Lis Carpenter - My BIG WHY

 

I don't remember keepimg a journal in my Blog about all the things I was doing as side hustles while I was completing my doctoral degree. 

Most people want to hide that shit, but the thing is we will never be free while we are hiding what we do. I hustled hard y'all, but I was out of alignment with my giftings and skills.

I AM AN EDUCATOR. I am a trained ESL teacher. I tutored over 2000 students one on one. I have built curriculums and designed assessments for students. I have taught students all over the world.

And, somewhere in all of this action, I decided that educators are just not paid well. The truth is educators who choose classroom teaching in the wrong place are not paid well. 

Lucky for me, the requirements kept changing to get hired in my county. And, instead of heading back to school for a Special Education degree, I chose to leave and work for online companies. 

But, my highest value is teaching students how to improve their results and their lives. I have mastered the skills it takes to get "good grades," yes. But, I want to teach you, reader, how to excel beyond school. The skills that you will learn from me will allow you to choose who you want to work with and give you confidence that you can learn any subject.

Go ahead and reach out liscarpenter[at]gmail.com or @maketodayextraordinary on Instagram.

The Cashflow Quadrant Week 3

01/12/20
I can see I have not applied to the schools that came from the Two Sigmas email. The rep told me that all of the schools have their own online platform, but we shall see. I keep going back to the thought of working for Cambly, but if I can get more than $10. Then, that is what I need to do-- meanwhile I have $10 waiting for me when I complete another Textbroker article.
$390 dollars to go for the next two weeks.
Plan - close a Cutco customer.

1/13/20
And, this is why I planned to check -in twice a day. I applied at the Two Sigmas schools. I did not interview for the telemarketing job. I cannot even remember the guy who kept putting me off for Cutco, but I am also thinking of Trudy.

1/17/20
Moving this blog entry to later in the day was a bad idea. I have not followed up for Cutco sales. There is a pull towards the low paying work. The lady Stacey Brown from the Living Stones church prayed for me and mentioned investments, and now I see this thing with Roger Salam, but I do not trust him because of Tasha Cooney's testimony of working with him for low pay.

The Cashflow Quadrant Week 2

Today I continue the social media marketing course through Elite Marketing Pro. The lure of network marketing is pretty strong with the idea of just teaching everyone to do 3 quality connections (which will change their lives) while you do 10-20.

I have a hang up. I desire to eat fresh, but the company that I am looking at would be delivering supplements that are nutraceuticals. I wonder if they have an interest in using hemp plastic instead of the conventional plastic?

1/7/20
Today I complete the Nancy Badillo training or most of it. I eliminated Patreon U and JVZoo training. I just could not see myself going back into the mess of Clickfunnels, Aweber, and ClickMajick. I see where D got her training from, and I am clear on my focus on writing for income.

...I did not complete the course. The target market choice was a little bit of a hang up. The thing is Russell decided to target himself and had a breakthrough. The same thing happened with Garrett J. White. I have the assumption like the prophet Eliyahu that I am the only one waking up, but targeting myself and providing what I need(ed) and value should be the sticker store. The sticker is message just like "Say I Won't"

1/8/20
I applied for a job in sales again today. The place is in Fort Myers and the reasoning was that it is the stereotypical 9-5 (except it's 8-5) and it will allow me to to have my 3 weeks of vacation. I don't mind doing the hustle for 2 years to get a business going. I keep thinking about Patreon because really, the problem of being an artist and not ever making your art is a real one.

1/9/20
Joe's birthday or re-birth day. We came from somewhere before we opened our eyes here. I had the thought 3 times "I do not feel like myself" today. And, I also had the thought that it was a good thing because that means that I am on a different, uncomfortable wavelength, and different things are coming. It took me a while yesterday to come to I will educate the Hebrews with my poems defaming the system and teaching them how to break the "new slavery."

1/10/20
Radical actions we take = results. New patterns take time to become normal. I am cutting a lot to focus on my dissertation. I do not need to track my creation of cash flow right now because I will be focusing on finishing my dissertation and taking additional teaching jobs.

1/11/20
I allowed Christy back into my life though I have pain because of it -- faithful are the wounds of a friend... my focus has moved to how much POWER can I put into dissertation research and really honor the work of a scholar. Dishonoring it, devaluing it has led to poor quality research. Today, I must choose a freelancer to help with the research and then get the lit review and background done this next septimal period.

