What I'm Up To
​Volume 100

Hey friends,
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Here’s what I’ve been up to since Vol. 99…
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1. October Happenings
​Crazy to see that this newsletter has entered the triple digits. Just think, next September we’ll celebrate the “eleventy-first” edition (with a nod to Bilbo Baggins, of course.) Thanks for reading.​
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​I kicked off October by attending MashUp. It’s my third year attending the masterminds, and it’s starting to feel more like a friendly reunion than a business mastermind. And that’s a good thing. While it's great for networking, the real magic is in the support and relationship building.
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Wendy and I went to our first Texas Volleyball game. 🏐We had so much fun! Gregory Gym is small enough that there are no bad seats and loud enough to feel sorry for the visiting team. My Apple Watch kept giving me “loud environment” warnings when the home team scored. It helps that UT is a top-ranked team. I’m now a committed fan. I turned heads at my weekly fantasy football lunch when I asked them to put the UT volleyball game on one of the TVs. (I’m sorry, were you really watching the Cleveland Browns?) Hook’em! 🤘
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Gus has been an infrequent visitor this year. He loves his new apartment and is busy with classes and the school newspaper. We're happy he's found his place, but damn, I miss having him around. Empty nesting is overrated IMHO.
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For work, I travelled to Cherokee, NC for a keynote. We also went to Newport, RI, for Wendy’s Her Best Life couples' goal-setting retreat. We toured The Marble House, did a murder mystery party on a train, and started our annual goal-setting process. I did not get a lobster roll – my only regret.
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While in Newport, we finally pulled the trigger and adopted a new dog, Kiki. A rescue, she is roughly six months old, a Lab-American Fox Hound mix, and mostly housebroken. 👞🐶 Taco is warming to her even if her puppy energy is over the top. Santa, if you're reading this: new houseshoes, please. 🎅
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Lastly, I’ll give a shout-out to this amazing Halloween costume from a fan of my new book, Rookie Real Estate Agent. The book just crossed 10,000 copies sold (in ten weeks) and won the Nonfiction Book Association Gold Medal for Best Nonfiction Book.
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As a favor, I’d love a review on Amazon. We’re trying to get to 100 reviews as fast as we can. Thanks!​
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2. What I’m Reading
​I bounced back on reading this month—it fills my cup like nothing else. Author Kate Quin refers to The Briar Club as her “postpandemic book, a novel that erupted out of a desperate need for light, for connection, for friendship.” It’s about a group of boarders who bond over a weekly meal at the fictional Briar House. Quinn excels at historical fiction. This book is set in DC during the height of McCarthyism. The parallels to today are uncanny. It was slow at first as each chapter switches perspective, but the payoff is worth it. Five stars. “Your mother says that to justify the fact that she isn’t being fair to you,” Mrs. Grace said calmly. “Which is mostly what people mean when they say ‘life isn’t fair.’ It isn’t, which is why people should endeavor to be more fair to one another, not less.”
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Next, I picked up my friend Tim Grahls' book, Running Down a Dream. It’s a nonfiction account of his rollercoaster journey from employee to entrepreneur, learning self-mastery, and overcoming self-doubt. Well done, Tim! “And then one day I realized I wasn’t even trying to think of myself as good anymore. I believed it.”
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I read about 80% of The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom before our podcast in August. Then I set it aside and only just now finished it. Bloom’s age belies his wisdom. He is a seeker of life’s great truths. The book covers what he’s learned about building wealth in five areas: Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth. “Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough.”​
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Finally, my pal Dan recommended Beartooth by Callan Wink. It's a fine novel about two brothers raising themselves in the wilds near Yellowstone after their father’s death. Wink captures trout streams and mountain trails as well as anyone I’ve read. It’s a short, solid read. “People who are comfortable in their own skin can never get lost…[His father would] stand and wave his arms around as if gathering the peaks and ponderosas and the great leaning chunks of sheared-off granite boulders to him. All of this can be your home if you’re comfortable in here. He’d make his arms move in slowly so it was just his hand encompassing a little circle in the middle of his chest. Right here is where you control your world. So, in that way, he saw to their religious education.”​
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​3. What I’m Watching
​Our TV time has become quite predictable. Wendy watched two episodes of Downton Abbey (Peacock) on a plane and declared it was our new show. We started watching two episodes after dinner and then retiring to bed to read. Just like that, we’ve binged three seasons. Great characters, writing, and acting. There’s a reason it won all those awards (besides Maggie Smith). And it’s an addictive soap opera. If you’ve somehow avoided it, you’ve been forewarned. You might lose weeks of your life.
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We also love Slow Horses (Apple) season 6. I honestly don’t know how they turn out a new season every six months and keep the quality so high. Definitely a favorite.

That’s it for this month. Please reply back and let me know what you’re up to!

Be well, do good deeds, and eat tacos!
Jay

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