Hi gang,

John Lawson is a nationally known e-commerce and social media expert.  You can find him speaking at conventions all over the world and on colderice.com and if his name sounds familiar it’s because he was a winner of Startupnation’s own Home Based 100 contest a few years ago.

I’ve known John for a long time and we both thought it was high time we sat down and discussed my new position at BHFO, e-commerce, eBay, Amazon, business books, and of course, stripping.

So grab some coffee, pull up a chair, and enjoy!  Just click the link below to see the full 28 minute video:

Kevin Harmon and John Lawson

Kevin Harmon

Twitter:  twitter.com/imadness

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/YesTHATKevinHarmon

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I really love twitter. Actually, I can’t stand it.  What a wonderful tool - and what a waste. I am so conflicted - I am the @chazbono of Twitter users.

I’m not going to take the time to explain to you what Twitter is, because you already know what it is.  It’s easy to spot someone (particularly news reporters) who doesn’t know Twitter because he/she will call it “The Twitter” or “Twittercom” or “Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) said on something called Twitter today….”

So, everybody’s HEARD of Twitter at this point, but according to recent studies, only 8% of you actively use Twitter.  Moreover, Twitter has something like an 83% dormant account rate.  That’s a TON of people who sign up, play with it, and then quit.  You know why?

Because Twitters’ interface is AWFUL.  Twitter is a gigantic river of 140 character bursts of information and you don’t have a boat or a paddle.  You are a blind man stumbling around in a vast rain forest of data - sure, you can find what you want if you feel around long enough, but 83% of you just give up after a while.

The problem is that the data is BEAUTIFUL.  There are tons of great and interesting people on Twitter who want to share what they know with you.  Celebrities can give you a peek into their worlds like never before. Organizations can inform you about their products or services. News travels at light speed on Twitter - you can literally be on the ground with someone during an attack, or an uprising, or an earthquake the instant it’s happening.  I love Twitter for that…

…and I hate Twitter because it’s just too simple of an interface and too damn hard to figure out.  Who do I Follow?  How do I find Twitternames? Why do we type a # sign before a word when search finds it anyway? Why am I only shown the last 500 people I’ve followed when I try to send an @ message to someone?  How am I supposed to whittle down my thought to 140 characters? (Seriously, how much time is spent writing the thought vs editing the thought? 50/50% thought so.) How do I search my follower or following list? What do you mean I can’t send DM’s unless they follow me too?  Does anybody even use the DM’s anyway? Which URL shortener do I use? Pictures?  Is anybody even listening to me? VALIDATE ME DAMMIT! Waiter, check please.

EVERY marketing person you talk to about Twitter, after you explain your difficulty using it, will reply “Well that’s because you’re not using Twitter correctly.  Twitter is for starting conversations”.  If you don’t believe me, go ask anyone you know in marketing about using Twitter and see what they say.  In fact, “Twitter is for conversations” is the Free Space in Twitter Bingo. I mean, that’s awesome and all, but if I can’t figure out how to use it, guess what - I’M NOT GOING TO USE IT.

It all just makes me want to kick Twitters’ ass right in the face.

There are several other gigantic streams of information out there, you know.  One is called Google. Another is called Facebook. A third is called Wikipedia.  Then, of course, there’s the largest information stream out there, which is called The Real World.  None of them are perfect - all of them have their own unique problems.  Twitter is a treasure trove of valuable information, but let’s face it, folks:

Twitter needs a better way to find and share information, or it’s a Kardashian.

Kevin Harmon

CEO Red Shorts Media

Twitter: Imadness

Facebook: YesTHATKevinHarmon

LinkedIn:  thekevinharmon

kevin@redshortsmedia.com

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It’s been a while! How’ve you been? Still in business? Growing? Circling the wagons? Custer’s last stand? Hey, you got into this entrepreneur thing because you don’t fear uncertainty - don’t forget that! This is fun! You could be like all your friends, who are right now being lectured by Bill Lumbergh about their TPS reports (shudders).