Mr. Money Mustache + The Cashflow Quadrant (12/30/19 - 01/05/20)

12/30/2019 I did the 30 Day Money Challenge through the Doughroller Podcast not to long ago, and it was great because it introduced me to Mr. Money Mustache. I think Mr. Money Mustache retired at 30. But, it taught me about my poor spending habits and the foolish spending of my dad. It's great when you have great money managers as parents, but for the rest of us, we have to learn.

Mr. Money Mustache shared a novel idea. He used his blog as his accountability partner, posting his net worth once a week. I have in my mind to post my positive or negative gain for a day (no including the student loan interest compounding against me). So far today, I am at $15... my goal is to break the $1000/day mark so I can live independently again.

My living expenses were government subsidized -- I was getting money for being in school because my father received 100% military disability. I think it was $1080/mo. That covered rent and then some. I worked 2 contractor positions along with picking up substitute teaching jobs, and my income has not been at that level since. That was 2015.
1) WyzAnt Tutor
2) Brainfuse Tutor
3) Substitute Teacher
4) Student loan (kickback)
5) VA benefits from my dad It was nice being at $3,000/mo.

I could afford a vacation for me and my beau, but now, It time to rebuild, and instead of net worth tracking. I am using Robert Kiyosaki's guidance for escaping the rat race - cash flow tracking. Rule #1 - Pay Yourself First.

 Currently: 1) EF Kids Teacher

 9:23PM I did not get to $100 today, but I may have found a way to recover a few thousand in settlement money. What am I saying, I didn't find it. Spirit led me there by placing in me the inkling of an idea that I could settle with USAA on the debt owed them that I had fallen behind on.

12/31/19 Yeah, I think I will put these in week by week. My new goal is to change my environment. We are taught that to change our outer world we have to first change our inner world, but there was also the doctor who said if you stay in toxic relationships you will die. My father is killing me. I have decided again to see where I can WOOF and write my dissertation. My ma was adamant about me having the $1000 to cover my bills before I went anywhere. It is a snare to me, the debts. I think about and desire to consolidate, but my credit score is too low. J.O.B. --- Self-employed --- (network marketing is a glorified "S" not a "B."

12/1/20 Apply for ESL full time teaching jobs again because the target is $3K a month by 'ALMOST' any means necessary. I checked the last 4-5 websites on the list. I must return tomorrow. I know I should not pursue a university position though.

12/2/20 Today I have specific instruction: drop ship surf boards and boogie boards, and check in on Bethany to see if her period cramping has improved. I am really thinking that my ability to hear doesn't exist - I wasted much tiempo looking for surf board dropshippers only to land on "give us all your money" sites. I thought to ask my brother for access to his membership for dropshippers. Talked to Racquel. We are starting with Nancy Badillo's free stuff. Then, we are going to Arsha's stuff.

12/3/20 All this seeking of Divine counsel from above has made me certifiably insane. I'm going with the "led away by my own lusts" cap on this one. And, I will listen to my gut with the rest of life. The gut is sparked by the Divine. The heart and the brain may lie, but the gut (root) -- has it ever lied? So far, it has never misled me. So, AWAI approved me to promote for them. I have no idea what the commission percentages are for things, but they have promised another email with all of that.

12/4/20 I have the goal to get involved with one of the AWAI clubs ASAP. Spirit was telling me the Etsy move is not like a self-employed job or a regular employee job because sales can come in while I am not actively working. So, having a story is breaking the hourly wage paradigm. Network marketing is similar because you profit from the labor of others, but you are still more a high paid "S" than an business owner... unless you have a Ann Sieg type set up.

12/5/20 What's really nice here is I did not figure things out. I just decided to publish. I would write 1042 words 6 days out of the week, and I would be diligent in that one thing, to write, write on!

To The Man Who's Looking for Me.

Instagram is an interesting social network.
It seems it is more of a "face book" than Facebook.

I recently started using it and discovered there are a few guys on there that just started following me because they think I'm cute, pretty or whatever.

And, one of them actually tried to strike up a conversation with me about what I do. It was tough on both of us.

He said, "I don't get you."

