My Q2 Review: 2020 Lockdown Edition
By: Rhuwell Samano
Tags: Software Development, Personal Development, Fitness, Journal, Growth

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

My last post was right before COVID-19 abruptly interrupted our day-to-day lives. I sincerely hope everyone is well and staying safe — we’ll get through this just like everything else in life!

Anyways, in that post, I went over everything I was working on. I had quite the handful on deck. Here’s a reminder:

My Personal Life

My Software Engineering Career

My Fitness Brand as a Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach

My Personal Brand on High Performance Lifestyle

My Digital Agency — Knave Media

Now that Q2 is coming to a close, I figured it’s time to do another one of these checkpoints for myself. I’ve had an interesting twist for each..

Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash

My Personal Life

I’ve been hyper-vigilant in focusing on my personal growth this quarter — everything from deep healing through meditation to gaining more clarity on my envisioned future. I normally give myself a pretty decent amount of time to do reflective work and all, but the big trigger to dive deeper was because I felt heavy feelings from my career progression (more on that in a bit).

My “reading intake” has been borderline addictive. For several weeks, I must’ve been reading 3–7 books at once.. in a week. Sometimes I’ll speed read, other times I go slow — but it was still an impressively high amount. I found it extremely rewarding to spend less time on social media and more time reading so that’s how that conspired. I also find it much easier to read multiple books at once because ideas overlap and it’s more fun for me to piece it all together in a hodgepodge kinda way where it makes sense to me.

I also spent time going over my values — my code of conduct. I was inspired by my sister to figure out what I stood for (she values honesty) and then I read Vishen Lakhiani’s new book, The Buddha and the Badass, and it went over values as well so I figured I’d give that aspect a full look-over.

Shockingly, I would say over the last 3-to-6-ish months that I actually didn’t clearly know what I stood for. Those unique flavors of yourself that guide your life decisions and actions — nope, didn’t have it. Subconsciously I knew them, but I was too caught up with other things to even realize I was basically driving blind. Knowing your values help you navigate the world in your day-to-day life and after giving it deep thought and going through an exercise I found online, I came up with and narrowed it down to 12 Values that I feel define me.

I’m not going to share them here because they’re personal to me (aka half of it wouldn’t actually make sense to anyone else) but I do recommend a Values exercise to people who feel like they’ve lost their compass in life. Feel free to message me for the link to the one I did!

Besides all of this, I started learning and practicing how to cook better.. nothing crazy good yet, but I’m happy that I find cooking enjoyable! I’ve also been watching a ton of One Piece since, you know, quarantine.

Photo by airfocus on Unsplash

My Software Engineering Career

Truth be told, I found myself discouraged and burnt out from trying to find another position as a software engineer at the beginning of Q2. I didn’t grow to hate tech, but I grew enormously sick of false leads and rejections from companies. And then, COVID-19 hit and those feelings multiplied — tech companies were hiring, sure, but I was not a top choice pick for majority of companies I reached out to. It was a huge hit on my confidence and imposter syndrome came back full force once again.

So, I took a break from it all.. a complete stop. No blogs, no videos, no coding, no looking at job posts — nothing. I had lost the fire that drove me for the last two or so years.

Instead, I focused my energy and attention on fitness and nutrition (more on this next). It allowed me to give my mind and heart a rest and recalibrate. Plus, it was on the list of things I wanted to commit time and energy to. And the good news is: it worked and much better than I thought it would!

In recent weeks, I started wondering what my strengths and weaknesses were in regards to my tech career and skill-set. I also gave thought to what exactly interested me in tech and what didn’t.

I like building things → Development

I like designing things → UX/UI

I like communicating things → Business/Marketing

Put all those together and you get what the tech world calls a..

Product Manager → the intersection of development, UX/UI, and business/marketing.

I find great joy and near-limitless energy in my work (whatever it is, any industry) when it’s helping improve a person’s life someway, somehow. I also find myself producing quality work when I’m working closely with people (versus a mostly-solo kinda gig).

Product Managers are the intermediary of everything involving “the product” from the execs to the in-the-trenches creators to all the users of the product. It’s the perfect role for me to lean towards and it’s given me another light to chase.

Anyways, I checked out a few online courses I could take from a handful of different websites and honestly, everything’s pretty pricey for my budget right now. I did, however, get some Udemy courses and recommended books for Product Management and UX/UI Design so I’m going to use what I have and make it work.

The goal for Q3 is to review/refine my skills and begin to completely overhaul my portfolio. I intend on building out full websites/applications and going through the processes of each aspect of its creation myself. Challenging for sure, I don’t say all this without acknowledging the amount of work and focus it would take BUT I do find it exciting and that’s enough for me to give it a go!

My current portfolio, as much as I’ve enjoyed all the projects that are in it, is now obsolete af. The projects don’t showcase my current passion and energy.. they aren’t representative of my skills at their highest level.. and after seemingly hundreds of applications with my portfolio attached, they aren’t working as I thought they would in getting interviews.

No worries, though. Out with the old, in with the new! I’m just really happy I got the passion-fire back and then some. I’m ready for another at-bat.

Photo by Marc Rafanell López on Unsplash

My Fitness Brand as a Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach

Big moves for this part of my life!

It was a LONG time coming. I recently ruffled through and read some old notes from college and found some tidbits on me considering the idea of becoming a personal trainer. I even bought a study app back in 2016 that actually helped me out a lot with studying over the last 6 months.

I initially planned on taking the NASM CPT exam end of March but then everything closed (the gym, exam center, etc.) so I pushed it to end of May instead. I even ended up taking my CPR/AED certification online! For the following months, I decided to hone in on my studies and go all in.

Then I joined Precision Nutrition, a top-tier program on nutrition coaching, and I completed it — now, I’m a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified Coach! The quality of that course is truly the best in the world and I highly recommend it to people who are interested and can afford it!

