Jerrico Kensington Usher - Writer Extraordinaire

_{A Little About Me...}

In this page I'll give you a good idea of who I am, what I'm about, and hopefully after reading this article you'll know the real me and read some of my work to really get into who I am through my words- the secret portal into my brainwave patterns in real time.

I can't promise you'll know me well enough to perform telepathic communication, but you'll "feel" me like you feel an old friend you know everything about. (I hope)

(but you'll have the advantage as I'll likely know nothing about you...*smiles*)

Well, almost everything. You'll find I'm not a super private person- but I do have a few secrets. You may find your so tuned into who I am that when I read your comments your ears will itch, is that cool?

I write articles as a way to give back to the world and to assure my immortality when I'm gone (or in dreamland, people reading my work will keep me from slipping off into the abyss). I write articles about things I'm passionate about, things I've figured out, and things I want to share (insights) with other people to hopefully remove a few wrinkles and speed bumps out of their journey as well.

Hi, and I want to start by thanking you for showing up to my profile-extension page!

I'm someone who loves to write, loves to learn and regurgitate what I learn into a powerful set of words.

I'm someone deeply in love with his fiance' (Michelle) and in 8 more months, I'll be a daddy to a baby girl (we hope it's a girl) we want to name: Zoey Madison Usher-Thompson.

I'm writing a few books right now, one called "The Luck Source"- that's a pun by the way.
This book is going to be about how to generate luck. No, not with a pebble and a spell, with good clean practicality, resources, and real world adeptness.

It's pretty exciting (go on over to TheLuckSource.com to read the full "review" if you like, it'll blow your mind!

The word "Source" means, well, source (the normal meaning i.e. where luck comes from) but it also means source as in source code of luck- the down and dirty 1's and 0's of "REAL" luck.

The book is far from done but the entire skeleton (TOC) is there, I just have to finish leaking the data out of my head and onto digital paper.

I'm a team player and love to socialize with the community. I'm a joker, I love to make people laugh so hard their drink is filtered through their nose (so much more exciting than just drinking it right?).

I've written literally thousands of articles and at least 1k of them will be migrated here from a site called hubpages, a mere less shiny image of this site.

I have some really fun stuff, some incredible tips/tricks articles including how to get rid of a pimple overnight- and it works! Just ask the 1.3 million people who tried it!

That hub alone made me 300.00 a month- why? Because it was dam popular!

Networking is one of my passions- no man (or women) is an island and there is no "I" in TEAM! I'm a very big team player and I attribute that to all my successes over the years.

I started writing for a living almost exclusively and gained 20 lbs over 4 months but I hear it works well for me.

I was born smiling and laughing and have never lost the optimistic spirit. I came out of the womb like Rodney Dangerfield cracking jokes (but for some reason nobody got them!) I've always been curious about my world, and I've always had a sense of charisma that seems to affect people around me in a way where they see the silver lining of their world.

The only problem with my brand of passion is that if I find myself in a position where I'm feeling negative or irritated I tend to draw out the opposite side of the coin, so I must maintain a positive disposition always (which is fine by me, it feels better!)

Favorites

• Colors: Purple, Royal Blue

• Number: 23 I swear I'm going to hit the lottery with numbers 2,3,5,10,20 and Mega 23

• Car: Viper- current car is a sexy Ford Probe GT

• Food: Steak (med) Eggs (OM) Orange Juice, bacon

• Music: I like a little bit of everything, I lean more towards inspirational music with positive messages. I'm more into the words than the music itself but I like both. My favorite bands are Linkin Park, TuPac, Pink, Usher, Mozart, Jazz, and lately more contemporary beats like the sound track to “Limitless” the movie (no words, great motivation to write music).

• I'm a huge Romantic

• Kinesthetic personality type (how I see my world is intuitive)

I graduated from Valley-Hi High School in 1993 in South Sacramento California. I didn't go to college right away; actually I struggled for the next 8 years before finding myself and deciding to pursue my education.

I never stopped learning however as I have always been an avid reader and researcher (once the internet was invented that is! Yes, I was here before the internet was famous!).

