My 2022 Reflection

2021 EOY Beliefs:

• I need to figure out my life with the YouTube channel, personal, mental health, and my new life in Vegas
• I need to find a balance between work and play
• I don’t understand the “sitting in silence” BS approach, but I’m open to it
• I need to take a break because my life is in shambles
• If I want things to be done right, I need to do the task myself

2022 Q1 (Jan-March) Lessons:

• Sometimes people don’t change no matter how many chances you give them or how empathetic you are to their situation
• Continuing to pay experts or contractors when you aren’t happy with the work only builds resentment in the long run
• Self-care is not a luxury; it’s an investment in your self-confidence and respect in times of doubt.
• Letting go of people sucks ass, especially when you’ve established a long-term relationship
• Relying on one person is dangerous and an unnecessary threat to the business; this includes myself
• Working hard just because you feel like you “should” only creates more anxiety
• Working hard and lack of vision creates even more anxiety, which feeds into the negative feedback loop
• Paid teaching in the form of keynotes forces you to reflect about what you know, don’t know, and to to distill your experience into your best ideas
• Your best insights, ideas, and aha moments come from silent reflection
• Your worst ideas come from reacting suddenly
• “Burnout is not a badge of honor”
• The key to feeling good is noticing the moments where you feel happiest, reflecting on those moments, and actually doing more of it
• The best care for burnout is spending time doing what we love with our friends and making new ones in the process.
• Integrity can’t be taught overnight and is gained intentionally through experience; so don’t work with people who lack it.
• When working with others, focus on the position – not the person. Praise specifically, and criticize generally
• Financial capital = Mental Wealth x Relationship capital
• Just like compound interest, it doesn’t grow overnight
• Mental health is celebrating the wins (no matter how small) and showing self compassion when you fall on your ass
• “Whatever happened in the past made you who you are today. I love who you are. And wouldn’t want you to change anything” – Wendy Tse
• The biggest gift you can give others is the gift of connection; no one likes planning, but everyone loves attending events
• “Love is who you are, not what you seek”
• Dishonesty is like cancer; it spreads rapidly. Yes, you can’t control it completely, but if you find it you better cut it out ASAP
• Friendships compound faster than financial wealth
• If you have to push your client to honor their word and commitment then it’s a red flag. They probably belong to the streets.
• “It’s important not to sacrifice all your small enjoyments in pursuit of larger, longer-term goals” – Mate

2022 Q2 (April – June) Lessons:

• It takes about 90 days for a video to take off and see if it performs
• “Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming” – Robert Tew
• “One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and will be someone else’s survival guide”
• If you respect your business and yourself, don’t ignore red flags. Addressing red flags and setting boundaries is an act of self-respect.
• “Let go of the illusion that it could have been different”
• “Always remember that your situation is NOT your final destination. The best is yet to come.”
• You don’t have to look for values; all it takes is going through old pictures and noticing the patterns of when you felt happiest
• God works in mysterious ways; it’s beautiful.
• The time you spend away from work is equally, if not more important, as the time working.
• If you can’t tell the difference between working and having fun, you’re on the right track.
• I had my most profitable moments when I focused on quality and gave myself space to come up with better ideas.
• Noticing a pattern ➡️ Reflection ➡️ Intent ➡️ Action ➡️ Habit ➡️ Compound Growth
• Live (in person) > Virtual
• “Once the vision becomes clear, opportunities are easier to spot and you can act on them with intention.”
• If you want to make things more personal, add more friction. If you want to free time, automate. If you want to build relationships, add friction to make it more personal.

2022 Q3 (July – September)

• If you want better ideas, follow your favorite thought leader’s thought leaders.
• Clarity is the art of asking profound questions.
• The secret to building friendships on social media is appreciating the work that gets overlooked or ignored.
• Every creator has a piece of work that they spent countless hours on that got ignored. The key to building a relationship is identifying that piece.
• Everything becomes easier when you invest the time into vision.
• Memes are the sixth love language; they give permission to communicate what we’re really feeling and think through comedy.
• It’s our responsibility as CEO and founders to communicate our vision in the most frictionless way as possible.
• When you pay someone, try asking, “What can I do for you to make your job easier?”
• “Comparison is a form of self-sabotage and will steal your joy.”
• It’s our responsibility to find and work with secure partners by leading as a secure partner.
• Don’t chase deals; build relationships.
• As long as you’re in executive state, you can trust yourself to take the right actions when the time is right.
• When you hire the right person, everything feels effortless.