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future lately - my future, your future, Earth’s future, and the future of technology.  What are things going to be like in 20 years? 50 years? 100 years? I’ve been doing some research and reading on the subject of future tech, and I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the future is going to look like magic to us 2011 dummies.

See, in terms of technology, the future is exponential in nature, not linear.  Perhaps you have heard of Moore’s Law? Gordon Moore was a founder of IBM, and in the 1960’s he observed that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and predicted that the trend would continue “for at least ten years”.  Well, guess what? The trend continues to this day - it is a perfect exponential line that has not changed since 1965, and looks like this:

Moores Law

What does this mean for us?  Well, futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” and subject of the movie “Transcendent Man” (you can and should stream it on Netflix)  says that this line of exponential growth in the power of CPU’s will at some point become so dramatic that we stupid humans can no longer keep up with it.   He calls this phenomenon “The Singularity” - the point at which machines become smarter than us.  In fact, he thinks The Singularity is fast approaching - it is less than 20 years away.

I recently attended a Fandango event called “Transcendent Man”, which was a 2 hour Q/A with a pretty incredible panel of tech leaders and futurists such as Ray Kurzweil, Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway and robotics guru), Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Deepak Chopra, and several other amazing minds. They discussed The Singularity and its’ implications for humanity.  I left the theater needing a whole bottle of Advil and a shot of tequila. I had learned a lot - too much - in 2 hours.  Lets talk about the relevant points:

1.  HERE’S WHY I’M WRITING THIS FOR STARTUPNATION.COM!:  A lot of these inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologists are designing and developing technology that is still theoretical - in other words, the technology does not yet exist yet to build what they are designing!  Ray Kurzweil, for example, has become a multimillionaire in the last 30 years by designing products in exactly in this manner.  He invented the modern synthesizer in this way, as well as reading devices for the blind (Stevie Wonder has said that Ray has changed his life completely)

So, entrepreneurs, is your business model designed for 2011 or 2015? 2020? Are you coding for todays internet or 2014’s?  I suspect that the most wealth to be had in business ventures from here on out are going to be ventures that can most accurately predict the future and be right on top of it when it happens.

2.  Emerging technologies are amazing - and freaky - particularly in the area of nanotechnology.  Right now, scientists are programming atoms to compute as today’s circuits do.   Imagine a computer 100 times as powerful as the fastest computer in existence today that would fit inside of a red blood cell. Don’t worry - if that doesn’t work out, we’ll be building computers that small anyway. In fact, the majority of the Transcendent Man panel agree that in my lifetime (I’m 41), man will become a hybrid of man and machine.  We will all have millions of nanobots floating around our bodies, programmed to help us a) think better by assisting brain function b) keep our arteries clear of plaque, c) manufacture red or white blood cells, d) destroy cancer cells, and so on.  Let’s face it, people:  Technology is stronger than Biology.

3.  Keep an eye on 3D printing.  Right now, 3D printers can “print” out physical objects.  Dean Kamen is working on a technology that, when complete, could wipe out 50% of the worlds’ disease problems associated with polluted/bad drinking water.  Imagine shipping a 3D printer to the Sudan and telling it to print out another 3D printer, and then telling both to print out 3D printers. Then, tell the 6 printers to print out a water filtration system for a village.  This is the future of manufacturing, and its’ coming soon.

Here’s a 3D printer in action:

3D Wrench

4.  Robotics will get to the point of creating better, faster, and stronger body parts than our own.  As Dean Kamen stated (I’m paraphrasing) “Right now, we build artificial limbs for people who don’t have them. What happens when we can replace an existing part with a superior mechanical one? How many people would elect for that? I think it will be MANY”.

I think about his point often because I am a victim of severe arthritis in both of my knees and earlier this year a surgeon in Napa Valley told a robot to partially replace both of my knees.  The robot could perform the surgery better than the surgeon could and the surgery was done in less than 20 minutes.  So, now that I’m partially robotic, would I do it again?  You bet your sweet mechanical ass I would - in fact, I plan to have a robot in 2020 redo the surgery and possibly replace both my knees totally, because by then artificial knees will be stronger, faster, and better than even healthy knees.  By the way, I’ll also be able to swallow a pill which will reprogram my DNA to stop storing fat on my body and I will lean out naturally.

