4-30-17 From Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens via Walking
Got invited to walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens. All of this walking for food. Was it worth it? Watch to find out.
April 10th 2017, One Decision Could Change Your Life
The topic of today's post is common knowledge but many people fail to realize the importance of their decisions. Like many of my posts, this post was inspired by recent events in my life. So let's dive into this
While I was at work the other day, a couple of young kids came in and stole some devices. They only stole two device but the face value of the stolen goods makes it a felony. Two kids still in high school have already messed up their future for what, a cheap thrill. I never understood the reason why people shoplift. The day before the robbery I saw a man stealing candy from a variety store. The man who was stealing candy, appeared to be in his mid to late forties. Then today I had a man in his early thirties trying to commit fraud at my job.
I know that every makes a couple of bad decisions in life but to do crimes that could result in jail time, come on. There are also people who make good decisions that change their lives. An example is me walking away from my job just so that I could focus on myself. This is a short post and I just wanted to point out the obvious. The real reason I wrote this short post is because seeing the two kids throw their futures away. The only thing that I want people to do, is to think about the consequences of their actions. So I'll catch you guys in the next one.
April 4th 2017, Things every Home Office needs
Over the past couple of months, I have been trying to set up a home office. I searched all over the internet to find out essential items that every home office needs but I never found a list that satisfied all of my needs. This post is just me listing off what tools I use in my home office, including the apps and services I use.
Technology
Computer - Every home office needs at least one computer. I know many people might say you can do all your work from a tablet such as an IPad, but hear me out. I have 4 ta let's and they can not replash a laptop or work computer, I am writing this exact part of this post on an Android Tablet and I hate it. Multitasking is limited and Microsoft Office is missing many key functions. A dedicated computer will allow you to multitask and get jobs done quicker. For my main office computer, I use a custom built of. This PC is what I use to render my videos, record my podcast and write. I also have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that I use when I'm out on the field. I recommend a desktop because you can use multiple displays at once. I have three displays attached to my PC and have a virtual desktop which allows me to have a total of 6 different screens. This is why I said a tablet could never replace a actual computer.
Smartphone - If you are running a home office in 2017 you need to have a smartphone. It's up to you if you want to have a separate business phone number. The real reason you need to have a smartphone in any home office is because of applications. These applications can be anything from an email application to a social media application. The internet has changed the way we connect with people and a smartphone is the best way to stay connected. My phone allows me to easily see all information regarding Books By Josh with a simple tap.
Printer - You never know when you need to print out a document.
Office Supplies
Post It notes - I know that we live in the digital age and we all use apps like Evernote and Google Keep, but every office needs post it notes. The great thing about post it notes is that you can place them all around the office. When you see them stuck to something, it makes you want to read it. I personally use Google Keep but I don't always read the notes on there. That's why I stick my post it notes to my computer monitor.
White board - I use my white board to plan out projects and to draw graphs. The white board is very important in my business because it allows me to set up a story board.
Stapler - Self explanatory
Folders - Need to stay organized
Hanging Folders - So I can file my folders away in my file cabinet.
Pens - You always need to have a pen nearby. I always have a pen in my pocket and have over 3 boxes of pens in my office.
Notepad/Legal pad - Sometimes you need to write down important information. You can always lose a post it note but losing a legal pad is harder.
Business Cards - I ordered my cards from Vistaprint. If you have a business, then tell people about it and what better way then giving them a business card.
Furniture
Chair - Yes a chair is required but it's all based on your personal preference. Just make sure your chair is comfortable because you will be spending most of your time in it.
Desk - No need to get fancy here, pick a desk or table that works for you. I personally use a 6 foot table from Home Depot. It's not the fanciest desk but it works for me. A normal desk wouldn't be able to hold my three monitors, desktop, 5 external hard drives and three routers.
File Cabinet - Like I stated earlier, you have to stay organized. I purchased mine from Walmart and it only cost about forty dollars. It also has three draws which allows me to store everything in it.
Safe - It's always good to have one of these. You can keep all your important documents in here such as your tax id.
Bookshelf - I have one of these in my office because of all the books that I read. If you are an entrepreneur, then you might have a decent library. So use this bookshelf to hold all of your study material.
Services
Domain - Before you can star your own website or get a professional email, you need to get yourself a domain. I purchased my domain through Godaddy and have used them for all of domain purchases for over five years.
Website - This is a must for any business no matter what you do. We live in a digital age and when you want to open up a business bank account they ask for a business website. You can always setup a wordpress site but I personally use Squarespace for my site. I'm happy with Squarespace because they make setting up a website easy.
Email - Since you have a domain and website setup so you now need an email. If you are dealing with clients I would recommend that you use a professional email. With certain Squarespace plans, emails are provided and Godaddy also provides email services. I personally use G Suite for my email becuase it also comes with 30gb of drive access and a google voice number.
Business Line - You can use your personal cellphone for this but as I mentioned earlier you can use google voice for a business line. By using Google Voice I can answer calls on any phone that has my google voice connected to it.
Internet - You need internet, plain and simple. If you set it up under your Tax ID expect to pay a bit more.
Bank Account - If your business generates income then you want to have a separate account.
Accounting Software - I personally use Quickbooks Online to handle my expenses. If you are running a business with a Tax ID then you have to make sure all of your expenses are in order. Your accountant will thank you.
Payment Merchant/Checkout - If you are selling items then you will need a way to process the payment. I use PayPal for all of my merchant needs. The reason why I use Paypal for my merchant services is because many people have Paypal and they accept all cards and they don't charge that much.