But, I was saying, "I don't have time for you, bro."

After beginning to learn how to live a fuller life through Garrett J. White teaching his Warrior "doctrine," I just don't have time for any man that isn't producing meaningful work.

It's amazing what happens when you really start living the truth. You don't have time for sissies, whiners or liars.

If you dig me, get with the program:

Back to the Grind

It's seems I left off everything I was focused on creating when I found love again. Love left, and I'm back to the grind. No one puts things in order better than Garrett J. White. Listen to his short punchy podcast so you can know what I mean.

The Miracle Morning Effect

English: This image is of international (Youth & College) motivational Keynote Speaker "Yo Pal" Hal Elrod. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During the last couple of weeks, I have been using Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning and participating in his coaching calls. And, one morning, I had this startling revelation. I realized that I need to master the day. I need to master the 24 hours. 

Hal has provided us with a walk through of how to live your level 10 life. I went through the exercises and then set it aside. It remained in a pile of affirmations and notes from related trainings. But, I realized that I would always have lackluster relationships and always have a long "to read" list unless I did something every single day.

I have audios playing now while I sleep and one clip that I've added to the playlist is "24" from Eric Thomas' "Heart of Detroit" mixtape. For some reason, I was awakened right when ET started rattling on about how fast time passes after you reach 20.

This moved me to create an addition to the Miracle Morning. I'm calling it The Morning Rush in which I take all 10 areas of my life and do one thing to improve in those areas. And, I have also added 10-15 minutes to do the things that I never fit into my day like reading.

This is a big deal for me, so I had to read about it. Get the Miracle Morning today:

 

;-) Lis Carpenter

Related articles

• Hal Elrod Author of The Miracle Morning: His 1 Year Total Life Transformation
• Life Lessons Series: Mastery TV Day 3
• Life's Choices: Responsibility

How to Upload a Video To YouTube - Part 2

Should I call this part one?
 

I knew someone has already made a video on how to upload a video to YouTube, so I'm just going to focus on something that has perturbed marketers for years. Marketers, used to love to put boobs at their videos about their business opportunity, day at the beach or Microsoft Office tutorials because they knew that they automatically would  get more views. So, YouTube had this algorithm to randomize when a screen shot would be taken of the videos. Marketers did their best to time it, and this battle went on for years. And, then today I noticed that YouTube caved, probably for the sake of their partners and realizing that marketers spend money with them. They now let you insert a picture to be featured as the thumbnail for when your video shows up in results.

The sort of problems I used to get was, three options, but all of them were bad. One of my faces was particularly outrageous today, so I had to share it.

 
I'm pretty sure you know which one it is. Yes, I tend to open my eyes too wide sometimes...kkk kkk 

But, you see that last one, the one that's all pretty with the green and pink writing on it. That's a screen shot I took from Miscroft Powerpoint. FlipCam software was not cooperating with me to get a screen shot. So, I inserted the video into Miscroft word. I changed the tint, and then I set the display to 100% for slideshow view. I pressed the "Print Screen" button (which takes a screen shot of whatever's on your screen), and then I pasted the picture into Microsoft word. Now, I guess I could have pasted the picture into Microsoft Powerpoint to accomplish the same thing. But, the thing is, with the new Microsoft Office, I have 2010, you can right click on a picture and save it to your files. So, you can move from screen shot to jpeg or png very quickly.

After that I just used Google's Picasa Web Albums to add the text to it. I used to use Picnik.com, but if you've ever used that site, you know that it was bought out by Google, and they have added the photo editing features from Picnik.com to their mix of tools in Picasa Web Albums.

I don't have screen shots of the steps because I'm slightly lazy about this, and did not even set out to create a tutorial today. I just thought that that third to last screen shot that YouTube took was murder.

-Lis Carpenter


 

What is Flow State?

"to believe in something so unmistakably that all you are left with is spirit pure spirit"

When I first saw this photo on Pinterest, I was mesmerized by it. Not because I thought the lady was beautiful or anything. To me, she just has strong features. But, I was awestruck because she let someone draw on her face and take a picture of it. I assume this is art. I assume this is photography. But, I may be wrong. The lady may have drawn on her own face and taken a picture to share a message of what she is about:

"to believe in something so unmistakably that all you are left with is spirit, pure spirit..."

