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lifeofa20something · 7 years ago

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A girl with a dream to a woman who accomplished it

Today was another early day, we woke up at 8 am and I had a shower to get ready for another really big day. Todays agenda had us travelling to Munich, to go to Dachau, the concentration camp. We had some breakfast (for me, it was toast with some homemade jam that Michaela's mom had made) and then we filled up the tank and hit the road. Driving on the autobahn was an incredible experience, i am pretty sure we hit the high speed of 160 km/hr. Definitely the fastest speed i've experienced so far. It took us roughly two and a half hours to get to Munich, and as we got closer, Michaela kept asking if i saw the signs and if i was excited yet. Yo girl, i have been excited since you told me we could go to munich for the "hitler stuff".!

To catch anyone who may not know who i am, i love world war two. I love the history. I read world war two fiction books, i watch world war two movies, and i cannot get enough. I think what caught me, is the insanity that such an experience could happen. Its both heartwrenching and a very important life lesson. (I'm looking at you Trump). I have always dreamed of going to visit a concentration camp, ever since i learned that they existed, so this visit was truly a dream come true. I would honestly reccommend anyone and everyone to visit one, at least once in their lifetime. It was honestly an honour to pay my respects to the people who had to suffer through an experience such as the holocaust.

Anyways, we couldnt find a parking spot close to the entrance, so we had to park waaaaay down the street and hoof it back, which turned out to be a really good experience, A, for the excersize and B, for the little information plaques along the way. When we got up to the entrance, there was a little information center that rented audio guides for $3.50 (euros of course), we each rented one. Mine in english and Michaela's was in german. We started our tour by walking through the gates that all of the prisoners would have had to walk through, and what a feeling i got. It was overwhelming the emotions that i experienced. The first buildkng that we explored was the prison bunker, where they held special prisoners that were either special cases or runaways. This is where they were held and often tortured in the dark. You could walk into some of the cells, but you could look into most of them. They were all emptied of the bunks that would have been in there, but the walls were the same and tou could see the names that people carved into the walls. Again, emotions. Half of the building was blocked off by a big locked gate, just like a jail cell, we couldnt explore down that hallway. There were these listening devices that we could listen on in one room that had recorded in different languages, people's experiences in that special bunker.

When we left that prison bunker, we found the maintenance building that has now been turned into a museum. We started at the back of it, opposute most of the other people in there, so what we saw first was the liberation stuff. There were all kinds of pictures on the walls that some of the prisoners had drawn while there. The next room had a whole bunch of headstones and plaques dedicated to certain people who had lost their lives there. Again, the emotions. As we made our way through the museum, we saw all kinds of things that had been collected over the years, such as chess pieces that prisoners had carved out of wood that they had found, medical supplies that the doctors would have used in their illegal surgeries and experiments that they performed on the healthy and the sick, the things that they used to shave the incoming prisoners, and a beating rod that was placed in the old shower room. Through the windows, you could see the courtyard where they did roll call, and the living quarter bunkers. There were all kinds of banners that held all kinds of information about the different groups of prisoners and medical experiments and the sicknesses, and then as we neared the front of the museum, they had information about the admissions to the camp, papers on how they documented the things that they took from them when they were coming in, and little cue card type cards for the prisoners that had information, i noticed on one sign, that they had written in ink, things that stayed the same, and in pencil for the things thay changed (weight, height etc) so that they could just quickly be erased and rewritten. It showed how hitler came to gain much power and there was a map that showed all of the camps, both large and small, and the satellite camps also. There was a bookstore in there also, where i picked up a book that was strictly Dachau experiences, and a set of four postcards.

After the museum, we walked through the courtyard to the very large plaque that has been erected in honour of everyone who lost their lives. We took a picture with it to document our day. Next we strolled through the living quarter bunkers, which had so many beds, twenty toilets, in one room, lined up ten in a row, and then the "bath" room, which was basically two fountains in a room that you would have had to spongebath yourself there. There was also a room with some tables, and around the outside of the room there were lockers that they would have kept their eating utensils, and along the top of the lockers, were tiny wooden stools. I couldnt imagine living in those conditions! I thought living in a house with 9 people was crazy at times, these houses would hold 56 people at a time, and there were at least 20 of these bunkers lined up all in a row.

There is a road, that leads down the middle of two rows of the bunkers (which have all been torn down, but there is basically a large concrete box marking where each one was placed and they were all numbered) towards a memorial for people who lost their lives, and there are a couple of churches at the back of the property now, for people to go and pay their respects. We went and took a look at those.

