Shawn Blog

Social media pioneer with a life.

[shawnblog]

When a new podcast episode from Patrick Bet-David hit my screen today, the headline alone was a relief. In a media landscape that treats hard news like entertainment, it’s oddly comforting to see someone label what’s happening in plain language.

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I figured him out fast.

First time ever at a high-limit table at the Bellagio Las Vegas. I sit down, dealer suddenly acts like I’m invisible. Seconds later I feel breath on the back of my neck. Two security guys inform me I’m done playing.

He never looks up. Doesn’t speak. Doesn’t have to.

As a wannabe "dead head" back in those days (2001 Billboard Music Awards), I only vaguely knew who Jay-Z even was, so when my nearby friends explained my obvious fumble was tantamount to violating some invisible celebrity force field, I walked away thinking how pitiful it was... I mean, if your status requires clearing a blackjack table of nobodies, that’s really just insecurity with a budget, not "presence"

Sick Chirpse

Jay-Z wipes his Instagram account after being named in the Epstein files. The alleged victim claims she woke up in a room with Harvey Weins

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It hit me after posting my comment that if these "unverified" allegations/rumors/accounts of what happened to victims are true, Jay-Z may have either just left his villa right after the act or been heading that way shortly after losing more money than he was as I sat down at that table!

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AI isn’t futuristic anymore.

It’s here, running in the background of daily life.

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Doctor on How Screen Time Hurts Kids' Cognitive Development

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I Traded a Career for First Steps and Bedtime Stories…

Then Found a Way to Get Both Worlds

I spent 12 years balancing full-time fatherhood with 50-75 hours per week gig driving—until I realized the hours I traded for cash only kept me stuck.

I tried the latest side hustles, but none really paid off.

Now I’m building lasting wealth with a company I overlooked 20 years ago—a trusted service people actually need and a proven system that doesn’t just cover bills, but creates real growth.

This isn’t hype or the next app trend. It works.

Ready for change? Comment INFO or DM your best contact info, and I’ll share the same private business overview that turned things around for me.

No pressure—just a smarter way forward.

Keep driving, or build something that works for you. Your call.

[shawnblog]

'Your addresses didn't match' on the family plan. - The S…

I accepted an invitation to join a family plan. I obviously live at the same address and I was trying to do this while staying there too act

Do better, Spotify!

So my daughter finally hit that milestone moment: she realized she doesn’t like ads interrupting her Spotify playlists. Naturally, she asked me to make her account “like Mama’s”—aka no ads. Funny thing? I offered this months ago, but since I said it out loud, 12-year-old logic dictated she must immediately refuse. Ah yes, the wonder years.

Now you’d think upgrading her account would be simple.

Spoiler: it was not!

First obstacle—Spotify still thinks it’s 2008 and won’t let you do account stuff in the app. Fine. So I hop on a browser, ready to fix it. But, of course, the plot twists faster than a bad telenovela.

Turns out, Spotify’s address verification system is tangled up with the USPS database, which apparently likes to “freestyle” your address depending on its mood. I knew the trick—just re-save your same address and let the database entries correct themselves—but I didn’t want to accidentally kick off some security meltdown, so I checked online first.

I found this Spotify “Community” page, see the big shiny “Solved!” badge, and think, “Great, this’ll be over in five minutes.”

Rookie mistake!

The “solution” was basically: message support from your account and pray. My expectations were low—especially since most companies now hand you a chatbot wearing a customer service badge—but surprise! A real human appeared!

Sadly, enthusiasm died quickly. The rep kept making me redo the same steps like a tech-support Groundhog Day. Twenty-five minutes later, they tell me to "try" updating my account address and attempting again. “Try?” I said. “TRY?” You mean guess my way through Spotify’s broken logic machine? But fine—I did it.

Of course, since irony is alive and well, my original idea ended up fixing it. The process finally worked. And here's the kicker: that magic fix? Not mentioned anywhere on Spotify’s “Solved” page, even though plenty of users have the same problem.

So yeah. Spotify knows. They just prefer to pay support agents to slow-dance around the issue instead of fixing it.

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Starbucks isn’t even trying to hide their clever marketing strategy that’s pushing me toward Nitro Cold Brew addiction.

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This may or may not be the first chili I’ve made since the last time I “blogged” my assortment of chili peppers shortly before turning them into crockpot chili with beans.

For this batch, I loosely followed a recipe I was given by ChatGPT after describing to it all the ingredients I had on hand, including four different types of peppers. I only realized as I was about halfway through the process that my journey into the storage area for the 1980s crockpot I never use other than to make chili or the occasional pot roast was unnecessary because my new favorite recipe is all done on the stove top!

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According to staff at my favorite Starbucks (yes, one of the last with actual cushiony chairs), @starbuckers everywhere today are dealing with a new feature: an app that forces you into a survey about glitches… which itself is a glitch.

Perfect timing too, because I usually open the app at the counter—I haven’t yet embraced the ritual of preloading my latte order into a corporate server before I even leave the house. So instead of paying, I’m stuck with a “How was your app experience?” survey that won’t go away. Spoiler: it’s bad.

Staff tell me this is happening to lots of customers. I’m literally watching another poor soul at the register right now while sipping my Soy Milk Pecan Cortado, trapped in the same Kafkaesque loop.

My theory: iOS 26 broke something and now the app thinks it’s crashing, so it demands a survey about the crash… which crashes into another survey… which crashes into another survey. An endless loop of corporate self-reflection.

And yes, I checked the App Store. Starbucks isn’t even on my update list. Way to go, dev team—really cutting-edge stuff here.

