Ep. 520 - Exploring Life's Dimensions: Mugshot History, The LOTS Project Self-Reliance Festival Recap, and Authentic Connections in Real Life

Join us on this episode as we explore life's seven different areas, including Financial, Physical, Personal Development, Family, Spiritual, Social, and Career.  In Episode 519, we delved into the Power of Prayer, focusing on the spiritual aspect of life.  

Today's episode focuses on the social aspect of life and we explore the intriguing history of mugshots, sparked by an unexpected gift from a friend.  Over a casual discussion over coffee, we embark on a quest to uncover the historical roots of the #mugshot to the best of our abilities.  

Discover the captivating story behind the gifted mug and the power of authentic connections within our social circles.   We'll touch on the Self-Reliance Festival from the past weekend, and what was learned from the recap by Brian from The LOTS Project and we discuss exciting social events in Northeast Ohio within the Freedom Cell Network.  We will also highlight the importance of embracing our true selves when connecting with like-minded individuals in our lives.

Join us today for a journey through:

• The Fascinating History of the Mugshot
• A Tale of Unexpected Mug-Gifting
• The Power of Authentic Connections in Our Social Circles
• Social Updates from the Freedom Cell Network in Northeast Ohio

Big shout out to many of the members of the audience like Yozick and many others!  ✊


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Discussion Links:

FREE GOAL-SETTING GUIDE: SET GOALS FOR THE 7 MAIN AREAS OF YOUR LIFE by Dan Miller

The LOTS Project: Self Reliance Festival Fall 2023 Recap

Self Reliance Festival - Event in Camden, Tennessee

Animal Sanctuary | Whispering Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary ...