To me this sounds like the recipe for reaching flow state. I've been studying peak flow state or peak performance for some time.

So, what is flow state?

From my experience, it is the point when spirit or "the subconscious" takes over and completes a task. People train themselves for flow state by repeating a task over and over. 

And, people also just program their minds while they sleep and practice visualizing perfection of tasks as well to achieve it. That's the long and short of it.

The "I Will Sell" poem by Lis Carpenter

I Will Sell - by Lis Carpenter

 
So, this is me action on inspiration. That's something that I learned from "God's Marketing Man," Kris Darty. 

I Will Sell 
I will sell because my parents don't approve, and I don't want to be like them.
I will sell because I'm an artist and I can create marketing pieces.
I will sell because it is the highest paying industry in the world.
I will sell because I worked for St. Giles Junior Summer Camps for about two weeks, and it was a living hell. I will sell because there are a lot of scammers out there, and it's better for you to find me before them.
I will sell because I can help more people by focusing on profits instead of earnings. I think I'll write more in a blog post.

I'm feeling so good about this 90 Day Challenge I just started because I am not stuck in the paralysis of analysis thing.  I actually got this video shot, edited and on this blog in about an hour. Ask me if I could do that a year ago.

I was just musing about this stuff as I was listening to David Wood share about "creating magic" from the last Empower Hour call. I really started thinking about what I want. I can't justify the work that I do because it's just not what I want, and it forces me to be profession, which goes totally against every fiber in my being!

• I decided that it's about time for me to decide that my family's future will not be determined by the job market or nation's economy.

• I decided that I have infinite worth. I know that I am more valuable than any wage 'the man' can pay me.

• I decided that I will not live in hope of some pension (drop in income) supporting me when I retire. 

• I decided that I to live without the fear of being downsized.

• I decided that I will never give one of my friends the "I can't afford it excuse again." 

That is my fuel today. I have a few simple things that I can do everyday to get to the other side of this poor cashflow existence. And, by God, I am going to do them with all my might!

VidCon Signing Madness: The power of introverts

I don't imagine Charlie will ever see this, but I guess it doesn't really matter too much. But, after watching about an hour of Charlie, I realized that not only am I a weird Internet nerd. But, I most definitely prefer introverted behaviors to extroverted.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgj2Gor25g] 

AND

... I have spent much of my adult life trying to "fix" that.
But, Charlie in the previous video and this one (VidCon Signing Madness):

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LV5O_rCV6Q]

Sort made me okay with the introverted behaviors. I mean...I'm artist. I see the world through an artistic lense. And, I suppose that I could continue to work on reinventing myself, but change will occur on its own accord.

right then, where was I going with this... 

Oh yes, I had watched this powerful TED Talk Video earlier in the year, but because the creator of the Ted Talk was not "cool" enough, unlike charlieissocoollike, who is a constant source of verseperation (a reason to write songs and whatnot), I sort of forgot the message that introverts are needed to create cool stuff for the extroverts to play with.  

Here's that vid:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4]

...and I think I'm done here.

Thank you Charlie, if you ever get to read this. I'm going to make more videos and blogs and songs and poems and paintings and crafts and cards and care packages and pointless trips and ... whatever inspires me.

The Single Life: Perceptions

By =[ haixy ]= right here

I want to write about this new online teaching job I am beginning. Mainly, I think I was going to complain that I have to dress professionally. I actually got rid of all of my professional clothes a while ago because I had decided to never work in a setting again where they were required. That doesn't matter much. I just need to be disciplined in my study of online advertising, and this job will mean more disposable income to put into advertising.

It's funny, I looked for a photo representation of the single life, and this photo of a slipper floating on the waves came up. The picture looks like it's of a pristine beach. And, after some thought, I can see some correlations. We perceive ourselves as single or not single. It is more a state of the heart and mind; are we separate from others, or are we all a part of the ocean of humanity? 

When we think of ourselves as solid and separate, we are. When we think of ourselves as a part of everyone's lives, we are. Of course, I'm going beyond just talking about being hitched. I'm talking about that feeling of separation that gives place to loneliness and self pity. "Am I not good enough for someone to love and cherish for life?" These things are illusory, yet they create sadness in the heart of the single person because they do not understand.

