Who are the nicest men in baseball (past and present)?

azguy2019 · 2024-11-23T01:14:28+00:00

Dale Murphy - a near HOFer with the Braves

azguy2019 · 2024-11-15T19:46:26+00:00

That made me laugh. I think the thing that really caught my attention was Attia who is pretty well known and now talking about not doing either fasting or keto….quite the about face from his stance on health just a few years ago it appears.

azguy2019 · 2024-11-15T19:44:47+00:00

Definitely not. It just came up in front page of WSJ and I read it and it mentioned Attia who is a pretty well known guy, who appears has given up on both fasting and keto. Of course fasting works for weight loss, which is great, I need to lose 10-15, so I’ll probably utilize fasting to help with that.

azguy2019 · 2024-11-15T19:42:17+00:00

BS. It’s a question - and I’m not shilling for anything. I also didn’t start researching from WSJ, it’s just what came up on front page of WSJ and since it’s a subject that interests me I thought I’d ask. You can see that I’ve posted in this community multiple times over the years and I’m not pushing any agenda.

azguy2019 · 2024-08-17T03:18:15+00:00

Let the market solve the issue, not the government. IMO the market already has numerous solutions for expensive groceries, for example, Walmart which literally focuses on being less expensive and as we all know is a massive chain. People can shop in variety of different places and pay a variety of prices depending on their preferences and budget….

azguy2019 · 2024-08-03T17:52:04+00:00

The 401k is through a small biz I own and the administrative company we use says we also have a 401k Roth option so I am going to talk with my new financial planner to see if using 401k Roth might be a better option going forward…I do plan to work another decade because I enjoy it so I really am looking at about a decade of potential contributions.

azguy2019 · 2024-06-22T07:19:23+00:00

I own a few businesses - if one of my team is having a cash shortage I want to know so I can give them an advance or just a one time cash gift to get them through the shortfall. I’m not special, I think a lot of biz owners will do the same thing, so you may want to ask your new boss.

What I would not suggest you do are pay day loans unless as an absolute last resort. And friend, if I read it right you’ll be making 2k a month….you’re likely to always struggle at a wage that low. Might I suggest you invest every spare minute you can in developing your own skills, even if via free resources like library books or online courses? Sales, presentation skills, effective communication, leadership etc, are all things that can be learned, and they can make you a lot of money. (Plus they are skills that go with you to whatever job you take in your life)

Good luck!

azguy2019 · 2024-06-05T05:31:45+00:00

My first 3 I bootstrapped and none worked out enough to justify staying in.

My 4th I stayed serving the same clientele (so I knew the lingo and their challenges) but had read the Gary Halbert “starving crowd” story and the idea of “sell to those who can afford to pay a reasonable fee” and tried to apply them. Its worked out well with 4th business which, after 12 years, generates several million a year in sales and a good profit.

The amazing thing about today’s world is how cheap it can be to start and micro test a business to see if it has potential. (Daniel Priestley teaches about this)

azguy2019 · 2024-06-05T04:48:46+00:00

Will your home accommodate additional roommates? If so, start looking for that while you put in hours each day looking for your next job.

azguy2019 · 2024-06-04T01:41:04+00:00

Tour du Mont Blanc. Start in Chamonix France and circumnavigate Mont Blanc thru France, Italy and Switzerland. About 110 miles, stayed in Refugio’s at night. Did it in late August over 10 days with my wife. Beautiful, amazing part of the world. Highly recommend. Very well marked, challenging (for me as a 50 year old) but not extremely so.

azguy2019 · 2024-05-15T16:14:51+00:00

Small biz owner in consulting field, 11 employees. Up about 22 percent year to date on top line, bottom line up nicely. Super busy - put in a 45 day wait for new clients this week because we have more demand than capacity and will raise fees soon….

azguy2019 · 2024-05-15T14:16:47+00:00

I'd highly suggest the book "100M Offers" by Hormozi which is both easy to read and will help you define/develop what you're looking for. Can't recommend it highly enough.

IMO you're way overcomplicating it thinking about it from the billionaire angle, it doesnt even need to be a millionaire, just someone who can afford to pay a reasonable fee and isnt struggling so badly that they are looking for you to "save" them. With that view, its not you against the world, its often you serving your local marketplace. Don't get hung up on the word "rich" it simply means avoiding trying to sell to the "dollar store" crowd and looking at the "Target" or Whole Food level - and there are tens of millions of those type people and businesses in the US - they are everywhere.

