Entries in " general "  

You (Yes You!) DO Have Urgency Issues

Ok, I admit it. I'm absolutely horrible at keeping my priorities in proper order. I'm willing to guess that you are too. Why? Because most humans are. It's sort of our nature.

You might not be as bad as I am or you might be much worse. Either way, we all have issues keeping our priorities in check in the face of a new "urgent" issue.

This morning my buddy Marcel Chastain pointed me to a blog that I've never read before. It's called Rock Your Day and it's written by a guy named Dave Navarro (no, not the musician.)

It's a very well written blog and has a lot of good motivational and entrepreneurial content. The very first article I read was his latest post titled: How To Keep Urgency From Ruining Your Life

I'll give you the real short version quickly, but I really recommend you read his post!

The article talks about ways to keep your goals and priorities in order even when a new "urgent" issue pops up. Yes, sometimes a seriously urgent issue does come out of now where. Maybe your dog got hit by a car or your kid is sick at school and you have to run and pick them up. Those are understandable.

A lot of times a new urgency is really just an excuse to avoid doing work that makes us uncomfortable. Humans are naturally afraid of rejection and look at failure as a form of rejection. So say something as easy as writing an email trying to sell something to your list, you'll put it off forever because you're afraid to fail.

That's a basic example but honestly it could be anything. Maybe you think it will be too hard or you'd rather browse YouTube for a while. There are a million reasons to move your days priorities around and trust me, I've used nearly all million of them.

In the article Dave talks about writing down your days goals EVERY morning on an index card on your desk. It's not so much having the card sitting there staring at you that helps, but it's the act of performing the exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY.

This is something I've recently started doing (even before reading this article) in my own life. I actually have been doing this daily on a white board next to my desk in big red letters.

What brought it on was me trying to juggle way to many tasks at once. When I start a project that shouldn't take me longer than 1 week to complete and it's taking me almost 3 weeks to really finish, it's a huge problem!

So far the daily exercise has been working well for me. I'm still trying to get myself back into a normal routine. Especially when it comes to working out (you know, physical exercise.) I've been spending so much time in front of my laptop that I haven't been working out the way I used to even as recent as 3 months ago.

I'm working on it though! Don't worry — I'll get there, that's for sure.

What About You?

How do you procrastinate and avoid doing the days truly important work? How do you get past the procrastination and actually get your shit done? Leave some tips in the comments of this post.

Grab What's Between Your Legs!

Crude title for this post but I think it's necessary.

I subscribe to many different mailing lists because I like to see what people are writing, teaching, promoting, etc. More importantly, I like to see the style in which they do it.

It's a great way to learn about marketing, copywriting, and salesmanship. One of my favorites is Frank Kern, which isn't really a surprise because he's huge in the internet marketing world.

Today I was going through my many, many mailing list emails and ran across an email from Frank about a new blog post he had just submitted. It's a great story about the very first female self-made millionaire. I highly suggest you read it.

(click here to read the blog post)

Basically the moral of the story is that this woman was able to pull herself from the most miserable conditions and conquer the odds, and the world, during a time where every possible chip was stacked against her.

I won't go too far into it but she was an African American daughter of slaves, widowed mother, had a skin condition and lived in the extremely racist deep south during the 1860's.

She built her empire by selling her own products door to door!

Grab Your Nuts!

When I was in the ARMY we were always told to "grab our nuts" and just "knock it out!" Basically means to stop being scared and just get it done.

We all could use a jolt of motivation at times. I know I could use it daily! In fact I've been pretty down on myself today because I was supposed to be done with a project I'm working on last night, but I'm only about 40% done. Other things have popped up and really screwed my plans for the week.

Now after reading that article I've decided to put my damn nose to the grind stone and just get it done. It gave me the little jolt I needed to get out of the funk and take care of business!

So if you're in a funk and are not sure what to do about it, just grab your nuts (even if they're metaphorical — for the ladies reading this) and take care of your self and your business. Don't let fear of stop you!

