Hey There! You’re Still Here.

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I can’t believe that it’s been almost 3 years since I walked away from KNUXX.  I literally checked out one day and, while I still thought about it frequently, I didn’t make any effort to mess with anything for quite some time.  My 5 year domain registration came up for renewal this past month and I got an email from my registrar that I needed to renew or risk losing my domain name… hmmm, what should I do?  Well, I started looking at some of the stats and soon realized that I still get over 8,000 visitors a month on this site!  And I haven’t done anything for how long again?!?  I know Dr. Beau and a few others have posted some articles here and there but ultimately nothing much is going on with KNUXX currently.  Should that change?

While the details around why I walked away are probably only important to me and really aren’t that exciting, it still begs the question “Why?”.  Or maybe the better question would be “Why Not?”  As I sit here writing this I’m tempted to get into all the details and provide explanations and justifications for why something that I felt had so much promise suddenly became completely unimportant and almost burdensome.  But I won’t bore you with that – besides, I don’t think anyone even cares – it was always more important to me than it ever was to anyone else.  I digress.

But “why not”, that’s a good question.  I started trying to answer that over the past few weeks.  Why wouldn’t I want to charge the paddles and get ready to shock some life back into KNUXX?  I obviously did some things that worked, and are still working, so why not jump back on the train.  It got me thinking about the initiatives and the reasons behind a lot of the great things we were starting to do – KNUXX Fightmatch, KNUXX Fightshops, KNUXX Local, the KNUXX Sponsored Fighters and all the gym spotlights – it was all really fun and ultimately it was all done in an effort to try and help people.  We wanted to help play matchmaker, we wanted to be able to sell products, gear, shirts, and other items to fans.  We wanted to spotlight the local fight scenes in growing markets and profile local fighters to see if we could help them get more fans and better opportunities.  Ultimately we wanted to help the sport at a grassroots level.  But, as we soon found, it was pretty thankless, we could never do enough, we couldn’t do it right, I didn’t have enough of me to go around “spreading the vision” and sprinkling my magic fairy dust (in the form of money) on everyone that had their hand out – and frankly most people just didn’t “get it”.   I loved MMA, Boxing, Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing and the people in this world… but not enough to continue to do it for free.

So I walked away from the good things that we had going.  I pissed off a lot of people – at least that’s what they told me in their varied forms of vitriolic texts, emails, Facebook messages, and phone calls.  Here I am again getting into the details…  I honestly don’t know how my buddies over at SWFight.com keep doing it.  They’re over there plugging away (admittedly doing a much better job than I ever did) and I see their efforts to try and prod and coax the “fans” to participate.  Most of the “followers” just phone it in and click a couple “likes” and then move on.  But they’re doing it because they love it – and that’s what keeps them going.  (Great job btw guys!)

So, again, why not?  After thinking about it more and more over the past couple weeks, I couldn’t come up with a good answer.  I went through the fire while in New Mexico.  I ended up selling just about everything I owned to try and keep KNUXX on life support.  And to this day I can’t figure out why I kept trying.  I was beat up, physically, mentally, emotionally, financially and psychologically.  I wasn’t happy – and I knew the cause.  I was DONE.  KNUXX was DONE.  So I literally packed up, moved away and tried to forget about it.  But I couldn’t get it completely out of my head.  I had too much fun when it was going well.  I had too many good days when we were able to help some new fighter or take a great photo at an event.  Plus, I had all this damn KNUXX gear in my closets so every time I opened a door I was reminded of it!

I’m in a much better place now.    I’m a better person, my position in life is improving and I feel a lot more relaxed.  Plus I got interested in something I’ve always loved – Cycling.  I started riding to try and shave off the 65+ pounds I had put on in the 2 1/2 years that I was trying to support my family by running a small, failing, business.  It was stressful and getting out on my bike, while not easy for the first few weeks, was very therapeutic.  The pounds started to melt off and my time in the saddle started to increase significantly.  One day I rode 75 miles – that’s when I realized that two things needed to happen.  1. I really liked biking and I wanted to take it to the next level and start racing and 2. I needed to get a road bike because 75 miles on my mountain bike was freaking stupid!

