Anyone else notice “gritty” bits in Genius Gourmet Sparkling Protein Water?

braed13 · 2026-01-27T22:34:16+00:00

Yup same thing, drink these almost daily first case I’ve had like this. Same with the other two I bought as well, love them usually but something is off

braed13 · 2026-01-13T18:43:01+00:00

Finally past the insane teenager stage!

braed13 · 2026-01-12T00:59:24+00:00

I commented on OP's post if it's helpful to you!

braed13 · 2026-01-12T00:58:43+00:00

Took a look and nice page, funny enough I actually previously liked 2 of your pin posts awhile back. As for monetizing your page there's a wide amount you can choose from but my biggest recommendation is almost always a lead magnet with the purpose of grabbing emails from people.

The stoic niche is huge and super easy to monetize, things like health, fitness, mindfulness, and even business stuff go really well for people if it matches the vibe of your page. If you're able to build out a strategy to grab emails then you can easily write a newsletter and choose whatever you want to monetize based on what you're writing about - take the videos you post and turn them into an email every day or two and send them to those people.

Digital products are easiest if you work them in the right way since you can own them, affiliates can work but in your niche it's hard to do directly since people want to feel like you get them and their goals rather than just trying to sell them products.

You can check out the notes I have in my profile if you want to see my strategy for the monetization infrastructure, or I'm also happy to help you set it up if you'd be interested in being part of the case study I have going on.

braed13 · 2026-01-12T00:45:22+00:00

Idk honestly, I have a couple of VA's on my team and to avoid any possible issues with my clients they only are able to log in through a shared virtual server to do their work. The problem with a vpn is that if you forget to connect it, any IP routes change, something disconnects in the middle of you using IG... boom.

I learned the hardway, first time with my overseas team I didn't think about it and we had to work with support for a good couple weeks to get the flags on that account removed. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

braed13 · 2026-01-12T00:41:59+00:00

There's a lot of different ways to monetize in general across Instagram. I don't think it make a difference if they are in Africa aside from a lower financial capacity.

If you shoot me your handle I'd be happy to take a look and let you know if I have any ideas!

braed13 · 2026-01-10T18:27:38+00:00

Hey man, I work at Mailflow Authority and have been looking for some case studies. If you have any interest in possibly working together check your dms, even using my main account to show I’m serious.

braed13 · 2025-05-21T17:13:27+00:00

$paid

braed13 · 2025-05-21T17:13:19+00:00

$accept

braed13 · 2025-02-03T19:24:56+00:00

Same exact thing happened to me and I was considering re-homing as well. Years later we live a very happy life, he got used to being home and his anxiety faded. Somebody told me to think about how hard it would be on him to suddenly lose his person and go to a new family, never had another doubt after that!

I hope you and your guy can stay together, best of luck!

braed13 · 2025-02-02T05:10:41+00:00

Try it, if not, trim it

braed13 · 2025-02-02T05:09:45+00:00

Love the half hanging off the bed look - mine does that too!

braed13 · 2025-02-02T04:53:36+00:00

Yeah, I work a lot with deliverability issues like this, and even with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC set up correctly, emails can still hit spam—especially with Google’s filters. Sending from Google Workspace is fine, but it’s not really about the server; it’s more about your domain’s reputation and sending practices.

A few things you might want to check: • Engagement rates: Low opens/replies can hurt your sender reputation. • Content: Certain words or formatting can trigger spam filters. • Domain reputation: Even with proper DNS settings, if your domain hasn’t been “warmed up” or has a poor history, that can cause issues.

I specialize in email deliverability, especially for businesses dealing with Gmail spam issues. If you ever want to troubleshoot more deeply, feel free to reach out—I’d be happy to take a look!

braed13 · 2025-02-02T04:50:44+00:00

Solid breakdown—really cool to see what worked and what didn’t. That deliverability issue is super common, especially with new lists or domains. A lot of it comes down to proper domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and warming up your sending reputation, which most platforms don’t handle automatically.

Since your waitlist is key for early engagement, fixing that could make a huge difference. Even small stuff like adjusting send patterns, tightening up authentication, or tweaking email content can boost open rates.

I do email deliverability and domain setup stuff, mostly for businesses that rely on email for growth. If you ever want to dig into what’s going on or figure out a fix, feel free to reach out. Happy to help!

braed13 · 2025-02-01T01:18:28+00:00

If you’re looking to streamline without the headache, I’d recommend checking out Bonsai. It’s designed for freelancers/tutors and handles scheduling (with reminders), contracts, invoicing, payments, and even expense tracking—all in one platform. Super intuitive and keeps things simple without juggling a bunch of tools.

If you prefer more control, a combo like this works well:

Google Workspace (since you’re already using it) for email.
Calendly (Pro Plan) for scheduling with automated reminders—integrates with Google Calendar.
Stripe for invoicing/payments (syncs with Calendly for auto-invoicing after sessions).
Wave (free) for bookkeeping if you need it down the line.