Next, to the left of the bunker rows, we walked down yet another little road that took us to a roman catholic church that is placed just before the crematorium buildings. There were two of those. We walked through the big one first. The first rokm we entered, was where they brought the dead bodies waiting to be burned. I cant describe the kind of chilling vibe that i got standing in that room. Next was the the room with the ovens where they burned all the bodies. Again, seeing those after knowing what they were used for, gave me goosebumps and teary eyes. These ovens were the second set that was built, they built them because the original ones that they had were overworked, which is just nuts. They would have had to been working 24 hours a day, for them to build like three more ovens. After that room was the gas chamber which we could walk through. The shower spouts on the roof were long gone, but the large locking doors were still the same. There were also ventilation gates in the wall that you could see through. I cant even imagine being locked in there and being able to see outside from in there. After the gas chamber we had to walk through the preparation room, where they would have had to strip down all their clothing and leave it behind. All of the clothing had to be removed from that room before the next group of people were to enter that room. Then we had to go back outside of the building to walk around this little wall, where they kept the chambers (there was 5 or 6 all in a row) where they would put the clothes to "disinfect" them using poisons. You could actually walk through the chamber. I had michaela take my picture in there so that i could remember just how tall these chambers were. Those were just tall enough for me to be able walk through it without hitting my head on the things on the roof of the chambers. After that building, we had to walk past the old crematorium on our way back to the front of the camp. It was a smaller building that housed the old ovens, and we couldnt walk through that one, but from the doorway where we were standing, we could see the entire building. It literally only housed a big double oven.

After we left the old crematorium building, we walked back to the front to return our audio guides and made our way back to the car. We knew that we had a very long drive back to the house so we stopped at mcdonalds before the drive back, they sell chili cheese bites which are basically JALAPENO POPPERS, which made my day even better because YUM. We didnt take the autobahn back, because it was backed up, so we took the country back roads which was also really great because it gave me a chance to see more of the beautiful german countryside which consists of a lot of farms, cows and green rolling hills. It rained on and off the whole way home.

When we got back to the house, we both laid in bed and relaxed until dinner time, which was basically curry chicken and rice. Delicious. After dinner we both packed our bags. Well Michaela packed, and i repacked. Then i called my mom, ate some chocolate and wrote my thank you cards. One for the parents, and one for Michaela. When i was done that, i took down the wooden block with the maple leaf burned into it that i brought for her parents and gave Michaela's parents their gift. Her mom kissed me on the cheek and her dad offered me chocolate.

Shortly after that was bedtime because we have to get up early to make our way to the airport so that we can fly to turkey in the morning. I didnt end up sleeping until after 130 am.

Out of my time in Germany, this was my favourite day. I got to check another thing off of my bucketlist and shared a lot of memories with my german sister, and family.

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mystorymyjourneymybody-blog · 7 years ago

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My name is Jamie and I’m on a journey. A journey to find the me that has been hidden for so long… most of my life in fact. I should have started this a while ago, but I wasn’t confident enough that I would get to where I am today, so here I am and ready to share my story.

As a baby, a toddler and a kid, I was underweight. I had to go to the doctor weekly to be weighed. Things changed once I started school, and it changed quickly! By the end of kindergarten I was overweight. I remember seeing and feeling the difference, and I didn’t know how it happened… it happened extremely fast.

I remember making a friend in my kindergarten class named David. We played together everyday. In first grade we were in different classes. I remember going to an assembly and seeing David for the first time in first grade and being ashamed of getting bigger since I last saw him and sucking my stomache in for the entire assembly as I got to sit with him. Although I was ashamed of my weight gain, I didn’t know how to fix it. This continued throughout my school career.

By the time I reached 6th grade (middle school) I was wearing men’s XL shirts. Nobody ever saw my body under my clothes up until this point in my life, and now I had gym class with a locker room and swimming class in a Speedo. I was terrified as I was the biggest kid in my class. I was so self conscious, embarrassed and ashamed of my body so I skipped these activities as much as possible by faking being sick. The school was starting to catch on to the pattern, but I swore I was really sick. Turns out I actually developed severe allergies at this time… but that’s not why I was missing school. I had missed well over 60 days of school in sixth grade. I still didn’t know how to fix my problem and looking back now I realize this is when depression crept into my life. School now had a new theory as to what was wrong with me. My father was never in my life… that’s what they thought the problem was, so I was required to go to counseling for it. Every week I had to go to a therapy group for children who’s parents got divorced. It was pretty lame since the group really didn’t apply to me since my father was never in my life. I can’t say that not having my father in my life hasn’t bothered me. He lives 30 minutes away from me and hasn’t made an attempt to meet me in 37 years. For the past few years we have been Facebook friends. I’ve made two attempts to message him in hopes of meeting but it’s gone nowhere… just false hope. He doesn’t like or comment on anything I post… he’s basically just observing my life from a distance. I’ve come to terms that it’s for the best, but it still hurts… mostly because he has three other children he raised and as adults still live at home with him. As a father of three kids, I can’t imagine not wanting to know one of my children. Perhaps this has been a part of my depression I have not come to terms with.

Somehow I managed to just barely pass sixth grade and move on to seventh grade. Another year and more pounds packed on. I was still missing an excessive amount of school which continued until high school. My weight kept me from having friends and being social in school. I didn’t play sports, didn’t attend dances and school activities. I had a few good friends and tried my best just not to be noticed by everyone else.

