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Dear Jack: Hanging Out with Your Cousins in Alabama, While Mommy was in Canada

7 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

From last Friday to this past Tuesday, Mommy was in Vancouver; on a business trip in Canada. So after I got off work on Friday, I drove straight to your school and took you and your sister straight to Alabama; a trip that took precisely 2 hours and 18 minutes.

I left on Sunday afternoon, after a much needed nap for the 2nd day in a row.

As for you and your sister, the two of you got to experience a few days of Cousin Summer Camp!

This included making slime, shopping for a new toilet at Lowe’s, and running around in the gym during a family reunion.

It was a great way to bring your summer of 2018 to an end, as you will be starting 2nd grade in a few weeks.

Looking back, it’s been a pretty big summer, actually!

It started off by me finally going back to work after being a stay-at-home dad for 6 months. Then shortly after, our family got to travel through northern California for 2 weeks. And you even got to go to Art Camp.

And along the way, I have seen you and your sister become even closer, as her personality and social skills have development greatly over the course of this summer.

You have been very kind to share your stuffed animals with her. After all, you have the largest stuffed animals compared to any kid I know.

I’d say as far as summers go, you got your boyhood’s worth. And that’s not even mentioning earlier when you and Papa caught a snake!

I understand that it’s summers like these that will greatly form who you are. As your parent, I can feel confident in knowing that my kids didn’t have a boring summer.

If anything, you are probably due a long nice nap yourself, thanks to all the non-stop action this summer!

Love,

Daddy

 

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Dear Holly: You Said I Look Like Lionel Richie, and Surprisingly, Maybe You’re Sort of Right…

2 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

Our family faithfully watched the latest season of American Idol. A few episodes into it, you started pointing out something to Mommy, your brother, and me.

Any time it showed Lionel Richie, you would point to the screen and say, “That’s Daddy.”

It’s something we just sort of laughed about at the time.

But looking back on it, and comparing side by side pictures of Lionel and me, I have to admit…

I think I see it. I think I see what you were seeing in each episode of American Idol.

And by the way, that picture of me was taken before I was even thinking about this again this week. I didn’t take the picture of myself to match one of Lionel. It was simply the most recent picture I had taken of myself and found on my computer.

But even the casual smile I had looks the same as Lionel. It’s as if Lionel and I have the same default smile.

So today, I published a video on one of my YouTube channels telling the story of how you saw the resemblance. Most people who saw the video admitted they they definitely saw the facial similarities.

What’s interesting is that I’ve never been compared to Lionel Richie in my entire life. The only specific thing I have in common with him is that he and I both share the same home state of Alabama.

But leave it to the perspective of a 2 year-old little girl, and suddenly, it’s a different view.

What if this is a sign that you are an artistic genius? What if you are gifted in facial recognition?

What if your career as an adult ends up proving that this story was more that just a trivial coincidence?

I say it is possible.

Even when I force myself to assume it was just something random you kept saying each week during American Idol, I still can’t deny there is a similarity.

Maybe you’re a genius little girl!

Love,

Daddy

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How My YouTube Channel Got Monetized in Just 40 Days After I Got 1,000 Subscribers: Quantity Over Quality; 2 to 3 New Videos Daily

In January 2018, my 2nd YouTube channel which was 9 months old at the time, only had 328 subscribers, about one third of the required number it needed when YouTube changed its policy on monetizing videos.

It took me 4 more months to reach the coveted 1,000 subscriber status; on June 21st.

However, I was confused when my channel was not monetized by the next day… or week… or weeks…

So I did some research (on YouTube) and learned about a theory that explains how a YouTube bot was in charge of my monetization destiny as I remained in purgatory.

The YouTube bot rewards YouTubers who continue to prove that their channel is still very active and engaging; even after gaining 1,000 subscribers.

Admittedly, I had totally slowed down how many videos I was publishing after I hit the 1,000 subscribers; as I didn’t want to “waste” them by publishing them without monetization.

But in reality, the best thing you can do is to prove yourself that much harder by using the secret YouTube algorithm: Publish 2 to 3 videos per day.

