Living In San Clemente, CA - Best Places to Live In the US

This is the last story chapter. There is an epilogue about Aaron, but that's something different. I'll still translate it later.
This is important to mention. The Japanese to Spanish translators did not use MTL. They took their time. I in turn, MTL'd the spanish, and then proofread the result. Please be aware that Spanish to English MTL is 100x better than Japanese to English MTL. Also, I edited everything to the degree that it makes much more sense than what it may sound like sometimes if you just read the flat MTL versions.
This was fun!
Chapter 12
The truth about the House of Lespinasse
A few days had passed since Leon’s Sky Pirates incident.
Clement appeared at Emile's mansion.
"Miss Lelia, the Six Families have finished speaking with the Kingdom's diplomats." Clement, who served the House of Lespinasse in the past, was now a professor at the Academy. Lelia sat on the couch to listen to the report.
She looked out the window and saw that it was snowing.
-And so? How will Leon and others be judged?
Leon and the others who acted in a fight with the Republic would be brought to justice, of course.
That's what she thought, but actually Lelia's prediction was wrong.
"None of that, they have been cleared of all charges."
"W-Why !? Maybe they could have gotten the sentence reduced, but they won't sentence them after all they've done !?”
Dressed as pirates of the sky, they destroyed a Republic ship.
That alone is a serious crime.
And furthermore, they were hurting the people involved with the six noble families. "What do you mean by nothing?" That was Lelia's honest feeling.
"A diplomat from the kingdom was a great negotiator." And it seems the Raults are still working. Clement's gaze sharpened.
For the Lespinasse family, the Rault family is the enemy.
Knowing that the Raults are on the move must have bothered Clement as well.
"The Raults again?"
Are they really going to join forces with the Raults? Teaming up with the enemy is the worst thing you can do.
From Lelia's point of view, it felt like she had been betrayed.
Although they promised to protect the Sacred Tree and restore peace to the Republic, Leon and Marie joined the scoundrel Alberg.
However, Clement also had other information.
"Furthermore, the heads of the six great noble families have officially announced that this sacrificial fiasco was not the will of the Holy Tree."
-… Yes they are very honest. I heard it was different, but is it something you can believe so quickly?
The subject related to the Sacred Tree was very sensitive in the Republic.
And yet, it was hard to believe that just because Leon said, "That's a foreign object attached to the Sacred Tree."
She wondered if Clement agreed with him.
"I did not foresee this result." What if they had been persuaded by the Raults?
Lelia had no idea what was going on.
"I'll go talk to Leon and the others."
"Miss Lelia, Leon and the others are a danger now. It is very likely that they have been misled by House Rault.”
"But I'll still talk to them."
Also, we have Ideal around here.
She already had a power equivalent to that of Leon and the others.
This made Lelia feel more secure.
Then Emile came back from outside and came to the room they were in.
Emile, dressed in a suit and with his coat under his arm, greeted Clement.
"Clement-San, it's been a long time."
"Emile, you look good too. More importantly, what is happening today? They called me at my parents' house. There was a problem with the Rault house."
-Problem?
Lelia got up and urged a tired-looking Emile to tell her what was going on. "Emile, what was the problem with the Rault family?"
"Are you interested? I haven't heard the details yet, but for some reason, Mr. Alberg thinks Serge doesn't have the qualifications to be the head of his family.”
Lelia overreacted to the story of Serge's lack of qualities.
-What is happening!?
"Calm down, Lelia." It is still a rumor. It has been suggested that Serge could be removed from office and Louise's future husband could be the next head of the family. I have a fiancee, so I just ended up listening to that conversation. I'm sure single men will approach Louise from now on.
If Serge is removed from office, then the seat to the future head of the House of Rault is waiting.
It was a great opportunity for men.
But Lelia wasn't convinced.
Why will Serge be fired? Could that be involved with Leon and the others?
◇
Winter break was almost over and the day Anjie and Livia would return had arrived.
When we got to the port, the wind was cold and unpleasant.
"Be careful, you two."
Anjie was in awe in front of me, who was about to cry.
"That's our line. You're going to have a hard time in this strange place.”
Livia smiled at me, she was a little worried.
"I'm glad that we could be of help this time. And, Leon ... you must not fool around on us.”
Hey? Are you going to say it here?
It was a misunderstanding.
Seeing the subtle look on my face, Anjie asked Luxon to keep an eye on me.
"Luxon, make sure Leon doesn't fool around on us."
[Leave it to me. If I see any signs of infidelity, I'll let you know right away.] How about obvious signs?
"Will you judge if I have an affair, depending on the amount of suspicion I make?"
[Yes. So please be very careful what you do.]
"... Not exactly the kind of thing an observer would say."
Livia looked at Noelle, who had come to see them off.
"Leon, can I speak to Noelle? It's an important conversation between women, so don't listen.”
Should I answer yes with a smile?
I nodded repeatedly and agreed.
◇
Noelle felt very uncomfortable when they approached her.
She had a general idea of ​​what Livia and Anjie were thinking.
I thought they didn't feel anything for me, but they are more jealous than I imagined. She felt that when she entered the spirit world to help Louise.
It was Anjie's rage and Livia's awkward jealousy.
They had a pretty face and both were very scary inside.
She tried not to look at him in the spirit world, but the emotions they had against her were horrible.
Anjie's eyes on Noelle were stern.
"I'm not going to try to fix it now. You know how we feel, right?”
Noelle nodded.
She feared that Livia's emotions were too careless.
Livia was smiling, and Anjie spoke to her.
"I am so jealous, Livia is a sweetie. You are too cute, Livia."
"Anjie, Noelle is in front of us."
And Noelle looked concerned about their relationship.
These two --- if it weren't for Leon, they probably would have ended up together.
Aren't they supposed to be interested in men since they're with Leon?
The two are so attracted to each other that it seems so.
Livia gave Noelle a serious look.
"Noelle, let's talk about Leon."
"L-Like I said I am not having an affair with him. I'm moving into Marie's house soon. "
“No, that doesn't matter anymore."
-Wha...?
Anjie, who would normally be furious if she messed with Leon, crossed her arms and revealed her feelings to Noelle.
"It doesn't make me feel good, but go ahead. If you can get Leon, I'd rather say go for it.”
"... Wha ... what? Are you saying you don’t think I can do it?”
Provoked and annoyed, Noelle spoke sharply.
"If you underestimate me too much, I'll be Leon's number 1. There may only be a few months left, but you will be in big trouble if you relax too much."
Livia clasped her hands and smiled.
However, her eyes were not smiling.
-Do as you like. If you think you can get Leon with that attitude, we would have no problem. Yes, really.
In the midst of that, Livia seemed a bit tired remembering something.
The same thing happened with Anjie.
"That idiot ... he was atrocious last night."
◇
It happened last night.
About to return to the kingdom the next day, Anjie and Livia visited Leon's room on their last night.
They wanted to sleep in the same bed as Leon.
Leon is also a man, and naturally he was driven by sexual desire… "W-Wait." Which one should I touch first?
The two of them pretended to be asleep and watched Leon.
Anjie, Leon has his hands on your head.
This Leon, did we get here and he's not going to touch us?
He stared for a while, but Leon stayed still.
"W-Which one should I start with?" Anjie? Livia? No, first of all, this situation is strange, right? They both trusted me to come to my room, putting my hands on top of them would be bad, right ?!
This is what Leon concluded to.
"I think it would be bad if I put a hand on them here." If that is. This does not mean that I am incompetent or something, I am a gentleman. Yes, I am a gentleman, so I will honestly go to sleep. Luxon!
When he whispered to Luxon, he handed Leon a sleep aid.
[You are truly incompetent]
-Shut up. I protected my image from the both of them. I can't sleep like this, so I'll take my sleep medicine.
[Drink fast and sleep.]
"What an agile mind."
[I knew from the beginning that this would happen. You are as incompetent as I expected you to be. I hope you get a little disappointed.]
"I'm the type of man who is never disappointed."
Just like that, Leon took the medicine and lay down on the bed to sleep.
When Anjie and Livia got up, Luxon called out to them.
[Unfortunately, Master's incompetence was not corrected by studying abroad.]
◇
Noelle heard the story and felt a little sorry for both of them.
"Leon… isn't that horrible?"
But it would be a dilemma if they appeared together.
At the same time, she wondered about Anjie and Livia's actions.
The problem was that they both did not realize that.
"You should have created a better environment."
"What will we do now Anjie?"
Noelle thought.
Why not visit the room one by one? This is going to be difficult for Leon.
It felt out of place somehow.
A young lady and a girl of pure innocence.
She could see that combination.
Anjie brought her attention back to Noelle and gave her a complex look.
"Well, it's like an impregnable castle. If you can breach it, do what you want."
"… I don't think it's normal to instigate a woman to get ahead of her fiancee." Livia laughed.
"Yes, that is true. But at that moment, when I also connected with you, we talked about it together. If anyone else could do it, it was you, Noelle.”
Noelle was stunned.
"I'm not going to touch a man with a fiancee!"
But Anjie seemed to see right through her.
"Then go ahead and find another one if you want. But I don’t think it’s possible when deep down, you only have eyes for him.”
Noelle regretted the mental connection she had made with them.
It's not really funny that they saw the whole thing.
Anjie said it was time to go and tried to get onto Licorn.
"Well, I was joking about conquering Leon. You have to find your own way. But don't forget it.”
Noelle looked down with her hands in her pockets.
-I know. There are a lot of people who want to use me, right?
-Yes. If you come to the kingdom, we can help you. But not anywhere else.
Livia was also worried about Noelle.
"If you need anything, you can count on Leon. He's too reckless, but I'm sure he can help you.”
Noelle, who had already been helped many times, smiled.
-I know.
Once the two of them made their way over to where Leon was, they boarded Licorn.
◇
Anjie and Livia had returned to the kingdom.
And when I got back to the mansion, I saw Marie crying at the door.
"They don't really mature, do they?"
I was surprised, but now Marie is bawling since quite some ago. She was shedding tears.
-Its not true! I don’t believe it!
It was Jilk who was dismayed to see Marie.
"Try to control yourself, Marie."
However, right beside Jilk and Marie… there was a pile of antiques that did not sell. Marie looked up and yelled at Jilk.
"Don't say thaaaaaaaat!"
-I'm sorry!
I saw a pile of antiques… or a pile of junk that looked real, but was all fake. Luxon looked at them and was impressed.
[Everything is fake. I'm surprised that so far you can only collect fakes. The Master must have spent a lot of money to collect them, but with all these purchases, it would be nice to have one or two real antiques.]
Yes, they are all well made fakes.
Jilk had an excuse, and said that they were all a masterpiece.
"While choosing my merchandise, I couldn't help but imagine Marie's face and I couldn't help but choose what to sell to others."
If he chose seriously for Marie's sake, all that would come out were well-made fakes. I wonder what Marie would think if she said that.
"You damn fool! What is that? You're saying that these fake things are suitable for a woman like me, right? You, I already told you before, right? You can send something that the person will be happy with! Hey, what's the point in giving me falsehoods to make me happy as a cheap woman ?!”
Jilk couldn't find an answer when Marie got up and grabbed him by the neck. I was laughing with Luxon.
This was more because Marie herself is a fake saint.
[Master, I can hear you. But even so, if you only take fake products like this, you will give off that kind of impression. Did you do this on purpose?]
Marie burst into tears again.
-What will we do!? I have spent all my money. How am I going to live now? I thought it was okay for Jilk to take all the money! I was going to keep half of the winningggggsssss !!
This garbage ... no, Jilk had apparently taken all the money on his own. He is still the same as rubbish.
The problem is with Marie.
Surprisingly, Marie did not like to gamble, but in this case she thought it was a good deal and invested in it.
To those around her, however, it seems like a gamble.
"You have what you deserve."
[Why don't you learn to manage your money?]
Marie looked up and held onto my leg.
-I need help. I just need money to live for the next three months!
-Do not bother! It's your fault for spending so much money.
"I didn't think this would happen! Also, I didn't think this guy was going to take all my money!” As he made a noise at the front door, the five idiots, plus Jilk, came out.
"Marie, what is happening !?"
When Julian, on behalf of the group, asked what was going on, the four of them looked at the scrap heap, followed by a cold glance at Jilk.
Julian responded as if he were going to spit.
"I'm ashamed to be your brother."
Brad also adjusted his bangs and said a few harsh words.
"I didn't think this guy had an eye for this from the start."
Greg spat a few words too.
"I won't let you make Marie cry."
Chris's glasses were glowing suspiciously.
-Human waste.
Jilk was dragged by the four idiots to the backyard of the mansion.
Marie looked up at the sky.
-Hahaha! Now I am free from the simple life, and it is the beginning of a life of poverty again! It was a short dream!
She had a tight smile with the pupils of her eyes losing their shine.
It was a tough sight to see.
Then Cara appeared.
"Marie-sama, don't worry."
-But it was expensive?
"I've been saving my money. It's not much, but I thought we could survive a month with this.”
When Cara handed her the money, Marie was desperately trying to take advantage of it. I struggle to keep her extended right hand in place with my left.
"T-That's your money, Cara, so take it back."
-But!
-I said no! Hurry while I keep my sanity ... I won't be able to keep it for long. Please Cara ... Keep that money away from me. Don't let me see it.
"Marieeee-samaaaaaaa!"
It's like watching a sad scene of a person about to turn into a zombie saying to their friends, “Stop me! I don't want to attack them. Kill me while I'm still human! "
No, it's actually different. Completely different.
A little later, Noelle returned to the mansion.
She was carrying a shopping bag in her hand, so she appears to have been shopping on the way home.
-I'm here! What happened to Marie and the others? And what is that pile of antiques? "Oh, this?" Actually…
I told Noelle what happened.
Then Noelle, understanding the situation, gave Marie an understanding look.
"Marie, I can give you some money. When I became the priestess, I got some money to live on. I'm in your debt and I can pay your rent or something."
Noelle's suggestion had made Marie cry.
"Rent ... what a precious word."
Precious? I don't understand Marie's values.
"You and I get along well. You can count on me without fail.”
"Thank you, Noelleeeeeeeeee!"
I started to think when I saw Marie hugging Noelle.
Ah, this will be a problem if I do not lend you money.
◇
"I gave her that much money for summer vacation, but she melted brilliantly." It was night.
I was talking to Luxon about today's events in my room.
In the end, he remembered that I would loan Marie three months of living expenses. As it was, Cara was going to give all her money to Marie.
If Marie is the only one suffering, I can leave her alone, but I have no choice. I really had no choice but to lend her money.
And Noelle ...
I had a feeling that if the loan of money kept happening between Marie and Noelle, it would eventually become a problem, so I stopped her.
Because money problems are a terrible thing.
Friendship or not, that's easy to destroy.
I feel sorry for Marie's few friends, and I feel sorry for her for reducing them further. Because there are more bastards to feed than friends.
I'm starting to feel a little sorry for her.
You may feel a little sorry for Marie for having to take care of five such idiots. But I was laughing because it was fun to watch.
[You really have a soft spot for Marie, don't you, Master?]
"It's not that easy. I hate her. But don't you think I can feel a little sympathy for her? She will continue to feed waste like Jilk.”
[As a third party, don’t you look like you’re somewhat picky?]
"What do you mean, I'm a little fussy about my little sister?"
I do not know what that means. Is it a made up word or something?
Do you think a younger sister is a bit of a target?
I do not get it.
[On the other hand, can I make a report of my findings?]
-... How did it go?
After the jokes, I decided to listen to Luxon's report.
There were many questions this time.
[Now, I would like to talk about the decisions of the six families that have upset you. The fact is that they so readily accepted our reports.]
"That is a real mystery to me." Alberg-Sama made a move, but there was no resistance at all. Only the Faiviel resisted, right?
[Yes. Regarding that, it seems that the heads of the six great noble families knew that the Sacred Tree could be manipulated by a third party.]
-They knew it?
[I heard that there was a house that did such research in the past. It no longer exists.] "What do you mean?”
I have a bad feeling about this. I hate when this happens as my intuition is always correct.
"The one who has been investigating the use of the Sacred Tree is the Lespinasse family."
-You're lying. Is this a case where the Lespinasse family were working behind the scenes?
[That is not possible.]
-It is not?
But there are more things that I did not understand.
[The House of Lespinasse, in the days when they called themselves the Seven Great Nobles, was the representative house of the Republic.]
Was this house researching how to manipulate the Sacred Tree that is considered sacred in the Republic?
[I don't know the details of the situation, but I can deduce it up to a point. I have been told that, thanks to this, our claims were accepted without problems. Of course, we couldn't have done it without Alberg's cooperation.]
"Maybe I should bring him some candy to thank him tomorrow? ... So what are you thinking?"
Gathering the information Luxon has been collecting, I had a bad feeling about this.
Alberg-Sama, who is supposed to be the last boss, is a nice guy, and Louise, the villainess, is actually a nice person.
To make matters worse, there was the Lespinasse family who was making strange moves behind the scenes.
It was a huge difference from the setting of this second Otome game.
[I guess from Marie and Lelia's stories, this story was wrong from the beginning.]
-The beginning?
[You said it would start with the first scene of the destruction of the House of Lespinasse.]
-Yes. The Raults destroyed it and the main character, Noelle, saw the mansion on fire ... and they both said that's how it started.
And Luxon had previously said that was the problem.
It was impossible for the Lespinasse family, who had a higher blessing, to lose to the Rault family, who had only a lower blessing.
In fact, the blessings given by the Sacred Tree are overpowered.
Even if the lower ranks go against the higher ranks, they cannot win.
[After hearing Louise's story as well, I made a prediction. Didn't the Lespinasse family lose the blessing of the Sacred Tree long ago? That's why he didn't even attend the funeral of the Rault heir.]
-Why? They could at least show themselves ... No, wait. There is something here. Was it a rule for a great person to wear their crest?
[Yes. At ceremonies and so forth, it was customary for the highest ranking person to display his crest to those around him.]
Such a thing existed in the rules of the Republic.
"Does that mean that the Lespinasse family, Noelle's parents, couldn't show their faces without showing off their crests?"
[They studied to bring the Holy Tree under control and were stripped of its blessing, perhaps because the tree was angry. That makes sense. I also believe that the six great nobles who were angry at this forgave the Rault family that destroyed the Lespinasse family.]
"Suddenly the premise was broken. In other words, the first one to do bad things was…”
[Probably the Lespinasse family. But only from the perspective of the Republic.]
—Of the Republic?
[It is not clear what they were thinking when trying to control the Sacred Tree. What if I explained to Master in plain language that they were actually trying to save the world from a crisis?]
"That sounds like justice for the Lespinasse family."
[I'm afraid there are some facts that are not discussed in the game.]
We don't need that kind of setting!
Why isn't it a fluffier setting?
There is evil and there is justice, it can be as simple as that, right?
No wait. It's a fluffy setting, so is it such a terrible world?
It's just that no matter how much you think about it, it's useless.
Because I'm not that smart!
"What do you think would happen if I told this story to Lelia?"
[She won’t believe it? You distrust Lelia.]
"Won't she be more than me? You are a dangerous artificial intelligence who doesn't even think of his master as a master and says he will destroy everything in the blink of an eye. I would suspect it too.”
[You are a small degree of Master to ignore and doubt everything I have done so far.]
"I don't need a great title. For an average man, a moderate amount is sufficient. Well, let's stop talking about stupid things.”
"So can you get along with Ideal?"
[… I do not think so.]

