Who is this MakeitRainCain??!

I promise I don’t talk about myself in third person. I had a professor who did that and I could not stand it! I felt like a plebeian in his world. The real shame though was that his world consisted of a couple classes and whatever salary you receive from a cheap state university…..

After my first post I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself in a different way. I gave you a glimpse into my values and who I aspire to be, but you probably are still at a loss for who I am. (unless the only people that read this blog are my grandparents and some of my Facebook friends, which could be entirely possible!) I think the best way to do this is to share photos of events that have happened in my life and explain them. So here we go!

(Sorry for the poor quality.. I think this is from an early Blackberry.)

This is my mother and I in 2011. My life completely changed this year and I am thankful for my parents who have been supportive and wonderful to me and my sister! This picture is important because in the summer of 2011 I completely changed my value system, and I began to focus on what to do with my life. That summer I went to something called Summer Beach Project. Which is where around 150 college students live in one motel at Myrtle Beach for 2 months. Sounds crazy right?! Not sure why a motel would allow us to do that? Well, contrary to the normal college beach trip, SBP (as those who went affectionately call it) is 2 months of learning about God and the Christian faith. Campus Outreach, a college ministry, runs this summer project which involves; working full time in local businesses, different sessions in the evenings, and random craziness.

So, I spent my summer in 2011 growing spiritually. I also learned a lot from my experiences working at Wal-Mart. Several guys and I wound up at a temp agency and they got us hooked up with the 4 am shift at the local Wally world….. What a way for college guys to spend their summer, working at Wal-mart early in the morning. I bring this up because not only did I learn about where everything was in that store, I also got first hand customer service experience. Now, I probably just lost some of you because I included Wal-mart and customer service together. Reluctantly, I did. But, here’s why;

1) Wal-Mart taught me that price really is THE most important variable for most consumers. There is no reason to come to Wal-Mart unless you want to “save” money. I will say that personally the time I waste driving to Wal-Mart, dealing with their parking lot, walking 2 miles through the store to find what I want, and then having to find the front again and check out probably costs more emotionally than going anywhere else!

2) Wal-Mart only has employees to keep the shelves stocked. That is the only reason that anyone works in a Wal-Mart store. I have to be honest, if you go there in order to have someone helpful guide you to where a product is and answer your questions about it, you’re in the wrong place.

What Wal-Mart taught me is that customer service is based on consumer demand. Wal-Mart doesn’t do customer service because the consumer doesn’t demand it. They demand a lower price than anywhere else even if they are going to have PTSD from what goes down in those aisles!

Alright, I forgot that this post was meant to introduce myself to you the reader. I will step back from the entrepreneurship blog and take you through some more pictures!

There are some of the fellas from Wal-Mart.

 

So, after living in Myrtle beach I hadn’t had enough traveling. I mean who really ever gets done traveling? The only difference was distance. That fall I made up my mind that I was going to study abroad in the spring and I was going to go on an awesome adventure, so I did.

This is me wearing a Uruguay selection team jersey in the independence square while visiting Arequipa, Peru. One great thing about South America was the copyright laws, or lack there of. The “wayfarers”, Adidas bookbag, and Puma jersey I am wearing in this picture were all fake! I probably spent less than $20 on everything. My favorite part about the lax sentiment towards intellectual property was college textbooks. At the University I went to they had their own print shop (on campus mind you). This is where you would come tell them what book you needed and they would give you a packet of scanned pages. Literally they would stand there and flip pages over a scanner! The downside: poor quality, and no binding. The up side: books could be less than a dollar…. Take that university bookstores in the U.S.!

 

Maybe now I will introduce the photographer. A her. More specifically a she, that is with me.(We are dating, still)

Her name is Kayla and we have been together for almost 4 years now. Wow! I can’t believe that it has been that long. She has been a blessing to have in my life and I really have no shortage of pictures on my Facebook anymore haha. Since I am really opening up to you guys I have to confess; Kayla was in Uruguay while I was in Peru. She was a really big reason I studied abroad, in fact she is a big reason that I have done several things. My dating advice for all of those guys out there; find someone who pushes you to be better. Someone who improves your personality and is a great friend. When you find them, don’t ruin it with your own selfishness. Love first.

Now that I got that out, let’s go back to my adventures. I already told you that Kayla has really pushed me to do things I wouldn’t have done other wise. Here is one of them;

That’s right… I jumped out of a perfectly good plane! It doesn’t matter that there was a grown man on my back, I still did it. What an experience too! All I did was look out at the horizon and experience what felt like floating. This was one of the times I have thought about how small I am in actuality. Yea I may be taller than Kayla and some of my friends but my life is limited and I have to understand that I am finite. The crazy thing though is that what you can do with your finite life is infinite!

 

 

I am an adventure seeker now. I love riding my mountain bike, wearing a GoPro while doing something adventurous, and enjoying the moment with people.

One of my favorite summers was 2013. I worked at a summer camp in Tennessee called Doe River Gorge as an expedition leader and counselor. This was one of the most beautiful places that I have been especially when you spend it as an expedition leader! I would start my week by helping 10 to 12 guys pack for the week and set them up equipment wise. Our week would include hiking, caving, kayaking, and lots of personal reflection. My job was to not answer questions regarding time, our location, where we were going, and what we were going to be doing. This was a fun game for me but a great learning experience for the crew! One of the biggest challenges I faced was being a first year expedition leader. I had never been to that camp before, and the week I spent getting to know our route and what to teach the crews probably wasn’t enough. Thankfully I am an Eagle Scout, and an avid outdoors man so I had the technical skills needed for the job!

 

 

Left to Right: Kayla, Kelsey, me(doing something?), and Josh after doing some cave exploring. Aka spelunking for you noobs.

 

All of my adventures have included great people! I have been extremely blessed to have the people in my life that I do.

Left to right: Me, Mark, and Caleb

When I got back from South America I moved into an apartment with these guys and they told me about this new craze, Duck Dynasty. It’s awesome! We would go to class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working hard so that come Wednesday night we could have our sweet tea and friends over to watch Double D! Now, some of you may not like Duck Dynasty, that’s fine. For me, I enjoyed spending time with friends and family. And if you watch the show, that is their motto as well.

This has been my longest blog post so far. If you’ve read down this far, thank you! If you just looked at the pictures, that’s fine too! But, If you are a reader of this blog I hope that you have gotten a better understanding of who I am. There are lots of blogs about Entrepreneurship, success, and lifestyle but I hope to keep mine focused on what’s real. For me that is the people in my life, the experiences I have had, and my personal growth. So if you continue to read what I write about marketing and small business keep in mind this is what I do it for. Also, keep in mind your reasons for wanting to do what you do. I say this because running the race is appealing, but if you don’t enjoy every step what did you finish?

Best wishes,

Ben