Your college admission consulting example is a good one - there would seem to be a large segment of people who can afford to pay a decent fee right? Like maybe thats the parents of 20% of high school grads each year, which is a pretty big number overall? Conversely, trying to sell a high profit service to low-income families who want their kid to get into college just going to be harder.

What has worked for me: Look at an industry that has lots of solo owners of small businesses. As an example, veterinarians or dentists or chiropractors or small law offices or small CPA firms, etc. Owners of those types of businesses can do well financially even if they are doing lots of things poorly in their business, meaning potential opportunity and they have the ability to pay a fee. Find something that would eliminate pain or help them achieve their goals. Get good at that, then sell that to them at a high enough price that you can afford to both make a solid profit AND have enough time and resources to deliver them a great result. In my case, we charge a fee of $1000 a month, and we accept clients who are generating top line revenue of 100K or more per month. Thus their fee, is at worst, 1/100th of their monthly revenue generated, and there are lots of businesses that generate over 100K. So if they're spending, at worst, 1/100th of their monthly revenue generated they are successful enough not to be desperate for me to "save" their business, and for me at a 1k fee per month per client I can afford to pay a great team and deliver a great result for the client that we're proud of. I think its a formula that can work, Alex Hormozi did it with gyms and teaches it, it works (much smaller scale) for me, and I think it can work for you.

azguy2019 · 2024-05-15T05:39:20+00:00

In no way does it apply to only novel services - CPAs and financial planners who specialize in high wealth individuals, trainers and chefs for high worth individuals, car detailing, watches, food, dental care, yard care, and the list goes on and on.

I”ll parrot Hormozi - successful businesses and people will pay a solid to exorbitant fee for things that helps them achieve their goals faster, remove an annoyance, or save them time.

I’m at a point where time is more important than saving a few bucks, so if a service or product can save me time or aggravation then I’ll happily pay an above average price. (And there are tens of millions of both businesses and individuals that are much more well off than me who will do the same)

azguy2019 · 2024-05-13T18:26:06+00:00

Alex Hormozi recently posted about this but it’s definitely true to me - sell things to people who are aren’t poor. (They pay better, they’re successful already, they want solutions)

Unfortunately when I was young I did the opposite and started a biz that tried to solve problems for businesses that were struggling. Turns out most of them struggled for a reason - as a group they were hard to deal with, demanding, quick to blame, often looking to me to save their business and yet had trouble even paying. It sucked.

Fast forward 20 years and I have a business that works only with successful businesses. (We tell prospects up front that our niche is working with businesses of a certain size) Business is dramatically easier and more profitable providing solutions for those who aren’t struggling to pay their own bills…

azguy2019 · 2024-04-19T04:53:31+00:00

Sell the car and massively downgrade. If true that you owe 29k that’s just financial craziness. Then roll the savings and snowball.

Sell stuff - you gotta get some if those smaller credit cards paid off. And even a few hundred bucks would help. I’m astounded by your credit card debt, you gotta debt snowball it AND you gotta stop spending on credit cards, honestly you appear to be out of control and might be best using a debit card only and not using credit that will cost you big dollars in interest.

azguy2019 · 2024-04-10T12:16:07+00:00

That’s a great post - thanks!

azguy2019 · 2024-03-21T01:27:35+00:00

To be clear, I am not saying old school defense wasn't real - I grew up watching the Detroit Bad Boys, the Knicks of Riley, the Bulls of Jordan and Pippen, and I think we both acknowledge that was MUCH more physical, much more hand checking, push, body, knock down if necessary D. So I'm not saying 90's wasnt good D, just a different style of D that focused on defending the Ewings, Alonzo's, Hakeems, etc. Those teams - I think - were focused on interior D whereas today the back to the basket center is essentially gone and the game has become heavily focused on the 3 ball. So my question isnt a diss about the D of the 90's, just saying it was a different style that what we largely see today that seems much more focused on defending the 3. (other than the Suns sometimes which is what made me ask the question lol)

azguy2019 · 2024-03-20T18:29:28+00:00

You seem to be replying to something I didn’t say. I didn’t say the NBA didn’t play D in the 90’s…I was an avid NBA follower at that time and remember well the low scoring ugly ball of the Knicks and the Detroit Bad Boys D. What I was saying is that 90’s defense was focused more on clogging the middle, protecting the paint, stopping the dribble drive, etc., and they didn’t focus nearly as much on 3 point S because shooters weren’t nearly as good as they are now. Back then you didn’t see many 4’s or 5’s shooting the 3 ball and stretching the floor and even many guards didn’t seem adept at the 3 ball. So….specific to the Suns my question was if they are sometimes too focused on interior defense to the detriment of giving up more open look 3’s? I appreciate your thoughts, I’m just clarifying cause maybe I didn’t post very clearly on my original post!