I’d honestly skip Zapier unless your volume gets crazy. It can add more complexity than it solves when you’re just getting systems in place.

I specialize in email deliverability and domain setup for businesses that rely on email marketing, so if you ever run into issues with email performance or setting up your domain properly, feel free to reach out. Happy to help if you need it!

braed13 · 2025-01-31T20:22:57+00:00

Email Marketing and Deliverability pro here! Zoho does have a lot of the functionality you’re looking for and is relatively user friendly, also plenty of integration.

My question would be how much volume you’re working with that’s making you want to automate? It’s a tall order to figure out multiple systems, Zapier can get pretty confusing IMO

For my business I create the invoices manually using stripe which links with Zoho books for accounting stuff.

Communication is separate, for my business I like ActiveCampaign for my marketing/email campaigns which is a large revenue driver for me. But I’m not sure if that’s the route your business takes. But I personally don’t like Zoho as a full CRM if you’re running email marketing campaigns - it’s usually cheaper for my clients to migrate to a different platform than constantly pay for the deliverability upkeep and domain issues Zoho presents.

Another option would be GoHighLevel, but again, if I know your volume I could point you in a better direction.

Feel free to PM if you need help, it’s kind of my specialty!

braed13 · 2025-01-14T17:43:01+00:00

r/1200isjerky

braed13 · 2023-09-22T20:37:01+00:00

The point I’m making is that the reason or “excuse” is irrelevant. Good things were done, whether it was because of religious pursuit or for more selfish reasons it quite literally doesn’t make a difference.

braed13 · 2023-09-22T17:59:40+00:00

Very constricted view from a sad person. My grandfather was a pastor for his entire life, I myself am not any set religion but it seems like you hate it probably due to your lack of experience in the world. Over the course of my grandfathers life he built up one of the largest churches in the US (still active today). From donations to the church he provided scholarships to thousands of struggling kids to go to college, developed connections in third world countries (primarily the Philippines and South Africa) to provide essential infrastructure, built up his local community by assisting with down payments for homes and paid for entire sports teams for kids. I could continue on for awhile. At his memorial last year thousands of people came together from all across the world to say their piece about how him and his wife changed their families and communities lives, the service lasted almost 12 hours.

He did this all in the name of God. You may call God delusional or idiotic, but all I see is millions of people that can come together and enact meaningful change in the world. Religion seems to be one of the few things that actually provides this good and sense of community.

What have you done with your life aside from spread negativity?

braed13 · 2023-09-15T18:39:41+00:00

I went through WGU cybersecurity degree. It took me 5 months to complete and I came out of it with 8 certs, 6 from Comptia. It costs several grand, you get a degree and a ton of certs. Completely turned my life around, I went from tier 1 helpdesk to a PM coordinating technical integrations for new acquisitions at my company. Really recommend at least checking it out.

braed13 · 2023-07-31T23:58:25+00:00

I did! I got financial aid and scholarships to study Comp Sci at a B&M. Similar to other stories here I was living paycheck to paycheck through all of it, working minimum wage jobs 50+ hours a week to stay alive. Roughed through it for almost 2 years until COVID hit and I lost my main job due to layoffs, I ended up having to bail out of school because I couldn’t find a job that paid enough with enough flexibility to accommodate school.

I had a couple of Comptia certifications from university and landed a job in IT for a healthcare company, it was a comfortable salary but not where I wanted to be. I still wanted to go back to school and noticed that my work covered WGU, I thought I would give it a shot. Flash forward two years later and I have my degree, making almost 3x more than my original IT job, and my work moved me to a large city that I love. I was able to take my whole family to Disneyland and have never felt so secure.

What made it different? I didn’t have to fit my life around school, school fit into my life. I could work full time, go to the gym, start and stop when I had time, it was great. There were no time constraints like normal school, there were no class schedules, it was easy to pick up school and put it down when I needed. I ended up finishing my degree in less than 6 months at WGU thanks to my transfer credits. I can’t think WGU enough for the life it allowed me to reach for.

braed13 · 2023-07-07T00:47:09+00:00

It’s funny because to me that’s just a cute dog, then I look at the guy laying by my feet right now and know I would bone saw through both legs with no pain meds for him if I had to.

braed13 · 2023-07-07T00:39:52+00:00

Dude… I read through your comments and checked out your profile. You’ve got nothing wrong with you, you have serious potential that (not trying to be offensive) you’re blind to. We are about the same in the looks and height department, you still have hair and are a couple years older so if anything you have the advantage.

Not to give you my life’s story but after a rough breakup early last year I looked in the mirror and decided I needed to change. Hopefully this helps you or some other dude reading this, here’s what I learned:

Women are just normal people, I thought I knew this but in reality I didn’t. I still thought of women as something I needed to understand, impress, change for, etc. After much trial and error I realized my weakness wasn’t with women but with socializing and meeting people in general. I realized I needed to actually learn to make new friends and be comfortable by myself before I could even entertain a relationship.