Living Free in Tennessee Group - https://t.me/LFTNGroup

The LOTS Project Chat - https://t.me/LOTSChat

Toolman Tim’s Workshop Chat - https://t.me/toolmantimsworkshop

Farmish Kind of Life Channel - https://t.me/afarmishkindoflife

Medina County Freedom Cell Network - Meet & Greet

The Freedom Cell Network

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello there and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is Tuesday, October 17th, 2023, and this is episode number 520 of a show that has finally returned to the format that we've grown to love. Over the past few years, we've discovered tools that have helped us identify seven key dimensions of life: financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. That is what we talk about routinely. We rotate through these different topics each week of the show, talking about a different one. Last week we discussed the spiritual aspect of life in episode 519, talking about the power of prayer. And today we are going to talk about the social component of life. We're going to talk about our social circles and the history of what many of you guys out there listening know as the mug shot, right? Hashtag mugshot. Now the inspiration for today's show comes from a gift that I received from a friend of mine, a neighbor, yesterday. Again, social community neighbor, friend, and it was a gift of a new mug. So while walking the dog this morning, I was thinking about the show. What are we going to talk about? You know, there's a lot. Well, yeah, there is a lot going on socially in life, not just for me, but for a lot of you guys out there as well. There's a lot happening in our social lives at this point in time. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Uh, we'll link to a few things in the show notes, but it seemed like a good thing to do. And so, in thinking about the episode, uh, and thinking about, you know, the coffee that I was going to make, whether I drank it out of the new mug, and you know, trying to record something before hitting the road into the big city, it dawned on me that the best thing that we could really talk about this morning was the history of and the power of the mugshot. So, that's exactly what we're gonna do today. Um, to the best of my ability, I'm going to share what the mugshot is, where it comes from, just a little bit of history to the best of my ability, and then I will share a heartwarming story with you about the very mug that kind of kicked off this whole idea, the mug that was given to me by my friend, my neighbor, Janine, and also we will close it out with some brief dialogue on the various social events that are happening within our own social circles, and also an update on an event here in northeast Ohio in my hometown of Medina, a Freedom Cell Network meetup, and I'll give you some updates on that, and we'll wrap it up with that before moving on with the day. So, a little bit of history of the mugshot. The mugshot is something that we have absorbed, that we have started doing in the Telegram group. Um, and basically what it is is a picture of your coffee mug with a little description. Hashtag mugshot, um, and it's kind of morphed into and become um my three things, like hashtag mugshot, hashtag my three things, and those of us who participate in this talk about the three things that we're going to do for that day, like our three priority items. Okay, um many of us do this. Uh, this is something that is unique and specific to our telegram group, it is not something that we do on other social media platforms. This is just kind of a unique and special thing that's limited to the Telegram group. And if you want to be a part of that, you can be, and I would encourage you to be. You can just simply go to t.me slash all around growth on your internet browser. And it's as simple as that. If you want to put the app on your phone, great, you can do that. If you want to keep it limited to use on your computer, you can do that. But it's very easy to do. Go to your internet browser, t.me slash all around growth. And if you don't already have Telegram installed on your device, you will be prompted to do so at that point. So that's the easiest way to go about doing it. And from there, we can introduce you to a lot of other groups and communities where many of us are, and you know, not all of us, but whatever your interests may be, whether your interests are involving you know family and things that you can do with your family, like homeschooling or you know, things on you know, financial. There's a lot of cryptocurrency groups and financial management groups, there's a lot of groups on personal development, there's a lot of groups on well, all of these groups are social by nature. There's also a lot of groups about spirituality, there's also a lot of groups about career, small business. So if you want to connect with people of like mind, people like you, people that may be listening to this and other podcasts like this, then Telegram is likely a good platform for you. So, what I did to learn a little bit about the history of the mugshot was I simply searched in all of the chats for hashtag mugshot. And in doing so, this took me all the way back to September of 2021, and the first hashtag mugshot that was identified was in Living Free in Tennessee was a group by Nicole Sauce, um, where she mentioned or made a post of her coffee mug and a post that said hashtag morning reflection, hashtag coffee reflection, hashtag mugshot, and hashtag motivation. And that was even something that I responded to at that time, and um, you know, because she had a you know elaborated about her mug, her little handy Freightliner mug, and that reminded me of a song called White Freightliner or Freightliner Blues. I don't know. But um at any rate, you know, it got me thinking, you know, we've we've we've all been involved in these communities for many, many years. Many of us in the all-around growth community are involved in Nicole's community, living free in Tennessee. Um, many of us involved in Nicole's community and the all-around growth community are involved in Jack Spearco's community, the survival podcast. I think, if I'm not mistaken, it was Letty Lou that brought the mugshot to the All Around Growth uh podcast, and that has kind of morphed and grown into other things. Like, for example, Brian from the LOTS Project does a daily podcast over coffee, and it's him doing a live chat, engaging the audience, doing something um very cool that's that's become popular. You