Ok, two things!
In September (2007) I was given the opportunity to become a full time coach! That is just a nice way to say that I was fired! I was fine with that. Beach Body called me to ask me to film an infomercial for Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer. I jumped at the chance! Just asked Alvin who called me! ha ha. He was amazed that I was not concerned about per Diem, taxi fares, or even what airports I would use to travel there!
Right before I left work informed me that I did not have to worry about rushing back! In fact i did not need to come back at all! The weird thing was that I was fine with that! I had stopped working months before and had pretty much taken to becoming a full time recruiter to anyone on MySpace (www.MySpace.com/jdiebold) who would listen to me rant on about Beach Body! I was not making any money from it, ... yet, but I was having so much fun talking about these fitness products that had changed my life so much that when it came to a decision between talking about that and working. I chose the Beach Body Chats! Work at that point to me felt like an endless pursuit of a carrot dangling just out of my reach while I was running on a treadmill! It was just an endless series of wait until A happens quickly followed by another wait until say B happens. Each of which option would have made us all Millionaires. But eventually I realized that paycheck to paycheck with no benefits was not worth chasing some imaginary goal! It is hard to wake up every day to help revolutionize an industry that U don't think is necessary. I really did not enjoy promoting the idea that more pills is the solution to a healthier person. I would categorize that as being more a part of the problem than of the solution!
Any who I was laid off! Or fired maybe I forget? What really is the difference? I was given a chance to pursue other passions! So I did! For the next four months I traveled any where Beach Body or Million Dollar Body was having an event! I had some savings! I was super passionate about MDB and I wanted to meet all the Super Stars in the company to see what they were doing! It was the kind of mini retirement that most folks will never have the common sense to experience! I loved it! Most of U know the story already but I went to Vegas to hear Carl Daikeler speak at Coach Coach's MDB event there! My guy ChefHead was also a featured speaker at the event so U know that I had o be there for that! After the event ChefHead and I decided that we needed Body by P90X tattoos! So we did it! THX Chef! If U ever need a good buddy to get Ur first Tattoo with Bob is Ur man!
After Vegas was PHX! I went to Support and learn from My Queen Monica, and her side kick, my girl Lee!
PHX was great I went hiking with JoLoe, meet a beautiful girl in a karaoke bar, saw Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, fixed up my rental property in Mesa a bit! Signed up my buddy TrailHead as a coach! Enjoyed maybe the best hike of my life with him in Strawberry AZ! Took some acting lessons and generally spent a lot of time managing my ebay sales of Bach Body products (While it was still legal). Talk about a time waster! Come to think of it. It was a pretty active retirement! Now that I look back. That is what retirement should be. An endless long day full of exciting fun filled adventures!
After PHX was Chicago again I think then I hitched a ride back to Michigan for Christmas! Ahhh Michigan brings back Memories of Hockey games, Aussies, Crazy Hot Fitness Teacher!, group workouts, SnowMen, Hatch & Faith Heads, Breathe-2AM, Honesty and Red! I had an HS Alumni Hockey game and spent another NewYears at my favorite pace to bring n any new year with my best friend!
By the time January rolled around the dojo was complete and I spent some time entertaining Cheerleaders and poets! Lots of late nights at Nail Salons and The Movie Tavern! All the while working out getting in the beast shape of my life. Building my Business and taping damn near every step I took for either the December win, the P90X Infomercial, Or the Year End Contest!
The point of all this brain spilling is that I eventually ran out of money! And I had to get a job! I went back to what I am good at and get paid the most to do! Automation, the ability of a computer to replace the jobs of ten men! : ( Not really something I am super proud of but it pays the bills. I mean if U have ever checked any luggage on United at Denver International or Chicago O'Hare, or on any airline in Buffalo NY then Ur bag gets directed by my code which I guess is an honest enough way to make a living, but again I have lost passion for it a long time ago! Funny how I can say that while I am sitting here blogging underneath NYC JFK airport for some exaggerated standby requirement! Now I do it just to pay the bills and it does that well!
So faced with the need to get a job in the Automation industry on short notice, as money was running out quick. I did what any proud American laborer would do! I went crawling back to all my former employers! Brock offered me Las Vegas (they did not even recognize me I had gotten in such great shape), Col Pipe wanted me to move back to GA (Um hell no, I hate the city and my X), CLI wanted me to come back to PHX full time but I had already seen where that road would lead. Siemens had LAX coming up! I liked the sound of LAX (Beach Workouts and Sunny weather) and I believe that Siemens has a superior product to represent! So I took Siemens! I just had to do this small little gig in Buffalo until the LAX job started up in full swing! No problem right? Well through 2 or 3 folks that quit I eventually became the On Site Project Leader. Whoopee right? Alvin was impressed! Well Buffalo stole the soul out of me again! Yes Siemens pays for me to travel every few weeks and I was able to go visit LA a few times, attend several Tony Horton camps and visit some more family and friends but the long hours that Buffalo demanded was tearing the heart outta me and making me in to a not so happy person again. Through the busiest 8 months in Buffalo I signed up maybe 2 coaches? My heart was really in the wrong place! As I watched several much newer coaches obtain much higher ranks than I had achieved I fell further and further out of the Coaching loop!
Then came Barbie! On another one of those free trips home to attend another Team Beach Body event in Dallas I meet Barbie! We started talking! Barbie was not quite officially diamond yet! But, she showed me what I wanted my coaching business to be! She gave me an energy for coaching that I had never known! Our competitive nature forced us to playfully compete against each other for higher coaching achievements! Now just 4 months later we are both strong Double Diamonds, my second CBC is about to go Diamond, and she is breathes away from 5 Star Diamond with a very minimal amount of PS coaches! We are both back in the coaching realm big time! Beach Body even asked the two of us on a complete coincidence to be guest speakers on the same opportunity call!
But other wise my job was still killing me! A year in Western New York State has taught me one thing! I hate Buffalo! It is a "wicked little town" in every sense of the word! Yeah it was nice to see the falls, the people are nice enough and the summers were pretty much ok. But the winters suck! I spend the majority of my few hours away from work either shivering behind a coaching computer or huddle in bed with he heat on high! U see when I first got to NY last year the weather was getting better every day and I just knew that I was leaving before the next winter. That coupled with the excitement of my weekender trips was enough to get bye. But when winter came again I was bummed out big time!
And then when almost all hopes are abandoned my supervisor offers me LAX again immediately! do not pass go do not collect 2 hundred dollars. Simply move to LA.
: )
Is about all I can say!
So next week I pack up and drive back to Dallas. I have accumulated a surprisingly large amount of krap in a hotel room in the last 12 months! From there out to LA! I think I am going to take my bright Yellow Jeep! Why not right? Maybe I will make an event of it? "Working Out My Way to LA"? Stop in every city with a coach or buddy and do a workout in their house? One a day or so! No more than two a day! Well whatever! I am day dreaming of my new apartment in Marina Del Ray and RollerBlading on the Beach!
-Jason
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