Lesson: Some moments shape a lifetime. Living Louder Journal Entry 10 – Reflections on My Father There are certain moments in life that stay with you forever. Not because they were loud or dramatic in the moment, but because the meaning of them slowly unfolds over time. You don’t fully understand them when they happen. Sometimes it takes years before you realize what actually occurred. I’ve been thinking about one of those moments recently. It has to do with my father. When I was younger our relationship had its ups and downs. After I grew out of my adolescent years, there was a certain amount of tension between us. I still loved him, but it could be difficult at times. Eventually my parents divorced when I was around eighteen years old. My father moved away to live with another woman, and suddenly the whole structure of the family changed. For me that was devastating. Not necessarily because the marriage ended. In truth, my parents had argued and fought quite a bit when I was younger. In some ways the divorce almost made sense given how often there was tension in the house. But what changed was the responsibility. Overnight I felt like I had become the man of the house. My mother was not mentally prepared to be a single parent and the depression that followed for her was something I was far too young and immature to understand. I didn’t know how to help. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t even really understand what she was going through. At eighteen you are still figuring out the world yourself. Looking back now, I can see that period probably shaped more of my life than I realized at the time. When I was very young there were also moments of volatility in the household. Most of the time life was normal. We took vacations, went skiing, celebrated holidays together, and did many of the things families typically do. But every once in a while there were violent outbursts. And back then discipline looked very different than it does today. When you misbehaved, you got hit. I was on the receiving end of that more than once. At the time it was simply the era we lived in. Today I can’t even fathom it. The idea of hitting your child feels almost incomprehensible to me now.

Lesson: Not every win is real. Living Louder Journal Entry 9 Score. There’s nothing quite like watching your favorite team fight for a goal like their lives depend on it. The kind of play where every pass matters, every tackle matters, every inch of the field feels like hand to hand combat. I’ve always loved football, especially the NFL, but over the last few years the teams I followed haven’t given me much to cheer about. So recently I started watching the English Premier League and found myself rallying around Manchester United. And this season has been incredible to watch. They’ve gone from the bottom of the standings to climbing their way back toward the top. Yesterday’s match was another example of that fight. Every time they moved the ball forward it felt like the stadium was holding its breath. Old Trafford is something else. When a goal is scored there, the roar of the crowd is almost physical. You can practically feel the vibration through the television screen. The fans erupt like the moment means everything. Because in many ways it does. You know those players trained all week for that moment. Strategy, conditioning, repetition, preparation. The goal is the visible outcome of a massive amount of invisible work. But here’s the interesting part. Sometimes a goal happens that doesn’t quite feel right. Maybe it came from a bad referee call. Maybe the opposing team made a ridiculous mistake. Maybe the ball deflected in some odd way and somehow rolled across the line. The goal still counts. It goes in the books. But everyone watching knows something about it wasn’t quite… earned. Even the home team sometimes knows it. They celebrate because that’s the nature of the game. But deep down there’s an understanding that this wasn’t a clean victory. It wasn’t the perfect execution everyone trained for. It was a technicality. And oddly enough I’m dealing with something very similar in business right now. Most of the clients I have today came through hard work. They were relationships built slowly over time. People who learned from me, trusted me, and eventually decided to work with me because they understood what I could do for them.