know, people people enjoy this this community element, people enjoy what what it is that we're doing in our lives, and oftentimes, you know, we do something similar, or at the very least, we engage with people who are doing certain things that we want to do, and that's kind of the point, you know. It it it we surround ourselves with people that we want to be like now, and we don't necessarily have to do all the things that we want to do, and we don't have to be like them, but generally speaking, people like Nicole, people like Brian, people like Jack Spearco, you know, people in these communities and other content creators, um, they all embrace certain characteristics that we find admirable, and we join their communities to connect with other people of like mind so that we can all grow, so that we can all develop as people, so that we can all learn things about ourselves so that we can become better human beings, right? So I'll link to all of these groups, those three that I just mentioned before, and I'll I'll link to some other you know good communities because I'm fairly certain that the mugshot takes place in like Toolman Tim's community and Amy Dingman's community, a farmer's kind of life, and you know, and and those are great starting points with regard to telegram groups that will serve as a springboard so that you can learn about and find out about all of the other groups that are here on Telegram, which are great ways to get connected with people so that you can actually meet up in real life with people, and that is exactly what a lot of people, a lot of you guys out there did just this past weekend by going to the self-reliance festival in Camden, Tennessee. Now, if you're listening to this show and you're not sure what the Self-Reliance Festival is, I will go ahead and link to that in the show notes so that you can learn more about that. I will also go ahead and link to Brian's episode from the LOTS project yesterday, who did a you know kind of freestyle recap of the weekend, and you can get kind of a behind the scenes look, if you will, about some of the things that took place, not just over the weekend, but in the few days leading up to that week. And that was that was that was fun to listen to. It was neat to get some insight into you know what happened and when and with whom, and you know, at some point in time, maybe I'll make it down there myself, maybe you'll make it down there yourself. I don't know. Um, all I know is that for me personally, there's been a lot of change and transition in life over the past couple of years, especially over the past six months. Um and events like that are quite frankly, they're they're they they haven't been real high on my priority list as I learn how to navigate this new life and learn how to yeah, it's it's really quite simple. Like it they haven't been really high on my priority list as I learn how to navigate this new life. I've been trying very hard and trying diligently to get involved with my own local community in different ways, and that has taken up a lot of time, and uh, you know, I think there's value to that, and I also think that there's value in connecting with communities online like this through real-world events, just like the Self-Reliance Festival. And one of the neat things that Brian talked about is that a lot of people came from a lot of different places, and they came all the way down to Camden, Tennessee to connect and realize that in real life they're not really that far from one another. For example, there were people in Minnesota, you know, people in other states that realized they lived just 10-15 minutes away from one another, but they came all the way down to Tennessee to connect with people of like mind. And a lot of the people in attendance there kind of served as the the the middleman to connect different people because you hear somebody talking, you hear somebody else talking, you hear the two things that they have in common, you want to connect them so that they can talk and further connect themselves and so on and so forth. So that was that was that was pretty cool, and I I very much enjoyed hearing that, and I very much appreciate what all these different people are doing, uh, not only with their own lives, with their own content creation, but the ways in which they you know serve the community to act as those facilitators, for lack of a better term. Okay, now this is kind of a good segue or a good point to shift gears and share the story about the the mug that I was given by my neighbor because this particular neighbor is just one of several people here in my own local community in northeast Ohio that I have been working to uh deepen my connection with and grow my relationship with. Um her name is Janine. She runs a place called Whispering Acres, uh, which is not exactly across the street, but it's a it's across the street and you know a few driveways down. Uh just to provide a little bit of context, I live in not quite a rural area, not quite the suburbs, but on the suburban rural fringe, um, there's a lot of acreage out here, small acreage parcels. Uh, the smallest parcel that's available in my township is uh well, I was gonna say two acres, but if you're doing a lot split, that's the new uh ordinance. You can you can't split lots any smaller than two acres. Down near the town center, Mallet Creek, which is basically one stoplight, um there are some side streets there by the town hall and the fire department and um the little corner gas station, which they don't even sell gas, but you know it's it's it's more of a mechanic shop. Um, but they have gas, but you can't really buy it. Um because it costs more money to have the pumps removed than just to keep them in there and keep the prices high so that no one buys the gas. So uh but I digress. Um I reached out to Janine uh a few months ago because we have some unused land that we used to simply keep cut, and it's part of the land that is taken into consideration for county agricultural use valuation, the CAUV tax purposes, and we need to have that in use. Okay, so I reached out to her and said, Hey, I've got this land, it's it's only a few acres, but I wanted to know if you might be able to use it. Uh you know, it's I I understand it's not a lot, but you know, you're close by and it might be easy for you to bring some animals here and check up on them. We have access to water, and uh hey, maybe I'll even be able to help a little bit. Um actually, I think I left that last part out. I was hoping to get there