Believe me, I completely understand that this article raises questions:

Can we live forever?  I think we can.  I think we’ll be able to upload our consciousness into a computer and live forever.  Or, nanotechnology will be able to stop our aging process. Technically, that will be possible.  But the bigger question for me is: Do I want to live forever?
When the machines become smarter than us and we cannot intelligently keep up without them, why would they need us?  Hello, Matrix anyone? Terminator?  We’ve all seen the movies where machines are smarter and it generally doesn’t go well for the humans.  Ray Kurzweil is very optimistic that we’ll all get along, but there are others who are not.

And so on, and so forth, and holy crap I need some more Advil. PLEASE comment below with your thoughts - I’d love a good healthy conversation about all of this.

Um, have a nice day?

Kevin Harmon
CEO Red Shorts Media LLC
twitter.com/imadness
http://www.linkedin.com/in/thekevinharmon
kevin@redshortsmedia.com

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Internet bubble? What internet bubble?

Yesterday, Groupon filed the paperwork to become a publicly traded company.  Sometime this year, you will be able to buy stock in Groupon and join the other 500 million people making Groupon stock discount jokes.

Last year, Groupon turned down a $6 BILLION offer from Google.  Laughable, right? Well guess what:  Greed is still good.  Yesterdays filing valued Groupon at around $20 billion.

Here are the best of the fun facts about Groupon that we’ve learned in the last 24 hours:

1.  Groupon LOST over $400 million last year

2.  Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason takes and annual salary of $575.00.  Poor guy - I hope he’ll make it. Mason holds 7.7% of the companys stock.

3.  Mason is NOT the largest shareholder.  That honor belongs to Eric Lefkofsky, who owns 21.6%…of $20 BILLION dollars.

4.  In the last 2 years, Groupon has grown over 20,000%

5.  Groupon has 83.1 million subscribers in 145 US markets

6.  Groupon has over 7,000 employees

7.  Groupon. Is. THREE. YEARS. OLD.

Personally,  this company and IPO remind me a lot of the “Irrational Exuberance” days of 2000 when any company with a .com in its’ name shot to the moon.  I have 2 concerns with Groupon:

1.  They just bleed money.  They’ve lost $114 million in Q1 of 2011 alone.

2.  Their model is easy to duplicate.  With competitors like LivingSocial, Google, Facebook, and other very large fish jumping into the space, Groupon is in no way an island.

What do you think?  Would you buy Groupon stock?

Kevin Harmon

CEO Red Shorts Media

twitter:  imadness

linkedin: THEKevinHarmon

kevin@redshortsmedia.com

Coolest DVD CD and Video Game Buyback Site Ever: MightyBuyback.com

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Please do me the honor tomorrow of joining myself and John Lawson, aka ColderIce, aka one of Startupnation’s home based business winners, as we discuss what the GSI Commerce deal means for eBay and for YOU, my dear eBay seller nation. Yes, we’ll also be talking about the upcoming fee changes, format changes, the Where purchase, etc.

So please climb back down from your window ledges and let John and I walk you through what’s happening at your favorite e-commerce site.

Here’s the link to the call:

http://www.focus.com/events/finance/what-does-acquisition-gsi-mean-ebay/

Here is the call-in info:

Toll-free Dial-In Number: (866) 951-1151
International Dial-In Number: (201) 590-2255
Conference # : 4999006

This will be fun!

UPDATE:

Here is the audio file from the roundtable. I would LOVE to get your feedback on it.  Listen HERE

Kevin Harmon

CEO Red Shorts Media

Heckle me on Twitter here

Guffaw at me on Linkedin here

Hire me to write/twitter/facebook/dress as a giraffe for you at kevin_harmon@hotmail.com

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The new program will be called “FreeBay”, and will be effective as of April 10th.

