The power of mind over matter.
This is a short video about hard work and the illusions that we sometimes imagine when we see others succeeding or doing something we think we cannot do.
For so long I have pretended to be able to solve a Rubik’s Cube when in reality, all I was doing was looking for a specific set of patterns and then executing a memorized sequence of moves in order to make the cube whole again.
A skill that anyone could learn to do if they if they put their mind to it. However, any time I did this in public, it would appear that I was solving one of the most difficult puzzles known to man.
“They would never know my secret and the illusion of intellect is a powerful sword to swing.”
So often in life we give up on ourselves because we automatically presume that we are not smart enough, fast enough, tall enough or strong enough.Whatever the self imposed hurdle might be, it is usually set by we.
The individual has become weak and it is about time we started believing in ourselves again. It is about time we admit that we are usually the biggest reason for why we cant get anything done in life and then start doing something about that.
After making that realization, we can actually start to move past ourselves and towards success.
Video Script
I wrote the script for this video a while back and now that I bought my own camera you will start seeing a lot more content like this. Please share this with a friend and leave your comments below.
This is my Rubiks cube…
I’ve had this Rubik’s Cube for more than 15 years.
Some people think that you can solve it by pulling off the stickers, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out that swapping the stickers isn’t a real solution.
When I got my first Rubik’s cube, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to solve it legitimately but then I discovered a little trick.
I realized that I could take the cube apart and reassemble it in the right order.
There! Good as new. No one would ever know the difference, that is, as long as I was alone when I did it.
So much for that little trick.
I was determined to find a way to solve the cube in plain site. I wanted to be able to stand in front of anyone and do something that no one else they knew could do.
So I went back to work.I spent hours trying to solve that damn puzzle, but I still couldn’t figure it out… until, I did.
I was searching for instructions online when I learned that there are a number of patterns that you can recognize, along with a series of moves that you can memorize, in order to solve the cube from any position.
I learned that there were turns and twists that would allow me to move a piece from one side of the cube to the other without disrupting the rest of my progress.
After a few months of practice I had it down cold, and for more than a decade I have let the world think I could solve a rubiks cube in under 5 minutes.
But why does any of that even matter? Who cares whether or not I can solve a rubiks cube legitimately.
What difference does it make when I am standing right in front of you solving it?
All that matters in that moment is that I can do it, and unless I’ve told you this story or you’ve watched this video, you’d simply think that I was solving one of the most difficult puzzles know to man.
So the next time you see someone doing something you think is amazing, something you think you could never actually do, I want you to stop and think about this story.
I want you to ask yourself whether they’re actually doing something amazing, something you are simply incapable of doing, or whether they’re just doing something that you are not willing to do?
Text on screen to close video
How hard are you trying to do the things you think you can’t do?
Movement over money.
Sean Smith explains why connecting with your consumer is important in a digital economy and why customer convenience is more important than price.
Read the original article on Medium
It used to be an age old solution in business to build a bidding war with your competition.
The lowest price would win, because convenience was on a level playing field.
Price is not necessarily obsolete now, but it matters far less to our inter-connected society than it used to.
Businesses like Amazon are putting others out of business left and right. Most people point at their prices, but that’s not really the case. When you look at the ease of convenience their services like Prime bring — giving next day or same day delivery for any of their products while also being cheaper than most of their competition — the competition doesn’t stand a chance.
People don’t have to leave their house to shop. Think about that. That’s an insane notion that only became possible in the last 5 years.
People care more about their time now more than ever, because now we see the possibilities of the things we can do with our day. Our days are getting longer, because things are getting easier due to technology.
Businesses that understand this will thrive, those who don’t adapt or find their niche in this new age of convenience and demand will dwindle.
No longer does price dictate the outcome of our pocket, we decide based off of our time.
The last 100+ years of economics taught us that price drives demand. Now we're learning that convenience drives it even more.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) July 19, 2014
“People don’t buy products, people buy better versions of themselves.”
As Belle Beth Cooper said best,
Ev Williams even mentioned that the best way to build a billion dollar business now is to “find a business vertical that hasn’t changed in 50-100 years and find a way to make it easier using technology.” This could be applied to hundreds of verticals, even online publishing, which is far from an ancient medium. Take Medium for example, this lovely online publishing tool you’re reading right now. I write here because it’s incredibly easy, it’s beautiful, it’s interesting, and the exposure makes it easier to reach my audience.
Uber took the cab industry and turned it on its head, starting with a simple app and some part-time cabbies running on their system. Now it’s worth billions of dollars with no signs of slowing down. SpaceX obviously didn’t choose an easy vertical, but they were able to achieve what only government associations were able to do to date, to dock a cargo ship to the international space station. This gave SpaceX billion dollar contracts from NASA to keep their astronauts supplied on the ISS.
There are “disruptions” to be made in thousands of verticals, you need only find that unique approach, take out the steps for the customer, and innovate.
In an environment where people are trying to “optimize” and automate as much of their life, and success as they can, those who help them succeed in this ambition will succeed in business.
This doesn’t bode well for business reluctant to change, but for entrepreneurs ready to build better services, this is a ground breaking time to live in.
“We help take the pain away” — this may be one of the best selling lines I’ve heard in a pitch for content marketing. It’s honestly what people want, whether you’re doing marketing for a business, or easing the pain of people dealing with a cable company to cancel their service.
People want their pain to go away.
The supply and demand curve has warped, it’s been turned on its head.
We’re all better for it too, because when people stop thinking about money, and instead think about what they can do with their time, we all move forward.
Movement over money.
The Importance of Learning to Control Your Inner Killer
In this podcast we explore the power of a positive attitude and expose the human predisposition to being controlled as a species.
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As always, if you want to skip over the introduction, you can do so by jumping to the 1:40 mark. Just remember, a polar bear will be left stranded on an iceberg every time someone does this.
1:40 – The Power of Positivity
Pretending to be positive is a powerful way to impact the world around you.
Most sales people are trained in the art of pretending to be positive but it is something that we would all be well served to learn. People underestimate the impact that positive thought can have on the lives of the people around them. Especially if you can find a way to stay positive on a regular basis.
When you understand that we all have problems that we are dealing with and that complaining about your particular problems does nothing other than push the people around you away, then you can finally start to see the real power of positive thinking. Even if you struggle with the execution early on.
Now, I am not talking about stupid, overbearing, goofy-faced pretending. I am talking about genuinely believing that things in your life are good and will get better. Start believing it or others will see it for exactly what it is. Fake.
The truth about happiness – Read the full article
3:09 – The slave mentality
Humans have delegated their entire existence to external controls. Everything outside of entertainment and the facade of education that is. We have given up on trying to understand the world around us and how it really works and instead accept whatever the popular belief is, regardless of how easy the truth might actually be to access.
We have given ultimate control of our lives to the government and we have become slaves to our elected leaders and the corporations that place them.
We are slaves to our lives, jobs, debt, drugs and on and on.
The perversions of our attitudes and over all psyches have been so completely corrupted, that we are actually satisfied in our slavery. The lack of individual accountability has put is in a precarious place as a population and the uninformed masses that make up the membership of that new majority are dragging us all towards mediocrity.
“The world is a very dangerous place. Not because bad people do bad things, but because most people do nothing.” – Albert Einstein –
5:50 – It’s a cancer really
The distractions have been purposeful and direct. What we are watching sprout up around us, is the fruit of more than a hundred years of hard labor. The culmination of closet communism in America. Something that the whole world seems to be running from, while we (America) run towards it with open arms.
The good news is that people are waking up to the truth. Every day people like you are listening to podcasts like these and reading articles like these to learn more about what is really going on in this country.
I think more people need to be reading and exploring the history our founding, where we came from and where we are going. Understand the ultimate fallibility of man and the inherent nature of large societies to self destruct. It has happened over and over again throughout history, yet we continue to accept it as if everything were ok.
8:10 – How to claim your superpower
Becoming bulletproof is important to finding your place in the world. Learn how to be comfortable in your own skin by finding beauty in your individual flaws. So many of us are worried about what is going on in the world of others more than worrying about our own world as a whole.