I had been with my girlfriend for going on 6 months and things had been pretty great. We met online through a dating app, exchanged numbers, got to texting each other a lot, did a couple of factime calls, and after a couple of weeks I asked her out and she said yes. It went about as good as it could have and we both quickly agreed to a second date, then a third, after 5 I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes.
She's never had a long term relationship, only a few dates here and there. She's a conservative Christian (as am I), waiting for marriage, had never even held hands with another guy much less kissed one. The whole thing just was so incredibly easy, we hit it off from the start having a ton of things in common. We were both into outdoors, hiking, camping, the beach, travel. We both believed life was about having experiences and adventures than just saving up for retirement, both passionate about God and apologetics, she was into cars, drove a stick, had her motorcycle license. She was really the perfect girl for me it seemed, she would go cliff jumping with me but could also make a homemade dinner from scratch.
After a couple of months I said I love you and she said it back, both firsts for us. We lived a little ways apart, me down in San Diego and her up in LA, two hours generally. 90% of the time I would drive up to see her, and even with me working 6 10s we would manage about 3 dates a week generally. We got to holding hands and me having my arm around her at church or watching a movie, which may seem trivial to most but those were big steps for her. I always paid for every date, it's just how I was raised and it wasn't ever really a question. Sometimes she would come visit me or we would meet in the middle in San Clemente and go to the beach.
She's a physical health assistant at an elementary school, working on her masters degree online with the intention of becoming a teacher, I'm an electronics technician contracting for the Navy. Our living situations are quite different. I moved to San Diego last October with the sole intention of saving up money and working my butt off. I wanted to have $50k in the bank in two years, and thats looking very promising. To do this with San Diego living expenses is near impossible, but I had already been comfortably living out of my prius by choice (its actually much more similar and more comfortable than van life in some ways than you might think), and she owned a house in Manhattan Beach thats nearly fully paid off. I didn't lead with my living situation lifestyle on our first date, usually not the best pickup line 😂, but she asked about it after our third date and I explained it to her and my goal and she thought it made a lot of sense and was pretty practical. I also picked her up for our first date and she had no idea and was pretty impressed with my setup, she had traveled and rented a camper van internationally before so it wasn't a completely foreign concept to her.
She had lived in LA all her life, I had just moved in last October but had lived in Oceanside (greater san diego area) for 7 years as a small kid. So moving onto our churches, her church was bigger than mine and started normal services and ministries back sooner than mine. My church was much smaller, only 50 people or so, no one my age really, it was the church i attended as a kid and my dad had been the pastor of (lifelong PK here).
Her mom had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer a year and a half ago, i got to meet her a few times and she was very nice, unfortunately the cancer got worse and on October 1 she passed away. This obviously hit my girl pretty hard, and she said she needed to put a pause not on the relationship but on the romance side of things, she just didn't have that side of her right now and didn't have a lot to give me which I completely understood. We agreed to still see each other once a week, usually on Sundays because thats my only off day. She came down to visit my church a couple of times and I introduced her to my friends and peers, but mostly I would go up there to hers.
This was going well and we still celebrated our monthly anniversary, always brought her favorite flowers and a thoughtful card which she really loved, for her birthday I took her camping for two nights which she had been telling me she had really been wanting to do but hadn't yet and that was really great.
Then two weeks ago after spending the day with her we went back to her house after dinner and talked some. She said she had questioned whether or not to stay in a relationship, not because of me but just in general with dealing with her mom and her work had been kind of chaotic and up in the air for awhile with covid, but she said I was such a great guy that she thought she should stay. She had also started seeing a counselor at her church shortly before her mom passed away, we talked some about that and it seemed to be really helping her. We would still text a lot, we used to talk on the phone more often then she said she just didn't have the energy to do that unless it was something really important and she said going to all texting had been very helpful for her.
The following weekend she was out of town visiting her grandpa in Michigan whom she was very close to so I hadn't seen her for two weeks which was about the longest we had gone without seeing each other. On Saturday evening we had planned to meet at the beach, she texted me in the morning that we needed to talk about something. She had never used vague phrasing like this ever before, she was absolutely incredible with communicating, what you saw was what you got, if she didn't like something you did or said, she would let you know, I loved the open and honest relationship we shared. I started to worry something was wrong, and texted her to please not use vague phrasing like that if we can't talk for several hours because it doesn't do anything positive for me mentally, probably a mistake, but our relationship was just so open and we shared things like this a lot I decided to do it, she apologized and said she just wanted to give me a heads up. So we meet up, i give her a big hug and she says let's sit down over here and instantly my heart sinks into my shoes. We sit down and she says she thinks we should stop seeing each other, that I'm a fantastic guy, I know how to treat a lady, she had no complaints on the romance or thoughtful gestures side of things. She said the main reason was that church and her church family were a big part of her life, and she needed that in a partner and didn't see that in me. This seems like a not only unfair view but one that is very wrong. All of my life, church has been a central theme, its where I got the majority of my friends and peers, i was always involved in Bible studies, leading childrens church or other small groups, etc. Right now as I said my church is very small and doesn't have a lot going on. Service on Sundays, Bible studies on Wednesdays, and I attended both regularly. Occasionally we would have work days but they were on Saturdays and i worked so I couldn't go to them. She also asked why I hadn't introduced her to more of my friends, i said honestly because I don't have many friends out here. I don't hang out with anyone outside of work, no one at church is my age really and she had met them, i have a few other friends that I hadn't introduced her to but no one really close to me. We had gone to Vegas where I used to live and I introduced her to some friends out there, one of my best friends is getting married in FL in January and we had plans to go together and I was so excited for her to meet a lot more of my friends, I just didn't really have that part of my life to share with her in san diego. She had mentioned a month ago that she felt I didn't share my life with her as much, which I then began to be more diligent about daily asking about her day and telling her about mine and different things God was showing me in my quiet times. I asked if she wanted to remain friends and she said because we didn't live close and our lives didn't naturally interact she didn't, if I lived in la then she would have said yes, which hurt even more not only because I had previously told her that no matter what I would always love her as a sister in Christ and would always want the best for her, and I still do. I had also become good friends with some of her friends, her neighbors, her dad loved me, even introduced me once as her boyfriend/fiance, so suddenly I feel that whole community cut off from my life, I haven't reached outcto to any of them yet and they haven't either. I had even asked her a month ago if there was anything I could do more of less of to better love her and love God, she took it very seriously and took several days to pray and think on it, which is when she brought up me not sharing my life with her but she didn't mention any of the things she was mentioning now.
So I'm obviously very heart broken over this, we had talked about marriage before and before her mom passed we had even talked about having our first kiss in the near future (she wanted the only guy she ever kissed to be her husband) and were on the same page I felt like. I grew up with four sisters two older and two younger so im no stranger to the female mind and behavior, but this really caught me off guard, I don't feel her reasons are valid or even correct, it really hurts that she can't see church playing a big role in my life, she said she had paid close attention to that from the very beginning. Thankfully I'm still working a lot an have a loving family and good friends to fall back on in support and I'm not going to withdraw to myself feeling sad and not talking to anyone, i need physical exercise and friendship and to give my problems to God (sorry this is so churchy, I know a lot of people aren't but it obviously a big part of both our lives) So I'm very hurt and left with questions and also don't know if I should reach out to any of her friends or dad, that part hurts a lot as well. I was thinking I would wait a month to let any rash emotions settle down than if i still felt this way to write her a letter. A text seemed like it would be too inpresonable and I wasn't even sure if a phone call would be good or how to go about that so a letter made the most sense to me. Any advice on how to handle it?

