Sales 102

Have you had any formal sales training? Like, you actually sat in a classroom with other students, an instructor (preferably a seasoned salesperson), did role playing and actually closed some sales? No? Okay, well, today in your training you are going to learn a few things in life that might actually help you … in your job, your finances, your relationships. I, on the other hand, have had years of training and mentored with some of the best sales guys I have ever met. In fact, when I was a sales supervisor at Best Buy I was in charge of the orientation/on-boarding/sales training for all new recruits. It actually was really cool as I did the screening, interviewing as well, so spending all that time with new hires helped to retain them. One of the first rules at Best Buy (for me) was if you don’t shop here, you can’t work here. What? Why? You need to already know the products, the industry, the store. You know, basic expectations out of a candidate. So I am going to start with some basics, BEFORE you meet your contact, you have to prospect to get them. I do not mean posting something on your social media that you are now selling the latest, coolest, best _____ product on the market and you need to be one of the first with your foot in the door. Unless you have some geeky kid next door in his garage starting some cool idea company, I would be very, VERY apprehensive in whatever they are selling. Chances are it is a multi-level marketing company, and let’s be honest, you are never going to make real money selling for an upline. I personally know of dozens of good people who fell prey to the “what if it’s you?” bait/marketing scheme.

I wrote a kids book and most of my friends have kids. Guess what? A tiny fraction of those friends bought or even asked for an autographed copy of my book. Why? I never asked, and actually didn’t care. I have hundreds of thousands of fans/readers all over the world who don’t know me who DID read it. Trying to convince your friends and family to buy your product or service is hard. It is like trying to convince a muggle that you have magic powers or you are psychic. Read my mind. Not all psychics’ powers work like that. So how do you get new customers if your own circle won’t buy? You pay for them. It is called advertising. You see it everywhere. You also get someone to endorse your product … like an influencer or someone who has a lot of people who look up to him/her. What it all comes down to is … word of mouth/ willing to recommend. Sometimes it is simply exposure and marketing your product. A book, like any product needs a marketing plan, a launch date, and many different vehicles to let everyone know. I used Facebook business advertising and exposed my book all around the world until I found my sweet spots. Who knew Algeria and Egypt would be big on my book? As I instructed my clients, we need a minimum of six months exposure before you launch. Get people excited about it before it launches. The artist I hired for the cover granted me unlimited licensing of my characters so I made bookmarks with their faces. Everyone loves free bookmarks. I actually designed the bookmark, but if you hire a graphic artist, they can easily do one of you and your product (a book). It was also clever as it had the launch date on the bookmark so for a lot of people they saw the book daily before it launched. I know this was key in the marketing efforts. If you want one, Venmo a dollar for postage and envelope (USA only). Put your address in the notes.

When I was in sales at AT&T, the “willing to recommend” was HUGE and I had to drill it into every single one of my customers. It was even on the survey. Are you willing to tell a couple of trusted friends to have the same 5 star experience? Yes? Awesome, here are two cards, write your name on it and when they come in I will give you 2000 roll over minutes for free. Wow. I know right? Now that wouldn’t work. While your own circle of influence may not buy your _____ (for me it was book/websites), they might actually give you customers. Weird I know. As a website guy I also would go to networking groups and I was always hitting up new business owners who didn’t have a website on their business card. I didn’t always get paid actual money, but I did manage to get some awesome trades in return. Keep in mind that not every prospect/contact is going to be a mutual beneficial arrangement. I can think of many, many times I built a website for someone and never got paid. I know, it sucks. When I first started I had a client who tricked me into thinking I was going to get all this new business from her. After a year of no clients from her she moved her website back to WordPress.org and put it on a shitty blog template. She didn’t deserve me. I also volunteered on a church business networking group on the committee/board. I did the website and got “free” advertising and membership. Yeah, that didn’t quite work out as well as I had wanted, as I was donating my websites for charitable causes all the time. Now when people want me to do a “pro bono” website I send them to Wix.com. If you haven’t used/seen it, they actually host a ton of professionals websites. Those who are too cheap to invest have their branding all over it. Although it is somewhat easy to use, it is slow, clunky, can’t be customized how I build websites. I had a client who thought she could do it better and later confessed she had no idea what she was doing. Again, a website for “trade”, I got to read all her training manuals on her specific trade, as long as I promised never to compete against her. I was like, okay, I do websites, you do emotional healing. You’re safe. While I don’t advocate spamming your newsfeed with your product/service I do promote listing it so people can find more about it. You can list your Facebook business page on your personal page, and then when people click it, they can see your posts and website address.