How to claim your super power – Read the full article
A community of support
None of this is going to be easy. It is up to you to apply and execute these ideas as they apply to your particular place in life. If you want to dig deeper and join the conversation then register as an early adopter and then join us in the forums.
10:18 – It’s not always easy
It is important to understand how powerful a shift you can make in your own life (as well as the life of others) by allowing yourself to commit completely to making these changes. To convince yourself that you are actually able to do it.
You may have to fake it before you make it early on, but I promise that over the time, you will love the new, freer, you. The people around you will love you more too. They will actually be able to see you. Maybe even for the first time.
12:05 – Let’s not pretend that pretending is always enough
Just pretending to be positive is not going to cut it.
Some days you may have to go to war with yourself, all on your own. Depression and self imposed hurdles are real, and pretending to be happy is never enough. Eventually you have to buy into the idea of actually finding fulfillment in whatever it is you are trying to do and let it consume you from the inside out.
13:45 – What if money didn’t matter?
What if we just give everyone a million bucks? Think about it. It would cost pennies on the dollar compared to the level of debt we are burying ourselves under as a society and it would instantly free us all of the constraints of our current monetary monopoly. Or would it?
You might think that by giving everyone a million dollars, you’d make everyone rich, but what it would really do is expose the trivial nature of the mirage we call money. Imagine how devalued the dollar would become if all of a sudden, it was all actually spendable, by you and I, the average person.
Flooding the market with that much cash would expose the nature of our monopoly money. It would make the entire system instantly irrelevant. It just goes to show how perverted everything about our monetary system actually is, and why it is important that the average American do a better job of understanding the monetary policy that has enslaved us all so effectively.
15:50 – A cure for depression?
Disclaimer: I am not a psychiatrist and you should not take my thoughts as mental health advice. I am only offering my perspective, insights and personal points of view that has helped me cope with my depression personally.
Acknowledging the dark thoughts and exploring the evil nature of your negative emotions is an important step in your development as enlightened individuals. You have to explore the boundaries of your positive and negative thoughts, if only in your own head, in order to understand the limits of what someone else might do without your level of control.
You have to learn that those dark thoughts and the crazy voices in your head are just other parts of you.You must learn to embrace and control them, just as you control any other part of your emotional interactions in life.
Depression can make that difficult but these theories can help. Take it from a guy who has struggled with depression his whole life. These tips may not cure your depression but they can definitely help you understand and manage it.
You also have to understand that these emotions do not define you. You can have these thoughts and know that they are not in control of your actions. Exploring these thoughts in depth is really the same as exploring the other thoughts and desires for knowledge that you might have through life. All a part of the insatiable curiosity I try to inspire with the content on this website.
18:20 – Solving problems like a psychopath
Embracing these thoughts and learning to use them as pieces of the bigger puzzle that is your life, can really help set yourself free. Many powerful professionals and personalities have characteristics that are common among psychopaths.
Buy the book – The Wisdom of Psychopaths
Knowing and understanding those boundaries will allow you to understand that there is real evil in this world. An understanding that can lead you to strength and eventual mastery of the thoughts in your head.
20:00 – Are you even capable of succeeding
So many times we are responsible for holding ourselves back. While the whole world is waking up to the idea of mass slavery, America (the one place on earth where people actually found freedom) is succumbing to a type of soft-tyrannical control.
21:10 – Getting fucked
It is your responsibility in life to not get fucked.
Not that I am excusing the people who are doing the fucking, but it is ultimately your responsibility to provide yourself with an adequate defense against all of the fuckery in this world.
Each of us enjoys a certain level of chaos, so it is natural for us to find comfort inside of a certain level of it, but more often than not, you are the very reason why you will never do anything amazing with your life.
23:50 – Why you should think about robbing a bank
Seeing the world from the perspective of a master criminal allows you to see all the angles.
When you allow yourself to see the world as if you were trying to rob it blind, then you can see where all of it’s weaknesses are masterfully hidden.
This is the same reason hackers are important to website security and why master criminals make great informants. They are uniquely qualified to exploit the flaws of whatever system they are tasked to sabotage, and then find creative ways to fix them. This is the very approach I propose for solving problems in life. It is the reason for this podcast and a large reason behind much of what I do.
I think the average person walks around this world completely clueless to what is going on and I plan on doing all I can to reverse that trend.
“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”
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Why do we walk around pretending like the whole world is telling us the truth when most of the time, we won’t even tell ourselves the truth.
We accept lies every day. From the world, from the government, from the media, from our friends, from our family and mostly, from ourselves.
We tell ourselves that we will get-to-it-tomorrow, or maybe we’ll send that email later, let me just mark it as un-read real quick.
We have all heard the excuses, “This is the last cigarette. I promise…” or “I haven’t had that many drinks, I’m good to drive.”
The truth is that we lie to ourselves every day. Shit, many of our memories are lies. Our brains are notoriously inefficient at creating accurate records of our life experiences. Sometimes we just fill in the blanks for ourselves.
Over time our imagination can even shift our reality. We start interjecting our own opinions and begin to mold our own memories while re-writing the past. Eventually our new version becomes the truth.
We lie to ourselves about past lovers and romanticize the experiences. We dwell on that someone we just broke up with, someone we couldn’t live with, yet somehow, can’t seem to let go.
We know it’s over. It probably should have been over a long time ago but we can’t bring ourselves to pull away. We live the lie of love, and love to live the lie.
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We use lies to protect us from ourselves and to soften the blows from reality. We allow lies to excuse our behaviors. “Just this once…” because, “You know me, I never really do things like this!”
I’m not saying it’s right to lie, and I’m not saying it’s necessarily always wrong, I’m simply saying that it is. It’s hard wired into each of our brains and it is something we all do. No matter how much you want to pretend not to.
We don’t need to be taught how to lie, we just do it. We’ve known how to lie ever since the fist time we fucked up. From the first moment your mom looked at you with that face. The face that till this very day means only one thing. Brace for impact!
“I don’t know what happened…” or “it was the dog! I swear! Cross my fingers hope to die, stick a needle through my eye!”
Anything to deflect the truth. Anything to save face. But at the end of the day, we know what is right and what is wrong.
We all know what we should have done or how we should have done it. More likely than not we even knew how we should have done it, while we were doing it, but we still made the wrong decision.
[ted id=420]
Sometimes we even pretend to know what is best for our friends while we can’t even figure out what is right for ourselves. Something called the “Solomon Paradox” Instead of pushing ourselves to be the best, we’ve become ok with just “fitting in” with the rest.
We then shower praise upon the people who live inside of the very screens that stream the majority of these lies directly into our lines-of-sight. The actors and athletes, the affluent and the elites.
Forget working hard, just become famous. That’s what the cool kids are doing. Just do something silly, have sex in the street. Sell your soul to the devil and maybe you can get a spot on the next hot reality show.
We set our eyes on the spoils of those who have and instantly think of ourselves as the have-nots. We accept the lie of a level playing field and then lie to ourselves about why we can’t succeed on it.
We deserve our share after all! We want what they have and we would have it if only things were a little different. If only life wasn’t so hard and the world wasn’t out to get us! Poor, poor us. Whatever will we do.
Life is made up of these little lies. Things that you get to discover as you go. We love lies, fairy tales and falsehoods. We all pass them on, like a bad plague, from generation to generation.
We allow ourselves to be shackled by lies. Controlled by the system in which we live. For god’s sake, our entire monetary system is a complete lie. Digital ledgers of ones and zeros that for some reason we continue to believe in.
We lie to ourselves about why we can’t get a new job or why we can’t lose those last few pounds. Why we don’t have enough time to get it all done, or… wait, what was I saying? Hang on a sec, while I have some more fun.
The problem with lies is that they become complicated. One day you look back and you’ve wasted your youth, all of a sudden you don’t know which part of your life is a lie and which part is truth.
The world was flat, and then it wasn’t.
The sun revolved around the earth, and then it didn’t.
We knew each of those things to be true for hundreds of years before they were commonly accepted as fact, yet at the time, many still believed otherwise.
Like many before us, we have allowed lies to tear through our entire society like rust. Slowly eating through all of the structural components and now, finally out onto the surface. Leaving the entire structure weak and ready for collapse.