This blog post took me a lot longer than usual and I do apologize for that. Since I have started working again I find that I have to learn to manage my time better. I am not sponsored by any of the merchants or services mentioned above. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to let me know in the comment section below. Like always, I'll catch you guys in the next one.
March 15th 2017, Short Review on Your One Word by Evan Carmichael
A couple of weeks ago I was shocked to find out that a YouTuber that I am subscribed to had recently published a book. The YouTuber is Evan Carmichael and he provides great videos for entrepreneurs. His videos range from motivational videos to videos about the top ten rules for success of famous entrepreneurs. If you want to check out his channel, you can click here. The reason that I decided to purchase the book is because Evan's videos have helped me through a lot. I was honestly not expecting much from the book but it surpassed my expectations. As I progressed through the book I found myself loving it more and more. So lets dive into my review of the book.
The subtitle of the book is "The Powerful Secret To Creating A Business And Life that Matter." This is a book that was written for entrepreneurs. The book is written to serve as a blueprint to guide the average entrepreneur to success. The first part of the book is titled Core and it is the most important part of the book (in my honest opinion). Throughout this portion of the book Evan teaches us how to find our ONE word, his one word is #Believe. The reason why I said that this portion of the book is important because your entire business revolves around your one word. In the few chapters that make up the core portion of the book, we are introduced to many successful entrepreneurs who have found their one word and incorporated it into their business. Throughout the entire book we are given knowledge from these entrepreneurs. these entrepreneurs have businesses that range from tens of thousands of dollars in revenue to millions of dollars in revenue. Other than just helping us find our one word Evan touches on core selling. Core selling is selling based on your one word aka the core of your business. Core selling lets you connect to customers on a deeper level.
Part two of the book is titled Campaign and the title once again is simple and straight to the point. The first half of this part is about how to test the waters with your one word. Sounds simple but the way he explains it makes it practical. Another great thing in the first half of this portion is the piece on motivation. Motivation is important because life is not always sunshine and rainbows and Evan teaches the importance of motivation. The second half of this portion of the book is called The Planning Checklist. Just like the name suggests, it's literally a checklist. The only thing that separates this checklist from your grocery list is the content of the list. This list has every step needed to change your business from mediocre to extraordinary. Your type of business might not require all of the items on the checklist but I can guarantee it needs a couple of the items. The important takeaway of this part of the book for me was the fan base. Because my business is content creation it relies on a loyal fan base. I will definitely apply this portion of the book into my day to day operation.
The last part of the book is titled Company. The final part of the book is about building a team and a company. This part of the book didn't apply directly to me because I am not in that position as of yet. The first half of this portion covers everything from hiring the right people to firing people. Most entrepreneurs were employees before so the information in this chapter is very helpful in teaching the basics of managing a team. The second half of the final portion of the book is Operations and its straightforward. The chapter goes over the day to day of running a business. It touches on everything from client management to mentors. Anything that you need to run a business is in this part of the book I especially loved the part on mentors and advisers. Like I said in the beginning Evan's YouTube channel has many video on successful entrepreneur's top ten keys to success. But Evan also has the mentor me playlist, with both of these playlist even the Average Joe can get successful people to mentor them.
If you want to purchase a copy of this book feel free to click here. I highly recommend this book to any entrepreneur. Doesn't matter how far along you are in your journey because this book covers many topics. Feel free to comment down below about your favorite part of this post. If you would like to support the site in anyway please check out the links posted below. Like Always I'll catch you guys in the next one.
March 11th 2017, 27 Degrees isn't enough to stop me 3-11-17
Follow me as I take you through a day in my shoes.
March 7th 2017, My take on the famous Confucius teaching on Personal Excellence
I've had this philosophy quote sitting in my list of blog topics for a while. The reason why I wrote this quote down in my list of possible topics is because of what it represents. Personal excellence is something that I want to achieve. I believe that we should all strive for personal excellence. So without further delay, let's dive into this quote.
Some readers might not know the definition of the term personal excellence is. This term is really old yet it is not found in any dictionary. To find the definition we must break the term down and define its parts. The first part of the term is personal, the definition of this word according to dictionary.com is... relating to, or coming as from a particular person; individual; private. The second part of the term is excellence, the definition of this word according to dictionary.com is... the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence. By using the definition of it's parts we can define personal excellence as being the best at being ourselves. Sounds confusing doesn't it? In layman's terms it basically means doing your best no matter what the cost. As you can now probably see, this is something that is very important.
This teaching from Confucius breaks down the three pillars that are essential in achieving personal excellence. The three pillars are your willpower, your goals and your motivation.The will to win is your willpower, this plays an important role in defining us. Behind every person's success is a bunch of failures that they overcame. The game that we call life is the hardest game that we will ever play. Life hits hard but can you get up after being hit? Will power is essentially our ability to tough it through the hard times of life. The reason will power is so important in personal excellence is because it teaches us the price of success. Our will power helps us make it through what I like to call the grind phase. The grind phase is the part in your life when you are trying something new and giving it your all yet nothing seems to go your way. This phase of your life and or business is frustrating and many people quit because of it. Just so that a person can join a fraternity, the pledges must survive hell week. Many of the pledges drop out but those who see it through the end, reap all of the rewards.