Click here to grab your nuts and get started!

Brand Spankin' New Design

A few weeks ago I went looking around Theme Forest for a new design to use on this website. A lot of people get confused and think that because I am a great web developer — *cough* — that I'm also a great web designer. Well web designer I'm not, and yes, there is a huge difference between the two. When I need a new web design I do it the old fashioned way, I buy it. Either buy a new theme or hire a designer to create something unique for me.

So there are still a few kinks to work out with the design and I'll get to those over the next few weeks. Mostly it's to make the formatting that was used in previous posts look properly with the new design & css. If you run into any posts where the page doesn't look right (and there are a few of them still out there) let me know and I'll fix it.

If you're looking for a new theme for your website, definitely check out Theme Forest! They have themes from plain HTML to Wordpress themes that plug right in. I paid something like $14 for this design, and granted I may have gotten what I paid for :p, so it's insanely cheap.

To head over to Theme Forest just Click Here.

UPDATE: ZerigoDNS Python Module

Last december I announced a new open source project I created. It's a Python module to work with the Zerigo DNS service API. Well, the API has been updated with support for two new features, Zone and Host "Templates."

This is an awesome feature and I took some time a week or so ago to update the Python module I created to support these new features. The module will now fully support all Zone and Host Template operations as per the API docs.

You can view (and clone) the source code at it's public repo page here.

I'm Going Off The Radar

Just a quick update. Starting tonight I am going to be unavailable for a few weeks. No cell phone, email, internet, etc.

Feel free to email me if you need anything and I'll respond when I get back. Also, any support issues will also be handled when I return.

I'll explain everything once I return. See you all in a few weeks!

Yeah... I've Been Hiding Out...

Yea, I sort of quit blogging the last few months. Not because I don't have anything to write about or that I think it's a waste of time. Even if it was a waste of time, the real issue is I haven't had much of just that... uh, time that is. No time.

I have a list of blog post ideas in my iPhone that I just haven't had time to write them up. I also have a list of like 4 or 5 products that I think would sell really well but just no time to put them together.

Plus, I have some other business needs that are taking up most of my time right now. One of them is CartFreak, which is a "super-human" shopping cart aimed at direct response internet marketers. Check it out if you're in the market for a cart to help automate your business. You'll see the feature list compares (even beats?) most of the major carts out there.

I've also been spending a lot of time consulting with clients on marketing their websites, improving their customer retention, etc. While I love helping small businesses out, I am starting to see that it's cutting way to much into my time and it's effecting my real business goals.

So that said, here are my plans for 2010:

Restructure My Entire Business Around CartFreak

As it stands right now, CartFreak is my main focus and I want to turn it into a huge success. My partner on this project is Joe Lavery, who is an amazing marketer. This guy lives and breaths marketing. The "crazy" ideas he comes up with never stop blowing my mind... Not because their crazy, but because they WORK!

Ok, enough stroking Joe ;) We are both working really hard to help turn CartFreak into a real competitor to the larger "old" cart companies out there. We have quite a few people paying us to use the software already, and it's only in beta release. We've also had such positive feedback from big name marketers on the cart and that has been very motivating and helping us keep our focus.

Stop Consulting With Small Businesses

As much as I love helping small businesses improve their internet marketing, it's time for me to ween myself away from doing so. The reason being is that it's way to time consuming. With clients all over southern California, I find myself traveling to meet with them several times a month and each time I lose a few days in the process.

I'm still going to help out my clients, and other small businesses, just in a different fashion. I have a product in the works that will be very useful to these type of businesses and much more affordable than paying me to personally come out and meet with them so often.

Helping the "Little Guy"

Even though I, myself, am a little guy, I still have a lot to offer people new to internet marketing and process automation. I have a small, but very loyal, following and I appreciate them very much. I want to spend more of my time giving back to them - my customers!

I've got some awesome stuff in the works for them and hope to be able to start with that really soon. Note, if you want to be kept up to date on this, click here and enter your email address.

