Close
Enter your
text here
Posts By :

admin

Voluntary Car Repossession 150 150 admin

Voluntary Car Repossession

About an hour ago, they towed my 2015 Dodge Charger from my driveway to some lot somewhere.

This car has been great to drive, but a pain paying for it and dealing with Chrysler Capital. I feel so much lighter today.

My payments were about $675 due to bad credit when I bought it. It was a decision made of desperation. I had been taking the bus before that in Dallas for a long time, and was just absolutely tired of the time it took to get from one place to another. Texas isn’t a great place to not have a car, and the test drive of this new car got me hooked.

In American Football, usually on a running play, the quarterback hands the ball to the running back to run. This is what I felt like I was doing with my paycheck. I was the quarterback and the bank that owned the car was the running back. If you need more of a visual, watch the video below and/or skip to 1:58 in the video to see this happen real time. The guy in the back is the running back, my paycheck is the football, and I am the quarterback in the front.

I just remember thinking that…every time we made that payment…either me or family who helped me out got screwed.

I literally look back and wonder how they even sold me this car. Looking at the numbers, I definitely couldn’t afford this car, which is why I put on a cosigner.

I’m taking responsibility for this bad decision and owning it, and the domino effect it caused.

Lessons learned? Avoid making decisions from desperation if possible. Look for more options. Don’t fall for the sleazy and dishonest sales tactics to get you to buy. Live within your means, but dive deep into the options of increasing your means.

Also, a big lesson I learned was to think bigger. When we signed the papers, I can remember wondering, “how can I keep up with these payments?” and trying to find a way to do that. And for the time I had the car, that’s all we did – keep up with the payments until we couldn’t keep up anymore. Now, I would think and focus on – how can I negotiate a low price and pay the car off in total at the time of purchase.

I also take responsibility for the people that sold it to me, thinking they got over on me. When they sold it, they were so happy. I could see this feeling of “gotcha!” on their face…like they were fishing and had caught one. While in the short term they profited off this individual transaction, it’s not going to look good for them in the long run. They further contribute to the bad rep car salesmen get. I can’t see myself ever looking at Chrysler Capital again in a positive light (more negative word-of-mouth). I’m reminded of the constant robot-like real humans that called me just to ask for a payment over and over and over again.

This was a source of shame, but writing about it has actually helped me. Hopefully it helps someone else!

Music Exploration – 30 Artists, 90+ new songs 150 150 admin

Music Exploration – 30 Artists, 90+ new songs

I decided that last quarter I wanted to do an exploration of music I’d never heard before. I decided to try at least 30 artists with at least 3 songs from the artist that I’d never heard before. Sometimes I knew of the artist, but I didn’t know any songs they produced. Sometimes I even know of the artist, knew of some songs they’d written. I didn’t want to include those songs I had already heard here, but I felt I still wanted to explore more of their music. However, this exploration was mainly artists that I’d never heard before – especially as I kept going. The main goal was to listen to at least 90 new songs in the quarter. It took me longer than the quarter, but I’m glad I completed it. I also wanted to stay completely away from RnB and rap music because I listen to so much of those genres already. These are in the order that I explored them in.

Before I list the songs, here are some things I’ve learned throughout all this:

  • Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between Rnb and Pop. I wanted to steer clear of Rnb and rap, but that wasn’t as easy to do as I thought.
  • Some songs are too dark and murky for me. At a point in my life, I might have listened to them, but some were borderline agonizing to listen to.
  • I like what I like. I still like Rnb and Rap. The songs I really liked and wanted to keep in rotation (there were some) had an Rnb feel to them.
  • The extremes stood out and were therefore more memorable…even if I didn’t necessarily like them. I guess this is because we remember what violates our expectations.
  • This exploration showed me how many ways you can actually deliver value through music. It was great to get exposure to the many different ways individuals expressed themselves through this medium.
  • This made me really appreciate Rnb and rap even more and start looking for more songs. I found some new great Rnb artists I like and more music from Rnb artists I already knew. It was like venturing out made me appreciate what I have even more. I heard this from open relationships too? I wonder what people in open relationships think about this.

Cher  – Have heard a lot about her, but never payed attention to her music

  • Song For Lonely
  • Bang Bang
  • Half Breed
  • If I Could Turn Back Time (pretty cool music video here)
  • Woman’s World
  • We All Sleep Alone
  • Gypsy’s, Tramps, & Thieves

Prince  – Wonder what the mystique is all about

  • Let’s Go Crazy
  • U Got The Look
  • Erotic City (my favorite of the prince songs I heard)
  • The Beautiful Ones (interesting screaming at the end)
  • Pop Life

Lenny Kravitz  – Have been curious about his music

  • Are You Gonna Go My Way
  • Believe
  • I Belong To You
  • Rock & Roll is Dead
  • Mr. Cab Driver – interesting song about a racist cab driver

Rema  – Amazon Music recommendation

  • Corny
  • Dumb
  • Iron Man

Robert Schuman

  • Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (played by Martha Argerich)
  • Fantasie, Op. 17 (by Evgeny Kissin)
  • Kreisleriana, OP. 16

Madonna

  • Crazy For You
  • La Isla Bonita
  • Into the Groove
  • True Blue
  • Borderline

The Beatles

  • Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • You Never Give Me Your Money
  • Penny Lane

Elton John

  • Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me
  • I’m Still Standing
  • Don’t go Breaking My Heart
  • Bennie And The Jets
  • Crocodile Rock

Ya know…with Madonna, The Beatles and Elton John I feel like I’ve heard their music in so many places, but many times didn’t connect the music with that particular artist.