By high school I was just doing what I had to do to finish and move on with my life. I was now up to men’s size 2X and could barely fit in a school desk. I had maybe 4-5 friends in high school. I still didn’t attend school functions. To my surprise I was asked by a girl to homecoming in 10th grade… a skinny girl at that. My friends were going and I wanted to go, but I just couldn’t. Once again, my weight was stopping me. Once again I played sick. I’m sure I crushed my date. By the 11th grade I was working full time and opted to drop out of school and be done with the stress. I didn’t want the embarrassment of senior activities like prom and graduation. I immediately found an independent study alternative school for adults to go back to school which I attended and graduated in just a few weeks with the best grades I’ve ever gotten, straight A’s!

I was happy to be done school and working. I now felt like my weight didn’t matter. I worked in call centers starting at 17. I quickly made friends at work and thought everything was better now, but it wasn’t. Underneath it all I was still depressed and eating my emotions more than ever. By the time I was 23 I weighed in at over 350 lbs.

One day at work a co-worker was reading a book and I asked what it was. It was a book on the Atkins diet. I asked her if I could read it when she finished. Up until this time I have tried to guess on how to eat better, but never successfully lost weight. I was very intrigued by this Atkins diet book I was reading and thought I would give it a shot. My co-worker and I started the diet and to my amazement I lost 25 lbs in the first month.

Month after month, I continued to lose. I was so hyped! After just three months I felt confident enough to do something I’ve never done before, dating! This diet was going to save my life! I stuck to it for the most part of more than two years. I managed to lose 113 lbs. I had gained self confidence, but mentally I hadn’t changed. I had lose skin and I still wasn’t comfortable with my body and I didn’t know how to fix it.

Over these two years, I developed a new way of eating. Until recently I didn’t know there was a name for it. I was binge eating. I severely restricted my diet and when it got to be too much, I cheated. Not just one meal, snack or dessert… I would eat everything (way too much of everything) I missed and caved for a day, days or weeks and then go back to my restrictive diet. I would keep feeding my mouth even though I wasn’t hungry and I just couldn’t stop. It tasted and felt so good… until I would see the weight gain and I would become depressed and upset with myself.

I didn’t let this stop me. I still managed to fit in a men’s large shirt and 34"-36" jeans. I felt I was confident enough for another life change. I went back to school when I was 25. For two years I went to school full time and worked full time. My confidence allowed me to immediately make friends in school and I felt like I fit in. When it came to group assignments, everyone wanted to work with me. I excelled and maintained a 4.0 GPA. My goal was not to repeat my mistakes I made in middle/high school. I wanted the perfect attendance award. Unfortunately my grandmother passed away during this time and I had to miss 2 days. I still graduated at 27 with attendance honors, 4.0 GPA and several certifications. However, with little time to focus on diet and excersize, I was back up to 270 lbs when I graduated. Somehow I still felt fairly confident and felt better not having lose skin. I figured I was Ok with this weight. I was back up to 2X shirts and 38" waist.

While I was going to school, I made a career change into outside sales. I excelled in this position and although I was on my feet for much of the day, I continued to gain. I was eating out for breakfast and lunch almost every day. I made a few attempts to restart the diet I deserted, but I just couldn’t stick with it.

At 30, my life was changing… I became a father! I knew I had to make a change and once again tried to lose weight, only to fall off within a few months. Two years later I tried again, lasting only maybe a month. I was up to about 320-330 lbs.

By about the time of my 10 year initial weight loss anniversary of losing 113 lbs, I managed to gain back every single pound. I weighed in at 353 lbs. I HAD FAILED!

After talking with a new friend who had been through similar success with excessive weightloss and gaining back and comparing pictures and stories, I felt motivated again. We talked about doing it together. I really wanted a partner in this journey, as I had in the past with my co-worker the first time. I started, but he didn’t. I was still determined to do it this time! I was depressed, had high blood pressure, swelling and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. To my surprise, a few months later he joined me on this journey. It really helps to have someone who understands and can relate to the struggles and share your victories with!

I started September 26, 2016 at 343 lbs. As of today, June 28th 2017 (9 months later) I am 265.5 lbs (-78 lbs). I still battle some depression, anxiety, binging and unhealthy habits, but I am determined to continue to fight this battle and be here as long as I can be for my children. Every day will be a struggle. I will make mistakes, I will slip, I may fail… but I’m determined to get back up and keep trying!

Going forward, I will track my progress here, provide updates, share pictures, share recipies, talk about my struggles, etc.

#weightloss #lowcarb #atkins #depression #keto #obese #diet

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jobsearch-v02 · 7 years ago

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What To Do When No One Will Hire You!

While I have talked about trying to get a job, there are times where companies just don't want to hire you because of:

age

intelligence - emotional or intellectual

looks

health care costs

culture

corporate espionage

credit worthiness

black listed

previous job termination

emotional or psychological behaviors

other issues

You've come to the realization, "You no longer have a time frame upon which you will be hired to work for a company." And, now you are left with one very important question, "How am I going to pay my bills?"