Focus on Business Automation

As a software developer, I thrive on automation. The lifeblood of my business is getting a computer to do the things that I would normally have to do. In the last year I've sort of lost track of this and honestly, been completely neglecting it. Not because of laziness, but I come back to the lack of spare time.

So I will definitely be focusing more on automating (or outsourcing) as much of my business as possible.

Do Some Software Contracting

I love writing software using Python and Django. The "geek" in me won't let it go, so assuming I can find the time I'd love to pickup some short term contracts writing software on a cool project. This wouldn't even be for the money, but more for the "fun." As odd as it sounds, writing code is almost therapeutic for me.

Write More Open Source Software

I love open source software. A lot of people don't realize this but the vast majority of internet services run on open source (FREE) software. Everything from web servers to mail servers to name servers. The very services that are the backbone of the internet, all come from people to write software and literally give it to the world.

I recently released the Zerigo DNS Python module to the open source world. I've also been submitting patches and code changes to other projects I am interested in. I want to do more of this, when I have some spare time or am in the "zone" and just want to "code"

Try To Improve My Personal Life

This is hands down the most important part of my plans for the future...

Things in my personal life have been sort of out of whack lately and I have a lot of changes coming in the very near future. Some of them are very hard for me to deal with, but like always, I will have to suck it up and move forward. Like my ARMY drill sergeants used to say - FIDO - which stands for "Fuck It, Drive On." So that's exactly what I plan on doing.

At the same time, I need to create some sort of balance. I work way to much and everything else in my life has suffered a little bit because of it. Especially my relationship with my 2 daughters. When my 10 year old tells me she doesn't get enough "quality time" with me, then something is wrong and MUST change immediately. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Making changes in the right direction.

Wrap Up

This turned into a way longer post than I planned on. Guess I had a lot of writing in me to get out ;)

Even though I will never shut down this blog, and I do want to write more here, I know I won't get to write as often as I like. Just stay subscribed (either via RSS or email) and I'll update you as things progress.

If you really wanna know what I'm up to during the day, then follow me on twitter. I update throughout the day, usually every day, there.

Here's to a great 2010!

Happy Thanksgiving

If you're reading this, I want to say thanks for being a reader of mine.

Also, just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there who are celebrating it. We all have things to be thankful for in our lives - no matter how big or small. Enjoy them all!

I'm off to stuff my face with turkey, potatoes, gravy, and biscuits. Seriously it's one of my favorite meals. I'm not a big fan of stuffing or any of the other "normal" Thanksgiving extras.

Of course, being hispanic we'll also be eating some non-traditional food. Tamales, Pasole, Enchiladas, Tacos, etc. Good stuff!

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving.

How The Grand Canyon Insulted My New Puppy

So I spent the weekend camping in Williams, AZ. My kids have been visiting their grandparents in New Mexico and we thought it would be fun to meet my in laws half way in Williams and spend a few days camping. Sure beats flying out to NM, picking up my daughters and then flying back home.

As if getting my kids back wasn't bad enough (kidding... or am I?) they decided to bring a puppy with them, which we named Titan. My brothers boxer had puppies with a chocolate lab and the result was 7 pretty cool looking pups.

Now the Grand Canyon was only a 40 minute drive from our camp site and my wife had never seen it before so we were off to check it out.

We got there and parked to check out some views, seen in the photos below (they aren't the greatest, I took them with my BlackBerry)

After a nice picnic lunch we wanted to take a hike into the canyon a little, and this is where the canyon decided to spit in the face of my new puppy.

Staring us right in the face was a sign that said ... "No Dogs" with one of those logos that had the circle with the line through the face of a dog. You know what I'm talking about right?

Needless to say young Titan was devastated! This was his reaction:

Poor little guy.

Why I Ditched My iPhone And Came Back To BlackBerry

Wow, I've been missing in action haven't I (at least on this f'n blog.) Sorry about that. I promise to try and write more posts but knowing me I'll get tied up with a ton of other things and put this on the back burner... like I always do.