Harry Styles – my style of music but more pop style, recommended by Google Play Music

  • Adore you
  • Watermelon Sugar
  • Lights Up
  • Cherry

Thomas Rhett – saw him on Kennedy Center Honors

  • That Old Truck
  • Look What God Gave
  • Center Point Rd (ft. Kelsea Ballerini)

Depeche Mode – couldn’t get into this type of music, at least not these songs I listened to

  • Just Can’t Get Enough
  • Enjoy the Silence
  • Everything Counts

Bonobo – like that there weren’t words in many of his songs (if not all?), but great music

  • Linked
  • Cirrus
  • Kong
  • Kiara

Daft Punk – blend between techno / and RnB

  • Give Life Back to Music
  • The Game of Love
  • Giorgio by Moroder

I am Jen – unique style, really like the intro music

  • Broken in all the right places
  • Neon Zee
  • At the Same Time
  • Blowing My Mind (like this piano intro)

Ben Folds – pretty funny music…might be the most memorable for me so far :joy:

  • Effington
  • Bitch Went Nuts
  • Brainwascht
  • Kylie from Connecticut (I like this one)

Nils Frahm – I could see this music used in slow parts of movies…not really feeling it though

  • Familiar
  • Some
  • Our Own Roof

Infected Mushroom

  • U R So Fucked (probably not the best idea to start with this one…this is scary)
  • Serve My Thirst – sounds like it could be used on a video game…they got skills
  • I Shine
  • Drum n Bassa

Daneil Padim

  • Harmonics Got Crazy
  • Waiting For You
  • Fridays Beauty

Dido

  • Hurricanes
  • Take You Home
  • Some Kind of Love

Ionnalee – kinda dark and quirky

  • Open Sea
  • Wipe It Off
  • Some Body

Marmozets

  • Why Do You Hate Me? (interesting screaming sections)
  • Captivate You
  • Play
  • Born Young and Free (very stark and definite contrast between melody park and screaming section)

Led Zeppelin

  • Immigrant Song
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • Rock and Roll
  • Black Doll (like this one because of the off beat unusual rhythm that works)
  • Ramble On (like this one too)

Muse – I like the album art…colorful

  • Uprising
  • Madness
  • Starlight

Franz Ferdinand – every artist below this point was found by Google Play Music

  • No You Girls
  • Take me Out
  • Do you want to

Justice – like this

  • Pleasure
  • Alakazam!
  • Fire

Tori Amos – too dark

  • Broken Arrow
  • Cloud Riders
  • Up the creek

Janis Joplin

  • Down On Me
  • Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
  • Cry Baby

Patti Smith

  • Free Money
  • Redondo Beach
  • Kimberly

Bee Gees

  • How Deep is Your Love
  • Jive Talkin’
  • Night Fever
  • More than a woman

Billie Eilish

  • bad guy
  • bury a friend
  • when the partys over
  • lovely
Charity Water 150 150 admin

Charity Water

Charity Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

The video below pulled me in on a Youtube Ad (wtf?), and I’m happy it did. I decided to donate a small amount monthly and want it to grow over time. This is actually the best money I’ve spent in a while…as in…I’m really happy about this purchase.

Join me in supporting them! But before you do watch the videos below, check out their mission here and if you feel inspired like I do, donate here.




Why Water?



Where to rent a swimming pool 150 150 admin

Where to rent a swimming pool

Damnit I love these P2P services. I just stumbled on Swimply. Where has this been all my life? Now you can rent a swimming pool for a party or for you and your boo or to just chill alone.

The other options

You can purchase a membership to a gym or fitness club with a pool…but you might not know the people you’re swimming with. And you don’t know have the whole pool to yourself, so you have to be semi aware of where others are so as not to invade their space.

I can remember me and friends / roommates would use apartment pools, but those have limitations too. We were always getting the cops called on us for being loud even though we weren’t loud at all. And again, you might not know who you’re swimming with.

Don’t get me wrong. Public pools and pools reserved for tenants and their guests are where I’ve actually met a lot of friends. It’s one of the best social places to meet the people around you if you live in apartments, condos, etc – (if they clean it!). It can be fun and upbeat in the daytime, and an intimate, chill place at night. Or maybe fun and upbeat the whole time there. Nothing like the light in the pool mixed in with the dark night and lots of fun people to make it a memorable experience. BUT sometimes I don’t want to be social and meet NEW people. I just want to swim by myself or exclusively with people I know…or people that know people I know if it’s a private party.