The next part of the teaching talks about our desire to succeed, which can be translated as our goals. The reason why it can be translated as our goals is because goals are our desires. Without goals we have no reason to try our very best. I remember one goal I had as a kid, my goal was to buy a game-boy color with my own money. Sounds like a small goal to you but for a nine year old it was like buying my first car. I saved every little dollar that I had, I didn't even buy ice cream from the ice cream truck. The sacrifices i made for my goal back then were not having the latest transformer toy and not buying junk food. It might sound funny to you, as I type this blog post I'm looking at my magenta game-boy color which I bough in 1998. Instead of going into great detail of goal setting, let me direct you to a previous post in which I covered the subject, here.
The final pillar of personal excellence is the urge to reach or full potential, this is our motivation. A synonym for urge is encourage and motivation encourages us to succeed. One of the things I learned in network marketing was the power of positivity and motivation. Whenever I went to a big network marketing event they were constantly talking about our internal battery. This internal battery was a representation of our motivation levels, the purpose of the events was to recharge our batteries. Before you say that this is just some spiel that network marketing companies made up, just listen. "People often say that Motivation doesn't last. Well neither does bathing- that's why we recommend doing it daily" - Zig Ziglar. Motivation is important because it brings positivity into our lives. The world is filled with lots of negativity and the negativity constantly sucks the positivity from you little by little until you have run out of positivity. Why does the world suck out our positivity, it's because misery loves company. Like I said when talking about willpower, your life can get real bad before success. That is why you need motivation, you need it to lift you up in your time of need. If you want to listen to a powerful story that will help motivate you click here.
Hopefully my break down of Confucius' teaching on personal excellence have helped you in some way. Feel free to comment down below about your favorite part of this post. If you would like to support the site in anyway please check out the links posted below. Like Always I'll catch you guys in the next one.
February 8th, 2017 Short Review of The Midas Touch by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop at Barnes and Noble at Union Square. I had just walked from the Barclay Center in Brooklyn all the way to 14th street in Manhattan. The Barnes and Noble was meant to serve as a pit stop but it turned into a mini shopping adventure. I don't usually purchase physical books at full price but this time I made an exception. It was the last copy on the shelf and the title spoke to me Midas Touch, Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Why Most Don't. The book is a little over two hundred pages spread out over five chapters. Since the books only has five chapters I will review each chapter rather than the whole book.
The reason the book only has five chapters is because a hand only has five fingers. Once all five "fingers" are achieved, then the reader will then have the Midas Touch. The first finger is the thumb which is the Strength of Character. One of the first things that I noticed while reading, was that each chapter is broken down into three parts. The first part is Robert Kiyosaki speaking on the subject the second part is Donald Trump speaking about on the subject and the final part is a wrap up. In Robert's half of this chapter he details how one appearance on Oprah changed his life. In one hour he had sold over a million copies of his book and now everyone was calling him and overnight success. Robert then told stories of his unsuccessful business ventures and how he stuck to his guns through the tough times. In Donald's portion of this chapter he speaks of bad luck that has riddled many of his real estate deals. The key theme in this chapter is, the life of an entrepreneur is not an easy life. There will be many failures but as long as you tough it through, you will be rewarded.
The second chapter is the index finger which is named FOCUS. In my opinion, this chapter is probably the best chapter out of the whole book. Robert's story of military helicopter training really hit home, if he lost focus for even a second then he would have lost his life. In this chapter they use FOCUS as an acronym for Follow One Course Until Successful. Even after obtaining success, you must not lose FOCUS. In Donald's portion he tell his tale of almost losing it all. When I say it all I'm talking about his entire fortune, he lost almost everything in the early 90s. In his portion he states that he lost FOCUS and he was off at fashion shows rather than managing his company. This chapter has lots of diagrams depicting the cash-flow quadrant and the eight elements of business. It's hard for me to convey how great this chapter was without spoiling some of the stories that the authors use.
The third chapter is the middle finger which is named Brand. The chapter begins with Robert telling a story about his purchase of a fake Rolex. It might not seem like a big deal but his "rich" dad explains the power of a Brand. This portion of the book speaks on how brands are worth more than their assets, one example the book uses is Coke a Cola. The name Coke a Cola is worth more than all the processing plants that it owns. For Donald's portion he talks about his own brand, Trump. The trump brand stands for elegance and class but it was not built in a day. Donald speaks in this chapter about how he had to disassociate the Trump brand from affordable housing to high class housing in Manhattan. The main takeaway from this chapter is a Brand is more than a name, it is ultimately what our business is. If we do not have a Brand then we will be long forgotten.
The fourth chapter is the ring finger which stands for Relations. This part of the book is about partnerships, Robert goes into detail about his bad partners in his Velcro wallet business. Robert's relationship with bad partners cost him millions of dollars. Robert's section also has some key nuggets on lessons he learned from previous relationships. Donald's part in this chapter highlights how to form deals rather than partnerships. In his section he also touches upon how to manage a team of people.
The final chapter is the pinky finger which stands for the little things that matter. As the title of the finger suggests, this chapter is about not forgetting the little things. In Robert's portion he tells stories of some entrepreneurs in his life, that are stuck in the S quadrant rather than the B quadrant. The problem with these entrepreneurs, is that they are focusing on the wrong things. The key talking point in this chapter is focusing on right things. In Donald's portion, he speaks about the glass he used for Trump Tower. Even his own father did not see the purpose of glass on the outside of the tower. When Trump Tower opened it was met with positive reviews because of the glass. This chapter is a great wrap up chapter.
So that's it for my review for the book Midas Touch. Let me know what you thought of it in the comments bellow. Feel free to take out my own book right here
January 27th, 2017 Answering a couple of questions after publishing my first book
I decided to make a video answering some of the questions posed to me by reader of this site. I decided to do a video post rather than a written post, because I wanted to convey my answers as best as I could.