Here’s what I “submitted” through their broken survey system:

I just had the single worst app experience of my life. Yesterday I updated to iOS 26. Today your app traps me in a crash survey that never ends. Staff confirm it’s happening to lots of customers. Restarting the app does nothing. Now I’m standing here with a paper receipt and a barista promising me I can “probably” get points added later. Can you help? Somehow, I doubt it.

Nothing says premium coffee experience like getting trapped in a feedback loop while trying to pay for overpriced beans.

[shawnblog]

Teacher income boost

A conversational AI system that listens, learns, and challenges

After I “told” ChatGPT I was not confident in its ability to do a good job at a task tomorrow, it “thought” I was referring to my own self-confidence and it gave me some ✨

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Why Giving Away This Free App Might Be the Smartest Business Move You’ll Ever Make

Every marketer knows the rule: if you want to grow your business, you need a lead magnet — a free offer that attracts interest, builds…

I'm replacing my unreliable (and dangerous) "rideshare" driving income with this business. I invite YOU to do the same (no matter where your current unreliable income is generated).

[shawnblog]

My Mother (Nancy) is now in her fourth post-stroke year. She recently suffered a much worse stroke. We decided to move her into hospice care at the same facility. She's intermittently disinterested when she's not half-sleeping or fidgeting and she tries to talk, but it's mixed with random numbers and strings of words that none of us can make any sense of. I visit her daily. Sometimes Sophia comes with me on weekdays and we all go on Sunday.

[shawnblog]

ChatGPT be like...

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When Automation Becomes Obstruction: Why I Deleted My LinkedIn Page (and What I’m Building Next)

I tried to do the right thing — keep my brand legit, protect my presence, and follow the rules. But LinkedIn made that almost impossible.

I don’t delete things lightly.

But after wasting nearly an hour trying to fix a growing problem on my LinkedIn business page — and getting exactly nowhere — I deleted the page and walked away. Not because I wanted to, but because LinkedIn has made it almost impossible for real users like me to solve real problems without hitting a wall of automation, bots, and form responses.

Let me explain.

I created a business page for a local brand I’ve used in the past: "Incredible Money." Nothing fancy, just a basic presence to support the work I’ve been doing to help people get smarter with their money and explore better ways to earn. The page wasn’t super active, but it was mine.

Then something strange happened.

I noticed several people — mostly from overseas — were suddenly listing my business as their employer on LinkedIn. People I didn’t know. Total strangers. No connection, no context, just false claims with a live link to my brand. People using a direct clickable link to my LinkedIn business page to legitimize themselves.

No affiliation. No permission. No way to stop it.

LinkedIn’s "Professional" Network Has a Glaring Flaw

You’d think as the page owner, I could reject or moderate false employee claims. Maybe mark them for review. Or at the very least, explain the situation when I flag something as incorrect.

Nope.

There’s no setting to restrict who lists your company as their employer.

There’s no dashboard to view or remove people falsely claiming to work for you.

There’s no “approve request” feature for employees.

And when you try to report it? The form gives you no text box. No nuance. No context. Just radio buttons and a spinning wheel of canned responses.

In a professional setting where reputation matters, this is borderline negligent.

I Gave Up — and Moved On

So, I did what I didn’t want to do: I deleted the page.

Not because the brand wasn’t worth protecting, but because LinkedIn made it easier to torch the whole thing than to preserve its integrity.

And honestly, maybe that was the right move because what this experience reminded me is that you can’t build a castle on someone else's turf.

So I shifted gears.

Building My Own Ecosystem: Household.Name + Save.MoneyMake.Money

In the wake of all this, I’m leaning into platforms I actually own — starting with two projects I’ve been building quietly in the background:

🏡 Household.Name

This is the new umbrella for everything I do: a brand built around the idea that you don’t need to become a “household name” to succeed — you just need to reach the right households. It’s where I’m guiding everyday people who want to build income online without getting buried in tools and tech.

It’s still under construction, but it’s already where I feel more at home than LinkedIn ever made me feel.

💸 Save.MoneyMake.Money

This site is further along — a curated blog that shows how people are stacking cash through smarter savings, side hustles, and surprisingly generous cashback programs. It’s not some hyped-up affiliate jungle. It’s an intentional launchpad for anyone who’s sick of feeling behind financially and wants to start where they are.

I’m not pitching apps directly here — I’m building a community-first DIY agency feel. Quietly powerful. 100% real.

What’s the Takeaway?

If LinkedIn actually cared about platform integrity, it would:

Let page admins manage who claims to work for them.

Offer a real escalation path with a real support person.

Stop leaning on automation in situations that clearly require human judgment.

But until that changes, I’m done pretending they have my back.

Because in a world where more people than ever are trying to start something for themselves — whether it’s a blog, a microbusiness, or a digital agency — control matters.

You can’t build confidently on a platform that doesn’t let you protect your own name.

So yeah, I deleted the page.

But I’m not disappearing.

I’m just building something better.

✅ Want to build something that actually belongs to you?

If you’re tired of relying on platforms that don’t let you control your own narrative — and you’re ready to start building an income you actually own — check out my latest blogs at:

👉 household.name 👉 save.moneymake.money

Let’s stop chasing "credibility" on platforms that won't protect us.

Let’s start owning the platform.

[shawnblog]

Save.Money Make.Money Blogs

Stop Paying for Stuff You Don't Need

Save Money. Make Money. Save on Streaming & Entertainment (without missing out). ATM Fees, Minimums, Monthly Maintenance, and Overdraft Fees

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I feel like there’s so much more I could do here.

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@flickr has the hiccups!