Anyways, on to the actual article...

A few months ago I finally got frustrated enough with my iPhone that I decided to do something I had been wanting to do for 6 months or so... I switched back to a BlackBerry.

Of course, a few days after I made the switch the new iPhone 3GS was announced and I immediately regretted my decision.

So here I am, nearly 2 months later, the 3GS is already out (and selling like hot cakes) and guess what? I'm totally happy with my Blackberry. It does everything I want out of a smart phone and does it very well.

Here were my main gripes with the iPhone (and remember, I had one since they were first released in 2006):

• How about the short life span for one?


• My biggest complaint was the keyboard. It really was a huge pain in the ass for me to use that keyboard. I can't say enough how much I hated that keyword. Landscape mode was better but still not as good as my Blackberry Bolds keyboard. Yea, I truly hated that keyboard. (how many times can I use the word keyboard?)


• Lack of MMS capabilities. God that drove me crazy. Especially since half the time you go to see your MMS message via AT&T's god awful "viewmymessage.com" site it didn't work. Seriously, NO MMS?


• Ok, this is crazy. No copy & paste? Are you fucking kidding me? I "learned" to deal with it from the very beginning and I couldn't believe it still wasn't an option on the most advanced phone ever created. (Yes, I actually use copy & paste probably 10x a week on my Blackberry!)


• No background processing. I would like to leave my messenger open in the background while I make a phone call or search my email. Not possible with the iPhone.

Those are just some of the reasons. Not it's not all bad. I actually do miss the iPhone, but not enough to switch back.

What I miss is the super easy navigation. Flick of the finger and a tap and I'm where I want to be. Oh, and the web browser. Hand's down, best mobile browser EVER! Blows the blackberry browser out of the water!

Even though some of my complaints are fixed on the new iPhone OS (ie, copy & paste was FINALLY added) there still is the keyboard issue, MMS still isn't supported though now it looks like it's an AT&T thing and still no background processing.

I didn't mind the iPhone's email client so much (though I wish it had PUSH support, which is coming soon?) but the Blackberry email application and SMS/MMS abilities are so smooth and efficient. Handling email on my Blackberry is so easy and it even catches a lot of spam that Gmail misses, which is cool.

All in all, I'm glad I came back to Blackberry. Oh, and Blackberry messenger is an awesome app! Too bad any of the AIM client's aren't as slick.

There Can Be Upsides To Being Another Year Older

So Superbowl Sunday (Feb. 1st) was my 29th birthday. Normally I don't make a big deal about my birthday and this year was no different.

I never really cared about aging but now that I'm one year away from 30 it seems to be hitting me. F**k! I'm almost 30! Oh well, nothing I can do about it (except die? hehe)

There can be upsides to getting older though. Instead of going into a long post about extra experience, wisdom, and other boring things, I thought I'd share a card I got for my birthday, which I thought was pretty funny...

It was a hit when I posted it on Twitter (if you aren't following me on Twitter yet, click here to do so).

For your amusement:

and this was the inside of the card:

Yea, for some reason I *still* can't see the purse..

... And A Happy New Year

Just wanted to play off my last post and add a "Happy New Year" to everyone. I hope you had a fun, safe, and exciting 2008 but here's to 2009... and going for more!

The Best Gift You Can Give Yourself This Season

Sure all those new gadgets on your wish list are cool but what good are they if you're not around to enjoy them? Why not give yourself something that is free, will make you feel great and help you live longer so you can enjoy all your toys.

Give yourself the gift of Health. So cheesy I know... you do love cheese right?

(You were probably expecting me to promote one of my products weren't you... not this time hah!)

I ran across this new study (via Donklephant) that outlines the risks of being overweight and it's effects on heart failure. Yea, no new shocker there but some of these numbers blew me away.

From the article:

"Overall, the risk of heart failure increased by 180 percent in men who met the definition of obesity according to their body mass index (BMI of 30 and higher), and by 49 percent in men who met the definition of overweight (a BMI of 25 to 30)."