January 25th, 2017 Short Review of How To Win At The Sport Of Business by Mark Cuban
This book help change the way I look at business. This book is not written as a traditional book, it is a collection of Mr. Cuban's blog posts. For those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Cuban, he is an entrepreneur who is currently worth 3.3 billion dollars. If you want to learn from some one successful why not a billionaire?
The book starts off with Mark describing his dream of owning his own business. He then describes working for numerous companies and hating each one. Mark then talks about his journey to Dallas, Texas. Just like Anna Kendrick, Mark Cuban traveled to another state without money or a job; all he had was a dream. Mark found a job selling computer software in Texas, but he had no prior knowledge of computer or computer software. The book then shows that Mark learned all of his knowledge of computers and their software by reading manuals in his down time. This part of the book demonstrates how powerful reading is because the knowledge that Mark gained from the manuals transferred over to his first business venture.
The book touches upon the topic of having the edge quite often. I feel that Mr. Cuban hits the nail with his tips. If you fail to keep up with the trends you are bound to be left behind. If some of the big businesses of the past followed these points, then they might still be here today. Mark states that there is always someone out there who is trying to one up your business and it is our job to never let that happen. For anyone saying that this is not true, let's take a look at the biggest social networks in the past decade. One of the first big social networking sites was called Sconex, which was put out of business by Myspace. Myspace was the biggest social networking site until Facebook entered the picture. There have many sites that have attempted to dethrone Facebook, but none have been successful yet. One of the reason why Facebook is still on top is due to the fact that they are staying ahead of the curb. They own the popular messaging service Whatsapp and even own the virtual reality company Oculus.
The book is not all green pastures, the book also touches on some bad luck that Mark had experienced. One stroke of bad luck is when one of Mark's employees cleaned out the business' entire bank account. How would you feel, if all the money you worked hard to earn was stolen from you. Mark used this as a learning experience and worked twice as hard to make it all back. The book is amazing for those thinking about starting their own business. The reason why because it touches on the concept of sweat equity. Sweat equity is a business term for the long hours of work that you put into your business. Not every business is started with large amounts of capital but all successful businesses have an abundant amount of sweat equity. Another reason why this book is great for those starting out in the world of business is because it talks about raising capital.
All in all this book is a short read but the pages are filled with knowledge. Mark Cuban does a wonderful job of illustrating the hardships of running your own business. He also does a wonderful job of showing the rewards of running a successful business. This book is written to give us nuggets of Mark's knowledge and also motivate us. Mark says in the book many times "You only have to be right once." This saying is true because when asked about his failures Thomas Edison said something really similar; "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Two successful men with the similar ideology, coincidence? I think not!
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January 19th, 2017 My Book is live and free tomorrow only https://goo.gl/svfX66
Yes, the title above is entirely true. I actually finished writing my book last week and decided to keep it a secret. The reason that I released the book in secrecy was to see how it would do with minimal promotion. Since this is my first published book, I am still learning about self-promotion. So tomorrow on Friday the 20th, the book will be free on Amazon.
I wrote this book to help bring the joy of reading to the younger generation. I grew up reading mystery novels such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The book Private Eye is a modern take on the classic Hardy Boys style. This book was written as the first book in the Jason Streak series. I want to write at least three more books for the series.
I have received messages from readers of the site asking how much work is required to write a book. Writing a book requires a tremendous amount of work and discipline. The discipline is the most important part because it is hard to sit in front of a computer for eight hours and stay productive. Some days I sat in front of Microsoft Word for sixteen hours and only accomplished two pages. If you want to write a book, then I say go for it.
I am already working on my next book, Phone Call. It’s named like this because it’s a story about how one simple phone call can change your life. The story follows the main character in his journey to adulthood. In the beginning of the book the main character receives a call that his ex-girlfriend has passed away and left him something in her will. The only problem is she left him a daughter that he never knew he had. If I can continue to work on it full time then it should be released by May.
The reason I am talking about my accomplishment of writing a book is to inspire you guys. Publishing a book was always a dream of mine, so if I could accomplish my dream so can you. The process was not easy, but at the end of the day, it was truly worth it. So like always, I’ll catch you guys in the next one.
December 29th, 2016 Year End Recap
As the year comes to a close, I wanted to reflect back on some of the key moments of 2016. Since I have not posted a video in a while, I decided to make it into a video.
December 28, 2016 Short Review of Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
This is one of the books that I have recently picked up. As I have stated many times previously, I love reading biographies of famous people. One of my goals is to have a biography one day and for someone to read it and decide to give it a review. For those of you who would like to take a look at the book here is a link to Scrappy Little Nobody.
I know the first question that you are asking yourself right now, "Why did Josh chose to read this book?" The answer to that the question is quite simple, I was browsing for some books to read when I saw it on the front page of the google play books store. Since I have been traveling to Manhattan more frequently, I needed something to occupy my time on the train. I'm not a big fan of playing games on my phone, it is often a waste of our most precious resource, time. The day I looked at my phone was a week after the release of the book, so it was being heavily advertised on the google play book store. For those of you who live in NYC know how cramped the trains are during rush hour, so I decided to read the eBook version of the book. The book exceeded my expectations and was pretty good. So lets begin my short review of the book.