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If are you NOT selling a product or service and you are simply looking for work, let me visit your employment profile for a moment. If you are unemployed then you definitely need to let all your contacts know you are looking for work. Text, email, post an update, snap it, meet friends for drinks and find out more about their companies. If I had to go look for a corporate job, I would hit up my network of colleagues to see what they had open and would recommend. There are lots of jobs out there if you look. Keep in mind that many companies will not post jobs on outside websites so you might have to do more work to find those jobs. Getting an employee referral is your ideal situation. When you do meet up, be ready to spit out all kinds of tactical experiences that you can easily transfer to another company. I’m a sales/marketing/HR kind of guy, so a job traveling for trade shows selling HR ____ would be my target job. Could I sell to HR colleagues? Easily. If I didn’t have any networking friends, I would use LinkedIn, theladders.com and I would target companies that I felt were desirable to work at, like, you know, Google, apple, Disney. What software are you an expert? Can you really use Photoshop or are you just using a fancy paid app like Khloe Kardashian? How fast do you type? As silly as that sounds, there are still millions who can’t type. I hate typing on a phone, so I use voice to text. But I am long winded so you might think I type really really fast. It is crazy when I go somewhere and I see the employee looking at the keyboard for the right letters. Crazy right? How are your organizational skills? What do you use to keep you on time, at the right place, and not forgetting shit? What apps do you use? As weird as it sounds, in this day and age, you really have to know how to use apps to work. Like, Slack for instance. It isn’t industry specific, but it is an app that I had to learn to use.

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I haven’t updated/visited my resume in a decade, and I bet there are a lot of other people who can say the same. So why don’t we start together and create something new, current and ready for today and tomorrows job market? The first part of the sales process is going to be selling YOU, your skills, experience (or lack thereof), your personality and what you can do for a company. Start by identifying WHO you are, and how you are going to market that. For example, am I a writer? HR guy? website guy? sales? trainer? You might have several resumes based on your skills, or you may just have one that you customize with each job/employer. Think about the “things” you can do now, and for your next job. Everyone has something that will make them unique, and highly desirable as a candidate. Having lots and lots of skills that multiple departments can benefit from will quickly advance a candidate. When I said I could train the staff on some different sales and closing techniques that would increase revenue and new business development, I was a “sure thing”. When I was asked if I knew the 4 “C’s”, I replied, “Cash, check, charge, credit.”

For your resume, start with your objective and/or your professional profile (or highlights). This will be the first section of your resume. I also like to call this the formal 30 second commercial. If someone only had a few seconds to scan through your resume, what are the things you want them to see immediately?

Share the wealth and forward/share this valuable information with someone you know needs it. If this was forwarded to you, hit up the website and subscribe to get your own blog updates.

Sales 101

Alrighty kids, let’s learn something, or shall we say, revisit a very simple but important concept in running a business. So if you don’t think this relates directly TO you, there might be someone in your circle of influence that you need to pass this message. Fair enough? One of my specialties has been to identify areas of opportunity and determine sources of revenue. So small business owners or really creative idea generators listen up? Whatever your business is … you MUST secure a stable stream of revenue or you will fail. Now, there are exceptions to every rule, such as, a millionaire like a Kardashian can start a company, it can fail and they don’t lose everything and go on unemployment. You can also be a non-profit and you get grants, donations and sponsorships to keep the daily operations going. One of the hardest thing to do in starting a business is acquiring new customers. Hence advertising, word of mouth, social media all have a huge effect on whether people will buy, use and recommend your product or service.