“We have really been listening to the needs of the eBay buyer over the last several years,” said John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, “and what we really feel that the buying public is saying to us loud and clear is that they need better customer service from our sellers, free shipping of goods, and product that is completely free as well. We believe that this move will be well received by the eBay buying community. Of course, buyers will still be able to pay for their free items with the convenience of PayPal.”

When asked how the seller community might react to such a move, Todd Lutwak, eBay VP of Selling Experience, replied, “we think this will be seen as a welcome opportunity for the eBay seller base.  With FreeBay, sellers are now able to streamline their auction and fixed price strategies substantially. Sellers have been concerned in the past that frequent eBay fee changes have forced them to reevalutate their business models, and we think this change will end that concern for good. We are also happy to announce that eBay will not be adjusting fees for the rest of the year for this program, so they will be able to list their free items for as little as .05 with very low final value fees.  We expect selection on the site to increase substantially”

There has been mixed reaction to FreeBay from the eBay seller community this morning.  Jay Senese, a large seller of CD’s and DVD’s, is optimistic.  “You know, with the declining eBay auction model that we’ve stuck with, we were pretty much giving the stuff away for free anyway,” he says. “This just makes the whole thing a lot easier”.

Jack Sheng, CEO of a large electronics accessories eBay seller, concurs. “We do well over a million dollars in sales a month on the site right now with a net profit after eBay listing, final value, and Paypal fees of about $25.00, so offering our items for free should really help increase our volume substantially”

Other sellers, however, seem concerned.  “I’m not so sure about this,” says Kirk Holbert, a seller of toys and memorabilia. “Before I really buy in to the idea, I will have to make sure that all of my suppliers are on board with giving me the products to sell at no charge.”

The move also seems to enhance eBay’s recent acquisition of GSI Commerce.  “Large retailers who have in the past been hesitant to offer their in season items for sale on eBay will now see the value of giving their items away on the site, ” Donahoe says. “Of course, all of their eBay fees will be waived anyway, so we don’t expect much of a bottom line impact on their costs. The GSI warehouses can hold a LOT of free goods.”

When Donahoe was asked if he thought that FreeBay may have a significant impact on the profits of eBay sellers, Donahoe replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question.”

Kevin Harmon

Twitter:  Here

LinkedIn:  Here

Email:  kevin_harmon@hotmail.com

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“Ooohhh, so THAT’S why our fees are so high,” exclaimed eBay’s seller community today after eBay announced that it is acquiring GSI Commerce for $2.4 BILLION in cash and debt.  Hey, I’m an optimist - at least they didn’t buy Skype again!

This is a pretty interesting purchase if you ask me.  A lot of you have never heard of GSI Commerce, so let me edumacate you.  Whereas eBay is a selling and payments platform (Paypal), GSI is just about EVERYTHING else.  GSI is a giant logistics, warehousing, software, marketing, customer service, e-commerce company.  The company is not very old - in 1999 GSI reported revenue of $5.5 MILLION (yep $5.5 million to $2.4 BILLION in 12 years - not bad!).  GSI does not deal with the little fish - they deal with the big fish - companies like the NFL, Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Mattel, and Levi’s.

“Kevin, what does it all mean for eBay sellers?” you scream.

Well, Ive got several thoughts on this and what it could mean for eBay and it’s sellers.  Here we go:

1.  eBay just bought a company that does everything that eBay does not do.  So eBay just became a complete end-to-end solution for large businesses.  What this likely means for eBay is that you will now see many, many more large companies begin to sell on the platform.  Let’s face it - eBay and large retailers really don’t get along too well.  eBay’s buyer base expects brand new, in season merchandise at a serious discount to retail. You can guess what big retailers think about that idea.  This move just opened up a whole bunch of doors to retailers that eBay never had before because they just bought the entire platform that these companies use for e-commerce.

Effect for eBay: Positive - larger companies, more in-season new merchandise, direct access to off-season discounted merchandise.

Effect for eBay small sellers: Negative - you’re just getting shoved further to the back of the bus while the new companies will be given substantial competitive advantage over you.