The truth is that our whole lives have been lies, and we are supposed to remain stupid. We have been played and will continue to be played until we decide to create the change we seek. Pawns in this game called life.
And sometimes those distortions lead to something good. Because well intentioned shifts in thought based on deeper understandings and new information, can often lead to great innovation; but sometimes it get’s out of control.
Sometimes that distorted reality can bring down an entire society.
Sometimes that house of cards collapses and brings everyone else crashing down with it. And you’d be believing another lie if you thought it was not happening again. Right now, and all around you.
And that right there, is nothing but the cold hard truth.
Why fitting in is not what it seems and why you should avoid it at all costs.
You see them all the time.
The cool people.
The person you wish you could be.
The people we all wish we could be.
We look up to them, want to be them, wish we could grow up to be… “Just Like Mike!”
The people who convince you that you can only be cool if you look, act and do what they do. Eat, drive and play like they do. Fuck, slut and strut, exactly like they do.
More and more in society we deify these individuals and prop them up on pedestals, in place of ourselves and our peers.
Instead of promoting the exploration of a deeper inner-consciousness (one where we might actually find ourselves) we promote a collective unconsciousness. One that that has infected our entire society.
We find ourselves entertained by our lack of education and enthralled by our erotic inclinations.
We exalt the men who make us think that in order to fit-in we must give-in. They make us feel like we should relinquish our thoughts and accept theirs instead. I mean, everyone else is already doing it. You want to be like the rest of the class don’t you?
You know who I am talking about: The politicians, corporations, large religious organizations etc. Basically anyone who’s agenda it is to manage the masses. The ones who hide their message in plain sight. The ones who tell us we’re wrong any time we try to fight.
They lurk all around us. Tempting us to give up our hopes in exchange for theirs. Convincing us that individual endeavors are arbitrarily inappropriate. That if you really want to “be cool” you’ll think about the collective. Sacrifice yourself for the greater good. Fit-in to get-in. You know the rules.
The basic concepts behind the game haven’t changed since you were in elementary school. The stakes however, those have changed. Dramatically.
Now we’re playing for keeps. We are playing for souls, and life-savings. For products and for professions. We are allowing our whole lives to be played like pawns in a game. Small steps forward, always at the command of someone else.
The cool people have always liked to collect other cool people. The “elites” always entice the masses with the simplest of notions. But it is the independent thinkers that live on the outside of their influence that make them worry. The ones who stand free from the restriction of their opinions. The few who think for themselves.
We make them feel uneasy about their intentions, even if their intentions are good. But take note, it is rarely the well intentioned who plead for you to “understand.” It is often those who would lead you astray that would have you change your way.
The cool kids are always worried about what brand of clothes you are wearing and the make and model of the car you drive. They want you to worry about possessions because things are beautiful distractions. But us? We ask you to convince yourself. We pass on our information and then suggest you look more than skin deep. That you make an effort to find the answers on your own.
We must not label ourselves on the premise of “have” and “have-not,” but instead on the concept of “does” and “does-not.” We must base our interactions on what each of us as individuals are contributing to society as a whole. Forgetting about how we can fit in and focusing instead on how we can bend the world around us.
In what way can you make a mark? How can you make the world want to fit in with you? In what way can you move the masses? How can you turn the tables on the establishment?
Because the truth is that the majority of people in this world will never lose a minute of sleep thinking about you. They will not care whether you are depressed and want to kill yourself, can’t get laid or can’t get paid.
Whatever it is that is holding you back is your own puzzle to solve. It is up to you to go out there and make the best of whatever circumstances life has dealt you. It is up to you to look at life and the world as something more to explore. It is up to you to make yourself impossible to ignore.
So if you ask me, (and I know you didn’t) I say “Fuck the cool kids,” those assholes always run away when things gets hard. Forget about fitting in and go find yourself instead. I bet we’d all like that version of you a lot more anyway.
Why you shouldn’t learn them either and why it is time we started playing this game called life by a new set of rules. A message to the establishment.
Skip to the 2:00 mark to bypass the intro. But beware, a baby panda will fall out of a tree every time someone does this.
Life is always trying to teach us lessons. Some worth learning, others, not-so-much.
My generation definitely has it’s flaws. We are not perfect but we are humans. That means that more likely than not, we are simply symptoms of our own environments. Environments that you built for us.
I wonder, if you have even once, considered blaming yourself for the mess we’re all in?
I wonder if these lessons you keep trying to teach us are not specifically intended to hold us back; I wonder if you knew what you were doing all along?
1
“You really should learn to keep your mouth shut!”
Oh really, how has that worked for us in the past? It seems to me that keeping your mouths shut is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. You must have seen what they were trying to do. You must have wanted to scream out yourself. Why would you tell me to shut up? Why would you think that just because you were willing to be silent we should do the same?
I say scream louder! I say that when a stranger comes around you and tries to bend you over backwards and have their way with you, you should scream as loud as you can. I say you should do whatever it takes to get away from that attacker. Why wouldn’t we teach that lesson to the perverted factions of our existing political and corporate structures? Should we sit here and let you have your way with us just because you sat their and let them have their way with you?
2
“You need to eat some humble pie!”
Humble pie? Really? This coming from the monster who can’t quit telling me how great their product is? Pardon me if I ignore a message on humility from the same people that put professional athletes on pedestals while paying our educators a pittance? Excuse me while I ignore your “Do as I say, not as I do philosophy.”
You wouldn’t know humble if it smacked you in the face so why would you expect us to (1) know any different and (2) care, even if we did?
The system you designed is built around breaking out of our humility. You have taught us to love the taste of our own egos and we feast on them regularly.
We enjoy giving up our privacy and selling ourselves short. We enjoy our addiction to technology and we accept your propaganda as our reality. Just as long as the illusion of independence remains. But, I see your hypocrisy and I reject it.
3
“What do you even know? What have you really done in your life?”
What do I know? I know that we have sat by for far too long and watched you destroy this once great nation.
I know that you have perverted the free market and sold us all into the slavery of debt.
I know that your thirst for wealth, and gluttony for greed has lead to the most unstable economy in human history.
I know that you have made it impossible for us to find employment and infinitely more difficult for us to try and make it on our own.
I know that we may be young, but we have seen enough. We have watched you bastardize everything, with complete disregard for that moment when someone has to pay the piper.
We might not be good at a lot of things, but we are good at watching, and we have watched a lot.
We have watched an entire generation rot its brain on television and pervert itself on the internet. We have been complicit in burying ourselves in mindless entertainment and massive sporting spectacles. All in an attempt to distract ourselves from facing the harsh truth.
We fear that to be wrong means that we have failed, but it really just means that we are getting better at being people. It means that we have learned from our mistakes and are ready to turn from them. We are ready because we can no longer just sit and watch.
We can no longer watch you gorge on the earth and devour the resources that are supposed to sustain us all.
We can no longer watch you spend money as if somehow, we were never going to have to repay this debt.
We can no longer sit and watch you take us into wars, under the pretense of profit, or pride. We will no longer watch as you meddle with the middle class as if we were yours to play with.
We will no longer watch as you corrupt and infect the entire system of governance. We will no longer elect leaders that are purely puppets at the end of strings. Strings on which the large corporations can pull, any which way they want.
We will no longer sit as a society, stupid, and blissful in our ignorance.
We have sat silent for far too long.
4
“Wait your turn, you just need to pay your dues!”
Wait our turn? If we wait any longer there’s not going to be anything left to have waited for.
You don’t want me to pay my dues, you want me to pay your dues.
You want me to pay the same price you paid to get to where you are. The problem with that strategy, well one of them, is that you falsely assume that I want to be where you are. You think that we all need to do it like you did it.
You want us to play by the rules you played by because after-all, that is what you did and that is how the system is supposed to work.
You remember when you were my age and you were forced to eat your pride. You hated every second of it, but now it is your turn to pass on this despicable trait. It is your turn to have your finger on the trigger. You worked hard and waited a long time for this so who the hell are we to get in your way? Who are we to try and stop you?