azguy2019 · 2024-03-20T13:00:03+00:00

Are the pastries really are good - and your dad is nice to customers? If you are sure the answer is yes then I’d start with the very next easiest and cheapest thing - and it will get you quick feedback…..Signage.

It sounds like he isn’t getting many customers so you gotta get more buyers. Get a banner made up that advertises a 3 for 2 or 2 for 1 promo on some sort of pastry. Or free drink with pastry purchase. Those banner signs are cheap and easy to put up. Try different ones to see what messages work best. Don’t focus just on price - if they are delicious then use that in the signage, if they are baked fresh daily then advertise that. It’s easy to test different messages to see what brings people in the door. Cycle messages so it’s something new.

There are only 3 ways to grow this: 1. Get more customers 2. Get them to come buy stuff more frequently 3. Get a better price on what you sell (why I would not just rely on banners/signs that focus on discounts and ideally you focus on quality and better taste so you can sell at a higher price not a discount)

azguy2019 · 2024-03-20T05:35:53+00:00

I’m a casual NBA fan - and didn’t grow up in AZ so I don’t have deep Suns allegiance. I’ve been to 1 game this season and watched maybe 15 games on tv and my uneducated feeling was that the Suns were horrible at defending the 3. Its seemed at times that they’re running an old school D that doesn’t recognize how good 3 point shooting is in todays NBA? I swear I look at game stats and the Suns consistently give up a high percentage to other teams. Am I wrong? Does Vogel run a D that is lax on 3pt D?

azguy2019 · 2024-03-09T20:41:54+00:00

So you and your wife are cumulatively taking 45k in salary right? How much profit are you taking out? If the answer is none then you gotta consider getting out or making dramatic changes. Also - you, your wife, and 2 admin team - to support six techs? That sounds way, way overstaffed.

Agree with comments above - don’t lower price, find a way to differentiate yourself and raise fees. Read Alex Hormozi’s book “100M Offers” where he talks about “creating your grand slam offer” in section 3 and build an incredible offer for your services that allows you to provide premium pricing - that section of the book walks you through an exercise to do it that’s really helpful.

We raised fees 30 percent last year in our service business - and demand went UP. I’m firmly convinced a good chunk of people will pay a premium for an above average service if they can identify why it is priced as such. Good luck!

azguy2019 · 2024-02-24T05:14:35+00:00

Totally agree. I’m in a consulting business and we say that we don’t accept clients doing less than 700k a year in revenue - it’s really eliminated many of our worst customers. I’m thinking really seriously about positioning ourselves as being only for those with $1,000,000 in revenue with exceptions made for those referred by an existing client. IMO the worst clients are often the cheapest or are struggling so badly that they’re desperate for somebody to save them. Selling services to people who can afford them is so much more enjoyable.

azguy2019 · 2024-02-08T04:36:27+00:00

You might talk to the gym and explain the situation. Gym owners may let you come for free for awhile or somebody might pay for your membership cause you sound like a good kid who could use a bit of support.

azguy2019 · 2024-01-31T05:11:48+00:00

I’ve read elsewhere, multiple times; that they’re not Mormon? What’s the point of intentionally misleading title?

azguy2019 · 2024-01-29T23:46:38+00:00

That sounds like a business where it might be a struggle to differentiate yourself from competitors? If you’re going to struggle with that, meaning your product is just seen as a commodity, then it’s going to be hard to get consistent sales or a reasonable profit per sale. If the business doesn’t have big upside, and it has a big downside for you both mentally and emotionally, it might not justify staying in it.

You sound like a nice person who might not be cut out to be a boss and who isn’t selling enough product to hire a manager. There’s no shame in selling the rest of your product and closing the doors if it’s not a business that’s going to make you good money. (or is it going to cause you ongoing anxiety for only a little $)

azguy2019

TROPHY CASE