2022 Q4 (October – December)

• “Be careful of who has access to you. They can affect everything – your vibe, your energy, your peace.”
• Planning events can feel like a chore, but when you realize that 90% of your friends also feel alone, it’s a service.
• If you focus your goals down into a “12 Week Year”, it feels way more productive, focused, and fun.
• Meeting new people is as easy as finding and aligning with things you’re passionate about.
• “You got this. One day at a time. You are resilient, courageous, and capable. Be proud of yourself. It isn’t easy enduring depression / anxiety” – The Anxiety Man
• Aligning your life around setting events to connect others is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, not only for yourself but for the people you connect together.
• The most successful people aren’t always the most productive, they know how to find and create winning opportunities for productive performers.
• Successful people are also degenerates too.
• Meditation is like the toothbrush for your mind.
• “The greatest act of self-love is to no longer accept a life you are unhappy with. It is to be able to state the problem plainly and in a straightforward manner.” -Briawna Wiest
• Don’t assume intent by what people say; their true intent lies within their actions.
• Saying “no” is more powerful than saying “yes”. By saying “yes” to opportunities that compromise your values, you may be solidifying a relationship based on resentment that eats away at your soul and questions your sanity.
• Pushing or forcing your way into a deal only leads to resentment.
• The best opportunities and life experiences come from the quality of your relationships.
• The best relationships, both business and personal, are formed by noticing what people are focusing on, helping them unconditionally, and expecting nothing in return.
• Don’t be afraid to help people for free; if you serve 100% and expect nothing in return, the people you serve will always remember and will want to support you. The universe works in mysterious ways.
• When feeling uninspired, unmotivated, or down on your luck, the best thing to do is spend time with other successful people. The energy is like COVID – it’s infectious.
• The fastest path to burnout is doing it all by yourself.
• You as the founder and visionary are responsible for content, strategy, and relationships.
• Make it a priority to surround yourself with positive, ambitious, kind, and uplifting people. The vibe is like COVID – it’s infectious.
• Stop giving third, fourth, or fifth chances. Their actions say everything.
• Surround yourself with others who have the same goals as you and are doing way better than you.
• Ego kills personal and professional growth.
• Give out everything freely and expect nothing in return. Let the universe take care of the rest.
• Stop getting in the way of your own progress and growth.

2022 EOY Beliefs

1. Following thought leaders for better ideas.
2. Clarity through asking profound questions.
3. Building friendships on social media through appreciation.
4. Investing time into vision for easier success.
5. Using memes as a form of communication.
6. Communicating vision in the most frictionless way possible.
7. Asking “What can I do to make your job easier?” when paying someone.
8. Comparing ourselves to others is like self-sabotage through a thousand cuts.
9. Leading as a secure partner.
10. Building relationships instead of chasing deals.

2022 EOY Paradigm Shifts

1. The importance of self-care as an investment in self-confidence and respect.
2. The dangers of relying on one person and the importance of avoiding negative feedback loops.
3. The value of silent reflection in generating insights and ideas.
4. The importance of noticing the moments where you feel happiest and making an effort to do more of it.
5. The significance of spending time with friends in combating burnout.
6. The importance of integrity in personal and professional relationships.
7. The idea that mental health involves celebrating small wins and showing self-compassion.
8. The power of giving others the gift of connection.
9. The danger of dishonesty and the importance of cutting it out promptly.
10. The idea that the time spent away from work is equally, if not more, important as the time spent working.

What if making $30K per month wasn’t as hard as I thought it was? 🤔

Today I’m feeling in flow and grateful for my recent him. Not going to lie – I haven’t felt this driven in a while. Maybe its the fact that I’m starting to see the fruits of my labor pay off. I’m starting to visualize and see the glimpses of the $10K, $20k, and even $33k months.

It makes me wonder – what if it isn’t as hard as I thought it was?

Ideally I would love to invest into an entire in-home creative team and help them hit their goals, but I
think the thing that is biggest threat is seeing consistent cashflow. I see these fluctuations of $6K days, then $0, which can be a little unsettling.

So how can I creak more cashflow for the business? Here are somethings that are
on my mind:

1. Setup a Patreon, donations, or crowdsourcing subscription (low cost, but might distract me from the bigger opportunities)
2. Focus on a maximizing AdSense ($0 cost for viewers, sometimes inconsistent, YouTube retreat)
3. Create more high value education on YouTube about inbound sales strategy that lead to my coaching services
4. Pro Group/Paid community (Futur style) – low ticket MRR
5. Mastermind High Ticket- Mike Kim, Vanessa Law, or Chris Do style
6. Strategic Partnerships (Tom, Terry, & more)
7. SaaS Affiliates (high commissions , MRR, low chance to dissolve the affiliate program)
8. Product affiliates (high search volume, build familiarity, “oh I use that too,” one off though)
9. Podcast via Riverside and In-person podcast event EOY, build authority, special asset + commission for products & services

To be honest, I’m really excited about this new stage in my YouTube channel and business. Instead of just focusing on revenue, I’m focused on impact and service. To be honest I haven’t felt this in a while.

