I’m still here…Kicking and F’ing Screaming but I’m still here…
So the good news first…I have 2 jobs!!! I’m bouncing again and walking door to door telling people about some random dude who is running for the Colorado legislature. The door to door job is extremely weird and different from what I’ve ever done in my entire life! It’s a job and I am beyond Thankful for both of them!!! That is the good news, the bad news is that I am barely making my bills and I have to find another job or jobs to supplement my bouncing gig and door to door gig in a few weeks, or asap! But I have work and for that I am sooooooooo Thankful:)!!!
I’ll tell ya what though I really can’t understand how people in this country can complain and whine about not being able to find work. I talked to one of my former roommates here about this a few weeks back and I told him that people absolutely HAVE TO work more then 40 hours a week in almost every career to get ahead and not spend money that don’t have. He looked at me like I told him he had cancer, utter and complete shock and a huge “are you serious” look. It was Amazing how easy it was to get work when I just put my mind to it and started Huslin’ by dropping off resumes at random places, answering job ads on http://www.craigslist.com, driving around and writing down places to call about a job, and telling EVERY SINGLE person I ran into up here that I am looking for work asap! People are inherently lazy and stupid, at least that is my view on people that are not working as hard as they possibly can but whining about how they are “behind on payments” or “they hate their job” or “I want to start my own business” but they never do a thing about it…these people are just plain Stupid and Lazy!
Sorry to rant there but I have had the WORST 2 weeks since Feb. 17th of yesteryears and all I did to get out of it was Pray my soul out and wake up and start moving/Huslin’. The job part search sucked and it still sucks Hard b/c I have a college degree and have owned my own business before (which made a lot of money for a little while) and I also worked in some of the biggest companies in the US (and had extremely well paying jobs at them) BUT here I am going door to door bugging strangers about something I don’t care about as well as throwing dudes out of bars/clubs (btw got to very Intensely throw a guy out on my first night at the club=Happy Animal:) So here I am just doing WHATEVER it takes to pay my bills and Praying like crazy that Jesus will change my Extremely Proud & Haughty Heart so I can be humble enough to walk door to door and bother people, and have doors slammed in my face, etc… And you know what I am a living example that His Grace is enough in all of these situations b/c I was literally laughing out loud today while I was jamming to the Bee Gees and texting with my Lil Sis (whom I Love very very much) about how miserable it was talking to random people at their doors when it is pouring down rain and I have my jacket and umbrella barely keeping me and my work papers dry…HAHAHAHA…I was Totally Miserable!!!!!! and I couldn’t stop having fun with it!!! God is Good in our most miserable times…at least that’s what I’ve been experiencing for the last few days after I went through my 2 week desert…I just Pray all day that He keeps showing up during this journey like he has in the last few days…Thanks Homie:)!!!
It’s a waiting game but I got speed reading to work on…
been a pretty crappy week thus far…I’ve just sitting around waiting for a large commercial gym to finish their paperwork on me so I can start working and making money…uuuuugggghhhhhh!!! This is EXACTLY why I live for entrepreneurship. I do NOT like relying on other companies or other people for my financial certainty! And the “keep things simple” concept in business is harder to keep alive when you are the size of a commercial gym like 24 hour fitness. I was told by my fitness manger that I would be starting 10 days ago, and this crap has drug on and on and on….it’s not really his fault, per se, b/c he doesn’t have control of the “onboarding process” once he decides to bring a trainer on BUT I am not sure he truly understands how bad of a financial situation I am in right now and it seems like he could be doing more? I haven’t worked/made money for 6 weeks now…it’s getting extremely scary right now…
On a very positive note I have been reading like crazy this week and been reading some Awesome books!!! I finished 2 so far and have been working on my speed reading ability as well:) There is a speed reading software product I am using for free this month that I’ve been doing the speed reading exercises on. I will buy the full version once I start making money b/c it is limited in it’s ability to do stuff b/c I am using the “free” version. For example it gave me a score of 320 words a minute BUT I wasn’t told I was being tested so I read very slow and I can’t redo the test or any of the test b/c it’s the “intro/free version.” I would say I’m at 400 words a minute, but honestly I’m not sure? I’m looking forward to working at it so I can be at the 800-1,000 words a minute level:) The basic exercises I’ve been doing thus far have helped soooooooooo much!!! I am running through pages in my books and totally comprehending the information thanks to the speed reading exercises I am doing:)
My first job out of college was writing for a living, at a small community paper. I am getting the writing bug BIG time again. Writing this Blog has helped stoke that fire as well:) I am thinking about offering my writing services for free (at first) to some local community papers in the area:) Wanna start off doing small articles or “features” about Health and Fitness stuff and maybe some local Entrepreneurs, stuff I’m deeply interested in…I’m just spit balling ideas right now though. I absolutely have to start working and paying me bills ASAP though!!! I will update this bad boy with more info as I find out more about my personal training job…I do have a couple interviews set up this week and the beginning of next week already, so we’ll see. Thanks again for reading this puppy and please Pray for my financial/job situation:) Talk soon…
Here’s a Nugget of Wisdom for all you aspiring Entrepreneurs out there….
