This is my journal entry from August 12, 2025, part of my daily autobiography Author in St. Petersburg — my real, unedited days, published in order.
This morning, I decided to record my diary first thing rather than at night. I’ve always done them in the evening, but there’s no reason I can’t do a five-minute entry in the morning and then add more later in the day if I feel like it. It’s funny how we set artificial rules for ourselves, then forget we’re the ones who made them.
Just before this, I read through all my diary entries from yesterday and noticed something: recording with AirPods produces lower audio quality, which leads to a lower-quality transcript and makes it harder for ChatGPT to fully understand what I said during rewrites. Using the Shure MV7+ microphone records in much higher quality, which makes the transcript more accurate and the rewrite require less editing. Like so many things in life, better input creates better output. The same principle applies beyond recording — what matters is controlling the quality of what we take in every day.
I was reminded of this a couple of months ago when I played Call of Duty: Warzone for three days in a row and livestreamed it wearing my tube top. After finishing my gaming one afternoon, I was driving when a car pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes. I leaned on the horn, and the very first thought I had afterward was, Of course you’re acting this way — you’ve been playing hours of a first-person shooter. It was such a clear moment of seeing cause and effect. Everything we do ripples into other areas of our lives.
My hope is that the books I’m writing will serve as high-quality inputs for both me and my readers. They don’t need to reach everyone; they just need to reach my people. For those readers, I hope my work feels inspiring, uplifting, and instructive by example. Recording them is deeply beneficial for me as well.
As I went through yesterday’s diary with ChatGPT — first reviewing my recordings, then editing its rewrites — I noticed how much I had talked about sex. I’m aware that some people can’t stand to hear about sex at all. My first thought was, They wouldn’t want to read this book. My second thought was, Those are exactly the people who need to.
I’ve seen this pattern many times, especially in Alcoholics Anonymous. People will say, “Don’t talk about sex if there are women here — save that for a men’s meeting,” or, “I don’t want to hear about your sex addiction.” Often, the ones saying this are not having satisfying sex lives themselves. They compartmentalize sex in their minds, only discussing it when complaining or when it’s safely fictionalized on a TV show. Honest, vulnerable conversations about sex — the kind where you admit struggles and ask for help — make them uncomfortable.
That avoidance can spill into other areas of life. Instead of addressing dissatisfaction directly, people distract themselves with addictive behaviors. I know someone who isn’t having sex and is struggling with compulsive phone use at the exact time of night they might otherwise be having sex if they were in a relationship. They don’t want to hear about my sex life, but ironically, they’re the ones who could benefit from the conversation the most.
When you have a healthy sex life, you’re usually open to hearing about others’ experiences, comparing perspectives, and using that insight to ask for what you need. Without these conversations, we operate in the dark — unsure of what’s normal, what’s reasonable, or how to articulate our desires. That ignorance keeps many people from ever having the connection and intimacy they truly want.
I’ve been thinking a lot today about becoming a massage therapist and enrolling in massage school. This has been on my mind for years, but I always assumed it would need to become my primary career in order to make sense. In my head, the only viable path was to finish massage school and then work somewhere like Massage Envy or a spa, taking whatever random clients came in, collecting small tips, and slowly climbing toward something better. That vision never inspired me.
A conversation with a massage therapist friend a few days ago completely shifted my perspective. She had just graduated from massage school and pointed out that if I had a massage license, I could trade sessions with therapists I chose to work with, essentially getting my own massages for free while also building relationships in the massage community. That changed everything. The school could pay for itself simply by eliminating the cost of my own treatments.
Today, I’ve expanded on that idea. Instead of pursuing coaching as a standalone service, I could offer it within a massage environment — my preferred setting. Massage provides a clear structure for payment and guarantees a tangible physical benefit, which makes it an ideal container for deeper coaching work. I’ve thought about combining these before but dismissed it as too expensive and time-consuming. Now it feels like the perfect fit.