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So where am I going with this? Well, take a look around at what products or services are now hard to come by, … such as rental cars. About a year ago after everyone was forced to stay home, some of the supporting industries took a huge dive in customers. No one was traveling and many of the big rental car companies were forced to sell off their inventory at a huge loss or face bankruptcy, which actually happened to a couple of companies. So now that things are somewhat returning to normal, there are no cars to rent. In some places, people are renting the pickup truck from Uhaul as it is cheaper than a rental car. So if you weren’t aware, there is a car sharing app/company that has been around for a little while, but like everything, had a downturn in sales. That company is Turo.com. Now I have never used the company myself, nor do I know of anyone who does, but it comes highly recommended. It is like air B&B, where you rent your property to someone, and it is covered by another insurance company, and you can make money on your car if you aren’t using it. There are actually people who went and bought or leased a new car, and then turn around and put it on Turo as their income. Same concept with the air B&B, … as long as you have customers. So if you are planning a vacation or trip anytime soon, be sure you use this cool website. You can rent anything from a Jeep 4×4 to a brand new corvette. This is especially fun if you are going to be doing a lot of driving on your trip.

And in case you missed it, Colorado was the tragedy of the “Mother’s Day Massacre”, in Colorado Springs where six people were gunned down at a family celebration in a mobile home trailer park. The killer was the boyfriend of one of the victims and died of a self inflicted gun wound. Our hearts, warm thoughts and prayers go out to the surviving family members and friends.

Negative Ghost Rider …

… the pattern is full. Say what? Oh, I am just quoting one of my favorite lines from the movie Top Gun. Remember when Maverick wanted to do a fly by? Request denied. So, good ole DJ Trump was not able to bypass the Twitter security. So I am guessing that if you try to tweet one of his posts, you too will get suspended. You know, part of the fame and glory of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is being able to brag about your follower/fan number. So for someone like DJ, he was super giddy when he kept getting new followers when he was first elected. He even tweeted about the number of new followers he got. Sadly with his website, he can’t do that. No one will know if he has 1 follower or 1 billion. His webmaster might have a clue, but then again, we looked at his code and that might not be the case. In fact, he is kind of an idiot, due to the fact that he is encouraging people to tweet his blog posts, which WILL result in accounts being suspended. I know a lot of people who use the big 3 as their only source of information and entertainment. I don’t do a lot of scrolling, and mostly just post something and then log off. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t really post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram as much as I thought I did. I do post on my website on a semi-regular basis. And that is what is important. I think we can all agree that fresh new content is what people really want.

So, while we are all still confined to our homes, I think we all need to start a fairy garden movement. Daylight is abundant and not only will it spice up the decorations outside your home, it will also attract fairies and give them a place to call home. I wrote about fairies in my book, so I think there is some divine spiritual energy trying to send me a message to get started on book 2. I just got some solar fairy lights for my garden. So now the fairies can see at night. Go watch the Spiderwick Chronicles, it is a cute little movie about monsters and mystical creatures. You can rent it on Amazon. Fairy garden. Weekend project. The kids will love it. And you could use a little fairy magic in your life.

A Fairy Tale (For Real!)

Once upon a time … just kidding. I’m not telling that kind of a fairy tale. I am going to give a product shout out to Kamtron security cameras. At the recommendation of my brother I purchased 5. Two outdoor wireless stationary cameras and 3 rotating movable cameras. It was watching his demo on his smartphone that convinced me that I needed it too. Truth be told, my little nanny cam Minion that I got on Black Friday 2 years ago finally died. It wasn’t very fancy and I think it was only $40, but it was pretty handy watching the front door so I would know when my packages were delivered. So anyway, I had this one set up for outside as it uses a lithium ion battery so you can put it anywhere. The app is super easy to use and I also put it on my iPad. I can also get notifications on my phone anytime the motion sensor is triggered. The days of waiting for Amazon, UPS and USPS are over. I can also use it as an intercom, so when someone is at the front door I can tell them to hang on a sec, or let them know that it is unlocked and come on in.