I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in April of 2003 although I don’t remember it because my dad was a Marine so we moved away before I was old enough to remember it. We moved to St. Cloud Minnesota where at 5 my mother was driving to pick up my dad from work with my brother and sister also in the car when a driver ran a stop sign and totaled our Honda Civic. All I remember is unbuckling my car seat, seeing smoke. Sometime around 2009 we moved again to Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune I was always a introverted but smart kid I had a Mohawk until 7th grade. We moved again to Chula Vista, California. My parents married as highschool sweethearts but like most people their marriage was far from perfect. Arguing regularly which is very weird for a child to hear. Sometime around 2014 we moved again to Camp Pendleton in San Clemente California where I finally had my first real friend group. We would play outside all day riding bikes and scooters. We would walk down a canyon that led to the exchange where we would buy Arizona’s, chips, candy, and to be bad we would buy energy drinks. We did kid stuff like putting margarita mix in a green Gatorade bottle 😂 thinking it had alcohol in it. I began to be a little chubby I was overweight 5’ 1” and 120 pounds at 11/12 years old but in my mind I was fat and I hated that but I would binge eat junk all the time. One day after an argument my mom who struggles with many health issues such as depression, obesity, anxiety, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, etc etc. Due to these issues she had many prescription pills. She locked herself in the master bathroom and tried to overdose on some kind of pills because she was done she wanted it to end. About 6ft away through walls I was in the living room playing fallout 4. My mom was drove to the hospital by my dad and she was admitted into a mental hospital so she wouldn’t kill herself. Again in 2017 ish we moved again to Waco, Texas as a 7th grader I only had a few friends. My friend Gregory lived in a multi million dollar house with a huge driveway, a second guest house, and land that stretched all the way to Lake Waco going to your rich white friends house for the first time is a real shock to an 8th grader. In 9th grade I found more friends and people started drinking, smoking weed, vaping etc. The first time I smoked weed it was the funniest shit ever I almost pissed myself laughing. After that I found something that made me happy smoking weed with my friends so that’s what we did basically every day in my room. Then in October 2019 we moved again back to where my parents were from (Oxnard, California) because my dad retired after 25 years in the Marines. I had to leave my best friends I’d ever had but I knew It was coming so there was really nothing to do but accept it. Since then my sister who now lives with us started having inexplainable seizures, hundreds a day. For weeks she was in and out of the ER getting tests done but no answers. She’s recovered now and only has maybe 1 a day if that but she’s still not cleared to work or drive. My dad got hired at the post office but it was difficult and stressful work even for an Ex-Marine he got laid off, my mom a stay at home mom had to get a job as a babysitter to help support us. So what does that mean it means that there’s only one person working in our house and Southern California Rent isn’t cheap. When I went to my new school I had to try and make new friends which I hadn’t really done since 7th grade. So basically this made me really sad and lonely. For the first couple months I had nobody sitting alone at lunch while your social anxiety and self consciousness run free is not a good state to be in. Eventually some classmates reached out and made friends with me but I always feel like the odd man out or an afterthought they have boyfriends and best friends that take up most of their attention so our connections aren’t that strong. At least I had some people to be with at lunch. Basically all I would do is wake up go to school and come back repeat. I didn’t like going to school but I also didn’t like being at home because it’s just a constant reminder I don’t really have any friends. Any way now this is as far as the story goes I’m gonna start growing my own weed because it’s a pretty expensive habit which I can’t afford. The friends I did make were becoming better friends and were hanging out at each others houses and going out and things were looking up for a little. Then this virus happened and now I’m back to feeling like I did before I had friends. It feels like the weekends I dreaded because while everyone was out with friends I’d be at home alone waiting for Monday to arrive so I can go be lonely and anxious at school. Well at least I’ll have weed.

Let me know if you are interested in learning more about this low-key 4-bed / 2 bath / 2 story house in the city’s most peaceful, underrated neighborhood. The Presidio is a dream SF living situation for anyone who wants plenty of space and tranquility without leaving the city.
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Available Room: - Spacious, well-lit, 12 x 13 feet with a big closet in room and closet space in hallway - A queen size bed + desk + dresser fits comfortably in the room - Rent for the room is 1450.00/ mo. + approx. 100.00-150.00 / mo. in shared utilities. Depending on how often cleaning service comes. - Wonderful natural light and forest views - Parking pass for our area is $37.50 per month if you need it - Available July 15 and beyond - details flexible - $1200 deposit.
The House: - Approx 1650 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms - 3 up and 1 downstairs - 2 full baths - 1 up and 1 down - Large living areas - open floor plan living and dining - Great kitchen with gas range and large Samsung fridge - and a second fridge for storage in basement - Full basement with W/D and *lots* of storage and home workout space - Cleaning service comes once a month and is part of the expenses above - Comcast high-speed internet and is part of the expenses above - Why you'll love living here: - Running, biking, hiking, climbing and other activities are right outside your door - The natural beauty of the Presidio makes for a peaceful retreat at the end of your day - Free PresidiGo Shuttle goes downtown and all around the Presidio - nearest stop is 150 ft. away - Ample parking if you have a vehicle - Awesome, chill roommates who love living here - Laurel Village shopping is nearby with two great markets (Bryan's Grocery and Cal-Mart) - Nearby Marina/Cow Hollow and Clement St. areas have tons of great food and drink options - Restaurants inside the Presidio include The Commissary and Sessions - Off The Grid twice a week during good weather months / when there isn’t a global pandemic happening Planet Granite climbing, yoga, and fitness gym is two minutes by car, 10 minutes by jog (when there isn’t a global pandemic in progress) - YMCA is inside the Presidio with all the bells and whistles (pool, tennis, etc.) - also when there isn’t a global pandemic going on - Presidio Bowl is a 12-lane bowling alley and lots of fun. When there isn’t a global pandemic taking place. This is the type of place you are sad to leave. I didn’t know places like this existed in San Francisco - essentially living in a national park.
About Us: We are three kind, courteous guys who enjoy the calm environs of our home and the Presidio in general. Trent is an engineer at Apple; he's a relaxed human being who is into surfing, biking, and playing the guitar. Michael works for PG&E, and loves to cook, bike, and get his workouts in. John is a mellow, active educator at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. We love it here, and we're excited to find the right fit to join our home!
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Happy to send pics / more info along. Be well!

Ross Perot died this week, and those who are old enough or have studied past elections will know him as the billionaire third party candidate that effectively got Bill Clinton elected in 1992 by siphoning economic conservatives from Bush Sr's campaign. In that campaign he was vocally anti free-trade, which of course resonated with the uneducated middle/lower class people who were duped into a decade of Reagan.
More people than are familiar with that history will probably have noticed that Bernie Sanders praised Perot on Twitter after his death, which on the surface seems odd compared to Bernie's recent public spat with another billionaire on the same social media platform. This post is an attempt to contextualize Ross Perot in local Texas politics and more broadly in suburban white America as a whole.
The Texas School Funding 14th Amendment Lawsuits
Perot's billions were made in the computer business before the computer business was a thing for anyone but IBM and Texas Instruments. He first got involved in politics locally in Texas due to the poor state of the public education system in Texas in the 70s and 80s. He used to say (paraphrased) that a school system which didn't produce graduates smart enough for him to hire was a failure that demanded his attention.
Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the late 1990s, Texas went through a sort of civil war over the nature of public school district funding. The lawsuits started in San Antonio from an organization founded by the superintendent of the predominantly Hispanic school district there, Jose Cardenas. Cardenas wrote a book about all of this which is available for free in pdf form here.
The case eventually went to the US Supreme Court and was decided based on the swing vote of a Nixon appointee. The 5th Circuit appeals court had ruled the Texas school funding infrastructure unconstitutional, in that it did not provide equal funding for poor school districts in comparison to wealthier school districts. Since school funding is almost universally done by property tax in the United States, schools with high property values enjoy higher revenues on lower tax rates, while schools with low property values are required to maintain higher tax rates to meet minimum state funding requirements.
There is a wikipedia article on the case with a pretty good broad overview here.
It should not be surprising that SCOTUS conservatives aided by a recent Nixon appointee determined that there was "no right to education in the constitution" despite the whole civil rights movement stemming from a school segregation decision.
The Texas State Constitutional Challenges
Not deterred, Cardenas continued to challenge the school funding infrastructure that resulted in unequal tax burdens in the state courts, and surprisingly he eventually won.
The Texas state constitution requires that the state provide an "efficient system of free public schools." The plaintiffs from San Antonio argued based on tax burden grounds that the state failed to provide this required system because of the tax burden disparity between wealthy and poor districts. The state courts agreed, eventually resulting in a 9-0 ruling by the state supreme court that invalidated the state's system of school funding in 1993. The lawsuit was initially filed in 1984. The court ordered the legislature to rewrite its entire school funding infrastructure to comply with the ruling. Several conservative challenges to the lawsuit and failed legislative proposals eventually led to the state supreme court ordering a commission to be appointed that would rewrite the state school funding laws itself, without input from the legislature due to the legislature effectively being held in contempt of the ruling.
Ross Perot was the defacto chairman of the commission. Even though he was not officially given the title of chairman, he was the only billionaire on the commission and could simply make state legislators (and governors) disappear by force of campaign/lobbying money. When the existing elected state school board opposed the commission's recommendations, he did precisely that. He demanded that the governor dismiss all of the elected state school board members from office for opposing the order of the court and it was done. When the appointed state education department secretary opposed this action, he too was fired.
At the time, Democrats were still the dominant party in Texas politics. Only one Republican had been governor in the 20th century (Bill Clements from 1979 to 1983). Clements was again governor from 1987 to 1991. After the single term of Ann Richards from 1991 to 1995, the bible thumper Republican era of George Bush Jr and Rick Perry began.
Why Does This Matter Outside of Texas?
The result of the Perot commission, eventually endorsed by both the centrist Republican Clements and the DNC endorsed Ann Richards was a plan by which wealthier school districts were ordered to redistribute excess funds to adjacent school districts which suffered from tax shortages which did not meet state requirements for public school funding at the court-established maximum property tax rate.
The entire fucking middle class conservative boomer existence is built upon residential property value. ALL... OF... IT
I can't really think of a way to emphasize this any more than the above, but it's true. That's why Bernie Sanders is praising Ross Perot on Twitter. Ross Perot temporarily tore down the system that maintains class segregation in the US, albeit on a state level that was specific to Texas.
I guarantee you that if you look at any residential house listing anywhere in the predominantly white suburban United States, its selling point will be "schools." They are the means by which middle to upper-middle class Republicans and center-libs maintain their economic status. By inflating their own property values and dumping the tax revenue therefrom into ever more expensive local school districts, wealth is maintained from generation to generation.
For a brief moment in the 1990s Texas was ordered to tear all of this down and fund schools equally. George Bush Junior ran specifically in opposition to all of this, and found a way to defeat it and simultaneously enrich his political party.
The Perot commission mandated teacher evaluation for competency so Bush Junior set out to specifically penalize teachers in poor school districts for poor test scores. A "habitually" deficient school district in terms of student test scores could eventually face mandatory teacher and administration firings when Bush Junior was done rewriting the state education code. Some of you may remember this as the "no child left behind" controversy at the national level under Bush Junior's presidency.
The Perot Commission also led to a baseline property tax rate that was required for means testing of school finance in each county, and the conservative response was to convince all counties to exceed the minimum rate and funnel the excess school spending in wealthy districts to contributors for construction projects, remodeling projects, iPads, laptops, football stadiums, etc etc etc. Under Bush Junior's reforms, as long as the district exceeded the minimum state property tax rate for school funding no one could be deemed discriminatory in terms of school funding. The state would pay poor districts to get them to the minimum, while boomer-laden suburbs went all-in on school funding with the promise of ever-higher property values to offset the taxes.
How Is This Issue Playing Out Today?
Here in Texas, the state is bankrupting itself on corrupt local school boards passing excessive property tax increases and skimming the money through school contractors with conflicts of interest. The latest bible thumper-Republican government's response has been to propose an increase in sales taxes that would be used to bribe counties into lowering school property tax rates. That plan failed in the legislature. Meanwhile, every major city in Texas has residential property tax rates in excess of 2% per year, with many of them exceeding 3% per year.
For those unfamiliar, property taxes are taxes on appraised value, not taxes on realized gains. So if you have a house that the county tax assessor deems to be worth $500,000 dollars, and the local rate is 3%, you owe $15,000 dollars of property tax every year, even if the property has never been actually sold for the amount in question.
Traditionally, the finance industry's recommendation to people is that they can afford a mortgage which all-inclusive represents 1/3 of their pre-tax income.
This figure is bullshit on multiple levels.
Firstly, again using a Texas example, a full third of people's pre-tax income can be sucked up by our country's abysmal for-profit health care system. Currently, a family of four getting ACA marketplace insurance in Texas can expect to pay $35,000 dollars per year (including the deductible). I live in one of those wealthy school cities in Texas, with an average household income of $110,000.
So let's say one of those average households goes out and buys a house that costs them $3,000 per month (roughly 1/3 of the monthly income from a $110,000 average yearly salary). Using the previous example, if they paid $100,000 dollars as a down payment toward the hypothetical $500,000 dollar house (20%) they'd be left with a loan of $400,000 dollars (at a rate of 4.5%). The mortgage cost of a $400,000 dollar loan for 30 years at 4.5% is only $2,000 per month, but they can't afford a $400,000 dollar mortgage because of the property taxes.
The $15,000 dollar property tax increases their monthly mortgage payment to about $3275 dollars. Add in $2000 dollars per year in homeowner's insurance and you're right around $3500 dollars per month. To get that back down to $3000, the typical household income has to limit their home purchase amount to a $400,000 dollar house, not a $500,000 dollar one.
With a $400,000 dollar house that the typical suburban conservative Christian Republican might buy, the mortgage payment on $320,000 (less the 20% down payment they would have paid of $80,000) is reduced to $1625 per month, plus that 3% property tax rate for another $1000 dollars per month, plus the $165 bucks per month in insurance leaves them at about $2800 dollars per month, just shy of the 1/3 pre-tax income range that someone might recommend to them. Considering the grossly inflated health care costs they're also paying, this is still quite sketchy.
tl;dr: Are you saying that people could oust local Republicans with property tax rebellions at the polls in places like Texas and Florida?
tl;dr: yes.
Texas is not the tax haven that it is perceived to be anymore. They are cruising toward a property tax and health care cost revolt which could cost the entire bible-thumper Republican establishment its stranglehold on local politics to anyone willing to challenge them, but as expected the DNC is completely inept on these issues. They have only put up one challenger for governor here in recent years; a woman who filibustered one of Rick Perry's anti-abortion bills in the state senate and she lost in a landslide. No one gives a fuck about abortion here except the bible thumpers. Blue voters in Texas are wealthy people in cities, who don't go to Planned Parenthood because they're wealthy. Meanwhile the middle class Republicans in the suburbs are being squeezed dry by the bible-thumper Republican politicians that they vote for, and most of those suburban Republicans run for local offices un-opposed.
Is this just a matter of FOIA'ing my local TX/FL school records?
I suspect this is why Texas and more recently the SCOTUS have a sudden fascination with tearing down the FOIA. Most states mirror the federal FOIA law, but Texas bible-thumper Republicans have begun to try to weaken it, specifically to hide the details of contracts with local political jurisdictions. In a recent Texas case the city of San Antonio tried to get details of a contract with Boeing to lease property at a local military airport owned by the state within the city's boundaries. Boeing sued to block the release of the contract details to the city, claiming that the negotiation of the lease terms with the state was proprietary. The bible-thumper Republican state attorney charged with defending the state FOIA law lost the case to Boeing at the state supreme court on purpose. It should not be surprising that a similar tactic was used in a recent SCOTUS case.
There's nothing more fashy for a bible-thumper Republican than giving a campaign contributor tax money and claiming that the public does not have a right to see how the money was spent, but that seems to be the latest pet project of the GOP.
What else might people do?
If rebellious leftists were smart they would be putting as much effort into state Attorney General races as they were on city District Attorney races. Fucking over cops is all fine and good but if you want to tear down the Republican establishment at the state and local level you need state Attorneys General to hit them in their grifts and frauds.
Property taxes + public school spending in the suburbs are the nexus of grift and fraud in vast amounts of fly-over territory in the US, and no one to my knowledge outside of Texas has ever challenged any of it.