Hello there! I am so muito muito happy that I made the move!!! It will be extremely difficult to build up my business and grow something from nothing and I honestly couldn’t do it if I was not in my personal geographic utopia! I LOVE living in Colorado!!! I am a Texan in my soul…I was raised there my whole life and my mannerisms and my views are extremely Texan and that is something I am very proud of:) But more importantly then that I do have the mountains in my blood! There is a magical feeling I get when I think about and am around the most majestic things ever created by my Lord & Saviour!!!
Here’s how my day went down yesterday…I took off to the mountains yesterday with my new pup, Sid. We literally just took off with no particular destination in mind other then to just “climb” something:) We found our way to the Amazing city of Boulder, Colorado:) Unfortunately it started pouring rain the second we got into town so our trail blazing was going to have to wait another day….that worked out just fine b/c I found a local Microbrewery that was extremely dog friend and extremely people friendly as well! I spent the day and the evening having Awesome Brew with Awesome people, and even ended the night with some BBQ rabbit and elk at a house party with people I had just met that evening…straight Amazing!!!
Here’s my Nugget of Wisdom for all you soon-to-be or wanna-be Entrepreneurs out there…DO IT!!! Create something, putting your mind and Heart behind something you Love to do and just DO IT!!! The one thing I Highly suggest when you decide to take that leap is make sure you absolutely LOVE the environment that you are in so that when you do sacrifice everything to live your dream, you are content in the process:) I tried to open up my own Jiu Jitsu school in Dallas, Texas 3 years ago but it never came to fruition….I just couldn’t bring myself to spend my days toiling at something I loved in a place I didn’t want to stay in for the rest of my life:( I Love Texas for a lot of reasons but I also was dying there emotionally and creatively b/c it is just a blah place for me to live. Everyday I struggle here in Colorado financially, socially, emotionally, etc…I know one thing…I can always go to the mountains and “touch the sky”:) If you are a beach person, which I am not, or you are a downtown large city person, which I “kinda” am…my suggestion is go where your Heart is content and happy and just DO IT!!! Start living and realizing your dream of creating something out of nothing today!!! Just make sure you Love where you are when you do it and the path of struggle will seem like an Adventure and not a sloggingly painful trek. I Pray that helps b/c this move for me has been extremely difficult in a LOT of ways and I have had to step out of my “comfort zone” and “personal happy shell” almost everyday since I decided to make this thing happen, but it has been more Rewarding and Beautiful then I can put into words…so now it’s your turn….DREAM, CREATE, and LIVE your Dream TODAY!!!
Got a JOB here in Denver…
So it looks like I really don’t understand the world of unemployment very well b/c as soon as I pulled into town here I was only unemployed for 2 days. Getting this job wasn’t something that “just happened”…I spent weeks prepping for my move up here (weeks but not months!) I should have planned for months but that wasn’t in the cards for this guy so I worked as hard as I could in the time frame alloted. Point is I was talking to people here all the time before I moved up, I was setting up interviews and asking around about where I could work and what my experience is and how I could fit into a gym/microbrewery/basically anywhere I could work for a paycheck:) It paid off and I had my first in person interview the day after I pulled into town, as well as several other phone interviews that day:) I will be a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness in Highlands Ranch which is a South East suburb of Denver, it’s a very nice area so I look forward to working a LOT. The first thing any small business absolutely needs to start up is for the entrepreneur to have a job so he can put a roof over his head and food on the table…well I now have that here in Denver! I am Blessed beyond measure!!! I celebrated yesterday by trying my first locally Brewed Amazing Beer and it was Awesome!!! I also purchased the book “How We Decide” by Johah Lehrer. It’s a book about how neuroscience and behavioral economics help us understand people decision making, basically the why and how people choose something…it’s gonna ROCK!!! So there ya have it…my first success in Denver, Colorado:) Btw I LOVE it here!!! The weather tells me everyday how Awesome of a decision I made by moving here. I am also Pumped about getting up into the mountains and seeing snow and climbing those crazy things called mountains:) Thank You all for your continued support!!! I can’t tell you in words how all the messages via text, email, Facebook, etc have Blessed me and my work up here….so keep keeping it real all you peps in the Blogshere and I will see/write ya soon…
First night in Denver…
So I MADE IT!!! I pulled into my place this morning at 10am and unpacked a few things and then slept until 4:30 and boy did I need it! So far I’ve unpacked most of my stuff and put some stuff in the right place in the house, but I still have a long ways to go until I get completely settled in. I have an interview tomorrow at a large gym and a couple other opportunities this week as well so really looking forward to that! It’s GREAT here too b/c it is already getting colder here and I am sooooooo sick of the heat and the weather in general in Texas. Texas is an Awesome state for a lot of reasons but man the weather is Horrible! Thank You for your support here and please keep me in your Prayers b/c I gotta get me one of those fandangled things called a job to pay my bills until I get my own school up and running:)