Let's be clear, this is not even about, "Earning a Living", this is about slashing your expenses to the bone to maintain 7 essential things:

a place to store store food, personal belongings, and sleep

focus on cooking your own food

get only as much sleep as you need, depression causes you to sleep over 8 hours a day

maintain a gym membership, get a bike, and use public transportation as little as possible - this will keep your depression levels down.

save money by going with large groups of friends to the park, meals, movies, or other events.

build new product and service offerings

check quarterly medical and dental check ups - everyone suffers seasonal changes

In short these suggestions are:

personal space

sleep

eat

excersize

study

resolve mental and physical problems

Grieving:

Let's go through the 5 stages of grieving, as the sooner you get through this emotional depression, the faster you can start focusing on what the rest of this blog article has to offer.

Denial

Bargaining

Depression

Anger

Acceptance

Denial is the hardest part. As long as you're in denial about the fact that NO ONE WILL HIRE YOU, you will never believe that you need to change directions and take the advice that this blog post has to offer you. So, for now you're screwed. Your bank account will become depleted, along with credit cards, and many other sources of income that could be used to spear head you back into a work situation. Stop getting drunk, high, and wishing that someone would hire you. It's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!

Eventually you'll move into bargaining with some higher power or authoritarian figure .. usually your landlord, who needs to pay their bills. Arguing with him won't make him go away, or help you find a job. Nor, will discussing this issue with your therapist or life coach. You have to accept that NO ONE IS GOING TO HIRE YOU!!! WHY?? WHO KNOW! They are pricks, label them, and decide to get even, by becoming a billionaire, where they have to beg you for a job.

Uhg, now you're in bed for all hours of the day crying, sleeping, begging for someone to fix your problem. /me sighs .. let's fast forward this train wreck.

Anger .. yes, get completely and totally pissed about the situation. You need that energy to DRIVE YOU. Without it, you won't be able to show those A-Holes that you could be a valuable asset to their companies bottom line. But hey, they choose to go with the younger, faster, sportier model that fit into their corporate culture. Yay for them, now show them what experience really can do.

When you ACCEPT that NO ONE WILL HIRE YOU!!! .. You're finally ready to start your own business ... YAY!!! Let's get moving.

Being an Entrepreneur:

It's a scary thought, but when when you have to earn your own living, regardless of whether or not you wanted to be an entrepreneur, guess what ... you are. So, let's kick start your company.

In previous posts, I've discussed what a company needs to survive:

Clients

Marketing

Products & Services

Sales

Research and Development

Vendors

That's the core. That's all you need. If you have clients, you have financing. If you have financing, you have a way to pay your bills. So, let's look at how to gather prospective clients FAST!!!

There many social sites out there. Most are oriented around SEX, because sex sells. If it looks and feels sexy, you'll attract customers: Viagra, Clothing, Cars, Houses, Beach Vacations, ... There are other categories in which people will find your marketing message interesting:

Sex

Extreme sports

Successful people

od looking people

Accessories

Pets

Social Sites will help you present your product, but they won't help you gain clients directly. You need visitors to refer others to your content. Basically, when people post a link to your content on their time line, or favorite you, or even ask how to support your work, this is how you gain contacts.

There are 21 major social sites. There are also a dozen sites that cater to just what you do. In addition, there are books, magazines, journals, and other periodicals that talk about material that is related to your line of work. Find them, each and every one of them. You want to make sure that when you create a you tube video, that it is cross linked, and posted to all these locations.

The old way is to go through your contacts. Who do you know? And, who do they know? There are no more than 6 people between you and client, the idea is to get to your target audience in as few steps as possible. So how do you find prospects. The nice thing about using social sites to host your content, is that your friends can immediately link a prospect to your content.

Make sure the content you post in the 21 social sites, links back to your website. Each piece should use a different URL that helps you track where people are seeing you the most. A good way to do this is through a GUID that is unique to every piece you publish and where you publish it. So, even if you post the same piece in 3 places, each gets a unique URL/GUID that links back to your site.

While sex sells, it's frowned upon to sell yourself. Instead, sell your time. When you see a Doctor, he doesn't bill you for successfully solving your cold, he bills you for the time he spends with you in his office. We will talking about pricing in a bit.

Lastly about clients, they have needs, just like you. As an Entrepreneur you are a professional problem solver. So, when a prospective client reaches out, interview them. Get to know as much as you can about them as possible, without become too intrusive.

When asking yourself the question, should I execute a cold sales call someone, or should I interview them, always default to interviewing them. Clients like being interviewed for potential articles. They like being quoted. People like being being cross linked when possible. So, take advantage of this desire to be popular.

Marketing Metrics and Data:

Keep track of data:

Who is hiring in your field of expertise.