Unable to get Columbia Sportswear managers to do even small things to make life safer and better for him and his coworkers, Rory Gatto started talking with co-workers, and called the Teamsters.
By Don McIntosh
For Rory Gatto, the road to the Teamsters started with a splinter. Gatto works swing shift at the colossal Columbia Sportswear warehouse in industrial North Portland, one of about 400 workers who process Columbia’s foreign-made apparel for shipping throughout the Western United States.
In the summer of 2015, just months into the job, he was handling a stack of pallets when a wood splinter pierced his shirt and punctured the skin on his abdomen. Gatto went to the first-aid kit near his work station, and found it empty. Downstairs in another work area, the first-aid kit there was empty too. So, afraid of being gone too long from his station, he dabbed the wound with a wet paper towel and got back to work.
Within days, the puncture was red, swollen, and painful. Not yet enrolled in company insurance, he visited a free clinic in Vancouver, where a doctor diagnosed a staph infection, drained the wound, and prescribed oral antibiotics.
Returning to work, Gatto decided to take a look at first-aid kits around the warehouse.
“Most were either completely empty or had a few pieces of something here or there,” he remembers. He talked to his supervisor about it and was told to take it up with the safety committee. Attending safety committee meetings, he asked that first-aid kits be resupplied.
“They kept pooh-poohing it, and pushing it off, and saying, ‘whose cost center is it?’”
When no one would take responsibility for it, Gatto offered to be the one to refill band-aids. Nothing happened. For a safety meeting attended by Jeanette Williams, then Columbia Sportswear operations manager, he developed and put forward a Powerpoint presentation proposing a schedule for checking and restocking the kits. Objections were raised: Who would pay for it? What if employees steal band-aids? Neither Williams nor anyone else would take action.
After months of trying to get first-aid kits restocked, Gatto stopped trying. But he knew something was wrong. How could a company where a cloud-based warehouse management system tracks every article of clothing be unable to keep band-aids in stock for injured employees? Why would a company that thanked workers for record productivity every quarter be unwilling to attend to something so small?
The failed band-aid crusade opened Gatto’s eyes, and he started talking with co-workers about what he was seeing. What it’s like to work there
None of them had any problem with the work itself. But beyond that, there were many complaints. With little or no climate control or insulation, the 182,860-square-foot metal box they work in is like a refrigerator in winter, and parts can be stiflingly hot in the summer. Frequent last-minute schedule changes wreak havoc on employees’ personal lives. Workers also have no say over major changes: Managers recently eliminated the top of a pay scale, and changed the workweek from four 10-hour shifts to five eight-hour shifts. Workers are subject to computer-tracked performance goals, contributing to a high-pressure environment—for some pretty low wages. Wages that range from the legal minimum wage to just under $20 an hour aren’t enough in the Portland metro area, where median rent on a one-bedroom apartment is now $1,234 a month. In the employee break room, a sign gives Columbia Sportswear warehouse workers a number to call to access public and private food and rent assistance.
Clearly, Columbia Sportswear knows wages are too low: Signs in the break room direct workers to a phone number where they can access the Oregon Food Bank. And the company sponsors employee donation drives several times a year in which workers donate to help co-workers who can’t afford school supplies and Christmas presents for their families.
By the summer of 2019, Gatto and some of his co-workers were ready to act. Gatto called Teamsters Local 162, one of several Portland-area Teamsters locals that represents warehouse workers, asking for help.
It wasn’t the first time the union had heard from workers there, says Local 162 President Mark Davison. Pay, benefits, and working conditions at the Columbia Sportswear distribution center are far below local union standards for the thousands of warehouse workers represented by the locals that make up Teamsters Joint Council 37. But a union isn’t something outsiders can win for you; workers themselves must become active, form an organizing committee, and mount a campaign in the workplace. Columbia warehouse workers never seemed ready for that before, Davison said. This time, things were different.
A group of workers formed, began to meet, and created a community via Discord, a text chat channel originally developed for gamers. They got to know each other, and started spreading the word. Seeing that readiness, Local 162 asked the international union for support. Experienced union organizers arrived in Portland to support the campaign. The union-busters arrive
On Oct. 1, Alonzo Plater, Columbia Sportswear vice president of global distribution, called an all-employee meeting for each shift.
“We’ve started to hear some rumors about conversations with the Teamsters Union,” Plater told the assembled workers, in one of several recordings made by workers who attended.
“One of the things I love about our culture is that we’re so open and we’re flexible,” said Plater, who was by then reading from some notes. “A third party coming in between us here at Columbia is not what I feel we need. We will be engaging some external consulting resources to come on site this week to talk to you,” Plater said. “These consultants are longtime union experts.”
Within days, consultants from The Crossroads Group (TCG) of San Clemente, California, were giving presentations, which every worker on all three shifts was scheduled to attend. Presentations took place in front of groups of 15 to 20 and lasted up to two hours.
“We frequently run into the Crossroads folks,” said Thom McKibben, the Teamsters organizer assigned to help Columbia workers organize. “But it’s unusual for a company to bring them in so early, before we’d even really gone public or announced a campaign.”
Crossroads Group charges $375 an hour plus expenses for its services, according to federally required disclosure forms. That means the consultants most likely earned more at each meeting than the 15 or 20 warehouse workers combined.
What was the magic of their message? Judging by the accounts of workers who attended, it was the same anti-union boilerplate trotted out in nearly every union-busting campaign: The union is an outside third party that can’t promise anything except collecting your dues; unionizing will destroy the nice open relations workers have heretofore enjoyed with managers; wages could go up in bargaining, but they could also go down.
But union-buster Steven A. Beyer brought his own brand of charm, several workers said. If workers choose to unionize, Columbia Sportswear won’t “play nice,” Beyer said. Beyer was once friends with Cesar Chavez, he told workers. At one point, Beyer wandered around chanting “Union Bad” in an area of the warehouse where mostly limited-English workers put clothing on hangers, attach anti-theft devices, and change price stickers.
Beyer used to be a union leader himself, he told workers, but left after he came to the realization that unions are just another business, mainly interested in dues. Back in 1992, the Los Angeles Times told the story of his exit from the labor movement a little differently. Beyer, the Times reported, was voted out as president of HERE Local 681 in Anaheim after he became too cozy with employers, showed insensitivity to Spanish-speaking members, and fired a union rep who was raped on the job.
After about three weeks, Columbia Sportswear’s outside anti-union consultants departed. But the workers’ union campaign continued. March on the boss A petition for the redress of grievances
On Dec. 4 at 2:25 p.m., 13 Columbia employees wearing yellow-on-blue Teamsters Local 162 T-shirts marched into Plater’s office. A two-and-a-half minute video documenting the visit can be seen at the union’s Tougher Together Facebook page, launched the same day (named for Columbia’s long-running “One Tough Mother” ad campaign.) In the video, workers find the office door open, and standing in the doorway chatting with Plater is Jeanette Williams, the Columbia exec who Gatto couldn’t persuade to restock first-aid kits. Since then, Williams had been promoted to Columbia Director of Distribution.
“Do you mind if we have a moment of you guys’ time?” Gatto asks.
“Well, we’re kind of busy,” Williams replies.
“Is that a yes, or a no?” Gatto asks.
“That’s pretty much a ‘no,’” Plater responds, “but I think you can schedule an appointment to actually come and talk to us.”
Warehouse worker Ivan Mikhaylov then hands Plater a petition signed by 47 co-workers, and Gatto explains what it’s about: They want a union, and they want the company to stop trying to bust it.
“They were hating what we were doing,” Mikhaylov told the Labor Press later. “The look they gave us: It was almost like they were despising us.”
“We are a very responsible company,” Plater told the workers in his office. “Your documents will be reviewed and responded to.”
“I was very nervous,” Mikhaylov told the Labor Press about the visit. “But the closer we got to the door, the calmer I got. When it was done, it was like a huge weight had been lifted. We were done. The campaign had started.” A visit from CEO Tim Boyle
Soon after workers visited Plater, it was announced that Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle would be coming to the warehouse at 2 p.m. Dec. 19 to speak to workers.
For most of the warehouse employees, it would be the first time they’d ever set eyes on Boyle, whose net worth Forbes magazine estimates at $2.7 billion. For his role as CEO of the company that his grandfather bought and his father and mother ran, Boyle took $3.3 million in compensation in 2018, 130 times the company’s median salary, according to SEC disclosures.
With employees assembled in the break room, another senior manager warmed up the crowd for Boyle, announcing to cheers that “super-large” fans will be installed in two areas, and that the company is developing a new “safety academy.”
Boyle’s speech was short, just two minutes. “I don’t get a chance to get here very often,” he said, in an audio recording shared with the Labor Press. “All I can say is, thank you very much. Your hard work is much appreciated, and you guys rock.”
“I’m happy to answer any question about any topic,” Boyle said. The questions came. The first few were innocuous. Then came one that sent a murmur out among employees. Boyle repeated the question: “When somebody says union, what do I think?”
“Well, the company has had unions in the past,” Boyle said. “We had a union in our sewing facility we had here in Portland, and we had a union in our distribution center in the past.
“I think unions have a place. I am a union member. I’m a member of the Screen Actors Guild. [Workers laughed, but it’s true: Boyle had to join in order to perform in Columbia television ads, like the one where his mother put him through a car wash to show the toughness of a jacket.]
“I think personally you don’t need a union here,” Boyle continued. “We have relationships. There’s places where it’s appropriate. I don’t believe it’s appropriate.”
Next, a worker asked what Boyle thought about the fact that his warehouse employees are going to food banks because they don’t make enough money. Judging by his answer, Boyle was pretty unprepared for the question.
“That bothers me, honestly,” the billionaire began. Boyle had two suggestions for those employees: invest in their 401(k)s, and go to college.
“We have to run a business that’s competitive with others,” Boyle explained. If the business is profitable, the stock price goes up. And Columbia employees are stockholders, if they’re investing in their 401(k)s, which “I hope everybody is here,” Boyle said (to warehouse employees his company pays less than $20 an hour.)
The other path out of poverty, Boyle seemed to suggest, was for warehouse workers to get educations so they could come back as white collar workers at headquarters.
“Hopefully we’re working here to get employees in this population into the other parts of the business where wages are higher, doing other categories of work,” Boyle told warehouse workers. “We want to make sure that people have the opportunity to get a better salary and a better wage.”
Another worker wanted to know if Trump’s tariff trade war with China was hurting the company.
“We’ve moved a lot of production out of China in the last 10 years, primarily because China’s an expensive place to work these days. There are other countries in the world where we can produce products more competitively. We have to constantly be working on that.”
After 20 minutes of questions, Boyle was gone.
“To me it gave the impression that he doesn’t really care that much,” Mikhaylov said. “It almost seemed like he wasn’t really concerned.”
Of course, Rory Gatto got that impression the moment he found all those empty first-aid stations. But there’s always hope. Four years after his battle for band-aids, Gatto discovered first-aid kits restocked throughout the Columbia warehouse … right after a surprise visit Oct. 30 from an Oregon OSHA inspector.
To get the company’s official public position on the union campaign, the Labor Press reached out to Mary Ellen Glynn, Columbia’s director of corporate communications. Glynn said the company would have no comment.
“This is going to be a battle,” said Davison. “But we committed to these employees that we’re not going to walk away. We’re going to stand by them.” For a brief moment, Columbia Sportswear was union and American made
Gert Boyle, the public face of Columbia Sportswear since the 1980s, died Nov. 3 at age 95. Political and business leaders lauded Boyle for her philanthropy and business success. But Nita Brueggeman remembers her as a business owner who fought the union, reneged on a union agreement, and closed her factory after workers voted to stick with their union.
Brueggeman was head of the Pacific Northwest Joint Board of Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) in the 1980s, representing clothing and textile workers in Oregon and Washington. In August 1982, workers at Columbia Sportswear’s St. John’s apparel factory joined ACTWU. After lengthy bargaining, the two sides reached agreement, and workers voted to ratify it. Then Gert Boyle arrived on the scene and repudiated the agreement.
“I’d never seen that happen before,” Brueggeman says.
Workers responded by going on strike in July 1983. When they later made an unconditional offer to return to work, Gert wouldn’t take them back. The two sides eventually signed a three-year agreement. But Boyle immediately started looking for a cheaper alternative, Brueggeman recalls. She looked into using Oregon prison inmates to make clothes, but that didn’t pan out. In 1984, Columbia began to move production to South Korea and Taiwan.
“I attempted many times to sort of make nice with her,” Brueggeman says. “But all those ads about her being ‘one tough mother’? That’s who she was, and she didn’t give a damn about the people who worked for her. As soon as we got a contract she started getting rid of the workers.”
In August 1985, Columbia closed the St. John’s apparel factory, and laid off 85 workers, most of them refugee women from Cambodia and Vietnam. By then only 25-30% of the company’s apparel was made in Portland.
“What it boils down to is that the American consumer doesn’t really care where it’s made,” Tim Boyle told The Oregonian at the time.
Even as it was ending the livelihoods of its Portland manufacturing workers, Columbia was already cheating the U.S. Customs Department. In 1991, Columbia Sportswear and its manufacturing vice president were indicted on 114 counts of import smuggling and conspiracy, in a case the U.S. Attorney’s office described as a “long-term, massive and deliberate scheme to defraud the government.” The case—which followed a five-year Customs investigation and raids on company offices and a warehouse—included charges that Columbia had undervalued goods and falsified documents to evade quota restrictions on clothing it imported from South Korea and Taiwan. The company faced up to $57 million in fines, but settled voluntarily in 1993, pleading guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to avoid paying import duties and paying $970,000 in fines, duties and restitution. Share this:

Hello!
My wife and I are considering a move from Texas to California. I know, it’s the opposite of the trend lately (I’ve heard lots of NoCal transplants to Austin). We’ve both lived in Texas our whole lives basically and just want to try something new. But we also have practical reasons for moving. I work from home and make close to 6 figures. Having a one hour plane ride to NoCal would be awesome for my relatively common trips to the Bay Area. Also, I have family in Burbank, and her brother is going to be in San Diego soon. We went to Santa Monica for our honeymoon. We’ve vacationed in San Diego. It’s been a long time coming for us.
Anyways, we’re trying to figure out where the best place to live (likely a 2 bedroom apartment) in would be somewhere in and around the San Diego or Los Angeles area. We’re really okay with being in either city, or somewhere in between. Anywhere in the area really. I think we do want to live on the coast, but we’ve been weighing that with the lower costs of living somewhat inland. Just to give you an idea of some of our current thinking: We’ve been considering one of the more “affordable” coastal areas like Oceanside, Carlsbad, or San Clemente. We’ve also played with the idea of Murrieta or Temecula since neither of us plan to do the commute to LA/SD. We would just have to drive an hour to anything we want to do, and we wouldn’t really be living the coastal lifestyle. (She works in education so will likely end up at a school near wherever we end up).
But the idea of being relatively easy drives to both the LA and SD areas is at least a palatable one to us. We also like the idea of living on the coast so we can really be living more beach culture lives. We like the idea of living relatively affordably, which we know would mean sacrificing the desirable beach areas (I’ve found some really good value on apartments in Menifee). But at the end of day, since my job is remote, we aren’t really tied to any one particular area. We just don’t want to be spending every dollar of our paycheck every month, and we also realize that taxes are higher in California too, so we want to not just sign up for an exorbitantly expensive beachside place even though we could probably technically (barely) afford it.
So to summarize: I work remotely and make almost 6 figures, I’d like access to an airport for flying to SF once every couple months, we’d prefer somewhere on or near the beach, she’ll probably find a job in education once we get there, we’ll have family in both LA and SD, wife likes Disney, we don’t want to live anywhere touristy, and we also want to play it on the conservative side in terms of price if possible. Obviously great and cheap isn’t a reality in SoCal, but I was hoping the fact that neither of us are geographically tied down anywhere might open up some options.
I’ll probably reply to the comments and maybe try to clarify some things if anyone is willing to help us maybe pinpoint where the best value would be for our money. We’re really cool with anywhere from Santa Barbara all the way down to San Diego. Where would you move if you were in our shoes?

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Steve Watts of Slyde Handboards, a brand that makes mini surfboards (handboards).
They also had success on Shark Tank, landing a $200k investment!
Some stats:

• Product: Handboards.
• Revenue/mo: $80,000
• Started: October 2010
• Location: San Clemente, CA
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 2

Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?

My name is Steve Watts, I am the founder and co-owner of Slyde Handboards with my wife Angela. Slyde is based of out of San Clemente, California. Handboards are little surfboards that strap to your hand that give you more lift, speed and control when bodysurfing.
Handboards have been around for centuries, nobody is quite sure where or when they started, but there is evidence of the ancient polynesians using palm fronds or drift wood placed on their hands to get more speed, distance and lift when bodysurfing. A handboard is the perfect ocean toy, which allows anybody no matter their age or skill level the ability to ride a wave like a pro. Handboards are the most portable and lightweight wave riding equipment, which means you don't have to be the local pack mule when going down to the beach It is a sport that is super easy to learn and safe for kids to get comfortable in the ocean, without having the worry of a big board. As with any awesome sport it’s fun to master, plus it’s perfect for getting barreled. Our handboards allow you to take your ocean fun to the next level. We also have pro-models that are ridden by the very best bodysurfers in the world at some of the best surf breaks, like Pipeline and Waimea in Hawaii to Australia, Brazil, and beyond.
Since we LLC’d the company in late 2010, Slyde has grown. We’re doubling in revenue every year. We were on Season 7 Episode 24 of Shark Tank, where we were fortunate enough to land a deal with Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher, who are still both very much involved in the company.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

The Idea of Slyde Handboards started back on the beaches of Cape Town South Africa where I grew up. My Mother would take me and my brother down to the beach a lot to get us out the house. We spent most of the time bodyboarding or bodysurfing. We used to find all sorts of objects that we would use as a planning device to get us a little more speed and lift on the wave from frisbees to flip flops, some worked well others not so much. It wasn't until my teens that I decided to break open an old surfboard and re-use the foam to shape into a mini handheld board that would later become the very first prototypes for Slyde.
I figured we were the only ones doing this, but It wasn't until I went travel surfing around the world and met other surfers and water men and women and heard their stories of growing up using all sorts of found objects like lunch trays or even making boards themselves. It was then I realized there was a possible opportunity to create a brand around this awesome growing watersport movement, as no other company was doing this.
There is definitely a defined problem that we solve, in that a handboard is easy to learn, hassle free and fun to take to the beach. The idea was really born from simple enjoyment that I was having using one. It felt almost selfish to not share it with the world. It turns out I wasn't wrong, because almost immediately we started to form a community and movement as more and more people started to find out about us either online or through friends.

Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.

I have a degree in Product Design so my strength lies in the creative design side of the business, from the start that has been my focus. I also grew up immersed in surf culture and it was always my dream to own a surf related company. Prototyping was obviously a huge part of this company. By the time I decided to launch it, I had been prototyping for 16 years and knew exactly which shape board we were going create.
We live in a very connected world these days and finding manufacturers in general was not a problem. Finding the right manufacturer was a little more tricky and we have been through 5 or 6 Manufacturers since launch. We found that in many cases the small size of the boards was actually a problem. All the equipment was designed and made for bigger surfboards and our boards are no more than 19 inches. A full length surfboard can reach 12 feet. Also, I had always had the dream to be able to create boards with beautiful graphics, but at the time the cost was very prohibitive. This forced us to look at other manufacturing capabilities. In about year 4 we stumbled on a manufacturer that made snowboards and we figured out a way to mix the manufacturing process of a snowboard with a manufacturing process of a surfboard. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result was a board with the strength and durability of a snowboard and stunning graphics. This is why we offer a lifetime warranty on all our high-end boards.
My advice for finding a good manufacturer is to do your research well and inspect prototypes thoroughly for quality. Beyond that make a point to meet face to face and make sure they understand your vision for the product. Watch out for manufacturers that look like they are in it for the short term.

Describe the process of launching the online store/business.

Starting Slyde in 2010 was a little different than it is now. Shopify was small, Facebook was still very new and Instagram had just started the month before.I knew online was the only way to go, so I taught myself basic code and we started our initial website on Big Cartel and had to patch in a cart. We then moved over to Squarespace, finally in 2013 we moved to Shopify where we never looked back.
At the time of starting Slyde I was teaching surfing in Venice Beach. I had just received my green card to stay in the country and that also allowed me to legally start a business. While teaching a student, I told him all about this awesome company I was trying to start. About 2 months later we met for dinner. He loved the concept so much that he decided to invest right there and then, without even seeing a handboard. Russell is still involved and we are good friends 8 years later.
In 2011 Russell and I bought a Dodge van and made our way across the country from California to Florida to our first Surf Expo. On the way I had a lot of free time and I wrote a lot of tutorial articles and taught myself SEO and those articles, to this day have, been a huge source of free traffic for the website.
For a lean startup (apart from your time) it’s a great way to get free traffic until you can afford to pay for traffic later on. Also building valuable content for your customers is really important in creating engaged visitors to your site.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Our biggest driver of revenue has been our onsite content. We now have about a thousand blog posts and around 20 long form tutorial type articles. These have helped us grow as we are in many cases the first position in Google and Bing for most of the relevant keywords.
We have also become very efficient at getting press and have been featured in New York Times, Los angeles Times, Forbes, Huffington Post and Business insider. Shark Tank was also a massive boost for us that has helped put our story on steroids.
Getting a really good story written about your company takes more than an email requesting a feature, it takes (in some cases) months and even years of back and forth. It’s important to know what is important to the writer in terms of if your story fits their narrative. Remember these are people that want to write articles that will further their blog or career, so its important to do your research and cater towards their requirements to get the most articles published
We also started using AdWords pretty soon, initially using a fairly modest budget to cover all the keywords that the organic traffic missed. Another core ingredient, has been collecting emails. We have a very solid subscription base that we segment to filter the best possible content into the right place of the customer's email life cycle.

What are some of the metrics of the business?

The sport of handboarding has grown exponentially since we launched in 2010. There are now competitions across the globe in Hawaii, Brazil, Peru, United Kingdom, Chile, Japan and Australia. We have now sold boards to over 40 countries and growing every month. We have 500k visitors a year to our website. We just got our first order from Dicks Sporting Goods this month.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Starting and running a company teaches you so much on a regular basis it's hard to list them all. I think above all it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you are capable of achieving.
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson once said that the hardest thing he has ever done was to start his business.
As for mistakes, we have been pretty fortunate that we haven't made any really big mistakes or I guess I wouldn't be writing this. Very early on learned the lesson of gross profit margin. It was kind of a funny "Aha" moment that was also the turning point for the company to becoming more profitable. I am sure we have missed some opportunities but none I can recall as very memorable. I prefer to work hard and always be looking for the next opportunity than thinking about the one that could have been. I think in general we have been very good at taking advantage of the opportunities we have been given.
I really like the concept of 80/20. I try to focus on the 20% that are going to get the most return every day. It can get tricky when you have a lot of opportunities but generally it is obvious what is going to reap the most reward for the business in the end.
The best decision I made was to bring on my, then girlfriend, now wife Angela, who was instrumental in helping to take the company to the next level by getting all sorts of awesome press, including Shark Tank. Bringing her on allowed me to spend more time on the design, marketing and branding.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• We have been using Shopify for around 4 or 5 years now
  
• We use Klaviyo for email marketing which I can't recommend enough if you want to take your list to the next level.
  
• We use Yotpo for reviews which are great however for the starter they are a little expensive
  
• We use a few of the Bold Apps on shopify for cross selling and easy sale set up
  
• We use Sumome for email gathering
  

One of the biggest opportunities was given to us by Mark Cuban. He offered help with optimizing our Amazon and since that, we have continued to grow exponentially on that platform.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

For product design and development I would recommend any of Tom Kelley books particularly "The Ten Faces of Innovation". I would also recommend In the “In the Bubble” by John Thackara.
For good business advice "The Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Also I really enjoyed "Story Brand" by Donald Miller.
My favorite podcast are "Master of Scale" with Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman and the NPR show "How I Built This" with Guy Raz.
For Practical Facebook Marketing advice look no further than "Perpetual Traffic".

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Starting a company is not for everyone. Being an entrepreneur seems to be a buzzword these days. The media glorifies the very few billion dollar exits and CEO’s that it almost seems easy. In reality, it takes an enormous toll on you and is exceptionally hard. Don't take the idea to start a company lightly for the most part it isn't glamorous and it's downright hard work. However, if you are willing work hard for a very long time and put everything into it the rewards are amazing.
My advice for anyone starting a company is to find your "why". What makes you keep on working when any sane person would have quit. That special something that fuels your passion and drives you to never ever give up no matter how hard it is.
Another one is: Keep on learning. As a small business owner you need to be the jack of all trades. If it doesn't work, find a way to make it work by teaching yourself. Google is an incredible tool. We didn't know gross margin till 2 years in so go figure.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Anybody who has experience with Facebook Ads, Google AdWords and email marketing on Klaviyo.
Liked this interview? Check out more founders that shared their story on StarterStory.com.

Hi,
I am hoping to get some advice/input/recommendations on an upcoming move to San Clemente from Kansas City, KS. I am a 30/m that has a job offer from an organization in San Clemente. The job offer is for 95k and they will offer reimbursement for moving cost up to 5k. Would likely be able to make more in a 12-18 month period. I have looked at median incomes/ wages/ cost of living and understand it is a very expensive area to live. I would like some input from people in the area on how the wage stacks up, things I should be prepared for etc. I own a house here where my mortgage is only $700 pemo. I stand to make ~50k when selling my house which would pay 90% of my outstanding student loans. This should alleviate most of my debt. (may have less than 10k depending on what I do with the money). I will likely buy a new car and I need a place to live. I am single and like to do things outdoors, hike, explore etc. Any recommendations on areas to live, things to do etc?
​
Thanks in advance!

Has anyone else been seeing dead rats on UCSB’s property?? I’ve seen two in front of San Clemente and my friend says he’s seen two on campus. Is anyone else seeing these? A couple of them were bleeding from their mouths and I’m hoping there’s a reasonable explanation.
Edit 2: spoke to a professor, apparently poisoning rats is a pretty common occurrence here even though, like someone below mentioned, it’s terrible for the ecosystem. While we can rest easy knowing they’re not sick, it is a bit frustrating knowing that the uni chose to poison possibly at the expense of other animals.
Edit: Things that seem strange to me: 1. All of these rats are dead and some of them are bleeding from their mouths. 2. I’ve seen all of these rats within the last week or so but I’ve been living here for ~3 months. I am welcome to any sort of explanation for why it’s happening now specifically, I don’t know what it was about this question that made people get shady but sorry! P.S. I lived in Iowa for a few years and while I’ve seen a few live rodents and some caught in traps, I’ve never seen dead ones bleeding from their mouths and never this many just lying around.