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So a long time ago I put a bunch of artificial flowers in the window-well for the window in the mancave. (it is a basement window if you are wondering). Anything was better than the boring steel grey color. I thought it made it a little more cheerful. What I didn’t realize is I accidentally created a fairy garden, and a home base for thousands of fairies. With my brand new cameras they also have a really cool nighttime infrared feature. So they can see in the dark. They also can see things that the ordinary eye can’t see. At first I thought there were like a thousand fireflies outside. So I went upstairs, turned on the light and it was completely dark and empty. No fire flies. No bugs. It was quiet. I went back downstairs and the “bugs” were everywhere. So I put my iPhone on a stand and recorded a slow-motion, and that is when I discovered they weren’t bugs. They were invisible “fairies”. I also witnessed a glowing orb-like ball that appeared the night of the supermoon. It was invisible to my naked eye, but clear as fire in the camera. I am positive THAT was a UFO. There also was a dark glowing “orb” the size of the moon that reminded me of the evil eye in Lord of the Rings. Also, you could not see that with the naked eye. And tonight I watched as another glowing ball appeared out of no where and then shot up into the sky lightening fast. I am pretty sure that these magical creatures do not want to be seen. Just like ghosts don’t want to be seen. I also have witnessed orbs flying around the mancave. I always knew there was spiritual energy around me, and now I have actual proof.

And in case you forgot, this Sunday is Mother’s Day. So be sure you do something extra nice for mom this year. If you ARE a mom, just go buy something frivolous and unnecessary. You’re worth it. Evidently fairy gardens are a real thing, so I will be enhancing mine in the coming days.

What Does “Aaron” Think?

The first time I can remember someone wanting to know MY opinion on a topic was back when I was a product manager in a marketing group working in Boulder Colorado. It was for a company you might know, GE. General Electric. Yep, the light bulb company. “We bring good things to life.” Cute little slogan right? I was only there for a year or so but it taught me everything I needed to know about the distribution chain and logistics. The year was 1999, and if you all remember, everyone thought the world would go into chaos with Y2K. What a joke that was.

Anyway, I was in a marketing group of about a dozen people, and crazy thing I was the highest paid of them all. I found that out years later how my director had to go to bat to justify my salary. Hey, the power of negotiation is huge. In one of the many meetings I was required to participate in, my counterpart, the other product manager was not doing so hot, so the director asked what were my thoughts on the situation. I looked up from my Palm pilot (I know right?) and said they wouldn’t like my answer as I have a totally different take and perspective as a former IT, Windows NT network administrator. I was the guy who usually sat in silence listening to everyone else argue. Why join a pointless discussion if no one really listened? Well, my director listened, and for the first time in my life, someone actually took my recommendation and did something with it. Yep, it was me who started new marketing initiatives generating new revenue. When you prove you can make a company money, save them money, OR prevent potential litigation, you get noticed.

In many positions I would spearhead a newsletter. I’ve always been a writer, and sending out communications on a timely basis has always been my thing. It’s funny, a lot of my readers actually know me personally. Many of them say they can actually hear my voice in their head when they read my words. Like in a movie … a letter on the screen is all of the sudden thoughts and sentences in your ear. When Sex and the City was on air I thought how cool would was Carrie Bradshaw? She had a sex column in New York City that made her semi-famous. I always wondered what writers were paid at a newspaper. Well, we all know that newspapers don’t really exist anymore. Most newspapers are all online subscription websites now. My blog/website is sort of like that but without the monthly cost. I did have a reader tell me he would be pissed if I started charging for articles/blogs. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that. There are other starving artists who need your money before I do. Just like Ben Shapiro, I’m just another news commentary out in the big world wide web. But actually I’m mostly on people’s smartphones, … in their email. If you’ve been a long time subscriber then you should have over 90 different blogs that I have written. And since most blogs are at least 500 words or more, it would take hours and hours to read them all. I personally have only written some, and never read them. I have only read my book once, and that was when it was written. Many parents have read it so many times they can quote lines from it. Crazy right? I will have to sit down and read it before I can write a sequel. I was contemplating recording it and putting each chapter online on YouTube. I can’t be sued for reading my own book. But if I read say, Harry Potter, I think Warner Brothers would be after me for copyright. I actually had a reader ask/request that I read the book since it is easier to listen than to read. Most of my readers/fans get their info from me via the blog and not my other social media outlets. Facebook and Instagram are a joke with their stupid algorithms. Back in the day when the business page was new, I would post a picture or something and thousands of people would like it. Now, … nothing. Seriously if you go and look at the really old posts and the current ones you would be disgusted at the lack of likes. So it is better to just use my platform where I know people are reading my thoughts. I am willing to bet there are a lot of kids who would love to see/hear me read my book. I’ll think it over and we will see what happens. I’ll ask my nephews and see what they think.