Anna Kendrick is not considered an A list actress but she has been in showbiz for most of her life. The book starts off with her telling a story from when she was younger, but from the first couple of paragraphs you can tell that it is well written. The words flow very well and make it seem as if you are having a conversation with Ms. Kendrick. On the second page of the introduction the reader is greeted with some profanity, this may be a turn off for some readers (I could care less). The use of slight profanity in my opinion, makes the writer seem more genuine and down to earth. Throughout the pages of the book, we the reader learn that Ms. Kendrick was essentially the weird kid. She talks about her being shorter than the other girls, being a late bloomer and having hard to manage hair. This look actually helped her during her years of Broadway. The thing I really loved about the book was it showed the life of an actor behind the scenes. From losing money while working on Broadway to what happens after someone wins an award. By reading this book I gained a better understanding of actors as a whole. Most people see an actor and say to themselves "That person had connections or they just got lucky." This book shows the fear that most actors possess, the fear that their current casting will be their last.
It is pretty hard to review a book without giving spoilers, I hope you enjoyed this review. This is my first book review on this site and I will be doing many more. If any of you do chose to pick up this book, be sure to let me know your thoughts on it. I'll catch you guys in the next one.
December 27th, 2016 What I have been up to
I haven't posted on here in a while, but don't worry I'm back for good.
Just last week I did some freelance in the place I used to work. Man do I NOT regret my decision for leaving. The experience I had working there last Friday was horrible. I remember when I used to love going in to work, I wasn't tap dancing to work but I was happy to be at work. The reason why the day dragged on was because the core values had changed. Back when I was working there and managing the store, I made it my duty to make sure every customer was happy and their issues were always resolved. The new owners' core values are about maximizing profits no matter what. I know right now some of you reading this are saying to yourself "But Josh, business is about making money. If there is no money then the business can not keep its door open". It is true that businesses need money to survive but not at the expense of the customers. Throughout the day I noticed that the customer's experience was highly degraded because of price hikes and no one to one time. I understand maximizing profit but for something that was previously sold at $40 should not be sold at $80 when it clearly does not have the features or build quality of items at that price point. When I say one to one time I am talking about dealing with a cashier I am talking about Red Carpet Service. This is something I learned back in 2008, you have to treat the person in front of you as if they are the most important customer in the world. This means making sure that they have no questions about the product or service. This is how you maintain a good relationship with customers, just by seeing me a customer came in and bought me lunch. This might be just me preaching to the choir, but without a loyal customer base, businesses can not succeed. So after working that day, I have vowed to never work there under the new owners, no matter what they want to pay me.
Other than doing that day of freelance, I have been working on getting back in shape. I know lots of people say that they want to get in shape so I actually made a workout plan. I might not look like it now but I used to workout like a madman. Throughout the years I picked up knowledge of the human body and learned workouts that give great results. This plan is not that easy and some of my fit friends had trouble keeping up with it. Heck even I can't do some of the things on it, it is more of a road map with recommended exercises. If you would like to download it, here is a link to the workout
Another thing that I have been doing while I have been away from this site, is simply taking out my camera. I have a DSLR and I have been messing around with it, sounds like I'm wasting time. Well yes and no, I will try my best to use it to record videos for my YouTube channel. Using this I will be able to bring better quality videos to you my viewers. Other than making videos, I was contemplating selling stock images. At the end of it I love taking photos, even though not that many people will see them.
The main thing that I have been doing during my time away from the site is reading. This in my opinion is the most valuable use of my time these past couple of weeks. Remember the books that I read are for the most part non fiction books. Reading books is one of the cheapest ways of learning something. I am not talking about picking up one of those for Dummies books (if these books work for you great, not really my cup of tea). I absolutely love reading biographies of successful people, heck I have Kevin Smith's biography in my list of approved books. By reading biographies you get to learn that your heroes are normal people like you and I. You also get to learn certain mistakes that they have made and how to avoid them. When most of us get out of school we stop learning. Hey Mark Cuban didn't know anything about software when he was selling it. No one taught him about it so he read every computer software he could get his hands on. The knowledge he gained from those manuals helped him launch his company MicroSolutions, which he later sold for a total of six million dollars.
There are many other things that I have been doing during the time of my last post to now. I chose to talk about these activities because I feel that you the readers can learn from these topics. I have also changed the books that I am currently reading and recommended book list. I'll catch you guys in the next post.
October 19th, 2016 Overcoming my fear of public speaking
Just the other day I was messaged with a topic request. After reviewing the request, I felt very honored because the topic is something that could benefit many readers. The topic was overcoming the fear of public speaking, For those who do not know me personally, I am a shy person. If i could do it so can you, so let's dive in.
The first time that I noticed my fear of public speaking was back in the sixth grade. Back in those days I used to compete in math tournaments and wanted to try something new. Lucky for me, because I was now in sixth grade I automatically qualified to take part in the story telling competition. At this point in my life I was reading a book or two every week and even writing short stories in my spare time. Just to put it into perspective, my sixth grade teacher had a competition between me and one other student to see who could read the most books and write book reports for them; I won the competition. All the kids that wanted to compete in the story telling competition had to go through a screening process with the school librarian. From my classroom of thirty students only one other student applied, she was the same person who I was in competition for most book reports in a school year. We were both given about ten minutes to read a short passage before we had to try and retell it. Sounds simple but when it was my turn to speak I began to mumble and talk in a low voice. As you can probably tell, I did not pass the primary screening. Many of you right now might think that I was mumbling and talking in a low voice because I had not memorized the passage. Unfortunately I have a very good memory and pride myself on that. Heck throughout my working life my coworkers had to change their phone passcode multiple times throughout the month. They had to change it because they knew once I saw it once I would remember it even months later.
