all the lovers and now even her own haters club.

After having a good conversation with her children about custody and understanding that they might have to change places they have to live, Jung-min realises that his dad is essentially the loser who will miss out on everything in life because all he feels is bitter and not responsible for it. Coming to think of it, In-ho never actually apologises to her. He just sends her gifts and partakes in meaningless gestures to get her attention.

Jeong-suks mother has been going through the motions and has a major shoulder issue. Apart from Jeong-suk having to work with Seung-hi, she now has to be okay with the fact that she will be her mothers doctor. Things have officially gotten out of hand. In-ho has decided that the only way he can salvage this situation is by making sure that Jeong-suks mother will be happy. However, at the dinner, his mother gets into a fight with this woman who has been dating In-hos mothers boyfriend.

She knows all about In-hos affair, and soon enough, Jeong-suks mother also finds out about it. She tells the whole restaurant that In-ho has been cheating on his wife and has a child out of wedlock. At the same time, Seung-hi and her daughter Eun-seo walk into the restaurant. Fans cannot believe the serendipitous connection it took to make this happen. They are also extremely excited to see what Roy Kim whips out and how he tries to get with her.

Doctor Cha Episode 13 is currently streaming on Netflix. Do you think In-hos mother is getting duped with the property and everything? Let us know in the comments, and check out our review of the episode below.

Also Read: Doctor Cha Episode 13 Recap and Review: The Road to Redemption is Paved With Bad Intentions

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Doctor Cha Episode 13 Twitter Reactions: Cliffhanger Over ... - Leisure Byte

After helpline associates at the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) made the move to unionize, NEDAs response was to fire its entire staff and replace them with a chatbot. NEDAs helpline has been in service for 20 years and experienced a boom in the number of calls it received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the helpline is still experiencing an elevated level of calls, with an estimated 70,000 callers reaching out to NEDAs helplines in the past year alone. The confidential hotline provides a source of peer-to-peer support for those struggling with eating disorders. During the isolation of the pandemic, helplines like this were the only kind of human support that some callers had.

In contrast to that high demand, NEDAs hotline has a very small staff. Aside from volunteers, the hotline employs just six full-time staffers and a handful of supervisors. With the helpline seeing staggering increases in demand, staffers began to realize that their current system wasnt sustainable. These staffers were often tasked with training and supervising as many as 200 volunteers at one time.

Meanwhile, not only have the number of calls increased, but the severity has, as well. Staffers reported an increase of crisis-type calls and cases of child abuse or child neglect. Considering that the individuals taking these calls are often just volunteers and not professionals, ongoing training and supervision are vital.

So, four of the helplines staffers decided to unionize to ensure that NEDA provided them with a more safe and effective work environment. NEDAs reaction to that? A chatbot.

One of the staffers who instigated the unionization was Abbie Harper. In a blog post on Labor Notes, she explained the helpline workers reasonable demands and explained, We didnt even ask for more money. She said the union simply asked for better training programs, appropriate staffing, and opportunity for staffers to advance in their careers at NEDA. Four days after the union won an election for official recognition with the National Labor Relations Board, NEDA revealed during a virtual staff meeting that it was ending the helpline. By June 1, all of its staffers will be fired. Many volunteers will be let go, too, while others may be moved to other areas of NEDA.

In place of the helpline, NEDA is introducing a chatbot named Tessa. NEDA has claimed it is not a replacement for the helpline, but an entirely new program. The Tessa chatbot isnt even the same as the more sophisticated ChatGPT that has arisen recently. More sophisticated artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, uses context to generate responses to allow it to sustain a human-like conversation.

However, a more dated chatbot like Tessa cant generate these more spontaneous responses. Instead, it has a limited number of pre-determined responses. It describes itself as a chatbot immediately and then might walk a user through a specific series of therapeutic techniques about something like body image. It is not a listening ear nor an open-ended tool, and it may not have a response to every question that callers have.

NEDA has reportedly already begun testing Tessa. Of 700 women who tested the chatbot, 375 gave the program an 100% helpful rating. The feedback of the other 325 women is not mentioned, though. Meanwhile, Harper has doubts about the ability of a chatbot to perform the same work that she and her colleagues did. One thing she and her colleagues have that a chatbot doesnt have is experience. Many of NEDAs helpline staffers and volunteers have recovered from eating disorders and have invaluable knowledge, support, and empathy to provide for those experiencing the same things they did.

NEDA VP Lauren Smolar defended the decision to replace its helpline with a chatbot because of legal liability. She explained the risks of having non-professional volunteers deal with crisis calls but didnt touch on the increased risks that come with having a machine potentially take crisis calls. With a chatbot, theres a strong possibility it wont have a response for someone in crisis, while with ChatGPT theres the chance of it going off the rails and potentially spewing harmful information. A chatbot might be a minor resource for people who are waitlisted for the helpline, but it simply cant replace callers who are looking to have a peer-to-peer conversation and are in desperate need of human support.

The rise in helpline demand clearly shows the value of human support, so it seems very strange for NEDA to respond to that by getting rid of its helpline entirely. This is why Harper states the move was merely about union busting and not at all about helping individuals. Chatbots and AI cant feel emotion, and this is where the potential for them to cause harm comes in. Even when callers are told that theyre speaking to a machine, it may feel like being confronted with yet another person who cant empathize with their struggles.

(featured image: Paramount Pictures)

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The National Eating Disorder Helpline Replaced Its Staff With a ... - The Mary Sue

As a teenager Brendan Johnston had a fairly common dream, turning his sporting passion into a profession, but what wasn't as common was that he also had the talent and commitment to make a life as a pro-cyclist a realistic proposition. Though, just as the 17-year-old multi-discipline rider hit the stage when he could chase international opportunities in earnest, a cancer diagnosis led to a quick and unavoidable deviation.