Mortal Kombat released on HBO Max and at the theaters yesterday, and I have to say I really liked it. I loved the final kill scenes … flawless victory. If you ever watched any of the movies you will like this one. But if you are not into fantasy fighting and killing you won’t like it. It is Aaron Approved!

Sephora, Ulta, or Discount Store

If you have ever walked into a Sephora or an Ulta store you know that it is full of highly priced beauty products. Women (and now men) spend thousands of dollars in these stores, all with the goal in mind of looking pretty, or younger. As you glance around the store, almost all the customers are pretty and the salespeople look like they walked out of a magazine. After all, if you are selling beauty products then it should look like you are using them. I used to think that these two stores were basically the same store, selling the same products. But after doing a lot of research, and shopping I have come to a clear decision on which one I like best. AND since a lot of people wonder what I think, telling them where I shop can be advantageous. After all, as one friend said, I have already done all the leg work of doing the research.

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Now if you don’t care about your looks, getting old, or attempting to be somewhat attractive to the eye, then you might just be a straight male republican. Hahahaha. Seriously, my twin brother doesn’t have a skincare routine, and he doesn’t even wash his face at night. And he wonders why I look younger. Kim Kardashian doesn’t just wake up looking gorgeous. So the difference in the stores, from which I can tell, deal with the kinds of brands each of them carry. As you may know, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of brands and products. How do you decide on which ones to spend your hard earned cash? You do want to look amazing for the rest of your life and you can’t do that without some help. As I told a friend, in all honesty, if someone is exfoliating, using a serum, moisturizer and spf, he/she is going to look good. Not knocking any brand, so if you got it at Target or at Sephora, something is better than nothing.

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Sephora is more high end and is going to carry more expensive brands. Ulta will have middle of the line, and maybe some luxury brands. Target, Walmart, Dollar Store all have make up and skincare but they may not be the highest quality. Of course, if/when you find a brand you love, you can buy directly from their website. BUT if you want to make life easier, you can buy online from Sephora and get free shipping, free products, and tons of free samples. They have a $35 minimum to get some of the samples, but if shipping is free, I just make multiple orders and get all the samples. They know what I am doing and combine them all into one box. Twice a year they have a beauty insider event. You give them your email and they track your purchases and then you get a special discount event. So that super expensive _____ that you wanted, you can get it on sale. Some of the skincare products are really pricey, so getting samples of those products is a bonus. If you aren’t signed up, head over there now and the next event for 10% off is this week. I am addicted to “Sunday Riley” skincare, which they sell on Sephora and Ulta. But you don’t get a discount or free shipping at Ulta.

Go pamper yourself with some skincare products. When your skin/face looks good, you feel good. And let’s be honest, no one gives a hoot how tan your face looks. You can use make up bronzing to give you a healthy beautiful glow without damaging your skin. I like to use Natasha Denona’s contouring powder to enhance my dark skin tan.

(I was not paid to endorse any of these companies). Sephora, Sunday Riley & Natasha Denona are “Aaron Approved”.

The J&J 1 Shot “shot”

April Fools Day for me was a life saving day. So at the request of some readers, here is an update that I got my shot and I am not going to die. Yes, I would be really sad if I got COVID and died too. While some people in Colorado are having difficulty finding the vaccine, it is even harder to get your hand on the 1 shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It literally is the luck of the draw. When I got to Kaiser to get my shot, they had all 3 different vaccines, and fortunately for me, my nurse had 1 dose left and it just happened to be J&J. The cool thing was all of the syringes were already loaded with the vaccine. So all those videos you see of the vaccine in the little jars, didn’t apply to J&J. I didn’t ask, but I am assuming they did not want to waste any of the vaccine like some places have been doing. I’m really not into a lot of selfies, and you’ll see my Instagram has them sporadically. At the request of a friend, here is me taken, just yesterday. Yeah, I know I don’t wear my hair down like my profile picture, and I usually wear my glasses these days. I know, with my visor on you can’t even tell that I’m Asian Gandolf.