Lesson: Sometimes the opportunity is already nearby. Living Louder Journal Entry 8 – March 14, 2026 And away we go. The show continues. Last night I was sitting at our local beer joint talking about music with a guy at the bar. Normally these kinds of conversations don’t grab me too much because most people only have a surface-level understanding of music. They know a few bands, maybe a couple songs, but the conversation rarely goes deeper than that. But this guy was different. He was a huge Little Feat fan. Not just a casual listener. The kind of fan who actually follows the band around, goes to shows, studies the players, knows the different eras of the music. I overheard him talking about the band in detail and I found myself drawn into the conversation. He was speaking about different aspects of the band and I couldn’t help but jump in. Eventually I mentioned that I had some personal experience through Scott Sharrard, who is the musical director, lead singer, and lead guitarist for Little Feat. Scott also happens to be the producer of my albums and the guy I’m currently working with to build a guitar training system. The conversation shifted immediately. He was fascinated. He had no idea that the random guy sitting next to him had been involved in that world. I told him about warming up for some of the band members in different configurations, some of the road stories, some of the music conversations that happen behind the scenes. You could see the surprise on his face. He didn’t expect the conversation to go that deep. Eventually I gave him my email and I’m sure I’ll see him at some upcoming shows. He seemed genuinely excited to hear some of the songs from our new album when I mentioned that they line up closely with the type of music we had been talking about. It was a fun conversation. But more importantly it was an eye-opening moment. Because it reminded me of something I don’t think about enough. The local paradigm. We live in this strange world now where everything is global, digital, and distant. Our feeds are filled with content from everywhere. The internet has become so noisy that sometimes the people right around us become invisible.

Living Louder Journal Entry 7 – March 13, 2026 That was the thought sitting in my mind today after a long series of conversations during my road trips this week. It’s amazing what happens when you have hours behind the windshield with nothing to do but drive and talk. Rarely do I get that kind of uninterrupted time anymore. Just long stretches of road and conversations that wander wherever they want to go. I spent hours on the phone with a couple of colleagues, and what struck me was how quickly the conversation drifted back into the past. Stories about things we did years ago. Trips. Stupid decisions. Work stories. Funny moments. The kind of conversations where you suddenly find yourself laughing at things you had not thought about in decades. Two hours can disappear like that. And somewhere inside those conversations I started realizing something that bothered me a little. Almost all the stories that were fun were from the past. Things we did. Places we went. Situations we got ourselves into. It made me look around my own current situation. Here I am sitting in my basement again. Looking out of a basement window. Staring at basically nothing. Thinking about the same routine that fills my days. The day-to-day nothingness. And that’s when a strange thought hit me. From the outside, my life probably looks like a prison. One of the topics we talked about during those calls was how modern life has quietly trapped people into little boxes. We sit in front of screens all day long, entertaining ourselves with our computers. The laptop lifestyle. The work-from-home lifestyle. The digital nomad fantasy. But when you actually stop and look at it honestly, most of the time you’re just alone in a room staring at a screen. Someone from the early 1900s would probably think we had all turned into zombies. We’ve created these strange little self-imposed prisons. You sit in your room. Your entertainment is your computer. Your work is your computer. Your communication is your computer. And day after day it becomes normal.

Lesson: Action beats how you feel. Living Louder Journal Entry 6 There is a certain kind of courage that shows up when you decide to beat yourself at your own game. Today is one of those mornings. I did not get much sleep. I was singing last night and my voice is pretty much shot. My body is tired and the mind is not exactly firing on all cylinders. But strangely enough I know I am actually okay. That realization is important. Being tired, overworked, or slightly worn down is not the end of the story. In fact, it is often just the beginning of the test. We have far more reserve power in us than we usually admit. The problem is not that the energy is gone. The problem is that the mind tries to convince us to shut things down too early. And yet the world we live in demands attention. It rewards action. If you want to come alive inside that world you cannot wait for perfect energy, perfect motivation, or perfect circumstances. You have to move anyway. Action itself becomes the medicine. It is a pressing thing to consider because the things that become habitual can still get done even when you are tired. Habit becomes the bridge between intention and execution. That is why the daily structure matters. These are the top ten things on my list that must get done every day. Not because they are glamorous, but because they keep the machine moving. First, exercise and out the door by 8:30. The body has to move. It sets the tone for everything else. Second, the daily journal. Writing my thoughts down every morning is critical. Every time I do it I feel better. It clears the mind and forces clarity about what I am actually thinking. Third, reviewing finances. Looking at stock picks and the market to see if there are swing trades available. This keeps me connected to the financial side of life and ensures I am not drifting blindly through economic opportunities. Fourth, calendar setup for the day. Planning the day matters because if you do not organize your time the calendar will get hacked apart by other people’s priorities. Space must be protected.