My year long project of sorts is finally up.

Last December I got the wild idea to create an audio book for entrepreneurs, teaching them everything they need to know on the finance side to start a venture.

Enter Fred Castaneda, podcaster extraordinaire, who opened my eyes to the idea of building it as a podcast course. Audio, video walk throughs, excel and pdf templates, etc. all delivered to people via an Itunes stream over a period of time, like a true course.

Went through a few different versions, pushed hard on it all summer. Now, after 20 hours of audio recording, lots of editing, decision making, interviewing other professionals for the course, (Angel investor out of Paris, France, Jay Ehert the Marketing Guy out of Waco Texas, and more to come), the course is ready.



www.Finance4Startups.com

Tons of free content there, the interviews, etc. And if you are feeling wild, click on the start button on the left, and sign up for the Premium content. WAY discounted for the first month. For 15+ hours of content, templates, etc. it's a great deal.<input ... ></input><input ... >

Rest of pics on Facebook. If you aren't my friend, there's a reason. Suck it.

Ordered replacement glass for my Iphone today off Ebay, and also bought one of the best reviewed Iphone cases: the Otterbox, also from Ebay. Will be a touch bulky, but it'll be airtight and Chris proof. And come April I can upgrade to the newer Iphone model for $99 if I'm not super happy with my handywork.

After dropping my Iphone pretty much daily since April with not a wee bit of damage, yesterday was my day to shine. Hit at just the right angle on the bathroom floor. Luckily, it still functions completely fine, even though the bottom left is completely shattered... albeit still all held together.

Went to target today and got an iphone case and plastic cover for the screen. Will tie me over until some future time when I decide to upgrade.

What better way to blow off some steam than the driving range. Of course I managed to block the view of the ball... this place has an auto pop up tee which is great, no bending over to tee up each shot. Starts off slow but towards the end I'm sending a few balls downtown to Chinatown.... which means about 150-200 yards for me.

I know, my blog is golf golf golf lately. Basically lately my life is:

Golf, working on a client financial audit for their investors, and working hard on finishing up all the content for my podcast course. Since audit and podcast aren't exactly super exciting, all that's left to blog about is golf.

We decided to go for a 18 hole course today in the hot summer sun, breaking in our new golf bags.



Glad my car has instructions on how to do this... it worked!




Nice course, down in Phoenix between some of the "mountains". Had some swans and rabbits running around, real wild life adventure.



Holly getting ready to send one down to Chinatown.... or just over the water actually since this is a short par 3 hole and those homes probably don't want to be renamed Chinatown.

We went outlet mall shopping earlier yesterday, and I spied some Nike golf shoes I wanted. They weren't quite the deal I was hoping for, so I passed. Nice shoes though, $200 normally for $70. Still not quite the deal I hoped for. I kept saying since then if I can just make $70 in profit at blackjack, I'll go buy those shoes. So when I say "daddy needs a new pair of shoes", I meant it this time. Then everytime I wear them I can think about how I won the money to pay for them.

Well today Holly and I spent the day either eating, playing blackjack, or at the movies.

Funny People was good sort of. Kind of long, but all in all okay.

Holly made quick work of Boulder Station this morning, and left up $200. I held my own, and worked my $40 buy in to break even basically. This evening after the movie, we went back to do some more damage. We'd be playing $5 tables vs. $3, since the $2 difference makes a big difference in clientele, i.e. the $3 is full of degenerate rift raft.

Somehow I managed to get my $40 up to over a $100. We decided to leave the table, and I decided to throw in $30 on my final bet. Well, lady luck shined on me, as I got an 11 I believe, and the dealer a 6 showing. Perfect double down situation. I shove in another $30, doubling my bet and allowing me 1 more card. I got a 9, bringing me up to 20. The dealer played their hand, I think she had 18 or something. None the less, score for Chris, my $60 now $120. I cashed in, and counted up. Basically I had made about $120 for the day in profits, and wasn't going to let my proclamation lie unaddressed. With 1 hour until the outlet mall closed, I got the keys, and drove over to retrieve my new golf kicks, as well as buy Holly a pair of $40 jogging shoes she had also passed on the day before.

Granted winning $120 isn't a huge deal all in all, but I get to buy something new and neat I wanted with the casino money. Time to celebrate with some room service and a movie before we depart tomorrow morning.

Had fun at the Callaway 9 hole executive course. Nice course, cheap rates. We knocked 30 balls each on the driving range first to break in our new clubs - I got my Taylor Made R7 Quad in exchange for some work which I wasn't expecting to be paid for anyways, and Holly got a Lynx Driver and 7 fairway wood from GolfSmith the other day.

We both definitely improved, hit some solid balls off into the abyss, and played relatively better. Not exactly PGA material yet, but it's fun none the less to drive around in the cart, have a drink, and knock the balls around.

