Uncategorized

“I participated in an Influencer Program on behalf of Dad Central for ROGAINE. I received a product sample and promotional item to thank me for participating.”

Some of you might look at the mug on the guy in the photo above and say, “that Jack Steiner is one handsome man” and who could blame you. There is one problem, the guy in the photo above is author and television personality, Bill Rancic.

I offered to stand next to him and make him look even better, but he is a gentleman and turned down the opportunity. Just in case my mother reads this I have to let you know that none of that happened because she thinks I am a million times handsomer than Bill.

Sorry Bill, mom’s love their boys.

Why Are We Talking About Bill?

I spent some time speaking with Bill Rancic last week whom you might recall is the winner of the first season of The Apprentice and now serves as a  “Growth  Coach” for ROGAINE.

We didn’t talk about Donald Trump at all so I can’t tell you if Bill knows whether Trump’s hair is real or if Trump is a ROGAINE user but we did talk about the Grow Your Game initiative, family life and being an entrepreneur.

One of Bill’s roles is to use social media to share his personal experiences and ideas and talk to men about conquering challenges we face personally and professionally.

I was very curious to see what Bill would be like and wondered if the conversation would be peppered with praise and sales pitches for ROGAINE or if we would really delve into the meat of Growing Your Game, you know doing things to improve your life and become more confident.

Grow Your Game

As part of his Growth coach responsibilities Bill is part of a team of coaches that are helping five men grow their game in all aspects of their lives. I think that is cool.

Granted it sounds a little goofy to say you are trying to grow your game I am more concerned with what is happening than what it’s called and the idea of doing things to improve your life makes perfect sense to me.

I know how I interpreted things but I wanted to hear Bill’s answer so I asked him:

“Define what being your best self means to you. Is it financial, physical, emotional or a combination of all three?”

His initial response made me think I was going to get the canned answer.

“My best self will be different than yours. It is subjective. What we have done here is taken these 5 men and armed them with the tools they need to change their lives.”

So I asked him to expand upon what that meant and to tell me about obstacles people encounter and how to get around them. I liked his response.

“I always say that people see things the way they want to see them. We think we are living a certain way but often we aren’t. For example remember when you were a child and you tape recorded your own voice.

Remember the feeling you had when you listened to yourself speak the first time and said ‘I don’t sound like that.”

Think of living life as if you are a conductor. They work hard to get all the different pieces of orchestra to play together to make music”

That conductor analogy works for me. We don’t have time to be experts in all things so finding people who can help you take care care of things that are less important so that you can focus on priorities makes a lot of sense.

But I wanted to know more so I asked him:

“What is your best advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur and a family man?”

He responded with

“It can be tough to be an entrepreneur. There are people who will tell you that you can have balance but that is not true. You are always going to have some sort of imbalance. When you are building your business you will always be pulled in different directions and if you want to be successful you are going to have to work harder than the next guy.

Early on your family life may suffer some. It is like raising a child. When they are first born they may wake up every three hours and need to be fed.

But as you go along they grow and reach a stage where you don’t have to give them that same constant level of attention and things become easier.”

I appreciated that because it is honest and it is not filled with buzzwords and double talk about how using ROGAINE can magically solve your time issues and make your business successful.

It is a tool that can help your confidence but it doesn’t replace hard work. That is the kind of candor that I appreciate and am intrigued by. Don’t know if I will ever have the chance to hang out with Bill again but if I do I am curious to see if he is the same guy I think he is.

If you want to build a community and create a rip roaring blog of value and excitement you need to give the readers what they want or so they say.

Today I was told to do more podcasts by one person yet in a separate message I was told not to.

One person liked my voice and another was irritated by it because they “prefer my words.”

Since these positions are diametrically opposed I am going to continue to do what I do best, follow my own heart.

There is no question regarding the importance of trying to meet your reader’s needs but not at the expense of your passion.

P.S. I wrote this post on my phone using the WordPress app.

It was easy to do but I still prefer the computer.

Warning: I don’t know what this post is about so I can’t tell you if I am going to rant, write about my kids, talk about sex, writing or anything else because I am just writing now. It may not follow the headline or it might.

