20 Years of Flow

20 Years of Flow; a Reflection

5 Years ago I was still DJ’ing quite a bit.  It was part of my dream job/lifestyle that included teaching music during the week, DJ’ing on weekends, and buying and selling and investing in real estate. 

It was nice to always have DJ’ing “to fall back on.” Over the last 4 years as I have been more focused on the real estate and marketing side of things, I have tried to back off on DJ’ing so that I could focus on building a business that I have been working on since 2000, “Find Your Flow.” 

I didn’t know exactly what Find Your Flow would become, it started as an epiphany New Years Eve 2000 (Y2K for those of you who remember!) That was when the world was going to end because our computers weren’t prepared to go into 2000, lol.

My friends David, Mark, Jeremy and we all imagined Jarrod (although it turns out he wasn’t actually there) all went to the desert to avoid the meltdown.

 

We did things teenagers do in the desert with no parental oversight.

 

I started dancing, I had been practicing a dance style I learned in the underground rave scene called “liquid,” and suddenly, my body started dancing amazingly well, and my mind, well, started floating above my body!

 

It was incredible!

 

Then, a wise voice seemed to come down into me from above/within and said to me, “this is an experience of FLOW.  You will learn to spread this experience into every area of your life. You will write a book about this experience.”

 

Well, that was incredible, but it sounded crazy.  Even to me. And I’m crazy open-minded.

 

I had never written a book before, I had no idea how to start.

 

So, I started journaling.

 

I desperately wanted to have that peak flow experience again, and tried to track anything that would help me get that feeling again.

 

Over time, I realized, there was something magical about coincidences.

 

Serendipity, synchronicity, co-incidence.

 

Around that time I read a book called The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield which blew my mind.

 

 

—

 

I continued to journal and try to track my on Law Of Attraction experiences and coincidences over the years.

 

When I moved back to San Diego after attending college at UC Berkeley where I had the chance to go deep into Music and Ethnomusicology I continued my work.

 

I got the itch to go full time into real estate and worked my butt off to finally become a top producing Realtor with Century 21 Award.

 

But, as soon as I felt like I was hitting my stride, I sensed a shift. 

 

Our manager, who had 30 years of experience in the industry assured us that we would clear out the inventory. I didn’t see it that way and decided that I was burnt out and that the market was going to shift and all the systems that I had built over the last several years wouldn’t be effective in the new market.  So I made a tough decision, to get out of real estate and go back into music.

 

People at the office were shocked to see me go, but I knew I had to do it. 

 

Maybe a month or two later the bottom fell out and almost everybody I knew in the industry was suddenly out of work.

 

I had moved back into DJ’ing, but people were no longer going out anymore.  

 

The nightlife scene died almost overnight.

 

Who moved my cheese?!

 

Time to scramble. 

 

I managed to get a job as a Marketing Manager for a Kitchen & Bath remodeling company.  It was still in the Home Improvement industry and I got to do marketing so it was pretty awesome.

 

We started building a sales team and crushing it, making good money amidst a small recovery in the market.

 

But, all the success came very quickly and the company was not prepared for any slowdown, so when the slowdown started, things started getting hectic.

 

I could see the writing on the walls, and coincidentally, I got a call from a music teacher that I had worked with before, who gave me a full-time-ish Music Teaching opportunity.

 

I was SO EXCITED!!!

 

I put in my notice, which was a mutual situation, and I took the opportunity and left the kitchen and bath company right before it imploded.

 

The music teacher gig was awesome, back working with kids and music, two of my favorite things!

But it was short lived.

 

Within a month or so I was told that it was shutting down.  I considered buying the company, but wasn’t ready for the administration side of it and held off.

 

Things were getting a little desperate and I was feeling very down.  

Also, in the background, my mom had been fighting cancer and although had been doing well for a good while, was starting to really take a down turn in health.

 

Then, my dad and uncle had just invested in a telecommunications business, and recruited me to do telemarketing.

 

Now, most people hate telemarketing, but I actually don’t mind it.  In fact, I can honestly say that I learned to love it. I developed the confidence that if s*** ever hits the fan, I can always pick up the phone and make money.

 

So there I was, 2008, just got out of real estate as a top producing Realtor, left a position as a Marketing Manager, got laid off as a muic teacher, all within 6 months. 

 

I was working from home, making calls, in my boxers, sipping green tea, and remembered that I had once upon a time ago had an epiphany that I was going to write a book about “flow.”

 

Well, now seemed as good a time as ever.

 

So this idea came to me, now this was before Facebook, so the technology wasn’t the way it is today.

 

But the idea was that, what if an idea could be so powerful that it could change the world?

 

Well, certainly there were plenty of ideas that have changed the world over the course of humanity.

 

Okay then, well, how could we do it, ON PURPOSE?

 

Could I write a book that would give YOU the power to change the world with as little effort as possible by being focused and taking focused action?

 

Maybe.

 

So, I wrote a little book called, “The Social Experiment – How to Empower Yourself and Do Good in About An Hour While Sitting at Home In Your Pajamas Drinking Green Tea.” 

 

Amazon: shorturl.at/rABK8 

 

Coincidentally, I met the co-author of the book series, “Cup of Chicken Soup For the Soul” and it turned out he was a cancer survivor.  I explained that my mom had cancer and that I planned to donate all the proceeds of the book to cancer patients and research.

 

He graciously wrote the foreword to my book.

 

I published the book and for one hot minute it hit #1 in its category on Amazon.

 

 

Now, coincidentally, I sit, working from home, as the world ends, and prepare to publish the book that I started writing 20 years ago.

 

If you would be interested in getting a copy of this book when it comes out, please let me know by commenting below “FLOW” or messaging me.

 

Thank you for reading this, I believe that the best is yet to come.

 

Until next time my friend, BE FLOWING!  –Winston