Sunday, March 15 through Saturday, March 21, 2015

Sunday, March 15 (Sam Torres / Luis Congdon)

This morning I had breakfast with Sam Torres. I’ve written about Sam in several books that I wrote. He retired from U.S. Probation and then became a professor at Cal State Long Beach. Sam reached out to me while I was incarcerated in Florence, Colorado because he was using my book, About Prison, in a class he taught on Corrections. Sam wanted to visit me, but rules in the BOP precluded him from visiting because we did not have a friendship prior to my imprisonment. We built a friendship through correspondence. Several years later in my term, while I was incarcerated in Taft, a counselor authorized Sam to bring his students from Cal State Long Beach to visit. I was happy for him to see me outside of a prison today. Later in the morning I conducted a podcast interview with Luis Congdon of the Lasting Love Connection over a Skype call. I’ll publish that interview soon on the soon-to-launch Earning Freedom podcast.

Monday, March 16 (Rebuild MichaelSantos.com)

This morning I began working with a new web designer I hired, Zach at ZachSwinehart.com. Another site that Zach built impressed me and I reached out to him with a proposition to rebuild MichaelSantos.com. I didn’t want to lose any of the records that I have been building since I concluded my prison obligation, but I wanted a new design to reflect my new commitment to podcasting. I’m striving to build a bigger database of email addresses so that I can more effectively connect with the people who value my work. Also, I wanted a central library that would host all of the podcasts that I’m going to record. These podcasts will open further opportunities for others to assess my level of authenticity. I want people to see that through the deliberate, disciplined strategies that I teach, anyone can reach a higher potential.

 

Tuesday, March 17 (Miranda’s)

While Zach continued the migration of the content that I’ve been building from my previous site to the new design of MichaelSantos.com, I did some clean-up work here at the office. In the afternoon I visited Miranda McCroskey of the LawpreneurRadio.com. Miranda’s podcast inspired me to move into the Podcasting space. Today I met with her for the second time, this time as a guest for her show. I’m hoping that I have my new podcast going live by the time she publishes her interview with me. I’ll certainly link to the new interview once it’s on the air. I intend to build a wider network and go on many podcasts so that I can announce my show to the world.

 

Wednesday, March 18 (Stanley Greenberg)

Finally, I wrote an article on Stanley Greenberg today. I interviewed Stanley last Friday with intentions of writing an article about his practice for PrisonProfessor.com. I’m striving to interview 20 defense attorneys. I’ve written about Anthony Patti, Diane Bass, Lisa Damiani, and now Stanley Greenberg. Each of the attorneys provides insight into their backgrounds and then responds to questions I ask. I want them to provide guidance that defendants may consider when they’re about to hire an attorney for the first time. Once I’ve written articles about 20 attorneys, I’ll have accumulated about 25,000 words worth of content. I’ll then publish those articles in an ebook that I’ll call “How to Hire a Defense Attorney.” The investment of time and energy may assist more people who are in difficult stages of their lives.

 

Thursday, March 19 (Website development)

The new MichaelSantos.com website went live today! I’m very happy with the work that Zach has done, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I still need to figure out the backend mechanisms that will trigger and automate an email flow. When a visitor opts in to the website, the website should store the email in a location that allows me to send update the visitor on new developments. It’s crucial that I resolve this complexity before I launch on iTunes. the iTunes podcasting platform exposes me to an entirely new market, a global market. If people visit MichaelSantos.com, I want to nurture a relationship with them. In time, I’ll offer premium products that will add value to the people who subscribe. I’ll also want to keep people abreast of the progress I make interviewing exciting and inspiring guests.

 

Friday, March 20 (Charminade University)

I had a conference call with students enrolled at Charminade University in Hawaii. Janet Davidson, a professor of criminal justice has been assigning books I wrote for years. Those books help her students understand the prison system. Since I returned to society, I’ve participated in a few of Janet’s classes through Skype sessions. Today I had two Skype sessions with her students. They had all read Inside: Life Behind Bars in America. Through Skype, the students could seem me and I could see them. I’d rather have been in Hawaii with them, but I appreciated this opportunity to contribute to their education through this indirect way using Skype. Professor Davidson offered to pay for my time. Instead, I asked that she assign extra credit to students who would review my new podcast on iTunes.

 

Saturday, March 21 (Automated email and running)

I worked today with my friend Tulio Cardozo on integrating automated email into my website. There is still a lot of work to complete, but at least I’m ready to launch now. When a visitor opts in to the Earning Freedom network by filling out one of the boxes, that email address goes into my database. The program that I designed with Tulio will now generate an appropriate email to keep them abreast of projects I’m creating. I envision these email campaigns as being essential to the success of MichaelSantos.com. Once I launch the live podcast and webinar project, I’ll make even more effective use of these email lists to serve my audience.

My running log for this year shows that I’ve had to prioritize the development of these new business ventures that I’m building. With PrisonProfessor.com and the redesign of MicahelSantos.com, I’m having to suspend my long runs. I hope to have everything built by the end of April. Then I’ll resume–though I can see that reaching the running goal this year will require a considerable amount of long runs during the second half of the year.

 

Miles for week: 0
Miles for month: 53.3
Miles run for year: 226.92
Weight: 165.5