It is an exercise in free thought. This is me opening up the grand cavern between my ears and just clearing it out. Not going to be censored or edited. It is just my thoughts and that might get me in trouble, embarrass you and me or might not do a damn thing at all.

I really don’t know because I am just writing about whatever comes to mind because I am frustrated now. Frustrated because I am in the in-between place where I don’t have everything I want but am so damn close I can see, touch and taste it. Frustrated because my inclination is to push harder and that won’t work. Won’t matter if I push harder because I can’t make time move faster…or slower.

Drove around to clear my head and saw a sign for massage. Thought about getting one and then I remembered that just before I left for Texas a guy told me he got a blow job for $40 bucks in that place and thought about whether a $40 blow job makes you feel good, bad or indifferent.

Is she thinking about laundry or getting you out of there as fast as she can so she can get to the next customer. I didn’t stop at that place to get a massage nor did I stop at any other because I knew I was going to play ball that night and it didn’t make sense to do it nor do I want to go to one of those places.

It is not my thing but damn a good massage would be nice.

Post Length and Frequency

I have had multiple conversations with people about how often we should post and how frequently and I almost never agree with what I hear.

People keep telling me about how people don’t read anything longer than 500 words and how they don’t publish “too often” because they don’t want to upset their readers. They tell me that more people will read my work if I spend more time writing better posts and don’t publish as frequently.

Sometimes when we talk about these things I start to tune out and think about other things like how many people are getting $40 blow jobs and how many bloggers exaggerate about how well they are doing.

And then I wonder how many of you are going to wonder about me and $40 blow jobs and what that might do to my SEO. It doesn’t really matter much to me because I write because I love this stuff and because it is cathartic. And then I look to my right and I see a stack of old pictures and I see me.

I am about 20 or so and I remember that day. Just got back from camp and I got a goodbye blow job from my girlfriend before we both left to go back to school. I don’t know what happened to her or where she is now. Haven’t ever looked her up on social media platforms or really thought about her.

Probably says volumes about our relationship but I guarantee that moment was better than a $40 blow job.

What I Should Be Doing

What I should be doing now is focusing more intently on wwriting stories. What I should focus on is taking those stories from the rough, raw pieces they are and converting them into something that can be built upon.

This is guilt speaking now. Guilt because for years I have been saying this and I haven’t ever finished it. I take some of them and move them along. I put the words down and create the characters that you and I want to read about. Take those characters and put them in situations that are interesting and relatable and I see in my mind the foundation and completion of it all.

I see a couple who weathers multiple storms and who figure out how to overcome great odds and adversity because even though it is hard, complicated and complex it is what they do.

They look at 1724, 83168 and 5969 and see not just questions but answers because the numbers are a guide and they serve as puzzle pieces.

So what I should be doing is focusing on that and instead I keep mentioning $40 blow jobs but maybe it is because I can see story elements there and maybe that is what is driving this. I know some of you are thinking it is because I want a blow job that I keep mentioning it and there might be truth in that but show me a virile male who isn’t interested and I’ll say he doesn’t want to admit it.

Sometimes You Have To Do The Work

Sometimes the only way to get what you want is to be the one to do the work. I talk to the kids about the value of working hard and working smart. You don’t get much from outworking the next person unless you are smart about it. There is a lot of value in hard work because hard work is often the foundation of luck.

But working hard without a goal, without direction, without focus or point is a good way to exhaust yourself. Don’t mistake activity for achievement.

And when I write down these words in a longer post than I normally write so many things become more clear and the thoughts that are swirling around my head and distracting me have quieted down. Noise and chaos are at a reduced volume so I can focus on doing the things that lead to achievement and are not just activity disguised as busy work.

Which reminds me that bloggers and social media experts are often delusional or at least the claims they sometimes make are. I can’t stomach half the advice I read because it is the echo chamber spitting out the same tired advice and it is not always good or accurate.

I still don’t believe that people don’t read long copy and I still don’t accept that some of you are as successful as you claim to be. But I understand your ability to sell product/services to others is contingent upon your convincing people that you are so  I suppose it is an honest reason to lie.