One can be lonely in a marriage. One can be lonely in a crowd of friends. And, one can be full and connected like Mother Teresa, believing that all of humanity was her family. Changing our perceptions about who we are is the only way to change our lives. 

So, I'm starting this online teaching job with this company based in Asia. And, they require good lighting and professional attire, and at first I was sorely offended. I actually threw a fit (privately) the first day I heard about it. Then, I got over it after I estimated the time it would take me to pay of my debts with this additional income. I have been lagging on my training because I am not altogether enthused about the position, but I feel it is a blessing.

Was it Infatuation, a Crush, a Spell?

Another reason I felt compelled to write this morning was because I woke up, and I felt clarity and release from this person I had been waiting on to contact me. I should not say person. I should say guy that I thought to be everything I was looking for in a companion, minus work ethic. He is admittingly lazy. 

I did not care he was an artist, a sensitive musician, with childlike honesty. For weeks, he was all I could think about. He had indirectly asked for my number. I saw him just after his birthday in August, and then...he disappeared. Nothing! I hear absolutely no word from him or his family friends. I am around his family friends fairly often, and no one is speaking of him, and it is bothering me.

Up until this morning, it seemed like I was under some sort of spell that had me pining away all day, or even better 'trying not to think of him.' But, today, I woke up and it was all gone. I was clearly my old self again. I can't really explain it, but I'm thankful because I can focus on other things again like writing, marketing, editing, exercising, planning implausible publicity feats.

You have no idea how good this is! I can't remember the last time I completed some work in the morning that was for me:)    

Domain Names are 21st Century Real Estate

I love to write about stuff that is spiritual in nature. This morning I was praying with my cousin when I heard the word "domain." I did not hear it literally spoken or anything like that. It was sort of like impressed on my consciousness.

I asked my cousin if she knew of any scriptures with the word domain in them. All the ones that I had ever read contained the word dominion. My research brought me to the synonyms "first estate" and "principality."

Now, this was cool to me because I had heard about principalities or spirits that rule over different territories and such. So, I started thinking about domain names in a different way.

I mean, domain names really are like 21st Century real estate in that sense. When you look at how we, the consumers, pay a certain fee to use them. But, we can never own them completely. I think that the person or people that own these domain name registrars are the real kings in these times.

Anyway, I just wanted to talk about this affiliate program that I recently started promoting called Empower Network. I was just thinking of how the Daves, the kings of the empowernetwork.com domain, sort of have dominion over all the affiliates that sign up as members.

Since they added an administration fee, that is sort of like property tax. We are subjects in their kingdom and we pay dues to work the land. Is it interesting how the virtual world mirrors the natural world, or is it the other way around?

Anyway, I'm cool with the setup because the Daves are persons of integrity. They act ethically and do what they instruct members to do. It is really a willful subjection to the rules of their domain. What happens when you do not follow the ways for their kingdom? Well, you will, by default, elect another place to dwell...

The Daves are always promoting ways to build massive income streams quickly. They are always teaching about consistent action and staying in the game. It sort of made me think about the poverty mentality, as Dani Johnson puts it, that something will last forever or that one action will lead to striking gold.

It is also called the lottery mentality. The lottery is advertised everywhere. The masses are brainwashed for failure. This has been confirmed by nation-wide poles about retirement plans. The majority of peoples' retirement plans are winning the lottery.

David Sharpe was talking about how he had been accused of brainwashing members. I chuckled a little because I was well aware of the use of NLP and "hypnotic selling" in their live trainings and webinars. But, I also understood that the purpose was to sell a lot of merchandise for the benefits of members; members keep 100% of the commissions from sales; and, the purpose was to create a culture of continued selling.

The reality is that a company that stops advertising, internally or externally, eventually dies. And, the issue with people that do not make a lot of money, is they do not understand this concept or they just think it is for businesses.

I believe building several massive streams of residual income is a better retirement plan than winning the lottery. I have been working on my retirement plan for the last 9 years. I do not have much in Social Security, but studying marketing is just starting to pay off.

The leaders of Empower Network emphasize reinvesting 20% of gross revenues back into advertising. They teach members to advertise like real businesses instead of like some amateur affiliate marketers that eat all the seed money and limit, reduce or kill the chance of future harvests.

