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Would you have interest in a Screencaps Kentucky Bourbon Tour?
I've heard from the Bourbon Bros®. I've heard from the Screencaps lifers who've begged me to do some sort of summit so the Linkedin senior vice presidents can rub elbows with the likes of Diesel, Mrs. Diesel, Canoe Kirk, Millennial Chris B. in Bowling Green, Millennial Mike, 'Do Hard Things' Indy Daryl, Beau in Toledo, etc.
(BTW, I haven't heard from Beau this winter. I hope the Feds didn't snap him up in some sort of illegal mower jet fuel bust.)
You might even end up rubbing elbows with guys who snap balls for a living. Blake (Dolphins) and Reid Ferguson (Bills), from the infamous long-snapping Ferguson family, seem interested in a summit. These guys are 100% Bourbon Bros®.
Drop me an email if a spring summit based out of Louisville would pique your interest. I'm thinking two days MAX. Maybe some sort of Friday night party, Saturday sippin' at the distilleries, and then all of you go back to life on Sunday morning.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
• Tony C. writes:
Couldn’t help but holla back about this bourbon trip.
As a born & bred Kentuckian whose family roots go back to 1200 in Scotland and a lot of whiskey drank you absolutely should have a bourbon trip.
I’ve had over 8 hours training from Chris Morris master distiller of Brown Foreman (maker of Woodford and the first bottled bourbon: Old Forrestor, and labeling laws as well..)
Besides having had the luck of partaking of barrel selections of other well-known bourbons…I’ve also drank a few.
So I’m volunteering myself to get you and anyone else set up with tour guides and general fun and experience with any other Screencaps Kentuckians that feel like helping everyone in this group of far flung, multiple generation, political and even Bungles Fans experience Kentucky and the spirit that may have lead to a Gaul dern Whiskey Rebellion back in the day.
So come one and all but don’t even try around Derby Time.
I’m thinking right before or after that great Golf tournament in Augusta or when the dogwoods Bloom to Kentucky. The Screencaps community might need a cruise line next haha who knows?!?!
• David S. writes:
Absolutely, 100% in on a KY Bourbon Outing………………..from Florence, KY. Great Idea!!
Screencaps readers share 'Best Business Decision I Ever Made' Stories - Part 2
• Mike N. in Cedar Park, TX writes:
As I am sure your other ex-pat readers would agree, deciding to pull up anchor and move overseas was my best career decision. My wife was not only highly supportive, it was her idea both times. We moved to Paris for a year (pre-kids) in 2001 for a year.
Then we relocated to Singapore from 2014-2018 with our two boys (2nd and 5th grade at the time). From a business viewpoint, the learning and experience you gain is only possible when you live there. Both current and future employers recognize this highly unique attribute.
From a personal perspective, everything is new and different for you and your family. If anyone ever has that chance, I highly recommend you take it. I fear those opportunities are becoming less and less. It is very important to keep networking here, there, and everywhere.
I really enjoy the perspective and comments of your readers on the great variety of topics you come up with.
• Warren M. writes:
Some of my best business decisions:
Proposing and marrying my wife. I can’t imagine how our lives would be if we hadn’t met.
Deciding to write about technology (consumer, etc.) for fun on message boards in 2003 that led to freelance gigs, and finally in 2010, I went full time as a writer and editor working exclusively from home.
In 2011, I was trying to lose weight and stuck at the gym. Calorie counting actually helped, but after the New Year 2012, I randomly started running because the gyms were too packed, and I never looked back. I’m not the fastest guy in the world, but I’ve met terrific people at run groups (including my wife), I’ve run marathons and other distances (no ultra runs), and even switched to triathlon in 2018 and even completed a full IRONMAN . I’m still running and racing triathlons and loving it!
Books: Michael Crichton, Steve Alten (Meg shark books), and two that inspired me to do an IRONMAN, “You are an Ironman” by Jacques Steinberg and Mike Reilly’s “Finding My Voice” about being the official voice of IRONMAN. Both are very inspiring and you don’t have to be athletic to enjoy them.