Who you interview with

The reason why you are declined

You need names of people who are interested in your line of work. And you want people who know these people. Even though they are not hiring you now, it's because they are only either getting to see your resume, or are getting to see you for 5 minutes in an interview. But if there are links to your work, eventually, they come to you, as an expert. So, make sure you are able to target them with your expert knowledge, and learn what they do need.

There are 3 groups of clients you should look for initially. The first is non-profits. They are always looking for people who are willing to help them. This is a great way to meet people, provide a service, and network. It also builds up the group of people willing to testify that you are both trust worthy, as well as get the job done. Some non-profits will pay you for your time, as their donor base is solid and well funded.

The next group is small businesses. While they are small, and will require your services less than you would like, they also have connections that you can pull on. Read below, about listing vendors. Other small businesses have clients and vendors that they rely on, and these groups of people are always in contact with each other – passing referrals. So, build your small business network, interview these guys, and see if they are a fit for your services.

The third group, is home users. This group of users is harder to build, and will require using the social sites to reach them. Meetup, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Flixr, InstaGram, LinkedIn, WikiPedia, … check WikiPedia for a list of current social sites to help you determine where to post links to your content. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media#/media/File:Importance_of_social_media_for_different_corporate_functions.png

Vendors:

As for vendors, you will need help managing your business. As was pointed out, your content should have a separate GUID attached to each URL pointing back to your website, when the article is posted to social sites. So, just in that thought, you may require a graphic artist, web master, and an editor. While you may provide the content, they will make sure that it looks great, is searchable, is traceable for marketing metrics, and reads or sounds good. A good web master will also instruct you on which hash-tags to use to make finding you via a search engine easier (Search Engine Optimization or SEO).

In addition to those three competencies, you will need vendors who provide various types of office supplies – locally. Amazon is great, but overnite shipping costs, so buy locally when needed. I suggest you make a list of all the vendors you will need for your business, and how they will help you. These vendors can also help you advertise, as they like to cross advertise / promote their wares / themselves as well.

Also, send this content to publishers so that they are aware of you. Publishers are constantly looking for fresh views on various topics, or may just need to fill column inches. They may not pick you up immediately, but if you contribute regularly to your blogs, they may find that your content in aggregate could be useful in other forms. In either case, once you are picked up, even in small publications, this becomes free advertising.

Marketing:

So, now you know where to find clients, and how to demonstrate that you know what you know. Start producing content about your products and services so that people can find you. However, I suggest watching TedX Talks to see how to build informative content, that will attract clients. TedX also produced a book on TedTalks. I suggest reading this, because it will tell you what audience like and dislike about infomercials.

The best TedTalks are those that have a kernal of wisdom. Similar to my blog, here's my experience, in trying to find a job, what I've learn, how I've used it, how I've grown, and how I've failed. One TedX Speaker demonstrated how to defend a PhD thesis through Ballet. Another talked about helping people get anything they wanted, as long as they were willing to give up the word, “FINE!”, or in context, “I'm Fine!” There are hundreds of talks on many different topics, some good, some bad. Find those that you like and follow the speakers.

The primary purpose of marketing is to get the word out that you exist. That's it. Otherwise, people will consider other options to solve their problem. You do have a solution to a problem, right? So, what is the problem you are trying to solve, and how do you solve it. It's not important to tell them in great detail how you solve it, having some mystery is important to running a successful business. Leaders don't pull back the curtain, they produce results. You, just need to match the problem with a solution.

For example, do you have a unique way to teach adults program languages? Or maybe, you found that coupling Rosetta Stone with a unique training program helps people learn languages better. Or maybe you're a tour guide, and want to give personal tours of great sites in your city. Or you're an accountant, and you like doing books remotely, so you have people send you their receipts via pictures in a secured site. Or, you're a security guard, looking for gigs at music venues, since you like different types of music, and talking with people. This is what some people call, “Their Passion!”

My passion, by the way, is to collect huge amounts of seemingly unrelated data about life, and organize it into a meaningful way for others to understand and utilize. That's why I write long blog posts with lots of information in them. But I go about this process of collecting information very differently, and I have built my own database engine to help me collect, manage, sort and build these vaults of information.

When it comes to marketing, I suggest keeping the messages clear, short as possible, linked directly with ways to solve the problem, and if you’re creative tell a story with a happy ending. Short and sweat. Some people probably look at my blog posts and run screaming for the hills. But there is a crowd out there who need ideas. They are searching for a job, but have exhausted the current resources, and need fresh ideas on where to look for other possible opportunities.

Saving Money:

First an foremost, start using every basic government assistance programs that is available to you. While this may provoke an emotional response around being self supportive, you will soon learn that you are not alone in this boat. There are many like you, and the sooner the government starts to realize this (that too many people are being disproportionalatley displaced from work), the faster they will look into WHY!!! And, respond.

