vegas or bust.jpg

So this whole adventure started with a message from Hive account@steemcafe a few weeks ago. He asked if I'd be interested in speaking at his Steemit event in April, the Steem Creators Conference. At first I had to think about it, lots of doubt echoed in my head. I'm kinda shy and a little bit of an introvert, so this was a little nerve racking to say the least. Not to mention the logistics of getting there, taking time off work and leaving my family for a few days to go play in the desert. I needed the break to be honest. So I said Yes. I read a book a few years back that went something like "always say yes" and the moral of the book was you never know what amazing things could come out of facing your fears and just saying YES to any opportunity that presents itself.

So I took the time off work and told my wife what was going on. She was very happy for me, she knew how much time ive put into Steemit and the grind trying to make something out of it. She was sad also that she couldn't make the trip with me, my father in law was just diagnosed with stage four cancer and she has been taken care of him. She, understandably didn't want to leave him behind even for a few days. I was going to be alone on this journey.

With all my personal obligations to my family and financial responsibilities to my businesses. I was only able to make it Saturday for the event. So Hive account@steemcafe was nice enough to schedule my talk on Saturday, the only day I was able to do. Sunday was another day filled with family and business obligations. So I looked into flights from Burbank to Las Vegas $400+ round trip, yeah can't afford that. Uber to Las Vegas $356 one way, yep no good either. So I decided I'd just rent a car and take the journey into the desert. Ive done this journey a few times before all by myself. Each time was a profound spiritual journey. When you're driving alone with your self for 10 hours, you really find who you truly are out there in the desert. This time was no exception...

Friday the 13th came and I was a mess internally. Even then before the event my nerves have been starting to get to the best of me. Not only the drive I was worried about but being a way from my family and not knowing exactly what I wanted to say to everyone during my talk. I had an idea but didn't write anything down, that was my first mistake. I thought I knew what I wanted to say as ive gained tons of practical experience being on Steemit. So I was just going to "Wing It"...yeah that was mistake number two. Being too confident with my self.

Friday night creeped up and I couldn't sleep. I spent the next few hours that night listening to public speaking video's on Youtube. I've never spoke in public just adding more to my already shaky nerves. Luckily I was able to grab a ton of nuggets out of those videos and ted talks. While randomly hopping from video to video, I happen to stumble upon an audio book called: "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, I thought, the run-time on this book was four hours long? Perfect for my long trip up there.

2 AM came as I still stood there in bed wide wake, then the alarm went off shortly there after. It literally sounded like the tone of my impending doom. Shit...I didn't get any sleep and needed to drive about 5 hours to Vegas now. I got dressed, packed up all my gear and was out the door. The weather was nice, just a slight chill in the cool morning California air. I hoped in the car, filled the gas tank till gas was spilling out of the top of it and I was on my way....Vegas or Bust!