Sometimes it’s best away to step away when triggered

Today I’m feeling really exhausted. Over the last few days, I’ve gotten personal leads for my coaching, a partnership deal from tom’s agency, a killer book review video from Bash, built out a outbound DM system for Terry, and wrote out a boy hour presentation for PIP University that’s 355 slides. So I’m completely dead. Grateful, but dead.

Permally I feel like I’m growing in so many ways. I find myself outsourcing things for my Youtube channel. Even my sir sits is growing and I’m chaining up my deep half guard, I’m proud of myself our these last few weeks?

At the end of the day, I’m still human. I’m reflecting on my last 2022. I’m dealing with the five-year anniversary with my dad, and survival state is inevitable. And I totally lost my shut with one of my sales guys today Good thing I was being enough to disengage, but it begs the question … what
triggered it?

When I look back, a part of it is ego and dealing with other people’s ego while managing mine. In most cases, I find myself pretty good at listening and asking questions. But when it’s not received and someone I’m overseeing isn’t listing that’s when I get pissed. I know deep down inside the kid means well, but we agreed to a certain play to run the script. It’s not like I didn’t ask for input, before that. And this is how I want to ran my agency with my brand.

If it doesn’t align, that’s fine, but we can’t together. I think about what also upset me is the pushback with feedback and the junior experience. Like jiujitsu, experience is king this seals
black belt.

In terms of rules that are imprinted to me, it’s Kaizen (life-long learning), creative autonomy, and authenticity. Then they that both me is the lack of integrity or lack of fact with the communication.
Perhaps he doesn’t see the long-term.

Feeling empty is often a sign of growth 🌱

Ever have one of those days where you just feel empty? That’s exactly how I’m feeling. Maybe it’s because I started No Fap again or I’ve had a series of wins with the dopamine dump, but I’m just feeling a bit empty today.

Yesterday I spent my morning and afternoon doing jiu jitsu and spent my night with Sarah. But I can’t help but feel a bit lonely pursuing my goals and dreams. To be honest, I’ve been feeling a bit exhausted for days now. Maybe it’s all the reflecting I’ve been doing and the emotional energy investment. Or maybe I haven’t been spendly as much time with friends.

The one thing I will says is that I notice how I feel. In the past I would have felt uncomfortable with the stillness and silence. But I think I’m okay with it now. Deep inside I know how I feel isn’t always rooted in reality or the truth.

In fact, it’s during these times where I feel uncomfortable is when I’m growing the most. I’m about to hire the rest of my content team, jiu Jitsu is flowing along, and I’m about to disrupt the inbound sales game on YouTube. I’m learning to let go of deep rooted limiting beliefs and even starting Muay Thai. Maybe I should be more forging to myself and go for a massage or take a planned day off.

I just know times like these when I purposely take time off to reflect is super cathartic for me. If not only helps with creating fire content, but also more importantly it’s beneficial for my mental health. It helps me become a deeper and more profound thinker and more importantly a better person.

The other day I stopped to reflect on my growth in 2022. A year ago I believed that I had to control everything in my business or it would break my business. And a year later when I went to Vanessa Lau’s Supercharged Mastermind Event, I realized maybe it’s not knowledge holding me back. In fact, I know a lot. Perhaps it’s this limiting belief of doing everything myself and going through these cycles of burn out.

And when I noticed myself making hires, taking time to myself to reflect, and prioritizing strategizing, I was like… “Who is this person?!?”. And then I was like “Oh yeah. This is the person who I was always meant to be.”

Dad it’s been five years since you been gone.

Dear Dad,

It’s been five years since you’ve been gone. I can’t believe how much has changed.

Chris and Kristen bought a new house and are moving together. Mom is obsessed with Bobo, cooking him warm meals everyday. Who would have known that she would love dogs so much? And here I am in Las Vegas, living a life as an online creator, doing the Youtube and online business thing. Looking back, it’s crazy how I’m not doing pharmacy anymore.