I started searching around on Meetup for local groups with whom I could ride.  I went on a couple and found that I really enjoyed riding in a group and learning from the other cyclists.  Plus it was fun to see where I stacked up against other riders.  Was I as fast?  Could I keep up?  It was fun.  On Black Friday of 2013 we went on a group ride departing from, and hosted by, a local bike shop called “pedal”.  On that ride a group started talking about getting into racing but none of us really knew where to start or how to get into it.  Before you know it within a couple months that group had put together a list of more than 20 people who wanted to get into racing.  I was part of that group and I currently own the company under which this organization operates.  I helped found (technically) one of the fastest growing amateur cycling teams in the country – pedal RACING!  But I still didn’t have a bike that fit me… how can I show up to a road race on a mountain bike?

So I started looking around on Craigslist for used road bikes.  I was still completely broke (and still am technically) so I was looking for the cheapest bike I could find.  I found a used Fuji bike that was almost 10 years old for $200 but it was a 52cm frame.  I did a little research and, from what I could find, that bike was way too small for me – so I bought it anyway because it was only $200!  Needless to say I rode it for about 100 miles total and was completely miserable.  It didn’t fit me right and because of this my rides were more painful than they were worth.  I started researching some more and found that I really should be riding a 56cm frame – oops, I was way off.

Let’s shorten this story a little bit.  I ended up buying 2 more bikes in 2013 – both on Craigslist (CL).  Then I sold those and upgraded to a new one.  Then I decided I needed new mountain bike, and a time-trial bike, and a cyclocross bike, and then I sold those and bought different ones.  Then I built 2 bikes from just parts that I bought on eBay and CL.  Then sold those.  Pretty soon people on my cycling team started asking me to sell their old stuff for them so they could upgrade their parts.

One thing lead to another and suddenly I found myself buying and selling all sorts of gear for people… and before you knew it, I had started another business (I mean “Hobby” – this way I don’t take it too seriously).  I’m officially launching a Used Cycling and Outdoor Gear Exchange called Precycled Gear.  Now I spend most of my days selling used gear, used outdoor gear, cycling gear and responding to quote requests.  I found that most people could sell their stuff if they wanted but most of them don’t have the time, energy, expertise or desire to do it themselves.  Plus, with the option to sell it or trade it it provides a much better vehicle for offloading their stuff and getting them into their upgraded “dream gear” faster.  (BTW – if you have any gear you want me to consign or want to sell to me, hit me up and we’ll get it done.)  That’s why I like to say I help facilitate exchange.  Anyway, I think I’m finally into something that I like.  Plus I have started to revive an old site idea I had to provide a great place for survivalism, prepper, preparedness, and defense discussions in a community setting called Defense & Preparation.  I have always enjoyed this type of stuff and admittedly, I feel excited again.  So what does that mean for KNUXX?

Yet again we’re back at this “Why Not” question.  Honestly, I don’t know why not still.  If I wanted to let it go I wouldn’t have just renewed my domain names for another 5 years.  And I wouldn’t be writing this post right now… and I wouldn’t have started making subtle changes to the website’s structure… and I wouldn’t have started talking to people about writing for KNUXX again… and I definitely wouldn’t have started planning the strategy for 2016.  I don’t know what any of that means, but I do know that I liked it when it was running right – and maybe if it’s just a hobby then my true passion for it will come through and I won’t be trying to force it all the time.  Maybe, just maybe.  Either way, I’m glad you’re all still here.  Keep coming back.  Maybe you’ll see some changes sometime.

But for now I’m going to focus on my newer ventures.  There are a couple that I’m really passionate about – I’m helping a buddy who is a beginning author and he’s in the middle of writing and publishing a bunch of fiction books.  You can check out author journey if you want.  I think he’s going to do pretty well, but that’s what friends are for!  And finally, in researching everything I possibly can so I can help him self-publish his books and get them loaded to Amazon – and most importantly make money as an author – I have created a separate website where aspiring authors can come to learn book marketing, learn how to build their author platform and basically become an authorpreneur.  Let me know what you think!