Like the alcoholic father who beats his son, and the son who swears to never become that man. But the pawns have been played and the son soon finds himself as a drunken dad, with his own son bent over his knee and a belt gripped tightly in his hand.
It is the only thing you know.
It is what you have taught us and is the example you that have set.
You do not consider how the world has changed. You have not changed with it and you have not allowed us to change. You have stolen from us. In resources and in principle.
You refuse to admit that the way we did things has no relevance on how we can do them now. Very few things that were, still are, and even less of what is left will survive the next shift.
Do you not see what is happening? The system in which you are so desperate to have us play, is falling down all around you.
We have let you lead us down the wrong road for too long. I will not shut-up. I will not “do things your way,” and I will not stand by as you continue to abuse and enslave me, my generation and the ones to follow.
It is time you learned a few lessons. It is time that you learned something new.
Fuck your game!
“This is not how the game is supposed to be played!”
Your game is rigged. I am not sucking your corporate cock just so you can tell me how much money I don’t get to make. I will not let you dictate how I live my life, when I wake up, what I do every moment of my life and how I do it. I’m not going to let you sit there and watch, while I do all the work and you take home all the money. This is not the game I signed up to play.
I say we throw them all out. I say we show government and corporations alike that we are still the American people and that they should still fear us. We are here to hold them accountable now.
Instead of sitting here and blaming us for being lazy, stupid and ideological, I’ll tell you to look in a mirror and blame yourself.
You were the one who thought you could control us. You were the one who allowed the government to treat us like dogs. To pit us against ourselves and distract society from the perils of a populist agenda.
You are not allowed to get mad when the dog chews on the furniture, destroys your belongings, and digs up all the dirt in your backyard. You may not be angered when we tear the fence down and desire to run free.
But us? We get to be plenty pissed off!
You had the excuse of ignorance. But that is no longer acceptable and we now require results!
We will not learn your lessons. We will not play your games. We will not shut up, and we most certainly will not compare our accomplishments to yours.
Success should be measured on how solid a foundation one generation can lay down for the next. And by those standards, you have royally failed.
Sincerely yours,
#GenerationNext
#RaymmarRevolution
Imagine if you were forced to live in a portable jail cell. A dark, dingy dungeon that moved with you wherever you went.
A portable penitentiary. One in which you were inmate, the guards and the warden.
Now imagine never being able to leave that dungeon.
Imagine living your entire life inside of that cell.
Imagine that the whole world sees you as free but you understand the severity of the sentence that you must serve.
A sentence that has no beginning, no middle and no end. Cursed, from birth till death.
I keep you trapped in your own mental prison, but not a shiny new one.
There are no white walls or stainless steel toilets in this prison.
No luxuries from the modern world to save you from your solidarity.
I am a middievil dungeon. One that has enslaved man from the beginning of time.
Stone walls stuffed with the suffering of many, sealed inside of steel bars that never seem to budge.
There is a slow drip from the damp ceiling.
The drops of depression land on your head as if they were dew from the devil himself. Each day leaving the fresh sparkle of skepticism.
Each day another struggle to stand up.
Each day another demoralizing defeat at the hands of your own demise.
You reach out, grasping for whatever you can find, anything to help you cope.
Drugs, alcohol, and sex offer a temporary release but often end up reminding us of the evils we are trying to escape.
You stare into your phone, and then off into space, searching for someone, something more than superficial. But, no amount of social sharing is going to separate you from this solitude.
You feel the answer inside of you as if the key were hiding in plain sight. As if you could just reach down and unlock the door of depression and just let yourself out.
You feel like you might finally get to step outside and know what it’s like to live totally free.
As if there was a magical cure for this disease that devours you, but be sure that this dungeon has no entrance, and no escape.
I am not a place where others can come to visit. This is not a place that others get to see.
I simply am. All around. Inside of you. Inside of me.
Every so often that place leaves us be and for a brief moment we are shown that key.
A key that you think might set you free but its just another false sense of reality.
It’s just another hope that will never happen. A sight you’ll never actually see.
Some days you feel like you may not survive and some days you’ll feel like I might just set you free.
But you would be wrong, I’ll never let you leave.
I am your depression, this is your dungeon and you will never escape me.
Otherwise I Won’t Grow
Why hearing the the harsh truth might be hard but it will help you grow. If you let it.
Originally posted by Sean Smith on medium.com
I thrive on negative feedback.
Sugar-coating never helped anyone, it only prolonged the inevitable.
The only road to change is through the trenches of truth — objective, hard-to-handle feedback.
I was blessed that both of my parents were incredibly empathetic, they made me stay humble, and still help me to this day. But they’re not afraid to give it to me straight.
One thing their empathy taught me was how to objectively understand the information I consumed, and take it for what it was, feedback.
“There is no failure, only feedback”
– Highlight any text in this article to tweet it directly –
If I was messing around and I got hurt, I understood that I shouldn’t be angry that I got hurt, I should have been more careful while messing around. If I missed a game-winning shot in Basketball, I wouldn’t be mad as if I was entitled to the win, I would reflect on what I did wrong and out-do myself the next time I had the opportunity.
This made me a hyper-critic of myself, but it has helped me more entrepreneurially than any other trait I have.
There is a beauty about objective feedback. Sometimes it hurts, but it’s objective, and it means something. If you can take negative feedback, even when you want to emotionally retaliate, it will do eons for what you can achieve.
If Gordon Ramsey came into your restaurant today and snatched the food out of your fridge, ripped up your tiles and exposed the mold, threw it in your face and called you a “french pig” would you want to punch him in the face?
Sure, I probably would too. But would you listen? You fucking better.
When you’re given blunt-trauma feedback, it stings. You will instinctively want to resist, because we are wired to take the path of least resistance. If you can get a hold of that though, not resist, analyze instead, think, meditate, then plan to make it better, that’s innovation.
Sure, Steve Jobs got pissed when everybody was up-in-arms over the antennas in the iPhone 4 not working when you try to make a call. He even tried to play it off like there was no problem, “No you’re holding it wrong” then giving out free cases to help the problem that apparently didn’t exist.
You know what he ultimately did though? He fucking fixed it.
First he got pissed, then he tried to find an easy solution, then he thought about it harder, then he ultimately took the overwhelming negative feedback and pushed out a better model. Everyone called it innovation, but ultimately it was him overcoming his own ego, taking the feedback right in the face, and making a change.
You have to seek out negative feedback. When you do find it, you have to accept it, and react to it, or you’re just being an idiot.
Elon Musk says when he is talking to friends or customers about any of his products at Tesla Motors, he seeks out negative feedback.
It’s a ritual for him.
“Don’t tell me what you like about it, tell me what you don’t like about it.”
So his friends give him the truth.
“That handle is a bit odd”, or “that switch is a bit off.”
He listens to feedback and makes a substantial effort to make it right. That’s one reason he is so successful.
When the Model S’s batteries were being criticized in the media as if they were fiery cauldrons of death and destruction, Elon instantly got his engineers to add a titanium hull to the Model S to ensure no more batteries would be punctured and catch fire (even though only 2 did, compared to the 200,000 car fires a year on gas powered cars).
The point is to seek out negative feedback, empathize with that feedback, be honest with yourself, then make a change.
So, tell me I suck.
But more than that, tell me why I suck, please.
Otherwise, I won’t grow.
I am willing to pay whatever the price may be, for being unabashedly me.
– Highlight any text in this article to tweet it directly –
So… What’s Your Biggest Fear?
I was with a friend the other day, and as I was about to leave she asked me a simple question.
She looked me straight in the face, and asked me what I was afraid of.
She caught me a little off guard with that question, and I said to myself, “This bitch is trying to be my mamma.”
I couldn’t tell if I was bothered because of the nature of the question, or because I felt like maybe she could already see the answer.
I puffed my chest out like a proper macho-man and said, “I am not scared of anything!”
But then, I started to think
My heart sunk into my stomach as I came to the realization that I did have a fear. A huge fear.
One that I have trained myself to ignore, but a fear none the less.
But let’s back up for a second, I have a confession to make.
I am a total failure
I actually admit that proudly, and like to get it out of the way early.