Thank you, Joe, OutKick, and Screencaps Nation for everything! (We need more Beau from Toledo updates!)
• Chris B. writes:
…was the result of some advice I received from a senior guy at my job. He said “Always stay attached to a P&L, because they’re the last ones to be laid off. And never be the guy who won’t get promoted because he won’t relocate.” My (far, far) better half and I have moved for opportunities eight times either together (or before we were together) and in addition to being able to move up, we’ve experienced life in every part of the country (for better and for worse). Corollary advice: don’t necessarily buy a house when you relocate, because if you have to move again you won’t make any money. We were oh-for-life on real estate until we stopped moving around every few years.
Now that we’re retired, we split our time between two of our favorite places, which happen to also be two places that are popular with vacationers—which leads me to my third piece of advice: Don't buy a house planning to VRBO or Airbnb it to cover the mortgage (and taxes, and utilities, and maintenance, and repairs…) unless you can handle the downswings without that income. Our little mountain town became very popular with vacationers during the pandemic because we’re driving range to several major metros, but as soon as people could get on planes, they went to Colorado or Utah instead and a bunch of new investor-owners were left holding the expense without the anticipated income.
• From Wyn:
First off congrats to your Bengals and good luck to them this weekend.
Wanted to chime in on the best business decision I’ve personally made and it’s somewhat similar to the story that Rick in Virginia Beach shared.
In 2008 I’d moved my GF and our young daughter back to my home state. In 2009 I wanted a change professionally and in my life because my relationship was rocky at best. That fall I had applied for a traveling training job at a large national bank I was then working at. The process was extremely slow and I needed a change sooner rather than later so I decided to take the ASVAB (military aptitude test). I did well enough to qualify for military intelligence, which is exactly what I wanted. I’d talked with my gf and we created a plan to make it work while I was away at basic. A few days before going to sign the paperwork, I got offered the job to travel the country and train employees. I took that job and it was the best business decision I’ve made (to this point, I’m still young). I later learned over 2000 people applied for that job and only 190 of us had gotten it.
Through that job, I was able to travel around the US on the company dime and see parts of America I never would’ve visited otherwise. Being able to enjoy various cultures and foods in the smallest of towns was an experience I’ll never forget (One night I had a missing persons report filed on me while passed out after a Penn St at Bama game.) For 2 years I traveled with 189 other people of which some became great friends of mine that I still keep in touch with today. These are people I spent more time with than my own family. It’s hard to be away from a young child for so long but it got me to where I am today. Since that job ended, my financial situation has improved dramatically, I’ve advanced up the corporate ladder at an accelerated rate and I met my wife on that job (taking the traveling job made it easy to end a relationship that lasted much longer than it should’ve and no, I didn’t cheat).
Like Rick, can’t imagine what it’d be like in this environment.
Shout out to anyone from Team 190 if you’re reading this.
• Dave M. writes:
I’ve run my own business since I was 25, came into the business at 21, bought out the prior owners at 25, and ran it for another 35 years after that. But buying the company only allowed me to make what was truly my best business decision, to balance work and home. I retired a couple of years ago, but have since rejoined the workforce as I got bored with doing nothing pretty quickly.
Early on I joined a group of company presidents for quarterly meetings to hash our problems that each of us had in our businesses. One thing that struck me was the amount of pride these guys had for the humongous number of hours they were putting in at their well-established businesses to “make it work.” 60 hours was the norm per week, some were doing more. Many worked 6 days, some put time in 7 days a week. They’d ask me how many hours I was putting in and I’d say, “About 40.” They were shocked, and appalled that I wasn’t putting in “enough hours” at work. But I had learned early on to delegate, to hire well so I could trust the people who worked for me. At my company’s peak, we had about 60 employees, we were a busy shop, but I was still home by 4 PM each day to hang out with my kids.
The guys in those meetings had learned never to delegate, had learned not to trust anyone (even themselves when it came to hiring), and thus were putting in a ton of hours each week to get it done.