As to which programs to apply for:

Unemployment

Health Care

Food Stamps

Free College Education

Free STD Clinics

IRS Tax Credits

Focus on conserving money for as long as possibly. So, all expenses that the government can pay for, should be slashed from your budget. Also, look at which tax credits the government will provide you for becoming self employed. While they may not help you in the moment, having a lump sum of money returned to you at the end of a tax year, helps cover bills, or update equipment that otherwise is falling behind. Or, even allows you to take a vacation to relax, unwind, recharge, and think creatively about different ways you could solve problems for your clients.

Unemployment will only pay for 7 months a year. You may be able to find some side work through your company. During that time they will ask you, "To Be Willing to Give Up Being an Entrepreneur!" Ha ha ha ha ... say yes, even though you know that the prospect of becoming employed in your field of work is next to 0%.

The other thing Unemployment Agencies may ask you to do is report on the companies you applied for positions. With the advent of sites like Monster Dot Com, you can easily collect all emails with positions and applications for positions, and provide a printed copy of this data to the agency. On average I have 13 to 20 pages per week to send to them.

This data provides the Unemployment Agency with data that shows 2 things:

one you are actively searching for prospects. Including clients who might be interested in your products / services.

that no one is willing to hire you.

Think about it this way, the old adage used to be, when an AD is place in a news paper 1 in 100 people will respond to it. For a position posting, up to 600 people respond to a position positing. And, when you receive and respond to 20 pages of position postings, the odds are not only way out of whack, something is seriously wrong, and they need to figure out what it is. Not you! You're doing what you're supposed to do, try to find work.

Every person in the US is required to have health insurance. If you can't afford it, it must be provided to you. Therefore, there is no excuse for you not to have it. So get it. In addition to health insurance, think health programs .. like having a gym membership where you can work out. I've talked about this before, having a gym membership will help you with your depression. It will also help you stay fit, and motivated. If you become a regular at the gym, the staff will chat with you, and other regulars will chat with you. This is a great way to segway into being an entrepreneur, and see if they know someone who knows someone who might need your services, or what ideas they have about marketing.

Food stamps are a tricky thing, and will require you to have a business banking account in order to keep your business funds separate from your personal funds. The administrator of the food stamps program will tell you how much money per month you are allowed to make, or keep in your personal bank account. If your company can pay you, pull that amount out for personal expenses, otherwise, don't draw a salary. Keep the personal balance low.

Many cities now offer free college. Use it. I suggest later to use the library, while a city library is nice, a college library / campus is also a nice place to help keep yourself from going stir crazy while trying to find clients. There are resources also on campus, like the employment office that can help you research prospective clients. In addition, the university may offer courses in your field, or in area's of your business that you need to become more secure in. Or, they may offer access to health facilities. Take full advantage of everything the university has to offer to help prepare yourself for the work you will be doing tomorrow.

And while you should get quarterly checkups by a physician, seeing an STD clinic should be an bi-annual thing as well. You may not have symptoms, but it never hurts to be sure you haven't accidentally been exposed to something either by a casual hand shake or a kiss. Most clinics are funded by the county and state, even though they may ask for a donation. If you don't have the money, they won't turn you away.

Budgeting Expenses:

Your budget should consist of as little as possible:

Your SPACE ... Rent / Mortgage

Water, Gas, Electricity, Garbage

Telephone / Skype Number

Internet

Mobile Phone

Food

Exercise

Transportation

Website - maybe

First and foremost, you need a dedicated space to be all yours. Someplace you can sleep, eat, keep your things, and be safe. You don't want your cloths, food, bedding, and business materials to disappear because someone thinks you don't deserve them. Being homeless is very stressful, hard, exhausting, and expensive.

With a dedicated space comes basic utilities: Water, Gas, Electricity, Gas. If you only have to pay electricity and Gas, you're well off. You can offset the cost of some electrical items with solar power, like charing your phone or laptop. There are also special programs that may be available to help you with the cost of your electricity.

If you're using a land line, get rid of it. Switch to a high speed internet service, and a Skype number. The reason for this is, if you have to move, you want as few things tied to a physical location as possible. Skype only costs 36$ / year for a line, and 36$ for voice mail. That beats a land line for 20$ a month. Plus if you loose your internet service, you can use Skype via WiFi at StarBucks or the library.

You will need unlimited internet service on both your cell phone and residential service. You can't send out resumes, post content, or even run a business on limited services. This very helpful due to the cost of being connected 24/7. Remember you're going to USE social sites to advertise. So, having unlimited bandwidth is important when doing Skype interviews, posting content, researching content, and chatting with prospective clients.

When I said that being homeless is expensive, the average budget for a homeless person's food supply is spent in individual meals at restaurants. With the average cost of a meal in San Francisco now costing $25.00, times 3 x 30 .. that add up to a 2k bill. This is in contrast to the 150$ a month given for Food Stamp Benefits. To make 150 work for a month, you need to cook for yourself. Meals composed of materials that can last 2 weeks to a month, and be mixed together.