down the road, but I didn't want to make that part and parcel of the offer so as not to overcommit and get myself involved in something that might be difficult to maintain a commitment to. But nevertheless, she was interested in the land that I had because some of the other land leases that she was looking at fell through. And to make a long story short, she made a couple visits uh here with her husband, here with her friends, people that volunteer at the animal sanctuary that she runs, Whispering Acres, and realized that yes, indeed, it might actually be a good fit, whether it's for some goats that she has or some horses, I don't really know, but it sounds like it's something that she's going to be able to use, and uh and that's great. It'll be nice to have animals here, it'll be great to learn from her, and it turns out that she is a wealth of knowledge. Um, for some of you who might remember, either in chats from the Telegram group or within um just elsewhere, there was some talk about a chicken tractor. Chicken tractor that uh I am planning on building. Uh the the plans have changed because the the chickens fell through. It turns out that my friend from church needed to get rid of them sooner than later. The chicken tractor hadn't come together, and he also needed the money that he was going to get from the sale of his chickens to help fund his new to him truck, uh, a used truck. And the timing wasn't right, but nevertheless, she made it very clear that when that happens, she's got an abundance of supplies, fencing, feeders, and waterers, uh, all sorts of stuff that can be used for chickens, and she's just willing to lend it out or sell it uh at a discount just to be helpful, and it was really amazing. Um I'll link I'll link to you know Whispering Acres Farm Sanctuary in the show notes because everything that Janine does is amazing. It's it's incredibly amazing. Veterans with PTSD, people with addiction problems, you know, people with mental health issues, people that are struggling come there and visit the animals that she takes in, animals that are struggling, that she rehabilitates, and people come there to soothe their souls. Animals come there to have their souls saved. She's got a lot of incredible stories about the work that she's done. She's an incredible person, and um I and she's very involved in the community, taking care of animals to. Different events, getting them involved in the community. Um, it's just a wonderful, wonderful place, and she's a wonderful, wonderful person. And uh actually, last Friday I attended a fundraising event that she hosted over at some mutual friends of ours, uh, our old neighbors, that in a house that we rented before moving out here before we began construction in the neighboring town Lichfield. And since then they've built a small winery, and they hosted an event called Art for the Animals, which was a fundraiser for her animal sanctuary. And I just went, set up a tent, uh, made a few bucks, but really just wanted to get involved and bring something else to the event, participate in the community, um, just be a good steward and and get involved. And it was a great time. Um, got to meet her husband and and and get to know him a little bit better. And over the past few days, few weeks, we've just been texting back and forth, you know, um, have been in contact with one another about all kinds of things, especially the upcoming event that I'll talk about down the road. And it was in some dialogue about the event that I will talk about more in just a moment, that and where I asked her if she would be interested in putting together some things or contributing to a gift basket that we are going to put together for the event. And the gift basket idea actually comes from what Brian talked about at the Self-Reliance Festival. So, again, you know, shout out to Brian and his recap of the Self-Reliance Festival. I'll link to that in the show notes so you can hear what I'm talking about. But basically, they had a gift basket giveaway and or you know, a giveaway of several items. And now this event is not going to be anywhere near as big as the Self-Reliance Festival, but I thought, you know, that's a great idea. You know, I'll start working with people who have committed to attending the event, seeing if they want to contribute something, and we'll see if we can't use that as some incentive as a way to incentivize people to come down and attend the event, because the whole point of this event next month in early November is to get people connected so that they can start doing things in their own lives with people in their own ways. But nevertheless, she was telling me about how she got this laser engraver and how she can make all these cool things now. And I'm not familiar with laser engravers, um, but in the messages that we exchanged, I was joking with her that you know, I'm just I'm just like I basically said something to the effect of like I don't know how you do all the things that you do. It's amazing to me that you are able to do everything that you do because she also works full-time, you know, she's like a superhuman, and a lot of these people that that that do these things, that that host these events, that you know, people that we look up to, they seem like superhuman people, you know. But the thing is, like we can't we can't continue to go through life comparing ourselves to all the people who do all the things that we want to do. We all have certain and unique skill sets and we all bring different things to the table, and sometimes the things that we can best bring to the table is just ourselves at an event that someone else is putting together, because they can't have these events if they don't have us that show up to them, right? So if you're not doing all the things that you want to do, and you're not you're not being all that you can be, you know, just you know, as someone told me in the community yesterday, give yourself some grace. You know, do what you can today, always strive to do better, but give yourself some grace and do that which you can today, do what you need to today, and basically keep your chin up, keep plugging along, continue to you know move forward, continue to try and grow and do exactly that. But but don't get down on yourself because it's easy to do that. And um, you know, if you find yourself doing that, if you find yourself getting down on yourself for not doing all the things that you want to do, for not being all the things you want to be, give yourself some