Setting my work week to a standard 40 hours meant that I had time to drop my kids off at school in the morning, or pick them up in the afternoon. It meant I had real quality time with my kids, even when they were small, something that can never be recaptured once it’s gone. Balancing work and home meant that now, in my 60’s, I have tons of memories of my kids growing up, school plays, learning to ride a bike, playing sports, all the things that those fathers in that meeting missed while grinding away at their “entrepreneurial” life for 60+ hours a week.
So what was my best decision? Learning to schedule and delegate so that I could balance my life and devote a lot of time to raising my kids, both of whom now are very successful in their career and home lives. And what’s my advice? Don’t let your job consume you. You can always make more money, but you never get a do-over with your kids.
Oh, worst decision I ever made? Becoming a partner with a bunch of guys and buying a tavern. That was a fast trip to a soul-draining and wallet-emptying time in my life.
• Andrew N. from Gift Baskets From Michigan, writes:
Daily reader of Screencaps and appreciate all you do to shine a spotlight on the "regular" people across this great country. I wanted to share my "Best Business Decision I Ever Made" and I hope it isn't too long-winded.
I graduated from WMU in 1999 with a degree in accounting and a job at a CPA firm in Lansing, Michigan. I worked as an auditor (auditing non-profit organizations) and had to help with taxes in addition to my audit work during tax season, so I pretty much averaged 60-70 hours a week all year.
My wife is a teacher and together, we were making pretty decent money but we were absolutely miserable. We wanted to start a family but not with me working crazy hours all year. She quit her teaching job and I quit my job at the accounting firm in 2002 (had to work there 3 years or I would have to pay back my signing bonus) with not a job prospect on the horizon, but we did have the foggy notions of a plan.
We moved back to where I grew up and friends of ours let us stay in their 2nd home in exchange for performing maintenance and paying utilities while we figured things out. My wife got a job teaching right away (at my old high school) and I researched how to start a gift basket company as it was an interesting field to me. There’s a longer story with how that came to be, but I am trying to keep this as brief as possible.
Cashed out my 401k, bought some woodworking tools, learned HTML, grabbed a URL, and started up my gift basket company. I built nearly all the baskets, boxes, and crates that we filled and shipped in a little 10’ x 10’ shop in the basement of our house. The first few years were lean, and I didn’t take a regular paycheck for a while but being able to start the business from home let me be at home to raise our kids and run the business.
20 years later and the gift basket business is thriving in spite of the increase in lumber prices and the products we fill the baskets with. Has it been easy? No. Did it make me rich? No. Has it been worth it? Absolutely. Doing Hard Things is always more rewarding than easy things and I will forever cherish spending all that extra time with the kids while working from home.
• From TNML member Ken S. in North Augusta, SC
It took some thought to realize how my “Best Business Decision” brought me to where I am today. Coming from the small-town Deep South I finished college, then found a white-collar 9-5 job, not far from home.
I was making decent money, was comfortable, had plenty of friends and relatives in the area and had every expectation of staying there, but then I realized that my future was limited where I was. At some point my (great) wife and I talked it over and decided to try something more challenging.
Ultimately, we both left our jobs, and took positions in the mid-Atlantic megalopolis. It was culture shock, no family, friends or college buddies in the area, (no SEC football coverage!) new responsibilities, and challenges, a totally different world.
Time passed, we both succeeded in our endeavors, even became part of a community where we were, but at some point we knew it was time to build a different life. We looked for opportunities in the South, found them, left our jobs, uprooted our growing family, and moved away from urban life, to a warmer climate.Didn’t really go home, but found a place we’re happy.
Both of those decisions were business decisions, but so much more…career, lifestyle, climate, even political. We’ve been rewarded in many ways for both of the choices. The one thing that stands out is that in BOTH cases, we made tough decisions to get out of our comfort zone, and make major, challenging life changes.
It’s sort of like breaking out of the cocoon - you have to make that change, in order to grow, and reach your potential.
We have never regretted either move.
On another note…the socca Mike T. is teaching us about looks great! I’m looking for a recipe right now, and I’m going to try cooking it over the fire pit, then enjoying it with a drink.