Enter Swimply

Another update will come after I actually use this service. This is just the beginning. Muahahahahaha!

Know Your Game 150 150 admin

Know Your Game

For some context in the video below, former players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) interview Kobe Bryant (one of the best to ever play professional basketball) to pick his brain on some things they want to know about.

Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson interview Kobe Bryant post-retirement on their podcast All The Smoke

@ 30:43 Stephen Jackson to Kobe Bryant: You got a lot of young players reaching out to you now. Your advice to them? What do you tell em? How did that feel?

Kobe Bryant: Depends what they ask. A lot them will come and ask about their game and things that they should do and things like that ….and I say listen, you know the answer to that…I don’t know. You know what makes you uncomfortable when you play. I think that’s the biggest thing for kids nowadays is that they wanna rely on coaches too much and workout guys…which is fine to have them help you work out, but you have to tell them what you need…right? You gotta be able to say, OK I’m uncomfortable with “this”. And if you don’t know, then you’re not as prepared as you should be…right? You need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are first, and then I can tell you some of the things…the rhythmic things or some of the exercises or some of the repetition you need to be doing on certain things. You’ve got to know your game.

This is in a sports setting, but I think it’s a great concept with any mentorship. Be prepared and do your homework before you go to a mentor. Sometimes you won’t “use” your homework though simply because this preparation or homework was done from your perspective, and when you get coaching or mentorship, they might flip your whole perspective upside down completely. BUT better to be as prepared as you can beforehand right? Especially if you don’t have much time with this mentor.

This also speaks to knowing yourself and being able to be vulnerable in the presence of a mentor. I wonder how many of the athletes who go to Kobe for mentorship know what they’re uncomfortable with on the basketball court, but aren’t open to sharing it. There’s some big growth that can come from sharing your weakness with the right person / people. And other times it might be better to double down on your strengths.

The Rise of Live 150 150 admin

The Rise of Live

I’m seeing a trend where there are lots of live broadcasts where business owners / creators are going live and interacting with people. I’ve had soooo many questions answered from being in Pat Flynn’s or Karla Marie’s or Glendon Cameron’s or Derek Doepkers Youtube / Zoom / Facebook Live broadcasts.

I really had to restructure my days to be able to make these broadcasts because I would usually be at my 9-5 job working during those times, but I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to get answers to your questions if you’re interested in sales, marketing, creating etc, and it’s underutilized which makes it an even better opportunity because everyone isn’t aware of it yet. I see them everywhere. It’s a win-win too. They like people being there and participation and connecting with people who follow their work, and I like following them because they deliver so much value and put a lot of time and effort into their work.

The most powerful parts of them are the Q & A sessions. Even books like The Power of Now and so many of Eckhart Tolle’s videos are just Q & A’s. I love them because I often have the same questions other people ask, and even if I don’t, I might still hear an answer to a different question that I needed to hear at that time.

What Slows Productivity Down 150 150 admin

What Slows Productivity Down

I see so many, “how to be more productive” articles, but I don’t ever see this problem framed as “you’re naturally productive, so what’s stopping you”.

So I Googled “Things that slow productivity down” to see what was out there already and this article popped up that pretty much echoed everything I was going to write about. And written 4 years ago. That’s wild! Well done StartupGrind. Well Done.

I especially agree with the “energy levels” section of that article. I saw this a lot with jobs. Many jobs I worked for would push and push and push the employees and not give any significant downtime. It was like they wanted more orange juice, but they were squeezing an orange that had been all squeezed out. That orange might produce more teeny droplets, but there is no flow any more.

Another approach that seemed to make more sense, is to play and have fun and rest until you want to go back to work! And if you don’t want to go back to work, evaluate the work or how you’re actually doing the work. I had never thought of this perspective, but I saw the value after taking an extended break to Mexico. I wasn’t even aware of this perspective until I received coaching in my coaching program.

I think this really works well if you’re doing creative work. Your mind goes to different places on vacation and when you come back to work you relate to it differently.

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read 150 150 admin

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read

The Power of Now

This book might have singlehandedly be responsible for making me a positive person no matter what.

“All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” – Eckhart Tolle

Just that quote alone changed my emotions from then on. Now that I think about it, that quote has saved me so much stress. I might go into a negative emotion, but I won’t stay there for long because I’ve become way more aware of my emotions and what is causing them. I was spending years in negative emotions not knowing it. If I feel like I’m in a negative emotion, all I have to do is return back to the present moment. That’s where answers can come in and problems can’t exist.

It introduced me to Eckhart Tolle too and his work with other people. His answers are just so right and simple.

I read this book 10+ years ago and it continues to remain the best one I’ve read. Thank you Eckhart.