I don’t usually lead with it, but hey, this is a blog, and not an HBO special, so I don’t have much time for character development.
I have failed repeatedly in my personal life, my professional career, and definitely in my political perspectives.
Quite frankly, I’m sure I will continue to make mistakes. Lots of them. I’ll continue to stumble, because this is the life I have chosen to live.
I will never apologize for being who I am or how I am, but this does not answer the question at hand.
I’m really good at faking it you see
I can twist you and bend you however I want.
The power of coercion is strong in this one. It has been since I was young.
Maybe that’s why I found the world of sales so comfortable. I felt right at home in a world where all that mattered was whether or not I made the sale.
It was easy for me
Living in a lie seemed normal. It seemed like everyone was doing it.
I’d do whatever needed to be done in order to get what I wanted. The problem was, I had no idea what I wanted.
Maybe that’s what led me to build a house of cards on top of all of those lies.
Maybe it’s that line of thinking that led me to believe that I could be happy in the life I was building, or maybe that is why I sat there that day with a gun in one hand and a phone in the other, wondering whether to pull the trigger or call for help.
Maybe that is why I am writing this article today. Maybe I was unwilling to admit it back then.
Maybe I was unwilling to admit that I was wrong, so I pushed forward. I pushed with no regard for the price that would one day have to be paid.
But that was then, and this is now.
That price has been paid.
In fact, I am still paying. It cost me 10 years, a wife, some strife, and almost my life.
It has pushed me to accept and reject many things about myself and the world around me.
It has forced me on this path that I am on, but this, again, does not answer the question at hand.
You want to know what I am afraid of now?
You want to know what I’m scared of today?
I fear that one day I will become successful, and the world will look at me as if I were a total joke.
I fear that one day I will stand at the top of this mountain I am climbing, and people will say that I lied, cheated, and stole to get here.
I fear that they will say that I hurt others in order to help myself.
I fear that the whole world will get to look at the person that I really am, and then decide to destroy me because they can no longer control me.
You see, I have faced all of my fears
I can honestly look you straight in the face and tell you that the only thing I fear anymore is finding out that I actually am a fraud.
That I am incapable of doing what I set out to do.
I am scared that at some point, I will have to turn back and admit defeat.
I am afraid to find out that the guy who “faked-it-til-he-made-it,” actually made it, and he won’t know that it is okay to stop pretending.
I am afraid that I won’t recognize success, and that I will keep on thirsting for more.
I am afraid that I will never find true happiness because of my inability to truly let people in.
I am afraid that I will be unable to realize that once you fake something for so long, it’s no longer fake, it’s just you.
I am afraid that one day it will all come crashing down again, but that this time I won’t be strong enough to handle it.
But even that doesn’t really scare me
Up until now, I’ve done this all before. I have been on this road, and I know where it leads.
I might not be able to see around the bend, but I have memorized the map.
I adjusted my approach in order to come around the corner just right: at just the right speed so as not to fly off the edge of the cliff.
I will make the turn, hammer the gas, and never look back.
This time is going to be different.
This time, I am becoming successful by being myself, and that is what scares me.
I am scared to be walking around this world naked – emotionally, and otherwise, completely unprotected, yet somehow entirely prepared to take the arrows and to face the consequences.
I am willing to pay whatever the price might be, for being unabashedly me.
There will be no shield, no barrier, no buffer between me and the real world.
No one to blame for my failures but myself…and that, my friends, is absolutely terrifying.
What is your biggest fear? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.
In this episode of RayDO uncensored…
Jeremiah Smith and I talk about sales, inbound marketing, buyer personas and the evolution of sales and technology into a power that could be misinterpreted as godly.
Be sure to connect with Jeremiah online at SimpleTiger.com.
Introduction and understanding the sales process
Why everything in life is a sales. We talk a little about my sales philosophy and how sales and life are all about relationships and therefore life equals sales. It is the foundation for everything I do and the premise for my first book.
Resources (links) for some of the books, products etc that we mention in the podcast.
- Never Eat Alone – A book by Keith Ferrazzi
- Square Space – Simple to use web building solutions
- Freshbooks – Cloud based accounting software
- 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – A book by Al Ries and Jack Trout
- Money Masters Documentary – A documentary about the concept of money
- History of Social Media & Future of Politics – Our recent podcast about social media and politics
- Debate.org – An online debate platform
Focusing in on the right ideas – 6:30
Bouncing around ideas for how to explore business growth. Finding what it is you do and why you do it. Learning how to simplify your message and finding what it is you are actually doing with the business. Focusing on listening and letting your customers guide your business strategies.
Leveraging relationships – 9:48
Understanding long and short term relationships, becoming an artist and finding your way.
Showing us that there are humans inside of your product or company? 13:00
Why larger companies should change their online philosophy, question their advertising strategies and focus on telling better stories.
Are corporations the evil villains? 16:25
Corporations, government and people. What is the difference and why do they suck? Does it really just come down to people making decisions? how much does a CEO or president affect the outcome of the whole?
Killing corporations with a thousand paper cuts – 18:22
How small companies are taking on the giants with small, hyper-focused products and solutions.
Instant gratification. Shopping online or in person – 23:38
Why I regularly pay more to buy things in person instead of online. Do real life interactions and personal relationships make a difference in the sales process? Competing with the big box stores.
A sleeper superpower – 26:30
General Electric and their connections to media, war and the strategies associated with it. Controlling the war debt, checking the IRS and auditing the Federal reserve. We talk Bitcoin conversation and the recent IRS ruling might affect it as well as the impact it might have on society as a whole.
The Bitcoin peer-to-peer supercomputer – 31:01
Understanding how big the Bitcoin network actually is. The computing power behind it and the implications of digital currencies and whether or not they can actually stop the process of information overflow.
Taking over the world – 34:14
Surrounding yourself with knowledge and striving to know more. Become a resource for your friends and the world, explore both sides of the issue. Know the facts and prepare yourself for a battle of ideas.
Is Technology Becoming God? – 37:56
This is a concept I am toying with and there will definitely be something we will dive into deeper in the future but I think we are quickly approaching a point where technology, life and religion are all blurred into one interface. Listen to my thoughts on the topic and listen to Jeremiah and I discussing this interesting topic.
What is good or bad? – 40:40
Is anything man makes inherently good or bad. Are things evil or is the way we use them evil. Guns, Bitcoin and then human consciousness. The animal instinct, is it neutral and how do we differ from raw nature.
Why do Aliens have to be the ones to find us? What if we find them first? 42:10
What if we are the ones that are going to find alien life in outer space. Why do we always assume that we are the ones that are going to be found? Why does no one allow for the possibility that we might be the pioneers of exploration on other planets and be the aliens that travel the solar system wreaking havoc.
Is #religion the perfect mechanism by which to control man forever? https://t.co/pcN17Xy9Xi via @RayTirado
— Raymmar Tirado (@RayTirado) May 15, 2014
Is religion the perfect mechanism by which to control man forever? – 42:50
Understanding knowledge and the interplay of science and religion as well as whether or not self enlightenment is a real thing. The challenge of faith and trying to truly explore good and evil.
Believing in a singular God – 47:42
What if we had to re-write the bible today. Understanding that we have absolutely no idea or ability to understand what a God might be. Could we ever really understand what a God of that power might actually be?
These are the conversations we love to have –
I hope you enjoyed this episode of RayDO uncensored as we bounced all around life, philosophy and love. Be sure to subscribe on Raymmar.com, grab us on stitcher and be sure to share us with a friend.
P.s. Hopefully you like the new format where we break down what we are talking about and give you some time stamps to reference. This way you can jump around and listen to the parts you want. We would rather you listen to the whole thing to take it all in context but I know you are busy so I will keep trying to make it easy for you. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Happiness is not what you think it is.
Dave Myers takes you soaring adventure, talks with Raymmar about finding happiness and explains how to maintain a positive attitude in life.
You may think you know happy because you have a good job, live a healthy life and have a few friends but guess what…
It could all be gone tomorrow.
In the blink of an eye you could lose it all and then the true test would begin. Then we would all get to see how strong you really are.