Is there room for libs like me at Screencaps?
• Judd F. writes:
Joe - By some stroke of internet targeting I’ve come to enjoy the content and community you are building at Screencaps. Thank you. I respect the hustle and topics like ‘things a guy should own’ and ‘best business decision’ are a great escape from most the things I see online.
Full stop.
I’m a bleeding-heart liberal. Not an east coast, Ivy League, trust fund liberal. But a born and raised in Ohio, union card-carrying family, want a better life for the next generation, John friken Glenn liberal. I’ve got a great cushy desk jockey job after putting myself through school, but I’ve been a roughneck and a million other dirty-hands jobs along the way. I mow my yard on Thursday nights, don’t pay anyone to fix something I can do myself, and donate to every liberal organization you probably hate. I sponsor Diversity initiatives at work and build a hell of a bonfire in my backyard for the neighborhood on Fall weekends.
I’m not naive, I know that ‘owning the libs’ and hating anything ‘woke’ drives clicks and is center of the dartboard for Outkick strategy. God bless, we all gotta make a buck and I usually just scroll past all that nonsense and get to the things I like.
But I read this sentence in today’s post “one thing you’ll always 100% see out of this column is balance” and couldn’t help asking myself, is there room for libs on Screencaps? Or would this entire community revolt if they knew someone like me roamed its pages?
Is there a chance we can cut back on the polarization a little here? Find a way to show mutual respect for what we share vs. what separates us? Or is this community just like what I find amongst some of my liberal circles, closed minds and forced groupthink?
Appreciate what you do regardless. Don’t block my IP address when you find out a registered democrat has your page in his favorites.
Kinsey:
Judd, there's plenty of room for lib libs at Screencaps, but I will 100% BLOCK YOUR IP address if you continue to use "full stop" in emails. That makes you sound like some Gen Z TikToker. You're better than that, Judd.
Listen, I'm not even sure Judd is the first bleeding-heart lib to claim loyalty to Screencaps. I know for sure Mark L. in Perrysburg is a flaming lib lib. There are others.
I want to assure the Screencaps base that the Judd F. and Mark L.s won't change how I operate this column. We will continue to attack the woke libs who are perfectly fine with fentanyl addicts shitting on themselves and illegals pouring into this country to cause chaos in cities that are complete disasters.
Welcome, Judd.
Questions for Judd:
I need answers to those questions.
The Ts are fleeing France
• According to Mike T., they're heading to Italy as they continue to run from INTERPOL. Here's there last meal in France and of course it's a beautiful grazing board:
Here's where Mike T. was buying his grazing board supplies:
Women in St. Louis have an accent?
Testing the powers of Screencaps
• David L. writes:
Been an avid reader on a mobile device for quite a while. Love Screencaps!
One short exchange has me intrigued. It was several days ago, and I don’t remember who it was from, but the writer was complaining about the pop-ups and read more tab on every…single….. article. It’s my only complaint about Outkick. And it’s very annoying.
So, since you have the only platform on the site that can do this with your large and loyal fan base, I propose that you throw it out to your readers. See if you get a huge response one way out the other about the issue.
I know that you claim to be a lowly writer with no power, but if you get a big negative response and pass the results up the ladder it might get the attention of the powers that be.
I feel that I it would be a resounding success to make that change, and for most Outkick readers as well!
Oh, look, now America is waking up to tipping being completely out of control
• John in SD writes:
This is why Screencaps is months ahead of reality:
That's it. Another week in the books. Another January of life is over. It's been a productive one around here. Those Zoom calls I have to jump on should turn out to be great for this column and this movement we've created.
The libs like Judd F. are finally waking up to the fact that this his hands down the Best Daily Column in the United States (as named by the readers) and they can no longer deny what we're building.
Now, go put in a solid 5-6 hours of work at the office before turning your focus to AFC/NFC title game weekend. I need to get new balloons for the game and work on my Snadium.
Have a great weekend. Even you, Judd.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com