I took a picture of my COVID card so I will always have it. I am guessing at some point I will have to prove that I have had the shot. Although since I have Kaiser, it should show up in my test history. Thumbs up to Kaiser for being so efficient and organized. They had all the cards labeled in advance and when you get your shot, they peel the sticker off the vaccine and put it on your card so it is presented nice and neat. From my understanding, Kaiser is only giving shots to their own patients. You can’t just walk in and request an appointment. The general public still need to go to the official website and try to score an appointment. Kaiser was able to prioritize patients as they have their medical records and know who really needs the vaccine first. My shoulder is pretty meaty so I didn’t feel anything and there was no after effects or pain. If you are waiting your turn, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Where is the Zack Snyder review? Dude, … the movie is 4 hours long. The first time through I had to sit in awe realizing it was a different movie, same story. Like, how many times can they tell the story of ____ (pick any Disney movie)? I need to watch the movie again to actually enjoy it and then critique it. But if you are waiting, I can tell you that it is “Aaron Approved” and if you like super heroes then you need to watch it. For all you Catholics, it’s Good Friday and your last day to eat fish. Although I love fish. Crab legs all you can eat. I’m down. The Lodge Casino in Blackhawk has all you can eat, but they have to serve your plate rather than grabbing a potentially infected pair of tongs.

Stop The Hurt

I know a lot of my readers are just as confused as I am. What am I talking about you may ask? Well, if you didn’t know, yesterday an Asian killing happened in Atlanta and this was clearly a hate crime, despite the murderer (in custody) saying it wasn’t. So my YouTube news was flooded with videos and news commentary about the situation, and OMG this is seriously getting out of hand. First of all, they are attacking geriatric fossils who can’t defend themselves. Like, hey, let’s go pick on some fifth graders so we can feel like a big bully.

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If I was witness to that happening to ANY elder person, regardless of race, background religion or whatever, it would be the WRATH OF AARON and I gotta say, it would not be pretty. 35 years of virtual training on a gaming console has left me with some very valuable skills. Yes, that’s right, I have a 9mm handgun. If EVERY person was armed, I think there would be a heck of a lot less attacks. How many first person shooter games have YOU played? How many hundreds of hours looking down a scope for the enemy? I think every Asian needs to be armed with at least a stun gun tazer, so when they see it happening to someone being attacked they can attack back. Shit I’d hit him with a fucking flare gun right at the head. Yes, seriously. Okay, I don’t carry a flare gun, but I carry my keys and I would have no problem paralyzing someone from the neck down. One swift hit in the back of the neck and it would be vegetable city forever. I took a few classes here and there. One thing to remember if you are ever held at gun point, give them your wallet, throw it on the ground and run like hell.

I do not promote violence, but when it comes to fight or flight, I will do both. And Dexter taught me how to bleed someone out very easily.

Say Cheese!

Depending on your age, you may think that I am referring to the popular catch phrase people say when posing for a picture. As a photographer I love catching an authentic smile, maybe even a laugh. And then of course, get the Instagram version. I actually am about to give a scathing review, related nothing to posing for a photogram. <- that would actually be a cool app name for a photography rival app.

I recently had a big bag of “Great Value” mozzarella cheese show up in my kitchen and I am very unhappy to say that it is horrible cheese. If you weren’t aware that is the house brand name for Walmart. The cheese doesn’t melt correctly. So there must be something “in” it to cause it to react that way. Hey, I’m not a chemist or a biologist, but I am a chef and I do know when a cheese is funky when you put it on a pizza. So the other day I stopped by Target, to you know, get some good cheese, and they did not have a single package of Kraft or Sargentos. They had this off the wall house brand, and only had Mexican cheese in stock. Wow. Overall I find that Target is always a huge disappointment. They never have what I want … and the overall selection is pretty bad. Artichokes. I’m not grasping for anything fancy. NEITHER stores had artichokes.

Artisan flour. Again, neither store had artisan flour. If you want to have delicious entrees you need to have high quality ingredients. Needless to say, my quest ultimately ended at my local Safeway. Yeah, I know, as crazy as it sounds, they carry the Red Mill brand, which has EVERY possible kind of flour you could ever dream of. I was asked what do you use all purpose flour for, if it wasn’t good enough for my kitchen. Gravy. It is good for thickening sauces and making gravy. Children paper mache projects. Yeah, that would probably be it. I mean, if you are eating something, do yourself a favor and don’t go cheap. And actually, the artisan flour was on sale, 20% off so it was just a little bit more than all purpose flour. I tried using some all purpose flour for a pizza and it was soft and chewy. It wouldn’t even crisp up when baking it alone for a few minutes.