To graduate eighth grade I had to do an exit project for science and social studies (history). The exit project consisted of a five page typed report and a presentation that required both visual and verbal presentation. I know I have spoken on this presentation before and how it came off of the top of my head. The reason I had no notes for my verbal presentation was because I knew that they would not help me. If I had note cards, they would either be damp from sweat or would have cause a distraction for the audience because of my trembling hands. When it was my turn to go, I stood up at the front of the room and just stood there. My audience was my entire eighth grade class, my homeroom teacher, the dean and the teacher of the subject. To make matters worse than they already was, I had not even done research on my topic. I remember being told that I can start by the dean. I tried to start but the words didn’t come out. I swear I am one of the luckiest people alive because right in the front row sat my best friend; I looked at him and saw what appeared to be thumbs up. For both of my presentations I only looked in his direction while I spoke. Seeing a familiar face in the crowd can help calm you down when speaking. I know that in my case it allowed me to talk and act as if I was conversing with him and only him. When I am truly being myself I can be very convincing. If you don’t believe that, let me tell you that my social studies topic was about how great a Leader Hitler was. That is correct I convinced an entire room of over thirty people that Adolf Hitler was an amazing leader and a great role model.
As a high school senior I was given the option of picking my English class, I chose Gothic English. To my surprise my course has a semester of public speaking aka speech class. We had to give different types of speeches ranging from persuasive speeches to explanatory speeches. Before each speech we were given a couple of minutes to prepare outside of the classroom. Throughout my high school life I was always the silent partner in group projects. So this preparation time was never used effectively, rather I just paced back and forth in the hallway like a madman. To help cool my nerves I decided to think of my public speaking performances as a game. If I kept the attention of a single one person or got applause at the end of the speech I would win the game. So when I walked in and gave the first speech I locked on to the face of a friend and did my best to keep them entertained. My teacher was aware that many people suffer from stage fright so she did not say anything about presenters not focusing on the entire audience. With every speech I preformed I added a couple more targets to focus on. By the end of the semester I was able to maintain eye contact with the entire class not just one person. The only problem was that I would still tremble a bit and sweat when I was in front of a crowd.
As a college freshman I had to take a semester of speech 101 as a prerequisite for my major. The speeches were mostly informative speeches, so they were backed by facts. I remember one of the speeches given in the class was talking about in taking water and certain fruits with a high ph. value can help your immune system. Since we had to submit outlines for the speech before hand with a bibliography, I had to change my approach for giving speeches. It was no longer about me planning a mind game with myself; I had a mission that had to be completed. My mission was to explain my topic to the class as best I could. The only catch was if I didn’t perform my duty, they could potentially die. I set it in my mind that the information I held was crucial in my peer’s survival. This helped stop me from becoming nervous when speaking in front of people. Now the only problem I had was getting rid of the monotone voice I had whenever I did public speaking.
This problem had nothing to do with my voice, but rather my level of comfort when speaking out loud in front of a group of people. You might think that comfort level is the same as nervousness, but they are two completely different things. Just because I am not nervous when preforming a task, does not mean that I am in my comfort zone. Just take cooking for instance; I am not nervous when cooking a meal because I know the basics, but I am not comfortable when cooking because I do not know the correct temperatures to cook at. The way I overcame this problem is honestly quite funny. Karaoke helped me solve this problem, not at first of course. When I first went out to sing karaoke with a group of friends I could only do background vocals because I hated how I sound on a microphone and. As I went to karaoke more frequent I began to come out of my shell. It didn’t matter what other people thought of my singing, it was my time to shine. This might sound easy to do but it is a long process that took me months to perfect. In about eight months I was able to go from a low sounding background singer to singing on a stage in front of people. Just so you know, my singing is horrible but I was able to sing and dance in front of over five hundred people. Yes, you heard me correctly; I performed in front of over half a thousand people without breaking a sweat.
Public speaking has become a big part in my life both in my personal life and my professional life. My titles on my resume range from supervisor to assistant manager all the way up to manager. For all these positions I am required to hold meetings with team members. If I had not gone through all the steps listed above in overcoming my fear of public speaking I would not have been able to perform my job duties. Another way that overcoming my fear of public speaking has helped me is working in retail. Since I work in retail I have to talk face to face with customers. These interactions aren’t always bright, there are many times that I have to tell someone bad news. Imagine telling a customer that all their info from their computer is gone, or that all their contacts and photos on their phone have been lost. These are extremely difficult conversations to have with someone, however with the lessons that I have taught myself over the years they have become easy conversations to have. Heck, they have become as easy to speak of as if I was telling the customer about the weather. If I had not overcome this fear I would not be able to post videos online on YouTube, not even my audio only ones. In today’s digital age public speaking also deals with social media. Just a simple tweet or Facebook post is seen by thousands within a matter of seconds. In society today people get bullied heavily on social media, this increases the fear of public speaking.
I know there are thousands of ways to overcome the fear of public speaking, but these are the steps I took in overcoming my fear. They may or may not work for you, but some “proven” methods did not work for me. We all know the cliché remedy of picturing your audience in their underwear. This did not work for me at all. The reason why is because my classes were at least 50% FEMALE. Picturing them in their underwear would have a different effect on me. As a closer, I just want to touch on the story telling contest’s other applicant. The person that I went up against ended up being the three-time champion in the contest. Not from the school but from the city and if I recall they might have won the state competition one year. This person also became valedictorian for my junior high class consisting of 120 students and class president and valedictorian of my high school class consisting of 1092 students. You might say that the bar was too high for me for the story telling competition but who knows. What I do know is that it was a stepping stone for me to overcome my fear of public speaking.