Knowing all of this, my attitude is 'What if it was going to require everything from me, whole-hearted commitment for 90 days, would I give it that to have a new life on the other side?'

Yes. I think that is it worth it to run with this caliber of people. Empower Network: there's life changing people inside. http://www.theempoweredway.com

http://ping.fm/hf7vz

Change of Mind

Who Says Change Doesn't Happen in a Moment?

Yesterday the aunt that supported me all this time and encouraged me to do the things that she would not do embarrassed me in front of strangers when she asked what my goals was by the time I reach age 35. I told her my goal was to have a multinational corporation, and she scoffed. I thought that she off all people should understand my calling. And, then I felt like Joseph, betrayed of him brothers. My best friend is calling me a baby (childish). My other best friend is too involved in her vain desires to hear me, and then, one that I really truly believed in me...wow.

So, my decision after that moment was "I'll show her." But, I woke up this morning and it was strange. Suddenly, I had the strength to be despised for making strides instead of not making them.

My mother reminded me that I was not afraid to go bouldering without rope and a mat. She reminded me that I was not afraid to drive from Flagstaff to Los Angeles or to drive from Florida to New York City. She said to transfer that courage. But, it was not a matter of being brave in those situations. I did not have past hurts in dealing with driving or climbing to cause fear. But dealing with people, people have been unkind, betrayed me, and said all kinds to bring me down.

This is my greatest mountain to climb.

I say again. I will not keep a log of what I will do. I will keep a log of what I have done, and work from my strength: writing. I have it. If I can consider the many ways to communicate and encourage everyone to pick the one that best suits them, that will be a world of difference.

I have a big intention here. I want to fund the Call in Detroit on 11-11-11. I have not had such resolve for something before in my life.

Ride On - Gird Your Sword

to the only wise God our Saviour, is glory and greatness, power and authority, both now and to all the ages! Amen. (YLT Jude 1:25)

I guest you can feel it; the rift in the atmosphere. People are uncomfortable to see the world crashing down around them. Why the natural distasters. I know this is nothing, compared to what is to come.

'For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places;
(YLT 24:7)

Kingdoms are not just set by country borders. Also know that giant multinational corporations rule the world. These kingdoms will be continue to be shaken. Hopefully, not all governments will be stupid and try to bail them out. Don't nurse the dying horse. Feed the healthy ones. The world's not going to end, just a few kingdoms.

This is Psalm 45. I actually read the Psalm again after a long while about a week ago, and then this song by Ryan Kondo of IHOP took on new life. It's so funny, I sat down yesterday to write SEO articles, and I could not for the life of me get anything written except blog posts and poetry. It is something. But, I am not the type to give in when I know that this whole life is a battle to stay faithful to the true God.

Online MLM - Marketing Not Included?

I am writing this as I am currently running a test on Ann Sieg's Renegade marketing system. Of all the systems that I have seen, I have appreciated this one the most, because it is the only one that has paid me. Ann Sieg actually provides the marketing and marketing pieces for you. It's kind of interesting, because there are so many others out there like MLM Lead System Pro, Carbon Copy Pro, or the catchy-titled Magnetic Sponsoring. I am in someone's Magnetic Sponsoring marketing system, but I was with Ann Sieg from the beginning. She has done something the others haven't, included integrity.

She's not a gal to run away from hard work or training. In fact, she has probably invested more in her training and support than those other boys. But, let's get back to the main point: results. I have seen sales happen on her system from opt-in leads from years ago. Oh, and did I mention, there is no monthly fee to use her system? I'm not so sure that the others can say that. But, the best part of all is once you plug in, put a few of her strategies to work for you, then you can continue your education in the area that is working best for you. She has links to copywriting training, PPC training, tax help...the list goes on and on. As your knowledge increases, your income will increase. Mine has.

Banners, emails, pre-written tweets, Facebook sharing...all these are in the back office when you purchase:

The Renegade Network Marketer

When I say integrity, I mean all the parts are there, and Ann Sieg's solid character. She's the only one I use.

Myanmar - Places to Spend

That's a picture of me at my first wine tasting. Did I bother to learn the name of the winery? No. I think it might be something like The Red Roof Winery.


That's a picture of one of the walls at the spa I visited in Myanmar. This was the pedicure floor. The lower floor was for massage and manicures.