Last week I made Italian Runzas. If you don’t know what they are, they are basically a calzone, but with an awesome bread wrapping. They are from a restaurant out of Nebraska, which actually discontinued this version of the original runza, which is ground beef and cabbage. Artisan flour made it amazing. I don’t know what kind of flour they use in the restaurant, but mine tastes exactly like theirs. Lard and sugar in the dough recipe, instead of using butter — like what copycats use. Sadly over the years, the restaurants got cheap and used less meat/filling mixture and all you get is a mouthful of expensive bread/flour. Seriously. I think they cost about $4 a runza. As much as I love Runza, they lost me as a customer as I can clearly do it better.

If you weren’t aware there is a massive snow storm headed to the Colorado Rockies and they predict it will be feet of snow. So of course everyone is buying tons of groceries like they are all going off grid for a month. And if you missed it, Good Girls on NBC started up again, and it is totally worth watching. Love that show. As much as some readers would like my thoughts on the British scandal, … all I can say is I am pretty naive because I don’t usually see “color”, and I had no idea she is half black. The world, our own homes have their own problems. Sorry Meghan is having a hard time. I am sure the Kardashians are rolling their eyes and laughing.

In a world of rock paper scissors, ginger trumps the skinny latte. If you want a seriously entertaining review, go watch Ben Shapiro. I did and I laughed out loud.

Choose Your Side Wisely

So I know a lot of my readers are not on Facebook, and that is totally cool. I personally know of dozens of friends in real life who don’t even have an account. But they still have email. So anyway, I saw this in my newsfeed and it really hit home. I personally do not understand why the republican party thinks that their constituents/voters have not been impacted by the virus, and that only rich people are republicans. Because CLEARLY all the uneducated red neck rioters at the capital were NOT the upper crust of society. 75 million people are republican. As I stated in my last post, everyone needs/wants money. We don’t all make 174k a year like a senator does. Most of them are all millionaires already. It’s like all the rich kids got together and decided to bully all the poor kids (us) and now they can kind of get away with it. Oh wait, some people, still do get away with it.

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I had a friend who is a republican and I asked her WHY she was her party. She said she didn’t want people who don’t deserve shit getting shit when she has to pay for it. Like free healthcare when you are an illegal. Wow. I realized at that point my “friend” was a shitty person and it was best to part ways. I did however, ask her if I could see her immigration health bill. Her what? You know, the bill that she was sent that specifically covered illegal healthcare. Oh, she didn’t have one. So I told her to grow the F up and be a better person. One day, she or someone she loves is going to need assistance from someone, and she better pray that is readily available. What if, say in 50 years the population somehow has become dominant non-white? Say only 1% of the doctors are white. Then what? There are so many people that “think” their perspective or outlook is the only one. You can be king of the world one day, and then banished the next.

So if you live in a state where you voted for a republican congress-person or senator, it is clear that your representative does NOT have YOUR best interests at heart. They are selfish, greedy, corrupt politicians who are only looking out for themselves. It is horrible and evil that the republicans are doing things to cheat the American people. Suppressing the vote so it is harder for everyone to vote is not cool. They can’t win legitimately so they do things to put the odds in their favor. And I want to throw a huge shout out to Stacey Abrams of Georgia, who spearheaded the movement to get thousands of new voters registered, which resulted in the democrats winning control of the senate, and ultimately passed this COVID relief plan, which Biden says we will see checks this month. I think I can speak for millions when I say that any amount of assistance is greatly appreciated. As always, we give thanks that we made it yet, another day in the pandemic.

Can you imagine the chaos if the bill was written that you only get a check if your Representative voted for it? Trump said if you posted on social media #notmypresident you wouldn’t get a stimulus check. And isn’t it ironic how millions didn’t get one in the second round? If a senator got thousands and thousands of calls, letters, emails, and texts saying I am a voter in your district and I am not voting for you, I think that might get some attention. Imagine for just a moment, if TEN more senate seats were won for the democrats. Yeah, the rich people would be in trouble. Go Senator Warren. I support you 100%! Bezo you are in trouble. And remember, folks, those tariffs on China haven’t been lifted, so your apple iPhones and Nintendo Switches all get hit, …. which means you get hit.