Not only did that formula apparently help make my videos more visible in the suggested videos column to potential new viewers before I reached 1,000 subscribers, but it also sped up the monetiazation process after I reached that goal.

While I do have the skill set to edit my videos, I typically don’t. I have managed both of my YouTube channels by the unspoken algorithm:

Quantity over quality. Two to three videos per day.

Based on my experience, you’re more likely to reach 1,000 subscribers and be monetized quicker afterwards by publishing 2 to 3 unedited, conversational, engaging videos per day than you are published one well polished video per week.

Quantity over quality.

So if you’re reading this because you have finally reached 1,000 subscribers on YouTube but are feeling discouraged and even disillusioned over not being monetized yet…

Just stop trying so hard, in a sense.

Publish 2 to 3 videos per day and let the algorithm take care of the rest!

It worked for me.

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Today I Began Using BRB Hair Loss Shampoo to See If My Hair Will Grow Back Thicker (Includes Promo Code to Save You 10% on Your Order!)

With nearly 5,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel devoted to men’s hair loss, it was like receiving a compliment when Brb Hair Loss Shampoo reached out to me and asked if I would like to try a bottle of their product, to mention in one of my videos.

I instantly replied with a more grandiose proposal:

“How about you keep me supplied with your shampoo, and I’ll make at least one video per month to document whether it is helping reverse my male pattern baldness?”

It was a match made in hair loss heaven.

So today, coinciding with the official American launch of the Thai brand hair loss shampoo, Brb, I now present to you the “before” photos.

My plan is to document the next 9 months of my journey on my YouTube channel, as 9 months is the span of time in which most users find positive results.

Something that I particularly appreciate about Brb is the ingredients consistent of natural extracts native to one of my most favorite countries in the world: Thailand.

While I don’t judge any man for choosing to use the products of Big Pharma like Propecia or Rogaine, I personally prefer natural products instead of chemicals. I feel the BRB is an obvious extension of my own brand as one of YouTube’s most popular hair loss channels.

If you are interested in joining me on my journey, you can actually purchase BRB at a discounted rate, thanks to an exclusive promo code; which is simply my last name:

Shell.

Just click this link to place Brb Hair Loss Shampoo in your cart, then type in Shell where it says “Enter a promo code” in order to receive an exclusive 10% discount.

I think this will be a pretty cool public experiment. Each month, I promise to make at least one video showing what my hair looks like, after each new month of faithfully using BRB shampoo.

Yes. I am the human guinea pig and I am inviting the entire world to watch.

Here we go!

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Is Age 37 Too Young for a Midlife Crisis? 1st World Problems and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

I’m pretty sure that at age 37, I’m currently working my way through my midlife crisis. While at first mention, it might seem I’m getting mine out of the way a little early, consider that the average American man in Tennessee lives to be about 74 years old. So actually, I’m actually right on cue:

If I live that long, then my life is already halfway complete at this point.

Perhaps the biggest struggle I am sorting out is that, as of this year, I have officially found myself at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Actualization.

The way I like to explain how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs works is this:

If and when you are able to overcome needs in each stage of your life, they are simply replaced by new ones that you didn’t have the privilege of addressing before.

Things started progressing quickly on my journey up the pyramid, in my mid-30s, when I discovered that it was always my decision whether I allowed other people to emotionally affect me. During that same time in my life, my wife and I had become completely debt-free, other than our mortgage.

Now in our late 30s, we have found ourselves in a new income level bracket; having both progressed our ways up the corporate ladder, in addition to the aforementioned pyramid.

I think the identity crisis I am going through right now is that we both work full-time jobs in offices, in addition to side jobs online. The money simply goes to paying off our mortgage, our kids’ college funds, and our retirement.

It’s just sort of demotivating to consider how much of our time is spent working- and how little time is spent together as a family.

Plus, I really want a Jeep Wrangler. I’ve been dreaming about owning one for years. But having gone years without a car payment, and knowing that buying my dream car would only take away from our savings and our ability to pay extra each month on our mortgage, I just wouldn’t be able to enjoy it anyway.

Clearly, I have first world problems. Yet according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, they are still legitimate challenges that I am sorting out in my life.

This is my midlife crisis at age 37.