2.  eBay kinda just became Amazon.  What I mean by that is that eBay is now free to purchase, warehouse, and ship goods.  I would not at all be surprised if we don’t begin seeing “Sold By eBay” logos or even eBay id’s.  Personally I’m hoping that, once eBay actually tries to be a seller, they’ll stop attacking the seller community for “faster service, free shipping, more customer service”.  In other words, once they eBay does it themselves, maybe they’ll get how hard it all is.

Effect for eBay:  Positive.  eBay has never purchased, warehoused, or shipped a single good. If eBay were undertaking that task on their own, I would short eBay stock and prepare for glory.  However, GSI appears to be pretty good as these functions, so eBay will come out fine on this idea if they choose to.

Effect for Sellers:  Negative.  If you think eBay gave Buy.com preferential treatment, just wait until you see eBay’s deal with…eBay.

3.  eBay MAY be going after Amazons Fulfillment By Amazon program.  FBA requires sellers who opt in to send their product to an Amazon warehouse and then Amazon ships the goods when they sell.  I can easily picture a scenario where sellers will need to store product at eBay warehouses in order to retain “Top Rated Seller” status.

Effect for eBay:  Neutral.  eBay would certainly charge fees, as Amazon does, to store and fulfill product. However, FBA cannot be an easy thing to control and implement, even for Amazon.

Effect for Sellers:  Neutral.  Many eBay sellers would freak out if eBay required them to store product at eBay for preferred status. As an FBA seller myself, I can say that the burden of warehousing, customer service, and shipping product is a tremendous one for any sized seller, and using FBA allows me to not worry about any of it.

All-in-all, I think every eBay seller needs to keep both eyes on this move by eBay.  I think, in the mid to long term, this move could mean more for the future of eBay than anything they have ever done save for their purchase of Paypal.

Kevin Harmon

Follow me on Twitter:  Twitter.com/imadness

Follow me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn

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How do you get your product noticed in our current sea of product noise? Obviously, the way to be noticed is to wrap yourself inside a giant egg and be carried somewhere by the entire cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, right?

Yep, you’ll be noticed for sure.  Lady Gaga was certainly noticed when she pulled that stunt at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards.  Did you then watch her performance during the show?  Pretty underwhelming, don’t you think?

So, in other words, the Marketing was noticeable, but the Product disappointed.

What’s more important?

Let me ask you another question.  What would happen if you spent all of your energy making the best product possible? What if your sole focus became making a product that was so good it became its’ own category?

Make the best Product - everything else will become elementary.

Ever heard of Esperanza Spalding?  Me either.  On Sunday, she beat the marketing juggernauts that are Justin Bieber, Drake, and Florence + The Machine to win Best New Artist.  Justin Bieber alone has millions of Twitter followers, a hit CD, a hit movie, TV appearances, tons of radio play, and an army of pre-pubescent diehard fans. He was a lock for that award, right? Whoops.

Make the best Product - the rest will follow.

Ever heard of Arcade Fire? Some have - most haven’t. Yet again, they beat out music monsters Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry for Album of The Year.  How could a small Canadian relatively unknown band possibly think they could beat these gigantic forces of nature?

Make the best Product - commerce will find YOU.

Kevin Harmon

kevin_harmon@hotmail.com

I live tweeted the ENTIRE Grammys. Who wants to hire me to live tweet YOUR event?

Twitter.com/imadness

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I really dislike the phrase “weight loss”.  “Weight loss” implies something accidental, like “wow, I’ve lost my keys,” or “Wow, I must’ve lost my mind when I bought that Wham CD”.  Believe me, I have not “lost” weight. I know exactly what I did with it and where it went, thank you very much.

I prefer the term “Body Rebooting”.  Just sounds cooler. Hey, if they can Reboot “Star Trek” and “Spider-Man”, then surely I can Reboot myself.

2 YEARS AGO

Recently, I reread my post from a year ago here on Startupnation.com, which you can (and should) read here: Reflections on A Year Of Weight Loss .  I remember writing that post and how emotional it made me to think about my journey to that point. I cried writing it, and I still tear up a little when I re-read it now.

