It Ain't Easy, Being Cheesy

Trying something a little bit different. Vote below if you love or hate.

Been having some newsletter conversations with people you could call the best this game has ever seen. Not a debate that he’s on the newsletter Mt. Rushmore.

But he mentioned how challenging it is to come up with a new long-form written content each week and continuing to be interesting for readers.

And man, after pretty much a year of writing these… I feel that! I absolutely love the creative freedom of just putting my thoughts on paper hopefully in an engaging and/or inspiring way.

A good way to combat the weekly battle of coming up with new ideas is implementing sections to the newsletter. So, here’s my first attempt at that format (granted I wrote a daily formatted sports newsletter for 5 years).

My sections:

1. ”One Big Thing”: This is will be my typical story time / lesson - likely shortened

2. “Favorite Thing(s) I Saw on Social This Week”: Whether it’s funny, cool, valuable or inspiring, I will share my favorite piece of content from the interwebs

3. “The Polls”: A place where you all can vote on random topics I include

4. “Betting Corner”: I’ll give you a weekly sports gambling locks and track my record moving forward. I am a sharp.

Hopefully this makes my content creation process easier, and most importantly helps give you all reading more value.

Reply to this email with your thoughts!

One Big (Cheesy) Thing

I was listening to Millie Bobby Brown on a podcast (Smartless, good listen) and she made me think about the concept of “gratitude”.

First of all, had no clue who she was when I clicked the episode on my ride to work Monday, but then quickly learned she was Eleven from Stanger Things. Savage character.

She just turned 21, been in multiple successful films outside of Stranger Things and has 63 million Instagram followers despite her not even having the app on her phone.

That’s goes beyond “superstar” status.

She’s stayed grounded. No child actor downfall drama happening with this one.

Millie has also had some up and down years in the industry. Things got hard for her.

But she kept mentioning how “grateful” she was for her career and the fact that she has the ability to “try new things” is something she doesn’t take for granted.

She said she was on set with Chris Pratt for her upcoming movie and if he sees you in a bad mood, he will say, “Oh, what’s up? Are you having a bad day living your dream?”.

Then, on my commute home from work later that Monday, I threw on a Joe Rogan Podcast episode with Andrew Schultz as the guest (not a pod I listen to often), and Joe goes, “If you have a lot of gratitude, you realize how fortunate you are that you have the ability to work hard. And you work even harder”.

Then Tuesday on my way to work, Danny McBride, one of my favorites of all time, was on Theo Von’s podcast and he spoke about the gratitude he’s had throughout his career.

So, it triple hit me, and I just had to write today’s Diary about it.

And it made me realize…

Gratitude can be a very, very hard thing to do or practice.

I definitely don’t do it enough.

It’s not easy or normal in your everyday process to think about how good you have it compared to others.

When things get challenging, you beat yourself up and feel like the world is ending most of the time.

But just take a step back, breathe. You’re likely over thinking things and not giving the situation the proper perspective.

I mean, I feel like the sky is falling when things don’t go my way at work, or I make a small mistake.

But most of the time, you’re lucky to be in the grind, you’re lucky to have things the way they are, lucky to be able to try new things. Because a lot of people in this world would kill to be in your shoes.

Every situation is different, but always there are people out there that are less fortunate than the next.

So next time you’re pissed off or sad or struggling with something, think about how lucky you are, give yourself the benefit of the doubt.

Be grateful. It’s really, really hard… but try it.

Ok, that’s my One Big (Cheesy) Thing. It won’t be cheesy every week, but this week was straight cheese.

Favorite Thing I Saw on Social This Week

1. Vegas is popping off as a sports town…

If you don’t want to read Joe Pomp’s tweet, here you go:

Las Vegas has released a new report breaking down the economic impact of last year's Formula 1 race.

Here are the highlights:

• Total economic impact of $934 million, making it the largest recurring event hosted in Southern Nevada.

• The average person stayed 3.7 nights in Las Vegas and spent $2,400 (not including their race tickets).

• The race led to 4,500 jobs and $284 million in local salaries and wages.

• The race generated $45 million in state and local tax revenue, with $15 million going to schools across the state.

• Hotel occupancy rates increased from 80% in 2023 to 87% in 2024. • The 2024 race attracted a crowd of 306,000, with 175,000 fans (57%) coming from out of town.

For context, the $934 million economic impact is comparable to what Las Vegas saw for the Super Bowl in 2024 — the only difference being that the Formula 1 race is an annual event.

Going to The Sphere in Vegas on Memorial Day to see my favorite artist of all time Kenny Chesney. Talk about grateful. Sheeeeesh.

2. Johnny Jackson, a high schooler diagnosed with Stage 4B Hodgkin's lymphoma, hasn’t missed a single game all year, and he dropped 31 points in the sectional championship on Monday night. His nickname is “Johnny Buckets”… legendary.

I know Buckets is grateful to be on that court every single night. What a stud.

3. My Sister lost our family Fantasy Football league and had to do a naked ski lap (in some clothes) at it was awesome

The Polls

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💰Betting Corner

It’s March, my second favorite sports month of the year. January takes the cake because of NFL / College Football Playoffs.

Lock of the week:

American -2.5 (-110) vs. Navy in the Patriot League Championship tonight at 7pm ET.

Don’t ask questions, just ride.

See you next week! Let’s get Kim K to subscribe!