Now depending on where you're living, you may or may not have access to a shower. Some people consider privacy in the bathroom a requirement. Others have to share. And some choose to use the showers at the gym. I suggest you become accustom to using the showers at the gym. There are 3 good reasons why:

- if the gym is the first thing you do every day, it gets you out of bed, out of the house, and your blood flowing, which in turn keeps you out of depression and keeps the ideas flowing.

- If the ideas are flowing, then you have a better chance to spot a potential path to finding a prospective client.

- Once you're out of your dwelling, you can make it habit to go to a library to work on your business. Remember you need research magazines and journals, and being in your dwelling feels safe, you have to meet people, so being safe all the time is no longer an option.

Finally, the website. Find the cheapest place to post a static website initially, then find a graphic artist to design a site for you, and then figure out how to set up a word press website. Why Word Press? Because, initially you are posting blog content, talking about your products and services. You don't need a custom CRM to manage your clients. You need to tell them about the problems you can solve.

Food:

There are many things that will drive a person, food is at the bottom. If you don't have food, things become very desperate very fast. And, sugar is no replacement to a good meal. Therefore I suggest preparing your meals based on the diabetic diet plan. The plan is very simple, you eat a small portion once every 2 hours. The portion is the size of your fist. A ziplock 3 x 3 x 1.5 plastic food container is about this size.

The diabetic plan breaks meals into the following:

Breakfast

Fruits & Nuts

Protean

Salad

Complex Carb

Fruits & Nuts

Protean

Salad

Complex Carb

Desert

The nice part is that you can make 3 different meals for a week, pre package them, freeze them or chill them as needed, and pull them to mix and match for a day. Carrot sticks with beef stew and straw berries for one day, while having chicken Alfredo, salad, and sweet potatoes for another meal. Rotating through 3 or 4 different meals for a week, will help keep the meals fresh. Mixing your meals with luncheons with clients will also help you keep your palette from screaming for change.

The other reason for this meal plan, is that it stops cravings immediately. There is always good food to eat. Thus your sugar and cholesterol will balance out. It also helps control your weight, as the body will learn that there is food coming regularly, vs maybe skipping a meal.

And, it also costs less to eat this way in the long run, than it does to buy food from fast food restaurants. By preparing larger meals that are packaged into smaller meals, you will rely less on fast food restaurants, which usually serve only 1 of the 4 food groups, vs taking in all 4 food groups during a meal.

Stop at GNC and pick up a blender and mixing glass. This will prove handy when running around the city as you can put water, coffee, whey protean, vitamin water, or other liquid in it that doesn't cost you a lot. I personally like chilled water or Gatorade. As, I've become friends with a few bar tenders, I stop in various places and ask them to fill it up with ice and water. If I'm carrying Gatorade, I dump it in for flavor.

Pack your meals. Throughout this article, I've recommended that you get out of your dwelling to avoid depression. If you don't pack a meal, you will have to stop at a restaurant to buy food. Food you can't afford. So pack your lunch. It's not hard, takes 10 minutes.

Supplements have heir place. This is not a plug for GNC, but I've found them very helpful when solving body ache problems where I don't want to use aspirin. Thus, I have researched different foods and supplements that help me heal faster from work outs. Just the act of jogging and body building causes me intense pain for up to a week. Plus, I've found that Flax Seed Oil is great is eliminating acid reflux. And, my physician has recommended taking Vitamin B and Magnesium to help reduce headaches.

So, Eat! The act of eating takes the worry out of wondering where the next meal is coming from. It also helps you focus your attention on the problems you are trying to resolve, getting clients. I, personally, am a nervous eater, so I usually have one or 2 of those containers near me to pull from. I also love to cook. The act of taking 3 hours out of a week to chop veggies, bake and stew various dishes helps me relax. I know where my next meals are coming from.

Incorporating:

OK, so, you're eventually going to earn a living from selling your services. But you can't run this money through your personal bank account, as it will mess up all the government subsidies you are receiving. Therefore you need to run them through a corporate bank account. Many banks have 0 interest / fee bank accounts, so there's no worry there about tracking fees. Just don't cause over drafts. But to get this type of account you need an IRS EIN.

It's not hard to incorporate. File an IRS LLC to get an EIN, then go to the county clerk to register your EIN with a DBA, and open a corporate bank account. Why a corporate bank account vs a personal bank account. The reason why, is that you want your corporate expenses to be separate from your personal expenses. And, when you look at the IRS Schedule C, you will be amazed at how much stuff you can write off. Or to put it simply, 90% of all your expenses can be written off. Plus the IRS gives you tax credits for being self employed.

Now lets look at your budget in terms of the IRS Schedule C.

Space .. this is your office space / office expense

Electric, Gas, Water, Garbage .. is your office space / office expense

Telephone / Skype .. this is an office expense

Internet .. this is how you marketing and connect with clients

Food .. every meal you have with someone is an office expense

Transportation .. every trip you take is an office expense

Excersize .. this is part of your health plan .. esp when it comes to anti-depression

WebSite - marketing expenses

Again, almost everything can be written off. So keep those receipts. Log them, categorize them, track your time, where you travel, and what you did. All of this helps prove not only that you're looking for a job to the unemployment agency, but also shows the IRS that you're trying to run a business.