We all know that being overweight is bad but these results are pretty scary. I'm no Arnold but I do make it a point to work out every day. If that's a little too much for you, take it down to 2 or 3 times per week. Surely you can give yourself 3 hours a week to keep healthy... right?

I know how hard it is at first, but make it part of your "routine" and it gets so much easier. You'll feel better, look better and have more confidence. Where's the downside?

Happy Holidays everyone!

PS- Yes, I know the downside is you have to "work out" =)

MyCorporation Offers Free Incorporation This Week

Just a quick note here... Looks like My Corporation is offering FREE document processing this week. This means that if you want to form an LLC or Corporation you can get this done for free. You just have to pay the state filing fees so you can save $149+ on the cost of the processing.

Of course, you can always do that yourself for free and some states even offer it online so you may have no need for this. I'm lazy so I used LegalZoom for the services I needed. I've been thinking of restructuring a bit so maybe this would be a good time for me to test out My Corporation.

If you're planning on setting up an LLC or Corp next year, now may be the time to have it done.

Technorati Tags: business, free, llc, corporation, savings

The Deed Is Done

Well, I went and voted about an hour ago. I was surprised by how quickly I was able to vote and go. I was a little worried actually about low turn out but the volunteers told me there was a huge rush for most of the morning.

Here is a goofy picture of me after the vote. My wife took it with an iPhone so..

(click to enlarge)

I hope you voted too (assuming you're American, of age, and eligible). Now I'll be glued to the news to watch the results.

Technorati Tags: election 2008, goofy, history, vote

Sept. 11th, 7 Year Anniversary

Today is the 7 year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Obviously this is a day in history that everyone will remember forever. One day that brings back a lot of emotions in a lot of people. Especially the people of New York.

Over a year ago I wrote a post about a strange prediction I had on September 10th, 2001. Sort of eerie post and I give links to the actual prediction from 2001 on LiveJournal. Maybe it isn't a prediction, but more of a "feeling". Anyways, it's sort of strange.

My daughters will be attending a "Patriot Day" Parade here in SoCal tonight (I will probably miss this because I am buried in work). It's important to my wife and I to make sure our kids know about the tragedy and that they respect the date.

Let's not forget about the people serving in our military. We all don't agree on the current war but I'm sure everyone can agree that the people fighting it are brave and selfless. I really appreciate their sacrifice!

Technorati Tags: 9-11, anniversary, tragedy

Site Was DOWWNN

I am embarrassed to admit this but this site was down for about 24 hours. Mainly because I just didn't check anything and never got around to setting up any sort of monitoring. Luckily I got a phone call from a friend, and reader, who wanted to know what as going on. That was yesterday and I forgot to check the site last night.. Oops! Sorry about that..

I also want to apologize for the lack of posting lately. Been very busy with some new developments in my life. I recently sold my interests in a web hosting company I was involved in. So yet again, I am working from home. I still am involved with SmartJabber and have been spending a lot of time working on that software as well.

I'm also doing some contract work with a buddy of mine. Nothing to fancy, just some Python + Django development. Of course I am still working on my internet marketing and I have a great idea for an entirely new product. I am working on creating that product now and it will include many things, including custom software, video tutorials, etc. As far as I know, it will be an original product for a specific niche.

So that's it. A quick update. I have some larger articles in the works I just haven't had much time to work on them. I will sit down this week and hammer some out!

Technorati Tags: business, downtime, internet marketing, marketing, update

David Beckham Proves He's A Choke Artist

Sorry, the headline is misleading. I actually think he's a great player, but I needed to make sure and grab your attention ;)

Last night we went to the LA Galaxy game where they hosted the Columbus Crew. LA was up 2-0 at half time. Some how they allow Columbus to score 2 points early in the 2nd half.