I sold my blood the first time a few weeks after I got to San Francisco. My job fell through and I needed rent. That's when my roommate Liu told me about Okami Industries.
You won't get rich or anything, he said, but they buy plasma and they pay decent. Plus, he pointed out, after you give it only takes like half a beer to get kind of drunk.
Okami Industries was in the financial district where everything was skyscrapers and happy hour bars and gleaming double parked Model X Teslas. Everybody there was rich except me. That's how I felt, at least, with my ratty hoodie and old jeans. My duct taped chucks, which I always felt looked so cool, just made me feel even more idiotic. No, not idiotic: poor. That was worse. Especially here. America has never been a good place to be poor, but somehow now feels the like the worst time, like we're coming to the end of a long ritual.
Security at the lobby took my name and looked at my ID. His nose was pierced and he wore big black framed glasses. I saw a hummingbird tattooed on his hand when he gave me a plastic badge and told me to take the elevator to the seventh floor. He didn't give me my ID back and when I asked for it he made a face.
This your first time?
Yeah, I said. There was someone behind me in the lobby now. I was aware of their presence. Painfully so.
Don't worry, he said. Everybody's gotta have a first time. You go up there and then you come down and bring that badge back here. Then I give you your ID back. Ok?
I said ok, but I didn't feel all right.
I rode the elevator by myself. It moved fast and smooth. Felt brand new. I kept looking around. I knew there were CCTV cameras in it but I didn't know where.
If you knew how often you were filmed, Liu told me after I confessed to him how paranoid I was of being on camera, you wouldn't be scared. You're always being recorded. Everywhere you go. There's no more privacy, he said.
When I asked him why he rolled his eyes.
Privacy is the ultimate luxury item in America right now, he said. You can't see Zuckerberg's house on street view. You can't see what Sergey Brin searched for on the internet.
But for their privacy to be a privilege, you can't have any. So everywhere you go you're filmed, everything you look up is catalogued, and every time you speak near near a phone, or a computer, or an Alexa you are being recorded. No privacy anymore, man, he said. Ever.
I got off the elevator, looking for the cameras, thinking of that conversation, wondering what it is people do with their valuable commodity of privacy.
Okami Industries didn't have a sign, just a room number. I tried the door and it was open. The office was as bland as the hallway that led to it. Grey carpet. A couple of Hockney swimming pool prints on the walls. Ten or so chairs, all empty. A receptionist at the desk looked up when I walked in.
Hey, he said. Pyotr? We've been waiting.
I filled out some forms and went into a back room. A nurse came in and we made small talk as she got me ready. I told her I had lost my job and was trying to make some money. Well, she said, gig economy, right? Good for you. She tied up my arm.
I guess, I said. She took out a needle, removed the cover and said one two three and then it was in. There was a little pinch and that was it.
What happens next, I asked.
We draw the blood out, run it through a centrifuge, separate the plasma and then give you back your blood. We keep the plasma.
Isn't that what Kobe had for his knees?
It sort of is, she said, watching the bright red blood fill the plastic tube. But different.
Where's the blood go? Hospitals?
Plasma, she said. Not blood. Two different things. So what happened with your job?
It was a start up, I said, and it kind of, uh, end downed.
Is that the technical term for it, she smiled. She was older than me, but not as old as I first thought she was. Her hair was dyed red.
The CEO said we were financially non-viable and then he told me I could go home, I said. So now I'm stuck in an apartment I can't afford —
Join the club, she said.
And I have to find a job, or move back home.
Whe are you from?
Idaho, I said and she told me I better start looking.
The draw takes two hours and when I'm done the receptionist gives me a visa debit card for fifty bucks. If you need to, he said, you can come back in seven days. I think of how much my half of the rent is and make an appointment.
I leave and I'm at the elevator, hitting the down button, when I hear someone call my name. I turn around and see the nurse.
Hey, I said and she said hey back, and then she paused, looked behind her. We're the only two people in the hallway. The windows let in the dead light of late afternoon in late fall.
You want to make some money, right?
Yeah, I said. That's why I'm here.
She pulled a card out of her pocket and goes to hand it to me, but when I grabbed it, she didn't let go. She looked at me instead, her light blue colored eyes like dim far away stars.
Call this number, if you want. But if you ask me, she said, maybe Idaho isn't that bad.
I didn't call the number that night. I went out instead, drinking away my blood money in Richmond, at some bar on Clement street. They had an IPA I had never heard of on tap for cheap, and as I ordered drink after drink and swiped right after right on tinder without matching I came to some conclusions. Well, one grand conclusion: donating blood wasn't going to get my half of rent paid. At all.
The next morning, hungover, I called the number on the card the nurse gave me.
Freeland Industries, the recording said, would be happy to assist me, if I could just hold for a few minutes. Their agents were busy.
I googled Freeland as I sat on hold, waiting. No hits. It was like the company didn't exist.
Freeland, can I help you? The voice was enthusiastic, much more so than I was expecting. I told it, in a bumbling manner I'm sure, that I had been given this card and told to call this number. I said I was looking for work and they said perfect, because they had plenty of opportunities available.
I'm not sure why I didn't ask what they did. I don't know what the representative would have told me, anyway. It doesn't matter. When you need money you'll do anything.
They asked for my email and said they would send me materials. I asked if they needed anything else and they said no, that's all. The call disconnected and I sat there on a suddenly silent phone.
The email said Freeland was responsible for organizing events and happenings for the social elites of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The company was founded ten years ago, by an artist named Raul Castillo, to create unique atmospheres for parties and life. Why aren't you living more? the email copy read. I was being offered a position at a party in the city that night. It paid eight hundred dollars. Could I get there before six?
I looked at myself in a mirror, my uncombed hair, my bleary eyes, my flushed cheeks, and I emailed back.
Of course I can.
My uber driver played the same song over and over again as we drove to the address. He told me he didn't care what his rating was since he was committing suicide as soon as his life insurance policy kicked in next month. I didn't say anything after he said that. We were both quiet for a while, and then he said the biggest challenge was making sure it didn't look like a suicide.
Life insurance won't pay out if you commit suicide, he explained. So I'm trying to figure out a way to do it so it looks like an accident. I don't really want to google anything, he said, because I don't want a paper trail. So if you have any ideas, he trailed off.
Why are you killing yourself, I asked him.
Just had a kid, he answered. The policy pay out will help him out way more than whatever I could make.
He got lost in spite of the GPS and I was ten minutes late but I gave him five stars anyway.
The house was in Pacific Heights. I had never been to that neighborhood, but when my Uber dropped me off I instantly recognized it. I always think cities have their normal parts where normal people live and work, and then they have their other parts, the glamorous parts, the ones that tourists think are the real parts but are actually the parts the real citizens of the city, the workers of the city, could never afford.
Pacific Heights was that. Hills and brightly colored Victorians and modernist glass and steel new construction. Mansions that cost double digit millions. I got out of the car and stared. The sun was setting and it didn't seem like the kind of place someone like me should go.
It wasn't.
I nocked on the door and a woman answered. You're late, she said and she frowned. She had the kind of face that dove expectantly into frowns. Wrinkles expanded. Her eyes narrowed. The grey hair pulled away from her face seemed even more severe as her eyes narrowed even more behind her turquoise colored glasses. After she took my name she typed away at an iPad, then frowned again and told me I should come inside and then I was to go to the kitchen. Straight down the hall, she pointed, don't go anywhere else.
The house was full of art. Gorgeous paintings on the wall, tiny statues of goat headed men and wolf legged women secreted away in nooks and crannies. The walls were a bright and gleaming, almost wet looking red, with glistening white baseboards. A white gloved waiter passed me, carrying drinks on a tray. I grew up in the suburbs. You don't see things like that there.
In the kitchen another person asked my name. They were tall and thin and I couldn't tell if there a man or a woman, black or Hispanic. They seemed beyond everything. After looking me up on their iPad, they smiled and said well well well, looks like we got ourselves another statue.
They took me to the basement. Down there, it was empty of furniture, or even hints someone lived in the home at all. No washer, no dryer. Unadorned walls and cement floors and bare lightbulbs cast a harsh glow on the room, illuminating four men in paint stained clothes, all surrounding a guy my age, standing nearly naked, half covered in grey paint.
What is this, I asked. I had a feeling like I was in the wrong part of a movie, the scene you don't want to be in. One of the painters looked up and said, he's going to be a statue. Is that why you're down here?
Is that why I'm here, I thought, but when I answered I said yeah, I guess so. Where do I stand?
The other guy's name was Marc with a C. Like the Starbucks meme, he said. This was also his first time with Freeland. He had sold his blood too, and they gave him the card. Not at Okami, though. Some other place in the financial district. He did Door Dash and Amazon Flex to make money, but that wasn't what he was trying to do. He was really working on an app, he said. It would track your phone usage and would let you know when it was time to talk to a real person instead of just staring at your phone. It would even look at your contacts and recommend who you should talk to. It's in the beginning stages, he said, but I think it's going to be great.
For sure, I told him. Everybody should spend less time on their phone. More time living. The workers were painting my chest. I was turning into stone.
Who cares about making the world a better place, he said. I just want to make money. Think of all that data.
When they finished painting me they brought over a mirror so I could see. I was grey and had black lines spidered through me, like I was old and ancient and had cracked before.
You look good, the painter holding the mirror said. A real work of art.
At the party, I played a statue outside in the garden. Around me there were small trees wrapped with long cords that crisscrossed the area, from which shimmering lights hung. Flowers poured out of terra cotta pots, hallucinatory reds and yellows and purples, so many flowers everywhere. The garden was like a jungle and the guests that moved about were strange predators in suits and ties, dresses and necklaces, slowly moving in and out of the house, eating appetizers and drinking wine.
I was told to not move and not speak. The only things I was permitted to do were breath and blink, but the less I did that, they told me, the better I would look. They wrapped vines around my chest, as if the flora was consuming me slowly. I had one arm raised slightly and stared off into the distance, like there was something out there.
I recognized the guests, here and there. A face from a tech firm, a local politician, a guy from a band I used to listen to. They wandered past me like I wasn't there. Some jumped when they saw my chest rise and fall.
A string quartet played, covers of old indie rock songs from the nineties. I caught melodies from Range Life and Hardcore UFOs, but I missed a dozen others. It's so hard to notice things sometimes, everything gets swallowed in the noise. That was the shocking thing about being a statue. For hours I did nothing. Consumed no media. Just stood and watched.
No one I saw interacted with anyone, everyone's faces were lit up with blue glowing screens as they texted or took photos or liked other people's tests or other people's photos, but they barely looked at each other. Everyone was only paying attention to their algorithm. The room was all zombies, it just took until I was dead to see it.
The rule was I couldn't move. If you move, you don't get paid, they said, but I wasn't actually stone: iI was human and humans have to pee. I waited until after midnight and then I cracked, sneaking inside. The house smelled like pot and people were shouting over a David Bowie song from the first half of Low. I found the bathroom but the door was closed, and the noises coming from it suggested it wouldn't be open soon, so I went upstairs instead, a statue slowly ascending to the second floor on an exposed industrial staircase as swirling music blared underneath me.
Somehow the second was silent. It seemed empty as well, dimly lit by scones on the wall throwing soft light out onto pristine parquet floors. The bathroom door at the end of the hall was half open and mercifully unoccupied. I was headed there when I stoped, pausing in front of a statue.
I thought, at first, it was like me. A person painted to resemble something they aren't. But the longer I liked at it, the more I slowly realized it wasn't. It was realistic, painfully so, but it wasn't human. I touched it, felt the cold of its cement arm, traced my hand across the hard graceful curves of its face.
I knew someone was behind me before they said anything. I don't know how. Perhaps I sense their breathing. Maybe I heard a footstep. But I knew they were there. I felt a tension in my spine, a strange buzzing in my teeth as I waited to find out who they were. At the same time, the strange unease as they didn't speak. Was someone there? I didn't want to turn around and find out. I didn't know why, but I was worried at what I would see.
And then they spoke, with a slightly raspy, bemused voice.
You don't see this every day. One statue examining another.
The man standing behind me is instantly recognizable, even in the dim light. Rainer Holt. Former CEO of Bendy. The current owner of Timeless. Allegedly on the inside track for the upcoming Supreme Court opening. The guy everyone thinks of when they think of how tech is changing the world.
Excuse me, I said. My legs were weak. I shouldn't be up here, it's just the bathroom down there was full.
Not a problem, he smelled like expensive flowers. I love statues too. That's why I ordered you for my party.
My party. My brain goes numb. I was encouraged not to breathe and not to move, and now I'm on the second floor, talking to Rainer Holt? Am I trying to not get paid for this?
I'm really, really sorry to be up here, I said. They said not to go upstairs, I began to say but he waved off the apology.
No worries, he said. But let me get a better look at you. I love statues.
He stared at me, his tanned face tightening as he examined me. I watched him too, his smooth forehead, his unlined face. In the dark I couldn't see any scars from plastic surgery, and his face didn't seem overly Botoxed either. He looked much younger than he should. Staring at his skin, the bizarre unchanged nature of it, I remember the stories of him. The talk of how he wanted to cheat death, defeat aging. How he had the blood of twentysomethings injected into his veins. How he was trying to legalize blood transfusions with the FDA. Was that real, I wondered. Does he actually do that?
Does he get blood, I thought, or is it plasma?
You look so great, he said. His cologne is overwhelming. They do an incredible job with the make up.
Thanks, I say. I have to pee but I don't see how I can say that. Rainer is a billionaire. How many times in your life will you get a chance to talk to a billionaire?
At a certain point in my life, he said, I really had to work to find things to buy. To enjoy. That's the deal you know. When you first get rich it's easy to buy things. Cars, houses, jets. But you run out of stuff like that. You need new things. My spirit compels me, he said, to tell of forms changed into new bodies. Do you know what that's from?
I shake my head. He smiles. Perfect teeth.
It's Ovid. From The Metamorphoses. It's about how things change. That's what I needed to do. I needed to change to appreciate my life better. Do you understand what I mean, he asked me and his smile seemed overwhelming. He was too close to me and I can smell something strange under the flower smell of him, something cloying, like death.
I nodded and he stepped away from me. I look out of the corner of my eye in the direction of the bathroom and he followed my gaze. Recognition flashed across his face.
Go ahead, he said. I'm so sorry to keep you. I'm a terrible host.
It was nice to meet you, I managed.
It was nice to meet you. He adds the emphasis on the you part of the sentence and I rushed away, down the hall, and into the bathroom. Peeing, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I seemed unreal. A living thing which could not be alive, like that other statue in the hallway. It looked so much like me. I looked so much like it. The statue had the strangest look on its face. Almost like it was surprised.
I flushed and turned to leave, which is when I saw the mask.
The mask hung against the back of the door. A printable DIY wolf head. I stared at it for a moment, lost in its mesmerizing cardboard angles, the sharp jawline and empty eye holes. It looked fake but somewhere so much more menacing than if it was realistic. It was like a computer's nightmare of what a wolf looked like, translated from zeroes and ones.
When I opened the door the hallway was desolate. Only the statue was there, looking at nothing and everything at once.
I got paid. Eight hundred bucks. Freeland asked if I wanted another assignment but I said no, I was ok. I was done.
For that moment, at least, I was. I paid Liu seven hundred bucks and put out my resumes. No one called me back but I kept trying. Three weeks later, Liu's company had an opening and he recommend me. Four interviews later and I got the job. It still didn't pay enough.
I googled Okami Industries one day at work. I couldn't find a trace of them online, which was weird. I definitely thought I remembered a website, a shitty Twitter feed. But no, there wasn't anything. Like it was never there.
I couldn't get it out of my head. How does something just vanish? So one day after work I went back to he financial district, back to the building. I walked into the lobby and saw the same security guard as before. I remembered his nose ring.
Hey, I said, I have an appointment at Okami.
He gave me a look. What?
The blood donation place, I said.
No such thing, bud.
There is such a thing. Seventh floor. I was here, like, two months ago.
Sorry, pal, he said. His deep voice rumbled. Maybe you're thinking of somewhere else.
No, I said, it was here. I remember being here. I remember you, I pointed at his hand. I remember that tattoo you have. The hummingbird.
What kind of bird are you if you can't fly, he asked.
What?
What kind of bird are you if you can't swim?
What are you talking about, I asked and he stood up. He was so big it was like he unfolded. He towered over me.
What I'm talking about, he said, is that it's time for you to leave. You're terribly mistaken. You were never here, and there was never any place called Okami Industries.
He leaned in close to me. He smelled like dead things.
I want you to believe that for me.
That night I went out to a bar. In between drinks I looked up Okami Industries. The guard was right. It had never existed. I googled Raul Castillo, the founder of Freeland. He didn't exist either. I did discover an obscure Spanish novel from 1999, however, that featured a fictional character of the same name. He was an artist who became a magician who became a cannibal, all in a quest to understand the true meaning of life.
For what it's worth, though, the name is hardly uncommon.
At some point, when I was walking to the bathroom, I saw a flash of loose grey hair in the crowd of people, a glimpse of turquoise glasses and a face that looked like it should be frowning but wasn't. When I got back to the bar stool I thought of the woman from the party, but I didn't see a trace of her.
I left right then, after finishing my drink. I told myself I was being paranoid. It wasn't her, surely, and so what if it was here? People have lives. They can go out to bars. There are coincidences.
Fog wrapped up the night, covering it in thin white sheets like hospital bedding. Everything was obscured and made sinister. The streetlights burned halos in the strange cloud-like air. No one else was on the streets and the emptiness loomed, trembling all around me. Shadows threw themselves, distorted and elongated, alien shapes, echoes of the real. The air had gone cold when I was outside and the wind hissed strange hymns to itself as it worked its way through my clothes.
The footsteps came from behind me. Pounding, slapping, banging against the cement. It wasn't someone running. It was the sound of someone trying to escape something. The footsteps grew closer and closer until I saw an obscured figure running up the hill. When I saw their profile my heart stopped. I thought they weren't human, but then I realized they were only wearing bunny ears. Their shadow only made it look like they were half human, half rabbit. And it should have been absurd, it should have been funny, but it wasn't. Not at all.
It wasn't funny because I could hear his breathing, the ragged rise and fall, the desperate gasping that said nothing about what was happening was a joke. I could see, when he appeared intermittent in the glow of the streetlight, the expression on his face, the panic in his eyes, the panic but something else. Something more than panic, or fear, or worry. Something beyond all that, something hysterical and all consuming, a fear that is higher than any or all other feelings. It was the look you have when you know you are going to be killed. A complete distortion of your face so that you are almost unrecognizable.
Except I did recognize him.
It was Marc with a C from the party.
His eyes were wide open, his cheeks bright red. His jeans were torn at the right knee, from falling, I supposed. Red blood stained the outside of the denim. His chest heaved up and down as he pushed past me, never even looking at me. I wanted to tell him to stop, to say I knew who he was, that I would help him, but he was gone, swallowed by the devouring fog, even as I heard the other footsteps.
They weren't running like Marc with a C was. Instead, they jogged, nice and easy. Almost loping.
They appeared, five of them, all in suits. Black, with white shirts and black ties. Off white Nikes, brand new ultra rare Jordans. The super expensive ones. Even then, right then, waiting to die, I thought of how much those shoes must have cost.
Each one of them wore DIY cardboard print out wolf masks.
The pack ran toward me and I froze. They wore black gloves with little metal claws on the tips of their fingers. I heard their panting, animal-like, and patient. I couldn't run; they were too close. I closed my eyes and waited for whatever would happen to happen.
The smell of flowers and death washed over me. Someone bumped into my shoulder. I smelled sweat and I heard gentle laughter as their footsteps kept going. Away from me.
I opened my eyes and watched the wolves running together, away from me and into the white out fog.
One turned around and held up his gloved, clawed finger to his lips. Then he spoke, in a raspy, familiar voice.
Are boys like you afraid of wolves?
And then he howled.
The others answered, lifting their faces into the cold night air, howling so it echoed up and down the hills, in and out of all the houses and apartments and offices until their howls and then their images disappeared into the deep unknown night.
Two days later I was at work, waiting for a program to finish running, killing time on Facebook. Someone on my feed had shared a photo of a missing person case. A smiling blonde man stared out at me from my computer screen. Please help, read the text. Marc Duckworth, missing since Tuesday.
I closed the tab and went back to work.

