Entries in " life "  

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.

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.

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.

Why I Came Crawling Back To The iPhone

Well that didn't take very long did it? Roughly 10 weeks ago I wrote about why I was switching from my iPhone (which I had used for nearly 2 years) back to a BlackBerry.

Well, the other day I broke down and picked up a brand new iPhone 3Gs. I know, I know. I'm a fan boy I guess.

Truth is I love my Blackberry but I also loved the iPhone. With the new release of the iPhone OS (version 3.1), the addition of MMS support (finally!) from AT&T and all the apps I loved and really missed using, I decided to come back to the iPhone.

I bitched about a few things in my post about why I left the iPhone to begin with... The biggest reason was the keyboard. That problem is still there, although the new landscape support really helps - at least in the two places I need it most (email and sms)

There still is no background processing either, but with the addition of PUSH technologies it's sort of helping me forgive that short falling.

All of the other reasons I was burnt on the iPhone have been fixed. MMS, Copy & Paste, [what seems to be] better hardware, etc. have brought me back.

Here is a list of some of the apps that I quickly installed (and love!)

Awesome Note, Touch Term, Ping!, Twitterific, Sportacular, Sirius/XM, Brain Tuner, Currency, Flixster, Remote and Urban Spoon.

Got any other app recommendations for me?

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.

Mass Control Anyone?

Hey everyone. I know I've been quiet for a bit (did anyone even notice???)

I've been super busy working on an awesome project thats in the works. Looking forward to sharing that with you very soon.

With all the work I've been doing I am in need of a much needed break. I'm heading over to the Mass Control 2 seminar/event in San Diego tomorrow. Knowing me, I'll still end up working way to much down there, but still it should be a chance for me to unwind and get to know some new faces from the marketing community.

Anyways, if you're heading into SD for the event shoot me an email and let's have a beer (on me!). See you there..

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..

The White House: A New Blog To Add To Your RSS Reader

Today at 12PM EST, our new president Barack Obama was sworn into office. Truly an amazing day.

President Obama has long been a champion of social media and internet technology (or just technology in general) and now the WhiteHouse website has a new feature... A blog!

There are already 5 entries in the blog (obviously prepared in advance) but that is a good start!

Be interesting to see how often this is updated and how transparent this administration will be. The promise of real transparency has been made along the campaign and so far it sure seems like that will be the case. I hope so.

Add the blog's RSS feed to your reader and stay up to date.

... 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!

Hey You... Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Next up, New Years! :)

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" =)

How To Use Routines To Increase Your Productivity

Stuck in the same old routine and dying to break out? Hold on there slugger. You might want to rethink your strategy.

Many of the worlds top entrepreneurs use daily routines to keep on track and make sure you continue to make progress. The idea is so simple but it is difficult to get settled into a new routine.

Let's look at an example. 2009 is right around the corner and when that comes a whole list of new year resolutions will be right behind it. A good chunk of those resolutions will be involved with getting in shape, losing weight, etc.

It happens every year without fail. Jan 2nd I'll see a whole new group of people in the gym every morning. Two weeks later about 75% of those new people are still showing up. Another two weeks later were down to about 25% of them left. After six weeks I'd guess that around 10% of those people are still at it. It's those 10% that will continue on and likely meet their goals.

Why? Because they got "set" in their routine. The first 6 weeks are the hardest but after that it's so routine that it's done without thinking about it. As a result you hit your goal of getting in shape.

Running your business or managing your tasks is no different. Try to give yourself a routine to follow and watch your productivity rise.

Set aside a time to do your writing, handle your email, take and make phone calls, work on your marketing, write your code, whatever.

This is an example of of a routine for "How To Write Better Copy, Faster!" from the The Gary Halbert Letter website. Perfect example for setting a routine for your tasks to get better results in less time.

I'd be lying if I said I was on a daily routine like this... But it is on my resolution list for next year :)

Mark Cuban is a Freakin' Genius

The internet is full of so many sources of quality information. One of my favorite sources are blogs. One of my favorite blogs is Mark Cubans - Blog Maverick. The man has a true passion for business and the entrepreneurial "spirit" and his writing screams that at you.. but in a subtle way (if that makes any sense).