Feel free to share this with a person who you think this post might help. If I have helped you with in any way overcome your own fear of public speaking, feel free to let me know in the comment section bellow. Feel free to send in topics that you the reader would like me to go over. You can send it to me in the comment section or through the various methods on our contact page.
October 17, 2016 What technology do I use on a daily basis
So recently I have changed a couple of my tech accessories, so I have decided to update you the reader. Remember I am a tech lover/geek so you might not agree with some of my choices. So let's dive in...
For my cell phones, I have a Nexus 6p and a Samsung Note 5 as my daily drivers. I use Google Project Fi for the Nexus and At&t for the Note 5. Since it's October this is the prime time to buy a new cellphone. I would upgrade but no phone released has that wow factor. The new Pixel XL is a nice phone but not at $869.99 for the 128gb. A lot of readers might ask why I have two different carriers, the answer is simple. One is for work and the other is for personal/business. Google Project Fi lets me pay the same rate for data in over 200 countries.
Another good thing about Project Fi is that it gives me a free data only sim card for my tablet. For tablets I have a total of four different ones. Each one has a different purpose but for this site and my writing I use only one of them. The tablet that I use on the go is an unlocked Galaxy Tab S 8.4. The reason I prefer this tablet over my other three is because of the weight and size make it very portable, also the addition of a cellular antenna allows me to post without WiFi. As you can tell I am a very avid fan of android and the reason is simple, syncing. I use Google Apps for Work Suite so always in sync with the cloud. I have an IPad and have used many iIPones in the past, they have caused me to receive emails a couple of minutes late. It might not sound like a big deal, but when you are waiting for an important response time is of the essence.
For real productivity on the go I have my trusty Microsoft Surface Pro 3. It combines a tablet and a laptop in one. One problem I have with all of my tablets is google docs is good on the go for small writing sessions, but does not work well for extended writing sessions. So the ability to use full Microsoft Office on the go is amazing. Even though tablets are great for portability, they lack true multitasking ability. The surface pro allows me to edit videos and photos on the go while ruining multiple windows at the same time. Nothing will ever replace Microsoft Outlook on a desktop, once you use it you can never go back. Other than the surface I have a desktop that i built myself, it is where I get most of my serious work done. It has three screens and top of the line components.
There are many other devices that I own like my Canon 60D dslr, but at the moment I do not use it for this site. That's it for today's post. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment and feel free to send this post to a friend.
October 10, 2016 What books do I enjoy and where I get them from
As the title suggests, today's post is about what books I enjoy and how I obtain them. Before you dismiss this post, just stick around for a bit you might learn something. At the bottom of this post you will see a preview of my book library, just the electronic ones for now. My physical book library is for another day.
Nine out of ten readers who don't know me personally must think that I buy most of my physical books and eBooks from Amazon. Unfortunately you would be wrong, Amazon is one of the last places that I purchase my books from, especially my eBooks. If you have an android phone or tablet, you will more than likely thank me at the end of this post. Before I purchase books, I must find out what book that I want to read. This is probably the hardest part of the whole book buying experience. There are millions of books out there but finding the right ones can be quite hard. The books that I read fall into five different categories, don't worry there is no extensive equation I just read five types of books.
The first type of books that I read are books about finances, it's never too early to tell your money where to go. The books from this category that I can recommend whole heartily are... The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, this book will help you get out of debt by learning basics of money and implementing a written budget. The second book from this category that I love telling people about is Money Master the Game 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins. Yes the self help guru has a best selling book about financial freedom, he is not a financial guru but this book has many stars from the financial world. I recommend this book for anyone that is scared to enter the investment world, this is a great starter book to teach things to look out for when investing. Both are great books and should go hand in hand because you need to know where your money goes before you can tell it where to go. To find financial books I look on Amazon for the top 100 financial books.
The next type of book that I read are motivational books, these books can help make you positive in the hard times. There are two books that I can recommend off of the top of my head the first being... Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success by Steve Harvey, this is an amazing book. Many long time readers of this site, know that Steve Harvey has played a major role in my life. I have spoken to Mr. Harvey one time during my senior year of high school, I snuck back stage with some friends I passed through security. I shook his hand and asked him one question as I got pushed back by security. I asked him how to be successful and got told to never give up. The second book that I recommend is Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins, yes another book by the self help guru because it helps. This book helps teach the readers how to change their current state. Mr Robbins has coached many celebrities and athletes, so if his advice helps them why can't it help us? For books like this I look for recommendations based on books I already have read. This sometimes give great reads but sometimes the books are rather bland.
The third type of book that I read are entrepreneur type books, these books help change my mindset to a business mindset. To be an entrepreneur takes thinking out the box and we are not taught to think this way so we must learn to change our mindset. The first book I highly recommend reading is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, it is a timeless classic that is still on every best sellers list. This book is magical and its teachings are helpful to this day, I do not wish to ruin the suspense so read it as soon as possible. The next book that I love is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book has helped me talk to people better and learn how to lead conversations to my liking. It also has taught me to judge and rather to learn from them. The final book that I want to recommend in this category is Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, this was the first book I had read in this category. This book taught me the basics of thinking out of the box. Mr Kiyosaki has two dads one was his friend's dad and the other his biological dad. The story might surprise you. For books in this category I find them on Amazon and Reddit. But recently I have been grabbing books off of Tai Lopez's book club list. He reads a book a day so his library has many different books.