In a moment of broken brilliance, you would have to reassess everything you thought made you happy. You would be left looking deep into the dark abyss of what used to be your life and wonder what went wrong.
You would have to reach deep into your soul and have an honest conversation with yourself about what it is that truly makes you happy and you might just find out that you have had it wrong all along.
Maybe then you would realize that It’s is all up to you!
In that dark moment you might realize that happiness is more about understanding that you are perfectly flawed as opposed to thinking about flawlessly perfect you might be.
It is about understanding that you are not the picture of perfection you try to present to the world. You will find that it’s about understanding you’ll never be perfect and learning to embrace yourself anyway.
Happiness is the ability to know how imperfect you actually are and still being able to stand up to the world like none of it really matters.
Why? Well… because at the end of the day, very little of it actually does. In the real world, the only thing that matters is what you want to matter. What you decide to make important in your life.
“Happiness lies somewhere in between desperation and motivation and it often waits until we quit looking for it before revealing itself to us.”
You have to attack happiness by understanding that you were put on earth with a mission to do something amazing. However, you must also understand that it doesn’t have to be that way. It is up to you to you to make sure it goes down in the history books just how you see it. You, and no one else.
Doing that thing you love.
The power of doing or even chasing something you love is highly underrated. People talk about it all the time but very few actually do it. Fewer yet follow through and find fulfillment and financial independence doing what they love but for those who can it is a beautiful thing.
Most people are caught up in their own lives, trying to scrape by, feed a family, enjoy a day off once in a while and then waking up to do it all again the next day. Stuck in the status-quo, unwilling to let go.
Unwilling to jump into the deep end, fearing the water below might be too shallow. Feeling as if they cannot make the jump while watching others walk right up to the edge and take that leap of faith.
You sit there and watch others dive head first into happiness, while sitting back pretending to enjoy it for yourself from the sidelines. Fearing the failure that might just lead you to finally find it.
But, but, but… you just don’t understand…
Oh, I understand all too well. I understand that there is something in your life that you think is holding you back. Something that you honestly believe is keeping you from becoming the person you know you are supposed to be.
We all have our Kryptonite. Maybe a better description would be to say that we all hold on to what we think is our Kryptonite. Thinking that we are Superman and must succumb to its power. Not knowing that this is the real world and what we perceive as Kryptonite is really just a stupid weight we carry around in our heads.
“It’s an excuse you idiot, not some magical rock that has somehow hindered your ability to fly.”
We place these obstacles in our own path as if we were not resourceful enough to find a way around them. As if deep down we didn’t know that we could just walk around, step over, crawl under or otherwise get past this one thing that just seems to keep holding us back.
The reality is that we are often the only ones holding ourselves back. More often than not, you, and only you, are the reason for a lack of amazing accomplishments in life.
It’s all in your head.
You may not want to admit it yet but you know it’s true.
You know that these little voices inside your head are just the different versions of you, fighting among themselves to try and find a place inside of your consciousness. Fighting to find a place in a world of thought that begins and ends with you.
The more you get to know them, the more you can understand how to use them to enhance one another as opposed to letting them interfere with your life. You have to be willing to acknowledge the evil thoughts as well as the good ones. You have to accept the fact that you are after all, only human ,and that might make you feel weak.
But you are wrong. Knowing these things should make you feel strong. It should make you realize that the voices are just other versions of your personality. Why wouldn’t you have to learn how to interact with your own personality; it is just as important as learning to interact with the personalities of others.
In order to find happiness you have to learn how to take this power away from the people around you. You must learn how to live with yourself but this is just the beginning, learning how to let others live with you is step two.
Sometimes you don’t have a choice.
Sometimes failure just smacks you in the face.
No matter how you prepare or plan, life has a way of keeping things interesting that way. No matter how solid you think your foundation might be, there is always an earthquake brewing somewhere waiting to shake you from the foundation. Waiting to bring everything around you crumbling down in a moments notice.
Some people make it through life never having to face their 100 year stormbut some get to face them all too often.
Ours is not a choice of “if”, but more often than not a choice of “how”.
How will you react when your storm does hit because you cant buy insurance for that type of catastrophe.
The only thing you can do is learn how appreciate the scars because more often than not, they define who you are.
So you grind.
When life knocks you down, sometimes you just have to grind. Sometimes you just have to stay low, stay out of the way for a while and just survive.
These are the moments where we are reminded of how fragile our existence actually is.
This is when you discover how susceptible we truly are to the influence of the world around us.
In these moments you get to see how delicate the world can actually be ,but it is in these same moments when we most often find ourselves.
It is so often in these moments where we get tired of hiding from the world and become comfortable exposing our true selves to not only the world but to ourselves.
And then you find it.
Then you discover that even with the weight of the world on your back, you can make it.
You find out that even with the drag of depression, or the struggles of suicide, you can survive life.
You can decide to let the happiness find you. You can allow it to fill you and to flow through you completely.
It is in this moment that you discover your invincibility.
It is in this moment of desperation that you can show the world how strong you really are.
It is in this moment of weakness that our strength is truly tested and our resolve must be resurrected.
It is in this moment that we discover the true adventure of life, when we discover what this whole thing is really all about.
Fun because, once you have discover how to look this hurt in the face and still stand to hold your place, you will begin to see the emergence of real life super powers.
Powers you never knew you had.
The power to influence others and pass on the gift of happiness.
The power to pass on thought and move others through emotional empowerment, and the ability to help others understand their own path to happiness. A path you must explore for yourself. One we must all discover at our own pace.
Image Credit — Sumit Mantaporn
“There is going to be a new way to pimp people, and you and I have no clue what the ramifications of that are!”
Kyle Cross
Why the F**K do we cuss so much?
RayDO podcasts are completely uncensored conversations between myself and the people I interact with on a regular basis. My friends, business associates, artists, entrepreneurs etc. The people I think are going to help me change the world. I realize that sometimes our language might get out of line and we are testing this to see how you respond so please let us know what you think in the comments. Are we too vulgar? Do we use too much profanity? Please let us know what you think in the comments section at the end of the article.
Are you listening on Stitcher yet?
Stitcher allows you to save your place in these podcasts which helps when you are on the run or in the car. It also keeps track of which episodes you have listened to already and saves your place in each episode so you don’t have to miss a thing.
Meet MetroViking
If you do not know Kyle Cross… you are probably missing out. Do it now or continue exiting at your own peril.
Am I a journalist?
I hate the thought of being defined as a journalist, and I am definitely not unbiased so where does that leave me? I do not pretend that I can present news free of opinion, I just happen to think my opinion is pretty freaking easy for most people to get behind.
I do push people to discover the world for themselves and know who they really are on the inside but I also like breaking news and telling amazing stories. I understand how it could become a power that people would covet and I start to understand how the massive media empires might have found their way to where they are now.
The cool part of this medium is that you can help me get the story right. More often than not these stories become conversations among you and your friends. Most of the time I am jet trying to get the ball rolling and the conversations we share are the result of those sparks of thought.
My take-away from my time in the insurance industry
My time in insurance and how learning the back-end of insurance was getting to explore the inside of so many different industries. The complications of the sale, the size of the sale, the underwriting, the complexities of the relationships with multiple members of an organizations. Getting to see the inside of so many businesses gave me an early opportunity to learn from multiple businesses at a time while still standing on the outside looking in.
I also learned and developed the ability to understand and execute an intricate sales process. Insurance is a complex sale so I got to learn early on how to build meaningful, short term relationships in order to navigate the entire underwriting process. This was really a huge step in my developmental process because it allowed me to get a diverse understanding of a number of industries while trying to solve the same problem for all of them. It was really the first time I sold anything focused around an intangible item and that is a completely different sales than something the consumer might be excited to buy or an item with tangible value.
Why do I need to punch your clock
With the development of the Results only work environment we are finding that the corporate mentality is being broken and supplanted with another system of productivity. A system focused solely on the results of your work and not the monitoring of your efforts. Who cares if I can be more efficient than you? Who cares if it takes me longer than the next guy to do the work. I say pay me for the task at hand and forget about everything else. Pay me for the results I produce and forget about the rest.