grace. Be who you are, bring what you bring to the table. And you know, and that's what I was telling her. I was kind of like, wow, it's just a bit so impressive that you do all the things you do. You know, me, like, I'm just a guy that's trying to not have seizures and make sauerkraut. Like, I don't, you know, and sometimes I I you know I want I want to do all the things, and I'm like, but I I I work too much, I stress too much, I don't sleep enough, I end up having seizures. And, you know, guys, I'm gonna tell you something. Uh seizures suck. Like having a chronic neurological disorder sucks. But on the other hand, it's somewhat of a blessing because it forces me to be very selective about that which I do so as not to burn out, which I've done twice in two different contexts, and that's no fun either. So when I told her that, I'm just a person trying to not have seizures and make sauerkraut, she laughed and you know, said I should make that into a t-shirt. Um and you know, then there was a bunch of back and forth, you know, just some friendly ball busting. And uh and then I told her, you know, uh that I'm just a complicated person trying to live a simple life. Um, you know, because I have a tendency to make everything complicated. And you know, she said, oh god, that's another one. And now, you know, oh my brain's running, and I've got a lot of ideas about things that we can do, things, you know. And I I I I was just, you know, kind of messaged back like, well, okay, you're welcome, you know. Glad I could provide some, you know, uh fodder for uh the thought. And then I had to go run around and assemble a small delivery and take that over to Richardson Farms. And in the meantime, just in this two-hour window, she took some of those messages and engraved them on a coffee mug, presumably with this laser printer, and brought it over with a little napkin involved and a couple different blends of tea stuffed into it, and then gave it to my mom, and so you know, uh we're continuing to message, and she brings it back and she says, Oh, I've I I you know, just wait until you get home. And then I saw this gift, and it was a mug that said, on one side, just a complicated person trying to live the simple life with a little cartoon beard guy that kind of looks like me, and on the other side said trying to not have seizures and make sauerkraut, and then my initials underneath with a head of cabbage and a can of sauerkraut. And uh, you know, this this was this was a a nice humbling gift to receive because I you know I don't I don't I don't feel like I'm worthy of of of of nice things and and you know it's it's it's humbling to have someone um in my life that that I'm I'm making friends with, that I'm that I'm socializing with. And you know, uh this past weekend I attended a wedding with some new friends that I made at church, and they invited me to their wedding and the reception, and it was nice to be involved in their lives. It's nice to be involved in all of these people's lives, um, because the more you work to be involved, the more involved you become. And if you're an honest, genuine, and sincere person, more often than not, people want someone like that in their lives. So if you do the work, these are the benefits that come as a result of that. People invite you into their lives, and it's a it's a humbling, it's a humbling experience, and these interpersonal relationships are really the things that make life worth living. Now, like I said, Janine had mentioned made mention of this laser printer for um use in the Freedom Cell Network event that's coming up in on November 4th, and what we are talking about on November 4th is a meet and greet that's gonna take place here in Medina. Again, you can find details t.me slash all around growth. We're gonna talk about that more. I will link to the meet and greet, the Facebook event, I will link to everything in the show notes in today's episode. Um, but on November 4th at 4 p.m. at my friend Caleb's house, we are going to host a Freedom Cell Network event. She's going to contribute some items to the gift basket. I'm going to contribute some items to the gift basket, and even uh even my man Larry out there, who goes by the screen name Yosik, who is in all the communities that I previously mentioned. Living Free in Tennessee, Toolman Tim, um the Lots Project, all around growth. I think even he is going to throw down and contribute some items to the gift basket because he was one of the first people that said, you know what, if you're gonna put together this event, I'm gonna be there. He lives all the way up in Cleveland, but he's made a point to come down, you know, to other events to the farmer's market. He's the kind of dude that shows up, he's the kind of dude that I'm talking about because the more you put out, the more you get in, and he's a solid dude. You know, shout out to Yosik for you know continually showing up. Shout out to Yosik for continually supporting people who are doing things that need support. Because if it wasn't for dudes like you, a lot of us wouldn't be doing the things that we're doing. So, you know, big shout out to everybody that I mentioned in the community for doing all the work that they do. You know, and also big shout out to everyone else in the community that that just shows up and participates. Shout out to Rachel, shout out to Sean, shout out to Andrew, shout out to Letty. She was a big part of the self-reliance festival, doing a lot of the social media work, the promotional material, you know, the the virtual the virtual things to make it happen. There's just a lot of great people in our social circles. And one of the one of the beautiful things about Telegram is that it gives us all an opportunity to connect and network with one another online. And the best part about all of these online networks is that it doesn't simply end there. So many of the people who are involved in these online networks make sure to make opportunities for each and every one of us to get together in real life and meet up with one another in real life so that we can form connections with one another in real life because real life is what it's all about. We can't live behind a screen, we can't live behind a keyboard, and so you know, my hat goes off to everybody who helps make things happen in real life, whether it's hosting the event or simply showing up. I appreciate you for being a part of my life, and I look forward to meeting you in real life. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.