When I began my journey 2 years ago,  I looked like this:

That’s me at 383 pounds.  52% bodyfat.  64 inch waist. Size XXXXXXL shirt. 0 internal confidence.  A real ladykiller. A man who was going places. Like to the morgue.  If I was a rock star, that picture would be the halfway point on VH1’s “Behind the Music” when they ominously say, “but soon, Spandau Ballet’s lives would take a tragic turn….”

For me, it didn’t turn tragic.  I woke up, got my butt in gear, and started exercising like crazy and eating better. So year 1 of this worked out really well. I dropped 79 pounds, several shirt sizes, and gained back a lot of my confidence.  It was hard as hell. On more than one occasion, my wife caught me in the pantry at 11 pm - I wasn’t eating anything. I was just…staring at some of the food like a crazed nutball.  It was THAT kind of hard.

1 YEAR AGO

Year 2 was even more interesting.  By April of 2010, I was able to walk for miles, and so I walked my first 10K with my wife and Brooke, my trainer, who teared up on me when I finished it (I teared up too, but that was because I couldn’t feel my legs)  I wrote about that experience here:  Fat Man Walkin’! My First 10K And Why Pig-Headedness Is All You Really Need .  Then, after 14 months of hard work,

I GAVE UP. I QUIT.

Yep.  I hit a weight plateau, and did not lose a pound for 10 weeks.  10 weeks of getting my butt kicked by my trainer.  10 weeks of eating right. That’s 2 1/2 months with no progress.  In the end, the constant disappointment was too much for me, and I just gave up.  To me, the struggle was just too difficult to show no progress.

In the next 90 days, I managed to gain back about 25 pounds - back up to 325.  It was like I had been pulling back on a slingshot really hard for 14 months, and then just let it go.  I gained weight 3x faster than I could lose it.  It was crushing.  I went right back to my old habits - no exercise and a drive-thru diet. I just threw it all away.

I have been trying to lose weight for 20 years.  I started my first diet - SlimFast - when I weighed 225 pounds in college.  Since then, I have been on a diet at least 10 different times - Jenny Craig, Atkins, you name it.  I am so good and dieting that I have lost my entire bodyweight over the 20 years I have been trying to lose weight.  So in no way was I surprised that, for the 11th time, I had failed.  I just mentally went back to sleep and ate whatever came in the greasy bag shoved at me through the drive thru window.

3 months later,  I was moving through the incredibly painful process of losing my business that I had owned for 9 years. I spent my days trimming my 39 employee staff down to 0 and cleaning up my warehouse, liquidating inventory, and dealing with creditors.  It was really, really depressing - maybe the worst I’ve ever felt.

One day, as I was sitting in line at a Taco Bell drive thru just depressed as hell, I started asking myself questions:

What is there in my life that I can be positive about right now?

Can I just change SOMETHING to make me feel better about myself?

Body Rebooting, of course.

It seemed silly. I mean, only a complete moron would actually try to do something 12 times and expect different results, right?  Isn’t that the exact definition of insanity?

I decided that I was not insane, but I WAS pigheaded enough to try it again.

So in August I woke up, reached out and grabbed the reigns of the runaway horse I was on, and Rebooted.  When I say Rebooted, I mean that I totally CTL - ALT - DEL’ed EVERYTHING.  I started a slow carb diet the next week (thank you, Tim Ferriss), hired a new trainer, and got back to enjoying the journey of Body Rebooting.

TODAY

I am very proud to report that, as of this morning, January 28th, 2 days shy of two years fighting the good fight, I have lost 101 pounds. I am 282 pounds now. That’s 353,500 excess calories that I have burned off.  That’s a big Twinkie. Of course, I am happy about becoming a centurian, but mostly I am just relieved.  There is still a long way to go, but for a couple of days I will savor this victory with my family, my trainers, and my friends.