You will need the EIN number when you actually bill clients, as they will have to report all payments made to you to the IRS. This helps show that the payment isn't a cash donation, but a real transaction took place. And while Unemployment wants you to state the number of hours you worked, legally, it wasn't you working, it was hours your company worked. Whether it was you working for your company, or someone else, doesn't matter. It was the company that got paid, not you.

In addition, it is the company paying the bills, not you. The money went into a corporate account, and paid corporate expenses. So what if you paid 150$ for a meal with a prospective client and talked about the product and services you provide, and how you are marketing them on the internet, this is a business expense. The company is not paying you to do this. At least not yet.

Pricing Your Time:

Now that you have a budget, and you know how much money your company has to spend to keep your company afloat, let's look at how much your time is worth. To do this, we will use an equation ...

There are 50 weeks in the year you will work. Why not 52, because of holidays. Esp between Christmas and New Years, almost no one will want your services. This hold true for Thanks Giving, and around some other holidays. So, 50 weeks.

Within those 50 weeks you will work a standard 40 hour per week. While you may work more or less, as an independent consultant, on average, you will work 40 hours a week.

Those 40 hours a week will be broken into 3 jobs .. marketing, research and development, and actually selling your products / services. Therefore, you will only really bill out 10 hours a week.

Now, since you are only billing out 10 hours a week, time 50 weeks in a year, you now have the number of hours you have to actually bill clients. So, the rate you will bill them is 3 to 5 times or market rate for your services. Remember, you have to cover the cost of finding the next client, the budget you created earlier, and your continued education into the next market you feel clients could benefit from your services.

So .. 50 x 10 equals the number of hours you will bill during a year.

Take this number and divide it into your expenses. Let's say, for example, you have 4000$ in expenses each month, times 12 means you pay out 48,000 each year in expenses. You need to bill per hour 48000 / 500 equals 96 dollars per hour.

Now, here's a caviot for your clients. If they consume 20 hours a week, they get a different rate, vs 30 vs 40. And at 40 hours a week, you could charge them about 30 dollars per hour. Doesn't that feel a lot better?

To charge 96 dollars an hour, you have to appear to be an expert in your field. So, the more you blog, the more followers you have, the more people you have referring others to your work, the more you can charge. Because, as more people want your services, you can push the market rate up to get the best of the best clients. So, if you find that at 200 dollars per hour you're still getting 30 new client requests a day, continue too raise it. Someone feels you're worth it and more.

Being Productive vs Doing Work:

One of the problems that entrepreneurs fall into, if not depression, is the concept of doing work. There is a difference in work that is just make work, vs being productive. You are only productive, if the work you do leads to the hours you spend being billed to a client. Everything else is considered a waste of time.

Yes you have to cook, clean, exercise, educate yourself, write blogs, and make presentations, but none of these things can be billed to a client. So, if when you have to do them, make sure they are outside the 15 or so hours you've set aside to actually do client work.

Therefore I suggest maintaining a ToDo list that is verb oriented, or Task Type. Example:

Wash: Dishes

Confirm: Appointment with Sam

Meet: Sam at 12 for lunch

Work On: Proposal for Jen

Then sort the ToDo's based on work then personal.

I have 53 Task Types in my ToDo list so far. I sort my Todo's by task type so that I can execute todo's to efficiently. Some people organize their todo's based on their route for the day, thus a todo will appear on their phone when they are in the area as a reminder. But the best thing to do is to create a new Todo List every morning. Always start with the calls you have to make. Confirm those appointment slots, so that you don't waste your time traveling to a client that cant meet you.

Focus on todo's that will earn you a living.

Do as much as you can for as long as you can when you can. Depression will take over your life from time to time, as you build your client base. The loss of a client can be just as devastating as gaining a new client.

What will your income look like:

You will no longer rely on a single pay check anymore. Instead you will receive payments from multiple sources:

Clients

Books

Magazine Articles

Blog Posts

Advertising Revenue

Referrals

Product Sales

Contracts

Subscriptions to your content

Giving Presentations

Once you have enough clients that want to pay for your time, and your content, writing and giving presentations will become the mainstay of your life. You will learn to book yourself solid .. which is a book, look it up.

Basically, you are building income streams. Each stream will run a 5 year course. After 5 years, you will have to replace it with a new stream. The more streams you can manage at one time, the more money you will make. And, the more streams you have, the faster you will find clients.

Final Comment:

If I could, I would have the Unemployment Agency create a whole series of courses around this topic to help people who are experiencing this problem. It's not their fault that companies don't want them. But, it is this agencies job to help you build a new income. Even if that means become self employee.

#unhireable #no one will hire you #job search #entrepreneur #self employeed

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