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Steve Watts of Slyde Handboards, a brand that makes mini surfboards (handboards).
They also had success on Shark Tank, landing a $200k investment!
Some stats:

• Product: Handboards.
• Revenue/mo: $80,000
• Started: October 2010
• Location: San Clemente, CA
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 2

Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?

My name is Steve Watts, I am the founder and co-owner of Slyde Handboards with my wife Angela. Slyde is based of out of San Clemente, California. Handboards are little surfboards that strap to your hand that give you more lift, speed and control when bodysurfing.
Handboards have been around for centuries, nobody is quite sure where or when they started, but there is evidence of the ancient polynesians using palm fronds or drift wood placed on their hands to get more speed, distance and lift when bodysurfing. A handboard is the perfect ocean toy, which allows anybody no matter their age or skill level the ability to ride a wave like a pro. Handboards are the most portable and lightweight wave riding equipment, which means you don't have to be the local pack mule when going down to the beach It is a sport that is super easy to learn and safe for kids to get comfortable in the ocean, without having the worry of a big board. As with any awesome sport it’s fun to master, plus it’s perfect for getting barreled. Our handboards allow you to take your ocean fun to the next level. We also have pro-models that are ridden by the very best bodysurfers in the world at some of the best surf breaks, like Pipeline and Waimea in Hawaii to Australia, Brazil, and beyond.
Since we LLC’d the company in late 2010, Slyde has grown. We’re doubling in revenue every year. We were on Season 7 Episode 24 of Shark Tank, where we were fortunate enough to land a deal with Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher, who are still both very much involved in the company.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

The Idea of Slyde Handboards started back on the beaches of Cape Town South Africa where I grew up. My Mother would take me and my brother down to the beach a lot to get us out the house. We spent most of the time bodyboarding or bodysurfing. We used to find all sorts of objects that we would use as a planning device to get us a little more speed and lift on the wave from frisbees to flip flops, some worked well others not so much. It wasn't until my teens that I decided to break open an old surfboard and re-use the foam to shape into a mini handheld board that would later become the very first prototypes for Slyde.
I figured we were the only ones doing this, but It wasn't until I went travel surfing around the world and met other surfers and water men and women and heard their stories of growing up using all sorts of found objects like lunch trays or even making boards themselves. It was then I realized there was a possible opportunity to create a brand around this awesome growing watersport movement, as no other company was doing this.
There is definitely a defined problem that we solve, in that a handboard is easy to learn, hassle free and fun to take to the beach. The idea was really born from simple enjoyment that I was having using one. It felt almost selfish to not share it with the world. It turns out I wasn't wrong, because almost immediately we started to form a community and movement as more and more people started to find out about us either online or through friends.

Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.

I have a degree in Product Design so my strength lies in the creative design side of the business, from the start that has been my focus. I also grew up immersed in surf culture and it was always my dream to own a surf related company. Prototyping was obviously a huge part of this company. By the time I decided to launch it, I had been prototyping for 16 years and knew exactly which shape board we were going create.
We live in a very connected world these days and finding manufacturers in general was not a problem. Finding the right manufacturer was a little more tricky and we have been through 5 or 6 Manufacturers since launch. We found that in many cases the small size of the boards was actually a problem. All the equipment was designed and made for bigger surfboards and our boards are no more than 19 inches. A full length surfboard can reach 12 feet. Also, I had always had the dream to be able to create boards with beautiful graphics, but at the time the cost was very prohibitive. This forced us to look at other manufacturing capabilities. In about year 4 we stumbled on a manufacturer that made snowboards and we figured out a way to mix the manufacturing process of a snowboard with a manufacturing process of a surfboard. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result was a board with the strength and durability of a snowboard and stunning graphics. This is why we offer a lifetime warranty on all our high-end boards.
My advice for finding a good manufacturer is to do your research well and inspect prototypes thoroughly for quality. Beyond that make a point to meet face to face and make sure they understand your vision for the product. Watch out for manufacturers that look like they are in it for the short term.

Describe the process of launching the online store/business.

Starting Slyde in 2010 was a little different than it is now. Shopify was small, Facebook was still very new and Instagram had just started the month before.I knew online was the only way to go, so I taught myself basic code and we started our initial website on Big Cartel and had to patch in a cart. We then moved over to Squarespace, finally in 2013 we moved to Shopify where we never looked back.
At the time of starting Slyde I was teaching surfing in Venice Beach. I had just received my green card to stay in the country and that also allowed me to legally start a business. While teaching a student, I told him all about this awesome company I was trying to start. About 2 months later we met for dinner. He loved the concept so much that he decided to invest right there and then, without even seeing a handboard. Russell is still involved and we are good friends 8 years later.
In 2011 Russell and I bought a Dodge van and made our way across the country from California to Florida to our first Surf Expo. On the way I had a lot of free time and I wrote a lot of tutorial articles and taught myself SEO and those articles, to this day have, been a huge source of free traffic for the website.
For a lean startup (apart from your time) it’s a great way to get free traffic until you can afford to pay for traffic later on. Also building valuable content for your customers is really important in creating engaged visitors to your site.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Our biggest driver of revenue has been our onsite content. We now have about a thousand blog posts and around 20 long form tutorial type articles. These have helped us grow as we are in many cases the first position in Google and Bing for most of the relevant keywords.
We have also become very efficient at getting press and have been featured in New York Times, Los angeles Times, Forbes, Huffington Post and Business insider. Shark Tank was also a massive boost for us that has helped put our story on steroids.
Getting a really good story written about your company takes more than an email requesting a feature, it takes (in some cases) months and even years of back and forth. It’s important to know what is important to the writer in terms of if your story fits their narrative. Remember these are people that want to write articles that will further their blog or career, so its important to do your research and cater towards their requirements to get the most articles published
We also started using AdWords pretty soon, initially using a fairly modest budget to cover all the keywords that the organic traffic missed. Another core ingredient, has been collecting emails. We have a very solid subscription base that we segment to filter the best possible content into the right place of the customer's email life cycle.

What are some of the metrics of the business?

The sport of handboarding has grown exponentially since we launched in 2010. There are now competitions across the globe in Hawaii, Brazil, Peru, United Kingdom, Chile, Japan and Australia. We have now sold boards to over 40 countries and growing every month. We have 500k visitors a year to our website. We just got our first order from Dicks Sporting Goods this month.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Starting and running a company teaches you so much on a regular basis it's hard to list them all. I think above all it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you are capable of achieving.
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson once said that the hardest thing he has ever done was to start his business.
As for mistakes, we have been pretty fortunate that we haven't made any really big mistakes or I guess I wouldn't be writing this. Very early on learned the lesson of gross profit margin. It was kind of a funny "Aha" moment that was also the turning point for the company to becoming more profitable. I am sure we have missed some opportunities but none I can recall as very memorable. I prefer to work hard and always be looking for the next opportunity than thinking about the one that could have been. I think in general we have been very good at taking advantage of the opportunities we have been given.
I really like the concept of 80/20. I try to focus on the 20% that are going to get the most return every day. It can get tricky when you have a lot of opportunities but generally it is obvious what is going to reap the most reward for the business in the end.
The best decision I made was to bring on my, then girlfriend, now wife Angela, who was instrumental in helping to take the company to the next level by getting all sorts of awesome press, including Shark Tank. Bringing her on allowed me to spend more time on the design, marketing and branding.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• We have been using Shopify for around 4 or 5 years now
  
• We use Klaviyo for email marketing which I can't recommend enough if you want to take your list to the next level.
  