A few days after I did that, I studied hardcore using everything available to me (practice exams, my textbook, study guides, study app, flash cards, memory tricks, etc.) and I took my NASM CPT exam and BOOM — passed it, too! The test itself was much harder than what I practiced for.. actually, much harder than most college exams I’ve taken. But, I made it through. :)

And then, a little over a week later, I got my Spartan SGX Coach Certification! A Spartan SGX Coach specializes in training for Spartan Races — but the training methods overlapped with what I’ve learned through NASM and Precision Nutrition perfectly so it was a nice addition to my skill-set.

In the midst of all of this, I also purchased a TRX PRO4 Suspension Trainer (Navy SEALS and First Responders use this to train in virtually any environment), some calipers, stability ball, and managed to get NASM’s Corrective Exercise and Performance Enhancement textbooks for further learning!

And a random weird thing I happened to notice: because gyms closed, there’s been a shortage (depletion, really) of kettlebells, workout benches, plyo-boxes, medicine balls, etc. Guess I’ll have to wait still to get some of those.

Anyways, my goal for Q3 is to work on my own fitness & nutrition, practice coaching with a few people, and get a secret not-so-secret project started for the Fall. As we get older, health starts to really become a priority and I’d love to help people with it!

Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash

My Personal Brand on High Performance Lifestyle

In the last post, I mentioned this project’s codename: MAG-OPS. It’s short for Magnum Opus which means “greatest work” and it’s my favorite thing to continuously work on.

I’m still working on the framework, for sure — and even more so, practicing it on myself and looking for different scenarios and variables that might come up. I recently wondered if something like this was more “applicable” in an private 1-on-1 coaching-style rather than a book.. but some close friends I’ve shown it to have told me it could be both! Good to hear!

A High Performance Lifestyle, at least how I view it, is actually less about “productivity” and “efficiency” and more about clearing out mental/physical obstacles, getting ultra clear with what you want, putting yourself in the best position/state, figuring out what you stand for, and managing your resources appropriately and all the systems you have in place that maintain/grow them. It’s more about daily happiness and fulfillment — but it definitely goes into some interesting concepts for producing great work, whether by yourself or with a small team.. or your own company.

It’s honestly kind of a collage piece. I’ve reached into over a decade of my own experience and a huge amount of different experts/authors from various disciplines to put it together. The more things overlapped, they more it made sense. And, surprisingly, the more that certain aspects went against each other proved more to me that it’s about context and location on a continuum. I’m a big believer that all things can work, you just have to figure out what works for you best.

I’m very excited to continue working on it — not officially, but I’m planning for the book to get a lot of work done around September/October, maybe even released, by the end of the year or at the top of next year! I have literally no idea yet if that’ll happen on time but I figured I’d at least mention it.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

My Digital Agency — Knave Media

I’m not gonna lie, as much as I want to do this — this one’s been a tricky one.

I had full intentions on making Knave Media the main thing I focused on building for Q2 and then COVID-19 and lockdown popped up which took all of us by surprise. Starting a fresh, new digital agency in a world that suddenly went full-blown remote sounds like it would be a great opportunity, sure yeah of course — but I was not ready at all to build 10x as fast than I intended to.. and the amount of resources it required would’ve been brutal. I don’t like rushing — I’d rather a slow, calculated and steady pace. That made me lean towards fitness/nutrition for Q2 and mostly put this to the side.

However, I’m taking a look around and unfortunately, I’m willing to bet we’ll have another stay-at-home order due to another spike. That makes me believe there will also be a spike in a need for digital marketing as businesses/brands lean more digitally. So, the questions I’m sitting on right now are: do I have the resources to start this up in Q3 and will I start this up?

In between my tech career and my fitness/nutrition side hustle and the amount of work and focus both would take, I’m honestly hesitant to add another thing into the mix. I’ve considered a low-tier version *cough* freelancing *cough* of Knave Media to experiment with balancing it in but nothing certain yet.

The way I’m seeing it, ideally I’d like the regular day hours of 9–5 for my tech job, training fitness/nutrition clients in the mornings and evenings on weekdays, and when I’m free-free on the weekends, I’ll give Knave Media the attention it deserves to be built. I might change that up later, but right now that’s my going plan! Going into my backlog.

Photo by Todd Quackenbush on Unsplash

Tools of the Trade

No “secret sauce” section for this post — but here’s a quick rundown of some things that are going to be pretty important for me this upcoming quarter!

My Journal (My Moleskine & Evernote)

My MAG-OPs Map

My 12 Week Year Calendar for Q3

A daily/weekly tracker & scoreboard to measure progress

My Code of Conduct (Unique Values — UV’s)

Meditation (Quantum-level)

Udemy & Books

My video camera, Adobe CC and Instagram

And, of course, my friends for always having my back and supporting me in everything I do. Shoutouts to all of you for bringing positive energy and not bringing me down but finding all the ways to bring me up!

Photo by Pietro Rampazzo on Unsplash

TL;DR:

Had some big epiphanies; going to continue focusing on my personal growth, meditating and building action momentum

Got my fire back; going to refine my tech skills, specifically UX/UI and Product Management and rebuild my portfolio

Got certified af; going to work on my own fitness & nutrition, practice coaching, and potentially start building my fitness brand

Still making improvements; going to keep working on MAG-OPS by practicing/using it in my life

Don’t know how I’m going to balance this with everything else; going to put Knave Media on the backlog for now until further notice

I would say Q2 has been wildly successful for myself amidst the world’s climate right now so I’m pretty satisfied with that. Gonna go even harder in Q3 and I’m here with you on the journey if you’re on it with me!

That’s all I got for now! Let’s get after it — Cheers!

— Rhu