Is this all a pipe dream? Can a work environment like that actually infect the current corporate climate? Can we bee freed from the time clock as a society? I have a feeling this is not the last we will be talking about this topic on Raymmar.com.
We are the future of search engine optimization
The progression of search engine optimization is shifting quickly. Having someone who can navigate the worlds of search engine results is very important and will become more so moving forward. As I build my audience I bring credibility any time I interact with you or your brand online.
When I mention people, products and services, they have the potential to take over the first page of search results pages. When I guest blog on your site you instantly get a bump because my name has authority through Google.
Believe it or not Google+ is going to become relevant in your online world. It will become your customized face for the internet. They will continue to force it upon you as they find a way to integrate with every piece of your life. That being said, content and authorship credits are now more important than ever and who is writing for your website is very important.
This is another concept that deserves to be dived into deeper and we will have more on these concepts coming up on the show shortly. Please subscribe and grab us on Stitcher to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
The tools I use to build my website
I am working on a detailed post on how to use these tools in more detail but for right now I wanted to let you know the tools I use to build and maintain my website. For less than $100 you can start building a website like mine.
WordPress theme: Lots of people ask me what theme I use for my website. So here it is. It is called the Enfold theme and it is absolutely awesome for the codaphobes like me.
WordPress: If you want to use a WordPress theme then you definitely need to be using WordPress so be sure and check that out.
Computers: The new official language of life
you can be completely self sufficient on your own with these little bits of technology at our fingertips. With the power of computer broadcasting anyone, anywhere can just turn on their own beacon and build a following. The problem is that in order to do this you must learn to speak computer. More and more this is fading away though and eventually we will all speak computer. Computers and human thought will eventually become one.
As we become more and more dependent on technology we open ourselves up to new opportunities at exploration of not only our world, but our brains. Very interesting concept and one that we will definitely be discussing more on future shows.
Are we losing touch through technology?
Because of this technological revolution, it will be more important than anything to have someone helping you navigate this online journey. Moving forward, a creative strategist will be as important to the success of your business as an accountant, lawyer, banker or any other aspect of your business that you currently rely on others to manage for you.
Do not diminish the value of the creative strategist as he is part sales executive, part psychologist, part marketing manager, architect of ideas and director of operations. We are the navigators of technology in a sea of information. We live in a time where information is created faster than it can even be processed. We cannot even keep up with it, how would you expect to?
You may not even understand the concept yet but competition online is coming for you and you may not even know about it so as a creative strategist we need to know design, web development, search engine optimization and more. We need to be fluent in technology and engineering and that is a tall tale for today’s business owner so it is becoming more and more specialized.
The companies who learn how to keep up will write the future of American economics. The rest will get left-out.
We Are Moving Towards A Subscription Based… Everything!
The misguided marketer
so many people claim to be marketers, designers, viral online monsters but then you look around and see that they are not really doing anything exciting. People with an idea for how you should build your online presence while not having built anything themselves.
How can you claim to know anything if you can not produce the results on your own? Are you only capable of producing as part of a team? Are you not able to execute your own initiatives? Why would I then want you on my team? I only want people who are capable of producing on their own. I will then take them and show them how to dominate as a team.
I often wonder if marketing agencies are great because of the products they represent or are the products they represent great because the of the people that sell them to us. Just think about that the next time you fall in love with some Nike advertising.
Regulate everything
Mechanisms for control. The government wants to get their hands on every part of your body. Smart grids that will allow them to regulate your environment, healthcare, retirement, and welfare is growing fast so soon we will see more than 50% of the voter base be supported by this government that has replaced religion, family and knowledge as the main support column for this crippled country.
Crippled by bureaucracy, crippled by regulation and stagnation of innovation due to a desire for indoctrination. The road we are on leaves us completely detached from any privacy and true expression of free speech. The political agenda and censorship through media.
We delve into these topics briefly but this is definitely something you can expect us to dive into deeper soon.
Next time with Kyle
We talk about the power of being able to manipulate images. being able to augment reality by overlaying digital interfaces for life that will eventually become wearable devices and later be implanted permanently. We are not far from a time where humans are able to plug into a machine and that is definitely not a discussion you want to miss.
Rebecca Merz takes us on a journey through conscious exploration with and without drugs
Disclaimer: In this episode of RayDO Uncensored, we cover topics ranging from mental health disorders to psychedelic drug use. While I do not condone excessive recreational drug use, I do have a unique perspective on some drugs and their power to heal and help develop the individuals who use them. If you are incapable of listening with an open mind, I recommend you go read or listen to something else.
Working at the Mind-Spa
Dr. Merz works at a place called Mindspa. Mindspa is a “Neuro-Disney” it’s kind of like a playground for your brain.
I have been on a quest to explore my inner consciousness for a few years now so I was instantly intrigued when I first met Rebecca. Her unique view on the world and the psyche always leads us to interesting conversations and I just thought I would let you in on one of them.
The exploration of consciousness
Is really a never ending quest… I can’t remember when my quest started but I have always been intrigued by the science of the world, desired to understand the universe, and for as long as I can remember, questioned the truth behind everything most of us take as reality on a daily basis.
I fell in love with cosmology and theoretical physics when I was 18 and that has lead me down some interesting paths of exploration. Some have come through the pages of books and others have come from other types of experiences.
You cannot get too far into the conversation about consciousness without someone bringing up psychedelic drugs. In this podcast we explore some of those drugs and experiences and we will definitely be talking about more of this in the future.
Not everyone should be out there looking to trip balls…
but… if you are ready to find out who you really are inside… I would recommend you at least look in to it.
It is one of the most eye opening experiences I have ever had in my life and I would recommend it to anyone who is ready to truly explore themselves deeper. Just know that this is not a toy and you should us extreme caution when experimenting with any of these types of drugs.
The board meeting in my brain
As I explore my consciousness, I quest to find a balance in my brain. With chemical instability in my brain and diagnosed depression, anxiety and more, I always struggle with how to control the voices in my head. Something I think many of us struggle with.
When I look to explore my consciousness, I talk about sitting all the voices down in a board meeting in an attempt to get them all on the same page. This is something that until recently I thought might be a waste of time, but the power of psychedelics has helped make that a reality, as difficult as that may be for some of my readers to accept.
Separating consciousness from the body?
How does that work? is our consciousness created in the brain? How can we best explore that consciousness and how is the best way to do it.
In this adventure we talk about my recent experience in a Sensory Deprivation Float Tank which was an interesting experience to say the least. It allows you to separate your mind from your body by equalizing the surrounding air and water temperatures to your body temperature. Couple that with the fact that you are completely buoyant in a salt water solution and your brain can definitely start to play some tricks on you.
The more you learn, the less you know
How does religion tie into what you start to question? Everything becomes a possibility and you tie that in with your own history and philosophy and it becomes a crazy road. It really is quire hard to explain to someone who is not currently seeking it or has searched for it and found it.
The further I get on this quest to understand the universe and world around me, the more I start to realize how little I actually know at all. This, to me, is the ultimate enlightenment. Understanding that we have absolutely no way of completely understanding the world around us.
“Our science cannot postulate that… maybe Quantum Physics can explain it?” – Rebecca Merz
While talking to Dr REbecca Merz, we even dive into some Quantum Physics and talk briefly about super-positions and trying to understand the physics of the world that surrounds us. We talk about our limited understanding of how things really work and that exploring altered states of consciousness might actually allow us to rethink the way we perceive the world and how we define what makes up reality.
These are just questions that I ask
Most all of my thoughts, writings and creative endeavors start out with a question. Exploring your consciousness and beyond is not different. Whether you are using a drug or not, exploring the deeper meaning of everything always starts with a question.
- What is the meaning of life?
- Is there a God? – The meaning of life is always followed by this one. Followed by where do we come from. All basic questions when trying to understand your purpose in life. Can there be room for God inside the scientific theory? Wouldn’t an all powerful God know how to make that true? And, how could we ever pretend to comprehend what a God would be in comparison to our consciousness.
Imagine the difference between a human and an ant… now multiply that exponentially and imagine the difference between us and God. We would be no more capable of understanding the world in which God exists as ants do at understanding ours.