I had to mature real quick as a person and also as an athlete, the 31-year-old Johnston told Cyclingnews when looking back to that period of his life. Having your health is taken for granted and I didn't really consider so much that as an athlete you need full health and no one really, I guess, appreciates that until it goes away.

Before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer Johnstons complete focus as a teenager had been on making it as a cyclist, with the rider getting set to represent Australia in the junior category at the cross-country mountain bike race at a home World Championships in 2009. He determinedly went on to race in Canberra, just a couple of weeks after surgery, before then settling into an extended period of fighting the disease.

It was unsurprisingly a perspective-altering experience for the young rider who had been so used to relying on his impressive power and endurance to take him to the front of the field. That stark reminder that something as important as optimum health can't always be taken for granted meant the focused Johnston added another career option. It was one which, as he put it, meant that he could be somewhat set up at least and didnt have to be a high-performing human to do it.

That didn't mean the end of the journey toward becoming a professional cyclist, just a longer more winding path to find the opportunity so he could make it to that same destination.

I'm pretty grateful for the decisions I made at that point, said Johnston who has spent the last 12 years working full-time as an electrician. I kind of did the best I could with what I had and now I've found myself in a position where I can, after however many years 15 or 17 finally call myself a pro.

That realisation of Johnston's teenage dream of riding his bike full-time overseas has come thanks to the evolution of a discipline barely on the radar back when he started out gravel.

Johnston may have deviated from his initial cycling plan of going all out to pursue an international cycling career, either on the road or in mountain biking, but the Giant-Shimano rider never stopped being a ferociously competitive rider on the Australian scene even while juggling so many other demanding facets of life.

Always versatile as a rider, there didn't seem to be much the athlete couldn't do, except perhaps shed his hard-stuck nickname of Trekky even though he has moved on from his early association with the brand and been firmly welded on with Giant for a number of years.

The rider has managed to carve out a strong record of results, all accrued while working full time and also, in recent years, building a family. Those results include five mountain bike national titles, a first place in the National Road Series in 2020 and a win at the prestigious long-running Melbourne to Warrnambool. He also swept up the Australian Gravel National Championships in 2022, along with victory at the first running of the 246km Dirty Warrny.

Those 2022 wins gave Johnston a clear indicator of his gravel potential and the acceptance of his application to become one of the 35 men riding the Life Time Grand Prix series became the turning point which made his long-held aspiration of riding professionally become a reality.

"Now I'm able to give it [cycling] my full attention, which is kind of a relief, said Johnston. I've always had somewhat of a level of ability but you're constantly putting in on the side, to work or whatever. I feel like I owed it my full attention after it being a bit of a side hustle for so long.

The benefit of that full-time focus on cycling seems clear, with an Instagram profile constantly filled with stories of long days out training to build endurance to take on the long-distance gravel races characteristic of the US scene. The positive impact of the full-time focus on bikes has also been revealed in more than just Johnston's training, with an unequivocally successful short test-run trip to the US in April before the long haul of five to six months that starts with the all-important 322km long Unbound on June 3.

For Johnston, the opportunity that the Life Time Grand Prix series presented seemed ideal, and it was more than just the profile, platform and generous prize money the series provided but also what seemed like an almost too good to be true combination of races. The series takes in seven rounds, having started with the Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL mountain bike race in April, moving onto gravel with Unbound and Crusher in the Tushar then back to mountain biking with Leadville Trail 100 and Chequamegon before finishing off with the gravel Rad Dirt Fest and Big Sugar Gravel.

"If I were to create my own series, it would probably be all these races put together," said Johnston. "I'm not saying there aren't other people like that as well but what I am saying is that it intersects perfectly with where I sit because I've probably got a bit more road experience than some of the other mountain bikers, so the endurance is not so much a problem, and I've also got the skill set from mountain biking."

"I just feel like I am right in the middle of all these riders and it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

The skill set may never have been in doubt, but what wasn't initially so certain was just how Johnston would stack up in the unexplored terrain of the US gravel community.

"Even until I got there this year I wasn't sure where I'd slot into their scene," said Johnston in a lengthy phone interview from his Canberra home base. "I feel like ok I'm winning things here, I can win most things here on the road I can have good results here, on the mountain bike I can have good results here but can I go there and be competitive? That was something that was pretty unknown for me."

But not any more.

In April at the Belgian Waffle Ride California and the Seo Otter Fuego XL Johnston's testing of the waters turned the unknown into a known. He came fourth in the 128.7 mile(207km) long Belgian Waffle Ride California and then seventh at the 100km Fuego XL, despite having to fight his way back up the field after missing the early split of seven riders.

It was an opening gambit that, despite grappling with a bit of a back injury, left Johnston encouraged that he could fight for a result at the top of the table in the Life Time Grand Prix Series, particularly at Unbound.

"Something like Unbound is really going to be in my wheelhouse and hopefully I can navigate my way through that race to a really strong result, especially in the Life Time Grand Prix field," said Johnston.

In fact, if Johnston had to pick just one race in the series that suited him most, he said that Unbound would be it, with last year's winner Dutch rider Ivar Slik demonstrating that an outsider can make their mark in Kansas.

"I think over that period of time it's a big unknown ... anyone can kind of come in and be competitive in the final if you've done the work so I'm definitely eyeing off the win, that's for sure."

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Brendan Johnston: A 15 year pro-racing quest with a gravel resolution - Cyclingnews