You can see the end result in the video below (taken with my new Casio Exilim that was a gift for fathers day)

As you can see, David Beckham did choke on that last play. Wide open shot... could have been the hero of the game. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

That was my first MLS game and I have to admit, it was a blast! I never really got into soccer until my oldest began playing 2 years ago. She's now finished 4 seasons and my youngest daughter has played 2 (I coached her team in the last spring session). Watching a pro game live was so much fun and I definitely plan on attending many more games.

Technorati Tags: beckham, choke, futbol, la galaxy, mls, soccer

Interested In Contributing To A World Record?

I am busy putting together plans to set a world record in a very special category... How many clothes pins I can have clamped to my nipples! Yea, crazy huh. Now, here's how you can help ....

OK, seriously though, Firefox 3 was released today and is trying to set a world record of 5 million downloads in a single 24 hour period. Want to help out? Download Firefox 3 now!

Firefox 3 contains a series of improvements from the previous version. I downloaded it a few hours ago and have been toying with it since. It is noticeably faster but the biggest improvement for me is it's new look in OS X. It actually looks and feels like an Aqua application.

Regardless of your OS, there should be a version of Firefox 3 for you. Even if you are an Internet Explorer weenie (*cough*) go give Firefox a shot! It really is an awesome web browser...

Technorati Tags: firefox, nipples, web browser, world record

The Business of Blogging And Why You're Missing Out

This blog is more of a personal blog and I only write about things that interest me. You can tell from the limited, and specific, categories I have for this blog that this is more of a "small town" blog and I hope it has a "small town" feel. The reason is I want to be able to connect with any of my readers. I would like them to feel like they know me a little bit and get a handle on my personality. I am basically the same person on and off line. The good, bad and ugly.

Blogging is a big deal now a days. More and more companies have blogs as they really help build the brand for that company. But you don't need to be a company, or even a business, to blog. You may still work for "the man" but you may be missing out on a lot of opportunities that can come from blogging.

Everyone has a passion, hobby, set of interests, etc. Why not blog about it. You can blog on a dedicated subject or bounce around through all your interests, like I do here. It's not too hard to build a following (even if it's a small one, like I have) for a blog. Tell some friends, use widgets like BlogRush and post a little in forums and people will read your stuff. Give quality content, and they will be back.

So what are you missing out on by not blogging? Quite a few things actually. Opportunity to network with people who have similar interests. Money. There are many ways your blog can generate income for you. The various ways are out of the scope for this post, but advertising, affiliate sales, contract work, etc. are all common ways to earn a buck by writing a blog.

If you are a business, it's an excellent way to build a rapport with your client base. You can keep them updated on your company, or service, status. You are able to interact with them via the comments and answer questions in lengthy detail with a new post. This is a priceless function for a business and even though it's becoming more common I am still surprised at the lack of company blogs for so many online businesses.

Heh, and in all fairness, this blog serves as the "company" blog for my companies SmartJabber and JumpLaunch. As they grow, we will make sure to have a dedicated blog for each of them (maybe we should already?)

Blogging can be time consuming but it's worth putting in the effort. Even though my posting frequency has been pretty, well, shitty lately it isn't too difficult to keep up with and manage your own blog. It's inexpensive to run and there are tons of free software packages and platforms out there.

If you aren't currently blogging then you should be. If you have no plans to start any time soon... why not?

Technorati Tags: blogging, marketing, networking, writing

Let's Go Lakers!!

Just wanted to say that tonight, as always, I will be rooting for my Los Angeles Lakers! As someone born & bred in LA, I've been a Lakers fan for as long as I can remember. This is going to be one hell of a series!

The rivalry between the Lakers and Boston Celtics goes back decades! From Magic & Bird to Kobe & Garnett it's been an awesome history between these two teams and this years finals looks to be just as great as the previous matchups.

My prediction.. Lakers will win tonight (game 1) and lose game 2. Then win 3 of the next 4 games to win the championship in 6 games! A lot of people call me crazy, some agree. Let's see how it plays out!

GO LAKERS!!

Technorati Tags: basketball, celtics, finals, lakers, nba, sports