• We use Yotpo for reviews which are great however for the starter they are a little expensive
  
• We use a few of the Bold Apps on shopify for cross selling and easy sale set up
  
• We use Sumome for email gathering
  

One of the biggest opportunities was given to us by Mark Cuban. He offered help with optimizing our Amazon and since that, we have continued to grow exponentially on that platform.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

For product design and development I would recommend any of Tom Kelley books particularly "The Ten Faces of Innovation". I would also recommend In the “In the Bubble” by John Thackara.
For good business advice "The Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Also I really enjoyed "Story Brand" by Donald Miller.
My favorite podcast are "Master of Scale" with Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman and the NPR show "How I Built This" with Guy Raz.
For Practical Facebook Marketing advice look no further than "Perpetual Traffic".

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Starting a company is not for everyone. Being an entrepreneur seems to be a buzzword these days. The media glorifies the very few billion dollar exits and CEO’s that it almost seems easy. In reality, it takes an enormous toll on you and is exceptionally hard. Don't take the idea to start a company lightly for the most part it isn't glamorous and it's downright hard work. However, if you are willing work hard for a very long time and put everything into it the rewards are amazing.
My advice for anyone starting a company is to find your "why". What makes you keep on working when any sane person would have quit. That special something that fuels your passion and drives you to never ever give up no matter how hard it is.
Another one is: Keep on learning. As a small business owner you need to be the jack of all trades. If it doesn't work, find a way to make it work by teaching yourself. Google is an incredible tool. We didn't know gross margin till 2 years in so go figure.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Anybody who has experience with Facebook Ads, Google AdWords and email marketing on Klaviyo.
Liked this interview? Check out more founders that shared their story on StarterStory.com.

Hey - Pat from Starter Story here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Steve Watts of Slyde Handboards, a brand that makes mini surfboards (handboards).
They also had success on Shark Tank, landing a $200k investment!
Some stats:

• Product: Handboards.
• Revenue/mo: $80,000
• Started: October 2010
• Location: San Clemente, CA
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 2

Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?

My name is Steve Watts, I am the founder and co-owner of Slyde Handboards with my wife Angela. Slyde is based of out of San Clemente, California. Handboards are little surfboards that strap to your hand that give you more lift, speed and control when bodysurfing.
Handboards have been around for centuries, nobody is quite sure where or when they started, but there is evidence of the ancient polynesians using palm fronds or drift wood placed on their hands to get more speed, distance and lift when bodysurfing. A handboard is the perfect ocean toy, which allows anybody no matter their age or skill level the ability to ride a wave like a pro. Handboards are the most portable and lightweight wave riding equipment, which means you don't have to be the local pack mule when going down to the beach It is a sport that is super easy to learn and safe for kids to get comfortable in the ocean, without having the worry of a big board. As with any awesome sport it’s fun to master, plus it’s perfect for getting barreled. Our handboards allow you to take your ocean fun to the next level. We also have pro-models that are ridden by the very best bodysurfers in the world at some of the best surf breaks, like Pipeline and Waimea in Hawaii to Australia, Brazil, and beyond.
Since we LLC’d the company in late 2010, Slyde has grown. We’re doubling in revenue every year. We were on Season 7 Episode 24 of Shark Tank, where we were fortunate enough to land a deal with Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher, who are still both very much involved in the company.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

The Idea of Slyde Handboards started back on the beaches of Cape Town South Africa where I grew up. My Mother would take me and my brother down to the beach a lot to get us out the house. We spent most of the time bodyboarding or bodysurfing. We used to find all sorts of objects that we would use as a planning device to get us a little more speed and lift on the wave from frisbees to flip flops, some worked well others not so much. It wasn't until my teens that I decided to break open an old surfboard and re-use the foam to shape into a mini handheld board that would later become the very first prototypes for Slyde.
I figured we were the only ones doing this, but It wasn't until I went travel surfing around the world and met other surfers and water men and women and heard their stories of growing up using all sorts of found objects like lunch trays or even making boards themselves. It was then I realized there was a possible opportunity to create a brand around this awesome growing watersport movement, as no other company was doing this.
There is definitely a defined problem that we solve, in that a handboard is easy to learn, hassle free and fun to take to the beach. The idea was really born from simple enjoyment that I was having using one. It felt almost selfish to not share it with the world. It turns out I wasn't wrong, because almost immediately we started to form a community and movement as more and more people started to find out about us either online or through friends.

Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.

I have a degree in Product Design so my strength lies in the creative design side of the business, from the start that has been my focus. I also grew up immersed in surf culture and it was always my dream to own a surf related company. Prototyping was obviously a huge part of this company. By the time I decided to launch it, I had been prototyping for 16 years and knew exactly which shape board we were going create.
We live in a very connected world these days and finding manufacturers in general was not a problem. Finding the right manufacturer was a little more tricky and we have been through 5 or 6 Manufacturers since launch. We found that in many cases the small size of the boards was actually a problem. All the equipment was designed and made for bigger surfboards and our boards are no more than 19 inches. A full length surfboard can reach 12 feet. Also, I had always had the dream to be able to create boards with beautiful graphics, but at the time the cost was very prohibitive. This forced us to look at other manufacturing capabilities. In about year 4 we stumbled on a manufacturer that made snowboards and we figured out a way to mix the manufacturing process of a snowboard with a manufacturing process of a surfboard. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result was a board with the strength and durability of a snowboard and stunning graphics. This is why we offer a lifetime warranty on all our high-end boards.
My advice for finding a good manufacturer is to do your research well and inspect prototypes thoroughly for quality. Beyond that make a point to meet face to face and make sure they understand your vision for the product. Watch out for manufacturers that look like they are in it for the short term.

Describe the process of launching the online store/business.

Starting Slyde in 2010 was a little different than it is now. Shopify was small, Facebook was still very new and Instagram had just started the month before.I knew online was the only way to go, so I taught myself basic code and we started our initial website on Big Cartel and had to patch in a cart. We then moved over to Squarespace, finally in 2013 we moved to Shopify where we never looked back.
At the time of starting Slyde I was teaching surfing in Venice Beach. I had just received my green card to stay in the country and that also allowed me to legally start a business. While teaching a student, I told him all about this awesome company I was trying to start. About 2 months later we met for dinner. He loved the concept so much that he decided to invest right there and then, without even seeing a handboard. Russell is still involved and we are good friends 8 years later.
In 2011 Russell and I bought a Dodge van and made our way across the country from California to Florida to our first Surf Expo. On the way I had a lot of free time and I wrote a lot of tutorial articles and taught myself SEO and those articles, to this day have, been a huge source of free traffic for the website.
For a lean startup (apart from your time) it’s a great way to get free traffic until you can afford to pay for traffic later on. Also building valuable content for your customers is really important in creating engaged visitors to your site.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Our biggest driver of revenue has been our onsite content. We now have about a thousand blog posts and around 20 long form tutorial type articles. These have helped us grow as we are in many cases the first position in Google and Bing for most of the relevant keywords.
We have also become very efficient at getting press and have been featured in New York Times, Los angeles Times, Forbes, Huffington Post and Business insider. Shark Tank was also a massive boost for us that has helped put our story on steroids.
Getting a really good story written about your company takes more than an email requesting a feature, it takes (in some cases) months and even years of back and forth. It’s important to know what is important to the writer in terms of if your story fits their narrative. Remember these are people that want to write articles that will further their blog or career, so its important to do your research and cater towards their requirements to get the most articles published
We also started using AdWords pretty soon, initially using a fairly modest budget to cover all the keywords that the organic traffic missed. Another core ingredient, has been collecting emails. We have a very solid subscription base that we segment to filter the best possible content into the right place of the customer's email life cycle.

What are some of the metrics of the business?

The sport of handboarding has grown exponentially since we launched in 2010. There are now competitions across the globe in Hawaii, Brazil, Peru, United Kingdom, Chile, Japan and Australia. We have now sold boards to over 40 countries and growing every month. We have 500k visitors a year to our website. We just got our first order from Dicks Sporting Goods this month.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Starting and running a company teaches you so much on a regular basis it's hard to list them all. I think above all it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you are capable of achieving.
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson once said that the hardest thing he has ever done was to start his business.
As for mistakes, we have been pretty fortunate that we haven't made any really big mistakes or I guess I wouldn't be writing this. Very early on learned the lesson of gross profit margin. It was kind of a funny "Aha" moment that was also the turning point for the company to becoming more profitable. I am sure we have missed some opportunities but none I can recall as very memorable. I prefer to work hard and always be looking for the next opportunity than thinking about the one that could have been. I think in general we have been very good at taking advantage of the opportunities we have been given.
I really like the concept of 80/20. I try to focus on the 20% that are going to get the most return every day. It can get tricky when you have a lot of opportunities but generally it is obvious what is going to reap the most reward for the business in the end.
The best decision I made was to bring on my, then girlfriend, now wife Angela, who was instrumental in helping to take the company to the next level by getting all sorts of awesome press, including Shark Tank. Bringing her on allowed me to spend more time on the design, marketing and branding.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• We have been using Shopify for around 4 or 5 years now
  
• We use Klaviyo for email marketing which I can't recommend enough if you want to take your list to the next level.
  
• We use Yotpo for reviews which are great however for the starter they are a little expensive
  
• We use a few of the Bold Apps on shopify for cross selling and easy sale set up
  
• We use Sumome for email gathering
  

One of the biggest opportunities was given to us by Mark Cuban. He offered help with optimizing our Amazon and since that, we have continued to grow exponentially on that platform.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

For product design and development I would recommend any of Tom Kelley books particularly "The Ten Faces of Innovation". I would also recommend In the “In the Bubble” by John Thackara.
For good business advice "The Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Also I really enjoyed "Story Brand" by Donald Miller.
My favorite podcast are "Master of Scale" with Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman and the NPR show "How I Built This" with Guy Raz.
For Practical Facebook Marketing advice look no further than "Perpetual Traffic".

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Starting a company is not for everyone. Being an entrepreneur seems to be a buzzword these days. The media glorifies the very few billion dollar exits and CEO’s that it almost seems easy. In reality, it takes an enormous toll on you and is exceptionally hard. Don't take the idea to start a company lightly for the most part it isn't glamorous and it's downright hard work. However, if you are willing work hard for a very long time and put everything into it the rewards are amazing.
My advice for anyone starting a company is to find your "why". What makes you keep on working when any sane person would have quit. That special something that fuels your passion and drives you to never ever give up no matter how hard it is.
Another one is: Keep on learning. As a small business owner you need to be the jack of all trades. If it doesn't work, find a way to make it work by teaching yourself. Google is an incredible tool. We didn't know gross margin till 2 years in so go figure.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Anybody who has experience with Facebook Ads, Google AdWords and email marketing on Klaviyo.

Before reading on, there is an update for day seven. TLDR: I came back to LB last night and caught another one.
With two more Grimers to go, I hoped to catch both of them in one day. I stayed up late last night and was not feeling my best. But I decided to stop by LB in the late morning for a few hours. I noticed that a crew was setting something up at the north end of the pier for a concert or something. So I figured I shouldn't come at night. I stayed for a little under two hours before leaving. I was extremely tired from sleeping late and as soon as I got home, I took a nap.
Afterwards, got some work done and decided to go back to LB at 5pm. Had to slog through LA traffic but while waiting on the 5/710 interchange, I noticed that a Lapras spawned at the pier. Damn. Couldn't it wait an hour?
But by the time I got off the freeway into Broadway, a Grimer spawned about five blocks away! I think it was in the corner of Melrose and Maine street with a 10 minute spawn time. This was awesome!
I ran into two problems. First, I think I ran into every single red light during my drive. If I had a shorter time limit, I would have seriously considered driving more aggressively. Second, Melrose St didn't really exist. I think it was an alley or something. It was right between 4th and 5th st. For those of you who don't know this area (like me), this area is a ghetto residential area with narrow streets and heavy traffic. Meaning I had to find the mon quickly or get honked at. Thankfully I found it with time to spare.
As soon as I tapped the Grimer and the game changed to the capture screen, I had to get out of this area and to a place where I can pull over and focus on capturing it. It had a pretty high CP (919) so I was afraid that it would run. Thankfully I caught it. I later checked its IVs and they look good (919CP/118HP/4000 stardust for next level).
It was about 6:30pm. I promised myself I would go home after I caught one but I did not anticipate I'd catch one this early. I figured the chances are low that it would appear in LB again so I decided to go to SM. I asked a friend of mine to check his tracker and text me if a Grimer appeared in SM. If it did and I'm too far away to catch it, I would have went home. Thankfully he didn't text me.
I got there about 7:45pm and planned to stay until 10:30. Unfortunately, there isn't much for me to report. SM was relatively boring tonight. Kinda like the last time I was there a few days ago. No Grimers spawned at all. Not only that, very few Dratinis spawned. Not even a lot of semi-unusual spawns like Bellsprouts or Oddishes. There was one Dragonite that spawned a little south of the pier but it ran away from me.
As I was bored and getting cold in SM, I would periodically check my tracker to see what was happening in LB. Looks like LB had a solid night tonight. Not only that, a Grimer re-spawned in the same location at around 9:30pm. Damn! If I stayed in LB, I would have caught it and ended this. Oh well, bad luck of the draw I guess.
A few minutes after 11pm, I decided to call it a night. Since I only have to catch one more Grimer before I get Muk and #142, this will be my final night at SM pier, at least for Pokemon catching purposes. It was good to be back in the area after all these years, but I'm glad I won't be coming back again for a while. It's turned into a really bustling city but as a result, the city has become expensive, including the parking. Also, the pier is a bit played out unless you are a tourist. It's also crowded and it smells at times. Not too long ago, I used to want to live here but now not so much. I think I'm more of a Malibu or San Clemente type of person.