Hi,
I’m Cedric and I’m a father, husband, and tactical trader in stocks and bitcoin.
I also run two websites: FindFashion Rep and WinASweepstakes.
This blog will be about fatherhood as my daughter has changed my life in ways I never imagined.
If you want to read stuff about my background and how I got started, then read below.
It was many years ago when I first created a website. I hired a web designer for my furniture business that I ran for 7 years. He created a nice looking site. I really liked it.
But, then I wanted to change the title of my site. I found out that I had to change every page in my website in order to change the title. I had maybe 80 products or so. This meant I had to change 80 different pages to edit the title of my site! Seriously, are you kidding me, I was thinking?
I got the “hard knocks” quick start on project management and on giving instructions and getting a website done.
Seriously, did I really have to specify that if I wanted to change the title, I just wanted one place to change the title?
It’s unfortunate. Even the McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc said he started his business on handshakes and someone’s word. I wish we could live in that kind of world, unfortunately, we can’t.
Still, it led me to learning PHP, Smarty, CSS, HTML, javascript, SEO, and all sorts of web and internet related topics that I love today.
I guess some things really do happen for a reason.
Fast forward many years and after having a baby and looking to return to work, I realize I can’t go back to work. I already took 1.5 years off taking care of my daughter and returning to work just sucked! I love taking care of my daughter.
I couldn’t find part time work in my SAS consulting. Everyone seems to require full-time work. So, I went back to my “side” skill learned from my furniture business: SEO and websites. Because I used to rank at the top on Google and Yahoo! for my furniture business and didn’t once have to market my business. All my sales came from Google and Yahoo!, and later eBay. I reached up to $200k in sales per year literally with no paid marketing or advertising whatsoever, just SEO.
I closed it down after 7 years because of serious trouble with shipping. I had already sold to 28 states across the USA, and in Canada, and Germany.
I returned to IT consulting for 10 years and then tried my luck at websites again.
I tried returning to my furniture site which made me lots of money. I tried a pressure cooker site, mortgages, and a bunch of other smaller sites. The problem was that everything was about making money. I just got bored with all of these and stopped working on them because I wasn’t really interested in any of these things. At least not enough to keep me going. Every time, I just kept going back to reading and learning about SEO and digital marketing.
Luckily, I’m quick to learn and accept sunk costs, as I learned in economics 101. Managing these different sites and some other internet endeavors is too time consuming. Especially now with my daughter. I’ve dropped everything and narrowed down my work efforts.
I ended up focusing on 2 websites: One about sweepstakes and another about fashion contact lists.
How is that related to SEO and marketing?
Well, sweepstakes is just a tool for getting traffic. And the fashion contact lists site had a large customer base of fashion designers.
I’ve always read that you should narrow down your focus on whatever you do. So, I figured I could offer SEO to the fashion industry. They definitely need SEO and marketing help.
So, now I run 2 websites for my business, plus this personal one.
And that’s how I got into SEO and the internet.
Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic hits and sales in one of my sites just stops by the end of March 2020.
I end up having a renewed interest in investing and finance. I learn more about trading and I start doing it full-time.
So, now, I’m at a crossroads because I have 2 sites that do make money and will make more after the pandemic, but, trading has become my main source of income.
I’d love for my daughter to take over my sites, but, she’s only 4 right now.
So, I either have to find a partner or figure out how to manage all of these.
For now, I’ll focus on my trading and do work on my sites whenever I can.
So, what’s the point of me telling you all this.
Well, for those of you who read this so far, you must be (somewhat) interested in me. So, I thought I would give you some of my “words of wisdom” from my life experiences.
What I can tell you is that life takes you all over the place. I studied health for undergrad, worked in the furniture business, SEO, learned coding later in life when I hated it in high school, ran my business on eBay, did my MBA, almost adopted a child, worked in IT for 10 years, traded on and off throughout the years, had to deal with migraines for 7 years, wasted maybe 7 years of my life (this was separate from the migraines), and the list goes on.
There were periods where all I thought about was making money, then there were periods where I thought I could help save the world, and there were periods that I just wanted to travel (actually, I still do).
As I approach 50, I find myself thinking about what kind of legacy I want to leave, how I can help the world become a better place, how to live the remainder of my life as enjoyable and fulfulling as possible.
I keep thinking it’s terrible that it’s taken me so long. I truly expected to be “more successful” than I am right now.
When I look back, the years where I just worked for a company, I feel those were the most unfulfilling years of my life. I had a good time there. I met some great “work friends” that I still keep in touch with.
But, I regret not learning and doing more outside of work during those years instead of just learning for my job. There are two things I regret the most:
- Saving too much and not travelling even more.
- Not trying more businesses
I had the most amazing experiences when I travelled. The people I met were so interesting and so much fun. There is something about meeting people from around the world.
Not trying more businesses I know is because of my risk aversiveness. Many people I know think I take chances, but, I don’t think I took enough. It was “too easy” and safe to sit at my job and just collect a paycheque.
When you start your own business, you connect with different kinds of people than the “work crowd”. I think it’s more interesting and sets you up for a more entrepreneurial group of friends.
I do believe you need to surround yourself with the right people. If you surround yourself with the wrong people, you limit yourself. You limit yourself in so many ways.
Make friends with the right kind of people, people who want to be your friends, people who take time to connect. They’re the most important. It has to be reciprical. People who encourage and challenge you. People you can trust. Get rid of negative people. They’re toxic.
This is probably the most important thing to remember while you navigate through life.