There’s one important lesson that I have learned in this two year process and that I want to share:  It is CRITICALLY important that you have a good support system in place when you try to achieve something as crazy as dropping 100+ pounds, but what you must understand is that you have to do it for yourself. You are not alone, but you must know that your motivation must be internal.  The fire has to come from within.  Use your support system, but attack the problem as if you didn’t have one.  In the end, the battle is with yourself anyway. It’s hard to see at first, but you are worth the effort.

If you are serious about wanting to Reboot, here’s your best shot:

1.  Spend a LOT of time educating yourself about nutrition.  What you will learn, as I have, is that there is a ton of misinformation and un-education concerning nutrition in the USA.  The average doctor spent about 20 minutes on nutrition in med school 20 years ago.  They help with symptoms.  Nutrition is about prevention. Proper nutrition, in my opinion, is MORE important than exercise (I did NOT say exercise was unimportant, trainers!) If you will follow me on Twitter here, I will absolutely help speed up your learning curve.

2.  Go hire a trainer.  Can they be expensive? Yep.  Are they worth it? Absolutely.  Tell me, I wonder how much having diabetes for 30 years will cost you in America’s health care system? The answer is hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Trainer wins.  Take a look at the picture below - do you really think that someone like my trainer would let you fail? Heck, I’m too scared of her to NOT show up.

3.  Dig down deep.  Find the reasons that you need to be in better shape.  You’ll realize over time that all of your reasons (your spouse, your kids, your job, etc) have to start with you first.  This one took me a while to understand, because on the surface it seems selfish - I wanted to do this for my wife and 3 boys - but in order to help others, you must first help yourself.

4.  The scale is an asshole. It is not your friend.  It lies to you. If you want to drive yourself crazy, weigh every day.  If you want to approach Body Rebooting correctly, you have to measure….measure…measure.  To effectively know your progress, you need to measure the following:  a) you need to take body measurements - waist, hips, shoulders, etc - every month  b) you need to measure your % of bodyfat every month (lots of places do this for you - the doctor, a trainer, etc) c) you need to weigh once a month d) you need to have bloodwork (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc) done every 3 months or so.  You cannot get an accurate picture of how you are progressing without these 4 things. Bloodwork, in particular, tends to go overlooked.  I submit that how your body is doing CHEMICALLY is just as important as how it’s doing PHYSICALLY.

5.  Have a sense of humor about this whole thing.  Yesterday, I was in my doctors office getting bloodwork done and I happened to notice the good old height and weight BMI chart on the wall.  As I looked at it, I was shocked and amazed that I was now considered obese! Not super obese or super morbidly obese - just obese!

“High five, doc! I’m just obese now!” I said as I held my hand up.  My doc knows me pretty well, and returned the high five with a smirk on his face.

Enjoy the ride.  A task can be hard as hell, but we humans CHOOSE to suffer.  Kind of silly, isn’t it?

Here is me now, surrounded by the best support system on Earth: My current incredible trainer Regina (Fitness Wife) on the left and my awesome first trainer Brooke (First Fitness Wife) on the right.  In no way could I have come this far without them.

This is me by the end of this year:

I’m looking forward to the “Three Years of Weight Loss” post!

Kevin Harmon

Twitter: imadness

Kevin_harmon@hotmail.com

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Well, the wait is over, and the competition is about to begin.  On Apple.com, there is now a link to the Verizon iphone

I say “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!”

Competition is a good thing - it forces everyone involved to bring their A game.  Personally, I think AT&T has been holding steady at their C game for a while now.  I’ve commented before that having the iPhone run on AT&T is like owning a Lamborghini that runs on apple juice. I will probably immediately jump ship to Verizon, damn the fees.  What really sealed the deal for me with AT&T was CES last year - we had an entire city of people with completely useless iPhones because AT&T didn’t bother to think about capacity in Las Vegas during an ELECTRONICS show.  Sad, and pretty awful on the PR front.

For those undecided or looking at iPhone for the first time,  there’s a great comparison between AT&T and Verizon service and plans at TiPb.com.  Just go here

So, what do you think?  Will you be switching from AT&T to Verizon iPhone? Do you think this is a wake up call for AT&T to step up service?

Comment below, and join the conversation with me on Twitter here

Kevin Harmon

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