With a license, I could work only with clients I chose, make some extra money, and integrate coaching into sessions. Finding clients wouldn’t be difficult — I already have my books, speaking engagements, and a strong network. I would never need to work somewhere that assigns me random customers. Most massage therapists I’ve met rely on it as their sole income, but for me, it could be supplemental, a way to reduce my biggest expense — massages, which currently cost me about $1,000 a month. If I traded with a few therapists I enjoy, I could eliminate that entirely.
Last year, I reached out to a corporate-style massage school in St. Petersburg about twenty minutes from home, to learn more about their program. I plan to contact them again today and also research other nearby schools. Normally, I’m strict about minimizing my driving, but for something as time-intensive as massage school, I’d travel farther if the program were significantly better.
There’s also an unexpected perk I learned about yesterday from talking to a massage therapist: during school, students regularly work on each other, meaning several free massages every week. If I move forward with massage school, I can prepare for future income, remove my largest personal expense, and gain a network of trading partners like my massage therapist and a massage therapist friend. During school, I wouldn’t spend a dime on massages and might even receive more than usual.
What excites me most is seeing how these ideas evolved from conversations. This is what’s missing online — without real two-way dialogue, we get the same recycled thoughts over and over, instead of fresh ideas that open entirely new possibilities.
It’s 10:36 at night as I finish this, and I’m still buzzing from the progress I made today on exploring massage schools. I love how quickly I take inspired action. When an idea strikes, I move on it immediately. This afternoon, I booked a tour at the nearer school for tomorrow, Wednesday, August 13th, at 1 p.m., and another tour at the Sarasota massage school or the Sarasota school for Thursday, August 14th. I have a strong feeling about the Sarasota school, especially since a massage therapist friend went there, even though she lived much closer to the nearer school. Still, I want to experience both before making a decision.
The thought of making new friends, having classmates, stepping outside my comfort zone, and learning an entirely new skill excites me. My sister recently transitioned from a career in banking to working for a window installation company, a change that demanded she learn a completely new set of abilities. She’s eleven years older than me, and I texted her tonight to say how much her career shift inspired me. I want to learn something new, too. While I’ll still primarily be an author, speaker, and coach, I love the vision of offering massage as a value-added layer to my coaching sessions. Instead of quiet, disconnected massages, my sessions would be conversational — coaching intertwined with bodywork — creating an experience far beyond what most life coaches and massage therapists choose to offer.
When I researched this in ChatGPT, I learned I should be able to write off massage school tuition as a business expense. That’s incredibly encouraging because it means I can treat this as an expansion of my existing work rather than starting an entirely new business, and that will save us thousands of dollars in taxes. My ex-wife is completely supportive, and I’m grateful she has the savings to cover the tuition in full while still leaving us with plenty of financial cushion. Once I start school, I can also stop paying for my own massages, which makes the investment even more practical. In hindsight, telling my brother I wouldn’t be attending his wedding in September now has an additional layer of justification. I somehow knew I’d be busy during that time, and it turns out I will be.
The the Sarasota school schedule also aligns perfectly with family life. I’d be out of the house by seven each morning and off by one, in time to pick up the kids from school at 2:30. My ex-wife loves the idea of having quiet mornings to herself, which makes this plan even better.
I’m still reading Liz Murray’s Breaking Night and have just reached the part where she’s accepted into an alternative high school designed specifically to support students the traditional system was failing. I’m inspired by people who come together to create solutions like that. It mirrors the way I approach my own life — by piecing together work and experiences that bring joy and open new doors. Growing up, I never knew anyone who was a massage therapist. The career didn’t exist in my awareness, just like “internet influencer,” “live streamer,” or “professional gamer” weren’t on the radar. It excites me to think about how many possibilities remain hidden, waiting to be discovered. Curiosity is such a healthy force in life, and today I’m full of it.
While calling the two massage schools, I also tackled another task — finding a handyman to move my window AC unit. I turned to the classifieds in the St. Pete Beacon, a free paper I used to curse for littering my yard. This time, I found three handymen listed and called all of them, bringing my total to five, plus one more I knew from yoga. Finally, one called back and is coming over to take a look. I could do it myself, but life often works out better when I simply ask for help.
If you connect with how I live and think, you can follow the rest of my days on YouTube in my Life playlist.