As I reflect about these last five years, a part of me wishes you were still here. But I know that wasn’t in the universe or God’s plan. Sometimes I feel like it was so unfair. Just as we stated getting closer and build our relationship, it felt like you were taken away. To be honest, it’s taken a lot for me to process our relationship. Sometimes I feel like so hurt that our relationship was the way it was. My only regret? I wish I started on our relating sooner. Think about our last conversation in the hospital and how you said… “Sometimes doesn’t go the way you want it to and that’s okay.”

When I reflect on our last conversations together, I try to think … “how did losing you work for me, not against me?” The biggest they? Sometimes people ask me, “what made you leave pharmacy?”. A big part of that was because of you. As hard as it was watching you go, I think a lot about our conversation about regret. And how you encouraged me to pave my own path, reminded me about my grit, and that if I ever needed help that we’ll figure it out as a family. To be honest, I’ve never felt more supported in my life. And in times of hardship, I try to remember that.

Not going to lie – it’s hard doing things alone. Sometimes I feel like I’m by myself, especially after all the setbacks and breakups I went through during these past few years. I feel like T’Challa when he says, I’m not ready to be without you.” As crazy as it sounds, when I feel like the are hard, I feel like you’re watching our me. A “miracle” always happens, whether it’s an opportunity or meeting really kind and genuine people.

But the biggest gift, I’ve received during them fires in these times of hardship is a heather relationship with myself. I find myself connecting with my feelings more, respecting my body, and actually getting therapy. And in the process of building a heather relationship, I find that I can empathize size with the struggles that you probably had navigating life without a dad and finding your own path.

And as crazy as it sounds, I feel like our relativity and bond is stronger than ever. Is that weird?
Anyways dad. I just wanted to say, I haven’t stopped thinking about you even after five years. I hadn’t forgotten about my promise to you about taking care of mom and the rest of the family.

Thank you for watching over us. I miss you and love you dad.

Love from your oldest son,

Kevin

Spending New Years 2022 by myself again

One of the biggest things I notice myself feeling is lonelines.

Here I’m at La Luna in Henderson by myself. When I’m alone, I feel like I haven’t made any progress year after year. It feels like when I was 7 years old, by myself with no one to talk to.

To be honest, I cant remember the last time I completely spent my new years alone. Even last year, I was at Kevin’s place hanging out.

Even though it seems like something is up, every time a friendship doesn’t “work out”, I notice myself taking the responsibility on myself and feeling its my fault automatically.

It’s something that I took from my childhood with dad. I felt like I had to walk on egg shells and felt the need to resolve anything. Even when it wasn’t my fault, I felt like it was my responsibility to resolve other people’s feelings.

As I grow older and look back I realize… I was… How is a freaking 5,7,10, or even 17 year old supposed to resolve that?

When I think about the impact that this has had on me, no wonder why I struggle so much with my love life. I feel all this overwhelming responsibility to resolve other people’s BS even when I’m not responsible for it. How can I be responsible for it?

We can’t be held responsible for other people’s feelings. All I know is that I’ve been feeling avoidant about dating and intimacy, I feel like I’m not good enough or that I don’t desire to love or
be loved no matter what I do. When I think about “breaking the cycle, ” I feel overwhelmed with the emotional effort of building a relationship, shooting my shot, and trying my best, only to have everything come crashing and burning over again. Even though I know this is a huge assumption, this is how I feel.

Not going to lie apart of me is scared shitless. But I want to change that.

So what are some new intentions I want to establish in 2020?

① Attract, not push

There’s times in both in my love and business life when everything just feels effortless and time just flies by without me noticing it. What if I could attract the relationship I want just by dong the things I love? How can I throw myself in more environments where I’m just in flow? Jiu Jitsu? Yoga? Coffee shops? Some new things?

② Collaboration; not co-dependent

When I think about the previous partners and even the relationships I was in, I felt that my love life revolved around them. As a result I felt more suffocated than ever or vice versa. Just like my previous point, what if I could create a relationship that isn’t based around codependency? How can we create a relationship that isn’t disruptive and exponentially feeds our highest and greatest
purpose? How can we support each other without being co-dependent? How can we augment our strengths and lives and avoid disrupting each others lives?

③ Self compassion: Practice being okay not having all the answers

I don’t have all the answers; nor should I. It’s a relationship and we need to accept the responsibility that it’s both of us, not just me or them. This doesn’t absolve me of all responsibility of course. But I do what I can and most of all cultivate the relationship with myself so I don’t dump all my BS on my partner.

To end this off what I realize is that I don’t have all the answers, but I’m better off asking questions to help me come up with better solutions,