The fourth type of book that I read is biographies and autobiographies, these books hold an amazing wealth of knowledge. There are so many books from this category that I could go on for paragraphs, but I will try to contain myself. The first book I recommend is Tough Sh*t by Kevin Smith, this is truly an Average Joe who has made it. There was nothing special about him yet his drive is what made him become a film director and obtain success. He maxed out his credit cards and made a movie, he saw opportunity and grabbed it and ran with it. The next book that I recommend is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, this is the first biography that I read for entertainment. Steve Jobs is one of the greatest entrepreneur in our lifetimes. This book is a peak into his mind and how it works. Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger, this book shows that hard works pays off. If you disagree with that statement, then how can you explain Arnold's success. He came to America with a dream and he made that dream come true. For biographies I just look up a celebrity and just purchase their biography. I've read biographies from Asa Akira (porn star) to Sam Walton (richest person in America).
I know that this post has been long but we are almost done, the final type of books that I enjoy are mystery novels. I'm a mystery writer so I must model myself after successful mystery writers. Since the first book that I'm writing is a modern day Hardy Boys book I of course have to mention them. To this day I enjoy the original Hardy Boys book and Nancy Drew books. They brought me joy as a child and still bring me joys to this day as I re read them. I also enjoy darker mystery novels like Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary Wolf. Before you think that it is similar to the movie, you would be wrong this book is dark but a good mystery novel. It is a cult classic but it will keep you guessing until the end. I buy any mystery novel that peaks my interest either from the synopsis or the cover.
Most people purchase their eBooks on Amazon Kindle but i prefer to buy them on Google Play Books. The reason I use Google for my eBooks because I get to use my Play Credit. If you have an android phone or tablet you can download Google Opinion Rewards and take surveys for credit in the Play Store. Another reason I recommend using Google for eBooks is because it syncs between all of my devices. I have two phones, four tablets and one pc so being able to access my eBook library from anyone of my devices and not losing my place is amazing. For my physical books I tend to buy them from Ebay, no special reason other than getting the best price. Sorry for the wrong post but I love books.
October 5, 2016 It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop - Confucius
Over the past couple of years I have found myself drawn into the world of philosophy. I know that a lot of people tend to discredit philosophy as a subject, however I believe that philosophy is important for personal growth. Philosophical thinking and analysis can help with a person's critical thinking ability. There are two main reasons why I love philosophy, the first being a peak inside a philosopher's mind. Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zengzi and even Bruce Lee are great philosophers who are no longer with us. Their teachings however have stood the test of time. The second reason that I enjoy philosophy is because it changes the way I see the world. Growing up the world is painted as black or white with no gray in between. But philosophy paints a different story with certain teachings questioning the fundamentals of our very own society. Powerful stuff right, that's why I decided to begin including my very own take on some teachings and incorporate it on my website.
So let's dive into today's teaching. Today I decided to touch upon a very famous teaching by Confucius. The teaching is "It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop". One of the reasons that I decided to choose this teaching is because I feel that it embodies my current situation. For most readers of this site and my YouTube subscribers know, I have recently hit a fork in the road. Instead of bearing right to continue working and living just as I had for the past three years, I decided to take the left road which has no guarantee of success. If you are a new reader or have missed my post about my situation, you might be asking yourself why I would take such a risk. Let's just say that the easy road would have made me miserable and I would have regretted taking said road. The left road might or might not bring me any success but at the end of it all I can never say what if.
So this teaching stood out to me today because I was a bit down in the dumps. I have been working on a couple of projects for months now and have not seen the results that I was expecting. Negative results and rejection after rejection would drain the energy out of many. So why wouldn't an average Joe like myself be affected by this constant flow of negativity. Before you go saying that I just need motivation, let me ask you to pump the brake. I already have my Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn and Abraham Hicks YouTube playlist at the ready at all times, so I have enough "motivational" audios. Motivation can only take you so far, without results it is just wishful thinking. If a business does not make money it closes, if an employee does not produce they are fired. That is the way the world works, plain and simple. Yes we all know the saying that Rome was not built in a day, but try telling that to your bills.
So now picture me in the morning rediscovering this amazing teaching by Confucius. I was sitting in my seat on the Metro North going through my two and a half hour commute, second guessing my decision to leave my current industry. I was already contemplating contacting some people in the industry to see if I could find something. But then boom, I notice Confucius' teaching among a list of top one hundred philosophy teachings. As I read it over and over I begin to gain back my belief in myself. It's easy to quit and throw in the towel, it's hard to see something through to the end. If you ever read a biography ( I have read many), no one achieves success over night it is a hard strenuous process. For some success takes 5 years while for others it takes 20 to 30. As long as at the end of it you achieve the success that you always dreamed of, what's wrong with falling a couple of times along the way. I know there are some skeptics in the crowd reading this who think that all this is made up. To those readers all I can say is you are free to believe what you want but this is my story and I'm sticking to it.
As you can see this is almost the length of a high-school essay, so let me wrap it up. I don't know if you could tell from reading my text but this was directly from the heart. When I write I try my best to let the words come naturally. None of the text on this paper were written before hand or planned. I found this teaching today wrote it down and kept it on my note pad. I did not come up with what I was going to say on my commute back to my house. Once I opened up this page the post essentially wrote itself. My post might not be written conventionally but they are written directly from the heart without a filter. So if you enjoyed this post or if you have a favorite philosopher you would like me to read up on let me know below in the comments.
October 3, 2016 The first interview in our new interview section.
The title is pretty much explains itself.
September 27th, 2016 Newer update on my situation
Just wanted to provide a quick update on my current situation, enjoy.