Time for the last leg of the journey…
Here we go….just got done with some Amazing Praise & Worship & Sermon at the local downtown coffee house in Wichita, Kansas:) http://www.meadscorner.com/meads Been an AWESOME week of reflection and checking of my motivations and my Heart to see what is at the core of me and my reasoning in doing what I am doing. I got to have some time where I was stripped of all my “normal” activities, which apparently aren’t that normal after all…haha! But seriously I got to have some great gut-check time and some time to really dig into what I am doing here. For those of you that don’t know my background this is my second business related to Fitness. I opened up a 1,200 square foot personal training studio in the heart of Seattle, Washington about 6 six years ago. It was called “Animal Fitness Systems” and it was a Blast and it did Awesome for about 2 years. It ultimately failed due to a combination of my laziness/inept at business and the economy in 2009 in the Northwest (which was straight horrible!) I started that company with a dream, credit cards, and some of the best friends/clients/AFS ButtKickers a person could be Blessed with. It was the Best learning experience for “how to start and fail” at a new business….hahaha! It was a whirlwind, I tell you that much:) I got to train and get to know some of the most Amazing people on this planet and got paid to do it so I was one happy Animal:) I write this b/c I want people to know that I am familiar with the ups and downs of business and the pro’s and con’s of what I am doing right now. This week has been one of those “gut-check” times where I sat back and really really reevaluated what I was doing and ultimately if I was ready to do this crazy entrepreneurship thing again! I will detail later in this Blog how and why I literally have no choice but to do what I am doing…NOT to be confused with “I am doing this b/c I don’t want to” BUT the truth is that I am doing this b/c it is literally in my blood/DNA and my Calling in this life is to “go forth and create” something from nothing:)!!! I just happen to like fighting and intense exercise/sport so here I go… I want to Thank everyone sooooooooo much for Helping & Supporting me on this path b/c without you I would not be able to do any of this! You know who you are out there:) Please feel free to comment on this Blog and also tell a friend about what I am doing here so we can get more peps on board this crazy thing called “American Entrepreneurship”….Thanks Again!!!
Sooooo much to do…
I forget how much moving sucks! It’s funny b/c everybody keeps asking me “why are you leaving Dallas” b/c I have so many good people and so many opportunities here to grow a school off of the people and students I have here already. The easiest answer is: I HATE heat!!! and I LOVE Mountains:) I’ve been going to Colorado my whole life, my Grandparents have a house up there in Glenwood Springs and I learned how to fall in love with snow and cold weather there and in Michigan, which is where I spent at least 1/4 of my childhood. My dad’s side of the family is from all over Michigan. I specifically remember as a child being outside in the freezing cold and not wanting to go inside. That is odd behavior I know but it’s what my body and soul were more comfortable with. When it used to pour rain in Seattle, WA and I would walk outside into a dark and rainy day at 10am I would just look outside and say “Thank God it’s not Texas heat” and be happy. I will have to completely start over in Denver and that will be EXTREMELY difficult but well worth it:) So Colorado here I come….
First Day…
So I made it official! I’m leaving Dallas to live my Dream in Denver, Colorado:) Just posted on my Animal page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Animal/293858253512 about my move and plans to start teaching for myself and ultimately have my own school…feel BLESSED to have so much support:) Already getting some Amazing Feedback and feel like there are hundreds of little cheerleaders screaming “You Can Do It”…very very cool! I have a place to live in the Lakewood area of Denver already so I have a place to put my small amount (pretty much non-existent amount) of possessions but more importantly a place to lay my head at night:) I will be working in gyms or microbrewery bars in order to pay my bills and help me build my school and student base up. Long long road but well worth it! I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and suggestions on my journey so please feel free to post anything you want and I promise to respond and take your suggestions to heart…Thank You for your support!!!
Living My Dream…
My name is Animal and I Love Jiu Jitsu! I am a Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Brown Belt who is working on growing my own school in the beautiful state of Colorado. This Blog is all about taking the plunge and giving up everything to live “The Dream” This is the ultimate Entrepreneurial endeavour and hope it inspires you to follow your heart and chase your own Dreams, whatever that may be! Please “Follow” this Blog and join me on my journey as I talk about and document my travels through this crazy fun world of Jiu Jitsu and Entrepreneurship:) Thank You so much for your time and support…it means a TON to me and all of my students!!! Now let’s Roll….
Animal Jiu Jitsu 