- What is real? – Multiple universes, string theory, time travel, all possible in the realm of theoretical physics and something that leaves me asking all sorts of questions about what is real and what is perception. Especially after having your entire perception flipped on its head through some of my personal experiences.
- Where do we come from? – Evolution or creation. Is there room for both to have some credibility? Does one person have to be right? Are they both completely wrong? Religion is an interesting topic and one that we will be diving into in more detail in later podcasts but we cannot talk about consciousness and separate it from religion all-together.
- Why are we here? – Not just humans, but life in general. What is the purpose? This question always leads me back to what is the meaning of life. Really all of these questions all boil down to the desire to know as much as possible about everything so they end up wrapping into each other which can make it even more difficult to keep track of.
These are just a few. Most of which have mystified philosophers for thousands of years. Who am I to think that I might be able to understand or dissect such intricate topics but these really are the genesis for everything I do. My thirst for understanding drives me and the realization that I will never understand keeps me grounded.
Allowing yourself to look at the world through these eyes can be equally scary and powerful but it might just help you get out of your own way in life.
As always, we try to stay well rounded
Don’t like the topic on RayDO? I don’t really care, you can always turn it off, but, our conversations always end up taking us on diverse roads of discussion. We never stay on the same subject for too long as we explore how all of these things are interconnected and how they can affect your everyday life. Stay tuned all the way through, you might be surprised with how it all comes together.
Subscribe to Raymmar.com for more like this and be sure to grab us on Stitcher so you can get all of our new episodes directly to your mobile device.
Exploring enlightenment; Can you find it or does it find you?
Kyle Cross helps me break down the quest for enlightenment and how to participate in the conversation. We talk about why you should not be getting your news in 3 minute segments from the main street media and why you need to surround your brain with interesting ideas from other people in order to truly stimulate your own creative process.
We discuss the basics of enlightenment being the ability to recognize that you know absolutely nothing but desire to know everything. It is a self awareness and understanding of how significant you can really be but how much easier it is to allow yourself to become insignificant.
Between discussing the quest for enlightenment we dive into a bit of religion, drugs, graffiti and more. Kyle even dives into a bit of his personal background and talks about his childhood and even mentions growing up as an orphan.
Always A RayDO Twist
We talk about some of my favorite YouTube channels and how to find the information you need and want in the moment you need it. Quit pretending like you have to wait for the information you need to come to you, instead of just going out and working hard to find it.
You Tube References –
Here are the YouTube channels I mentioned in the podcast.
- V-Sauce – Awesome videos about science and life. History from a whole new perspective. I promise you will love this.
- Minute Physics – Quick videos that help you understand complex physics in a fun way.
- Smarter Every Day – Down to earth explanations of curious topics in science. #LoveThisGuy
- ASAP Science – More simple science that blows your mind. Short video crack.
- Raymmar.com – Obviously you should subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Digital Connections
We also explore the growing digital network that is enslaving all of us, discuss the possibility of an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) destroying it all and how instant communication could potentially lead to a completely new digital nation.
We touch on the evolution of online commerce and understanding how we might soon be able to plug into computers. Whether for gaming, porn, gambling or any other experience that will inevitably be digitized, the human experience will be merged with the digital life soon enough.
As always, we explain why we do what we do and show you how all of these issues are interconnected and how they can let you bring all of these experiences together in a completely new understanding on the meaning of life.
Introducing Sarasota Underground
In this episode of RayDO we talk about my current city of residence, Sarasota Florida and my plans for SarasotaUnderground.com.
We begin to explore the inner workings of a city that is dead set on staying the same and why some would restrict its growth.
We also talk about the difference between Bradenton and Sarasota and how people from the inside look at it versus the way people from the outside look at it. Why don’t they work better together and why this really is an amazing place to be and will be for the next few decades as the entire culture in Sarasota shifts towards a new generation of doers.
We Always Bounce Around
This is RayDO, and we do bounce all over the place so there might be a few more surprises along the way. You’ll just have to listen in to find out what else we talk about this time on RayDO.
Make sure you grab us on Stitcher and iTunes Podcast app so you can get the newest episodes delivered to your phone immediately upon release.
The listening experience is totally customized and if you have to turn it off in the middle of an episode it will save your place and start it back up from the same place.
Finally, be sure to subscribe to Raymmar.com to keep up with all of our progress and updates about what we are doing.
I Get Down With Chris Brown…
No, not that Chris Brown, dork… this is Raymmar.com after all, not some Entertainment News Nonsense.
Sarasota socialite and party personality, Chris Brown spends about an hour talking to Raymmar about the Sarasota party scene, politics and a little bit of philosophy.
Chris is not big into politics so I challenged his stance and made him a little uncomfortable in his own understanding of the state of our country. He could not fathom why anyone would want to purposefully destroy this country.
Is it really so hard to think that a government would do their best to oppress and control the people of the country? The same thing that has been done by those in power in all structured civilization since the beginning of time.
We discuss these hard issues, as well as cut more than just skin deep when talking to Chris about his “Catch and release” program and street reputation. I do have to say that off the mic, he had nothing but nice things to say about the woman he was dating and that he actually excited about the future of his current relationship.
I applaud him for that.
So often we are victims of labels that either others put on us or more often than not, we put on ourselves. Stigmas which we allow the world to hold over our heads. Judgments we let the world pass.
We must no longer stand for this social divisiveness. As long as you understand your flaws and work towards strengthening your weaknesses, no one can hurt you or hold you back. No one can keep you from being the best you, that you could ever possibly be. Don’t ever let someone tell you who or how you are supposed to be. You are the only one who knows these things.
Sincerely yours,
Perpetually Broken
Find us on Stitcher or snag us on iTunes for more convenient podcast experience.
Sons Of Hippies Stole My Drugs…
Is the message that sits on the back of my Wacom tablet. Courtesy of David Daly and Sons of Hippies. He gave it to me after one of their performances last year. Since then I have become good friends with the lead singer of that band Katherine Barnes.
In this podcast I interview Katherine about her recent tour across I-10 where she performed 14 times in 16 days. We get in to social issues a bit and the distraction that is social media and technology.
We also give you a taste of the band and their style of music. You will be riveted from the first note, to the very end. #YourWelcome!
Inside the Helmet…
Shares unique personalities within the motorcycling community, showcasing individuals who may change your mind about what you think a “biker” is.
The people you see riding on the streets (or passing you by) may be a little different than you thought. Inside the Helmet showcases true motorcyclists, the people who ride without regard for anything but the pure love of riding.
This first episode introduces Christy Conner, a girl who breaks the mold and loves life and riding, in spite of extremely difficult health challenges from a young age.
Christy is the kind of person (or rider) we should all strive to be, living each day for the pure enjoyment of it without hesitation.
The struggle to stand out.
Original article from: KMarie Photography
A few weeks ago Emily Owen (artistic enthusiast, and owner of Virgin Vintage) approached me about collaborating on a concept she had in mind, involving a little girl assuming the role of a make up artist, as a statement piece in terms of how beauty is viewed from the eyes of a child.
Here are a few behind the scenes shots of the first child, Arianna, in our little experiment (who happens to hold a special place in my heart aside from this project.)
It was incredible to see the creative process evolve in such an open ended mind. Before even meeting Emily, Arianna tossed around the idea of doing some sort of “rainbow” design, but as she gazed upon a smorgasbord of colors/glitters/brushes displayed before her there was no need for planning, she jumped right in layering color after color (and politely apologizing from time to time when she thought excess powder had fallen into Emily’s eye.)
After several wipes with a cloth to “clean up her lines” she settled on a look of “rainbows for eye shadow and pink rain clouds for cheeks” I can only hope that as this series continues to grow it serves as a reminder to be appreciative of the creative nature of children, be careful never to squander the “pink rain-clouds” or the uneven lines of innocence.
We take to much stock in squeezing ourselves into an idealized perfect..(guilty!) when perfect is the raw moment, a lip line that goes down to your chin, or a much needed spontaneous hug at the end of a beautiful collaboration.”
Thank you Arianna for teaching us all that perfection lives only in our hearts.
Warmest thank you to the talented KMarie Photography for documenting this splendid event.