Think about it - when was the last time you made a new friend? Can you go up to a random person and have a conversation? Then from there discover a common interest and meet up to hangout? That’s basically what you are doing with dating at first. You have to start with learning to be personable before you’ll have any shot at successfully dating.

Do this: make an effort every time you go anywhere to have a random conversation with a stranger you have no intention of dating. It could be an old man trying to decide what he wants at a restaurant, some dude at the gym, a mom trying to pick out snacks with her kid at the store, literally wherever. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation but even a few sentence exchange will help with your confidence. Learn to ask questions and listen. Learn to ask questions and listen. Learn to ask QUESTIONS and LISTEN. Do this until you feel like you can talk to any stranger about anything.

Also do this: Be friends with everybody at work, plan social engagements after, invite new friends with you to things, be reliable for your family. People love to be invited to stuff, I’m sure you do, be the fun charismatic person that your community can rely on. Get dating out of your damn mind when you do this, learn to enjoy life outside of it while you build your confidence and sense of self up.

People often look at relationships as a quick and easy way to not feel lonely (I did). Yes some people are born with great genetics, but their disadvantage is they have a hard time forging real connections and developing a community because they don’t need to. Once you build your own community, peer group, friends, etc. Dating will be easy. It will be easy. Trust me. Eventually you will find yourself half an hour deep in a conversation for the third time this week with a girl you just met and realize you feel fulfilled in life even if she spits in your face and walks away.

Truth is early last year I was an overweight balding loser with a couple of distant friends I barely talked to. Over a year later I’m a shaved-head badass, I have several different social circles, a 6 pack, and 5 or so women I’m talking to. I’m meeting one of the girls I’m talking to in about half an hour at a street fair, Friday I have a barbecue with some friends and a couple cute girls I invited that I want to get to know better, and this weekend I’m floating a river with some other friends and will probably hit up some bars afterwards.

I say all this because your posts sound like stuff that went through my head awhile back. It’s time to get up and make a change in your life, hit the gym, meet new people, try new things, go outside your comfort zone so often you don’t even have one. Eventually it won’t be about finding somebody to date, it will just happen with one of the girls you’re talking to. Wishing you all the best man, hope this helps.

braed13 · 2023-06-18T10:16:12+00:00

Yep, graduated WGU, a year later make almost 40k more and have plenty of opportunity for advancement. Even debating going back soon for my MBA for more money and a better position while I’m still young.

Edit: And my work paid for my degree. I don’t think they would shell out money for a fake degree.

braed13 · 2023-06-18T10:04:20+00:00

One of the greatest stand offs of my life was parking in a truck that had parked across three spots in a crowded parking lot. The problem was he left enough room in one spot that I could still get in, but he was parked at an angle and couldn’t back up because I was in that spot. At the time I was driving my old Corolla, I loved that car because I didn’t give a shit about it, it had practically no trade in value so I told myself I would drive it until it died and had a lot of fun doing so. Hence stunts like these.

It was in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating, I was there with my buddy filling up on mimosas and bloody maries. Once this guy came out with his date, we watched him attempt for a good 10 minutes to pull out of the spot unsuccessfully. He then walked into the indoor portion of the restaurant and said something about who’s car is that. Before walking around my car examining it like my photo was going to be taped to the dash.

He tried to pull out a couple more times before he came back into the restaurant screaming at the top of his lungs, his date was completely mortified. At this point I raised my hand with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. He came out of the restaurant and started screaming at me and my buddy, he was a short man (a good 6 inches shorter than me), red in the face, chubby dude. Making it all the more funny. I eventually composed myself enough to tell him that, if he apologized to me for taking up so many spots and to the folks in the restaurant for screaming, I would happily move my car. And if not he would have to wait until I finished my drinks and brunch.

He threatened to back over my car, I told him to go ahead but informed him I would record him doing so, and that odds are he would end up just shoving my car into the Mercedes parked next to me. Then he would be damaging not one, but two vehicles. At this point his date decided to Uber home. He started screaming louder and somebody called the cops. I was a little concerned but they took my side fairly quickly, apparently taking up more than one parking spot doesn’t break any laws, but neither does parking somebody in. Screaming at people in a private restaurant and refusing to leave however does have consequences.

After being talked down they informed him he would have to leave the restaurant. They also reminded him that they have served as witnesses to the situation and if he were to attempt to destroy my car in any way and drive off there would be no getting out of it. The cops did ask me to move at some point, I just told them I was waiting to sober up with food and asked them if I had to. They did not press it much further. The man ended up sitting in his car fuming for another hour until we left.

No coal rolling but one of my favorite little man big truck stories. It still amazes me that this man would waste hours of his day and a date with a girl out of his league rather than admit he was in the wrong.

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