And that's a picture of my deep fried soft shell crab that I had a part of my 5 course meal at a four or five star restaurant in Myanmar. Why am I sharing this? Well, I had decided that I would not indulge while overseas, but my instructor had other plans in mind because it was so cheap.

Wine tasting - $4
Pedicure + reflexology foot massage + shoulder massage - $18
Meal at 4-5 star restaurant - $10

Luxury treatment for all under $40 dollars. My treatments at the spa ran around 2 hours by the way. So there was a little bit of an exchange. I had a lot of nights with upset stomach while visiting the second poorest country in the world, but I also got the star treatment on the cheap.

My instructor could not help but chat about Thailand where the massages were $2 for most of the time. Thailand. I would have liked to visit there, but for this study abroad trip. I am happy that I got a chance to witness global arbitrage at it's best.

I was told that the avg. monthly income was $40.

Life In a Day - Realizations

Okay so a couple of hours ago something terrible happened. Well, I am not quite sure if it is terrible or just an occurance. After interviewing two very impressive characters this week on Skype and recording the interviews with Vodburner I went to create the videos only to discover that I was out of hard drive space. Thank you Vodburner for not warning that you average file size is larger than life. Yes, two 1 hour interviews took up more than half of my hard drive, that was 60 GB! I know, no onw should have less than 500 GB these days, but...

What surprized me was that I was more concerned with getting these interviews to the persons that I interviewed and my blog posts set for this month than completing my school work. I not being effective in any areas right now. I have not finished any blog posts. I'm behind in my class work, and I have not began to prepare for my trip in two days from now. Yes, everything is a mess, and strangely, I am okay with it. I've accepted that the class was designed for us to fail in week three. Vodburner is designed to take over hard drives and crash computers, and that I might possibly not care about completing my Master's degree as much as I did 12 months ago. I thought I could keep it together for the two months that I have left in the program but maybe not.

But, I am very proud to have taken part in the life in a day submissions. I felt that it was more important to get this submission in by the deadline than it was to get my reading discussion post in, which was uncharacteristically difficult.

A 3 Month Commercial for Celebrity Branding You

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It was an odd day today. I woke up and decided that I would fix my bank account. It's been underperforming lately, so to speak. I have these images on this vision board on my wall, and only today did I realize that I was capable of most of all of the things, Now, that I was planning on being someday.

Anyway, I've taken Tim Ferriss' low information diet to heart, only reading material to help you finish the current project you are working on, and started something new today. I've decided that it is my responsibility to make sure these seeds of greatness blossom into beautiful flowering trees.

A seed will never feed you unless you water it. I aim to water these seeds of talent daily. A couple of months back, I had the idea of doing all the little challenges at the ends of the chapters in the 4 Hour Workweek and recording myself on video doing them. I couldn't justify myself doing it, because I couldn't see it going anywhere. I couldn't see how it connected to my ultimate goal: which it like many is to be rich, famous, and respected. (Yes, I am laughing at myself as I write this.)

All that was just a preface into this. I have justified doing the steps outlined in Celebrity Branding You, and I will do them in the next 90 days. Well I think I should put the list with some deadlines here.

professional photo -- cool rockband style (July 24th)
write a book -- on your topic of interest (August 7th)
testimonials -- of products and services (August 21st)
start a newsletter -- digital, then physical one later (August 22nd)
design and build a website (OMP) -- online marketing platform (August 31st)
promote your website -- syndication strategy (September 11)
monitor, optimize -- create new revenue streams (September 25th)
rollout -- go national with your business (October 9th)

*October 14th is the 90th day unless I just can't count the days properly on my phone.

I have to admit that this list looks intimdating, especially because I am going to be out of the country for most of the month of August, but I have gotten amateur photos taken by an art student, written a short book that I'm not very proud of, and gathered character testimonials (not product testimonials) in the past. But let's start at square one.

I am going to be creating a ridiculous amount of content in the next 90 days, because I've decided like Ed Dale that there is no charge for awesomeness. Well, there really shouldn't be. I have to get cracking on my recommendation website. Yeah, I just want to recommend products and services (free and paid) that work for me.

I'm going to go for a two times a week update since I have my main blog to attend to until I'm in Burma suffering from Internet withdrawal.