Holly and I send one each to China at the driving range.




Bert chips one out of the rough




Holly setting to get one out of the sand



View of the Strip from the south - That's Mandalay Bay in the distance

Mark your calendars for... Sept 30th, tentatively.

Been working loosely on a podcast course since April. Originally it was a team of 4. 2 backed out, not enough time. I had already begun an audio book, and wanted to continue down the road. I've been working with Fred Castaneda of The Struggling Entrepreneur podcast, who has a far better radio/podcast voice than myself. An experienced pro and long term project manager for IBM, Fred's the one who kept me on track the last few months, and is driving this home.

After investing an a relatively expensive Snowball microphone and pop filter for crystal clear audio, I'm ready to begin recording over 15 hours of content. A lot of work has gone into this, fully scripting 15 hours of talking is a hell of a lot of work, not to mention all the templates and checklists and video walkthrus as well that have been and/or still need to be produced. Add in all the other little things you don't think about but need to be done - logo decisions, website design, facebook/twitter/linked/youtube/etc., and you've got a big project on your hands.

None the less, keep in the back of your head all you would be entrepreneurs that coming soon, a full course to help guide you along the first stages of starting a company, at least from a finance perspective. More to come as the content comes together as well as the site.

Here's a taste of what people will receive:

• 12 – 15/20 min companion podcasts - free for EVERYONE!!! (summary overviews of the premium podcast)


• 12 – 1 hour premium podcasts - educational episodes, teaching entrepreneurs all about, well, Finance For Startups


• ½ hour 1 on 1 consultation at course end to discuss your startup, the course, etc.


• 8 weeks of Office Hours - an open discussion once weekly for 1 hours that anyone taking the course can participate in


• 12 templates/checklists - business plans, financials, investor presentations, etc


• Expert interviews - Marketer for startups, Lawyer for startups, an actual Angel Investor and more!!


• Discounted hourly service rate for ongoing CFO services from Chris Benjamin, your Rogue CFO


• Gain Control of Your Life podcast courtesy of Fred Castaneda
• Finances for Startups - Overview in Laymens Terms podcast by Chris Benjamin - the original audio book files live on!


• White Paper “The Key Challenges & Problems For Startups in Capitalization and how to Address and Overcome Them”

What can I say, that's a lot of value for $150, the introductory pricing. Lots more to come on Finance 4 Startups. At least if one person signs up, the cost of my mic setup will be covered!

Holly's sort of brother in law (step dad's son, whatever that relation is) started up a repo business out of interest, which has actually done fairly well in its first 2 months. I helped them with some lightweight web design and a 1 pager to present to potential clients. It turns out that even though basic, those 2 things have helped them land some clients and are busy off repo'ing peoples stuff left and right.

I was willing to help out for free as long as they were willing to deal with delays in me turning things around as money talks and paying clients come first. None the less, he and his partner seemed anxious to pay me something, but without wanting to pay too much.

Well given my new found hobby of golf, which is expensive as any hobby can be, and the fact that he had a brand new Taylor Made R7 driver club laying around his garage that he won a year ago, we decided to do a barter. Actually it was more like as soon as I caught wind he had this brand new club collecting dust, I decided to propose club for site. Ta da. I'm up one $500 driver now. if I can't improve my game with this, nothing will help.

Off to Vegas tomorrow for free suite living at Boulder Station, free chow, and we are all going to hit the 9 hole Callaway executive course out by the airport. Also going to hit up the outlet stores as per usual, with a pair of Nike golf cleats in my sites. Can't wait to break this bad boy club in. I gave it 3 test wacks at GolfSmith indoor driving range today while Holly got a Lynx driver & 7 fairway wood. I hit the ball all 3 times so thats a good start.

Been meaning to get one of these for a long time. Finally bit the bullet, found one online for much cheaper than at the store, and also with a bit more flair than the usual faire available at Petsmart. I may have had to assemble it, but 20 mins wasn't too bad and the cats now have a tree to park themselves in.

One of my clients, EP2 (www.ep2online.com) is possibly sponsoring Kfed... yep Kevin Federline, in losing 45 lbs as he prepares to be on a reality TV show. Should be some good PR for EP2.

http://tinyurl.com/la8svb

We went to Wet N Wild water park yesterday. Water fun isn't my cup of tea... sure I'll float around the pool or show the hot tub whose boss, but actively flying around in water is a bit much. I gave one kiddie water slide a try, which resulted in a face full of water and the end of my water shenanigans for the day... other than the lazy river which you just float around as it moves you.

Me getting soaked on the slide



Rest of the park and Holly and kids enjoying the real rides.




And lastly a video of Holly & Jamie on some torturous cone water device.

I was trying to figure out what small accent I could add to my golf equipment that was from UW... I think I found it. Might as well go all out.