Yesterday he wrote an awesome post about the state of our economy and how to "cure" it. Here is a small snippet from the article.

"The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.


Its always the new idea that re energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc, each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have."

It's no secret that Mark is known to speak with his heart on sleeve. He's a truly passionate person and he's not afraid to let you know exactly what he's thinking. Like him or not, you can't argue with his results.

His post is not only motivating and inspiring, but it's also an eye opener. He's right! NOW is the time to start planning and executing your dreams of being you're own boss. Having your own business. Calling your own shots. You get the idea.

There are several ways to get started in your own business. Leverage the internet to get started. The costs are low and the rewards are high! Check out Mom and Pop Money (shameless plug) for an idea of how to get started. There are countless other ideas that can earn you a ton of cash if you think outside the box, plan, and execute.

Thanks again Mark. Your post has inspired a lot of people and you have done more for your readership than I think you realize.

Technorati Tags: business, economy, entrepreneur, mark cuban, taxes

Oh The Politics...

No doubt that this is an extremely sensitive presidential race in the US this time around. No, I'm not going to write a long post about who I'm endorsing and why. Normally it's not smart to talk politics and religion with friends because it always leads to arguments.

Today I actually was so pissed off at a post on a blog, which I won't mention here, that compared the 2 candidates that I simply unsubscribed and left a comment calling the author an idiot. Obviously the post disagreed with my feelings on the subject but that's not why I called him an idiot.

The post basically used hate and fear tactics to try and scare it's readership into voting for their preferred candidate. I don't mind a post with actual facts that back up your rationale for who you plan on voting for. This post however had no such facts. The odd part is, the blog was an internet marketing related blog and not a political one. From the majority of the comments left on the post it looks like I wasn't the only one to abandon ship.

This got me thinking of how passionate people are about this election. So passionate that they are willing to flat out lie and try to scare people into seeing things their way. It's pretty sad that we are where we are as a country today.

To top it off, it looks like one of my favorite blogs (Donklephant) was hacked today. Not the first time I don't think, but it's a pretty bad time for this to happen. This is one of the most balanced political blogs I can find. Authors express views from the left, middle and right and while the editor is obviously biased towards the left he has never stopped worthy posts from being published (as far as I know anyways).

While I don't think either candidate is the best for the job there is one that I am absolutely 100% voting for. Here's a hint, around 57% of the country agrees with me. You should be able to figure that one out.

Enjoy the debates tonight.

Oh yea.. GO DODGERS!!!

Technorati Tags: hacked, politics, idiot, hate, donklephant, fear

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

Geek or Marketer or What The ...

I've been wondering lately if I am alienating myself from my readers by covering many different topics on this blog. My posts range from software development to money management to internet marketing. It's hard to build up a dedicated readership when my topics don't seem to stay on any certain topic ;)

So should I stick to a single topic? I don't think so. This is a personal blog and it should reflect the things that interest me or the events going on in my life right now. That is why I will write an article on how I created the software that runs this blog to an article on how to increase your website conversions.

To me, being able to use many different skills to earn a living online is very useful information. In the end, this blog is not designed or intended for me to make money off of. Just an outlet for me and a way to get my ideas out there.

Love it or hate it...

Technorati Tags: blog, development, internet marketing, marketing, software

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

Why Earthquakes Are Fun

So we just had a decent earthquake (5.8 downgraded to 5.4) here in Los Angeles area. I've lived in So. Cal for most of my life and as a result, I've been through plenty of quakes. The scariest one I can remember is the Northridge quake of 1994.

Normally I would say there is nothing "fun" about an earthquake, but since so many people move to LA every year, when a quake hits it's usually the first they've experienced. Watching them freak out can be pretty entertaining. I wish I had a video camera to catch some of this excitement for youtube.

Strange thing just happened.. As I was typing this post my 5 year daughter called me. She is out of state with her sister visiting grandparents. Well she was absolutely hysterical. After I calmed her down she explained to me that she really thought I was dead from the earthquake.

Maybe this isn't so fun after all. I can't help but laugh at all the "LA imports" but hearing her voice call for me and cry that she thought I was dead really shook me up...

Technorati Tags: earthquake, funny, LA, los angeles, not so funny