I tried to go to college but found it was excruciatingly slow and I felt like I knew more than the teachers. I likely didn’t but just the molasses feel of learning at that slow and unfocused a rate forced me to quit and take my education to the web where you can learn anything about anything and at your own pace, through your own chosen movements and more.

I found everything I needed online from text books, to online seminars, to taped classes from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to some less Ivy League universities.

It's truly amazing what you can find online these days, including a full college education for free!

A friend of mine told me about how most colleges offer their classes online through taped classroom environments often so if you got sick you could still see the class discussion live.

I took advantage of this by networking with students through forums and websites.

Back then there weren’t any web 2.0 sites (Hubpages, Squidoo, Facebook etc..) really and college online,  although was just being born it wasn't popular or used too much (and not many people even knew it was possible!).

I learned of high schools and colleges offering courses this way and thought I could figure out a way around actually paying for the courses (because I didn't have any money but I needed an education!).

Although I never got a degree or went through college fully in the traditional sense, I have all the education of someone attending 6 years of school. I never had any ambition to get a degree because I had this thing about never wanting to be trapped in the work force or rat race. I knew I’d do my own thing but that the education was vital to achieving that.

I thought if I got a degree I'd end up doing just that in some justification for having the degree and I saw myself as much more than just a worker bee. With the education only I believed that I was unstoppable and could pursue anything I wanted to, and I have always done just that.

The only "degree" I did chase because it pertained to my ability to get work in computer repair, help desk etc.. was Microsoft certifications and A+ certifications.

I got lucky because a friend of my family was starting a certification training school (6 grand a pop to attend) and he offered to let me take the classes for free and even the certification tests if I helped him physically put the school together.

He found a failed cyber cafe and offered to take out all the built in desktops so I helped them to rip it all out and store them  (they were built in so it wasn't just a matter of moving but hard core ripping wood out of the ground and apart from each other.

It was a lot of work, took a week and was very labor intensive, but I ended up getting a 6 thousand dollar education for free (well worked instead of paid).

I carry MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Technician; Charter Member), MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), and A+ certifications.

At one point after going through many "video taped classes" (in psychology and required courses) and getting the books to go along with the courses, I thought about becoming a psychologist/Psychiatrist.

I pondered going back through the school process for a degree but decided to first join 100 forums for psychologists hang outs and learned a lot (and was actually able to apply the principals I learned with diagnosing mock cases that real doctors were stumped on and thus asking one another in the forums for their educated guess. Did you know they actually publicly discuss patient issues (anonymously of course) and ask for each others advice? I was surprised too!

I entered the forums and became a regular. I realized that I could get real world experience through these forums and spent a couple of years interacting for about 8 hours a day. This was my version of post grad school.

People didn't question my credentials (which I had none officially) but since I could "talk shop" and knew the diagnosis recipes, they assumed I was one of them.

To be clear I never told anyone I went to school, had a degree, or was in any way a doctor/psychiatrist/psychologist they just assumed I was because I knew just about everything they did (because I took the same courses and had the same text books they did, although I knew they actually knew more than me which was part of why I was there. To see this data in real time use!

I was the only one with no "PHD" or any letters after my name displaying degrees or certifications in psychology go figure.

The emails of new posts kept hitting my box and all I had to do was answer people's questions and offer my educated opinions on therapy and diagnosis. They too would correct my diagnosis and information and I learned a new dimension of human psychology. A lot of students were in there too so they likely assumed I was in school, as the doctors all had credentials next to their name.

I was just regurgitating what I saw in their case with what I learned in classes, books, etc..

I learned a lot in these processes. Many of the them thanked me for figuring out what they couldn't remember to try. Talk about validation for my education being useful!

I found I had a knack for psychology but decided I didn't want to listen to people telling me their problems all day and decided to learn the wisdom/knowledge and find a 'more suitable to my passions' way to apply this education.

In training through the forums I got to hear the quick version of the problem and didn't have to hear any hard luck stories or depressing sessions. It was analytical at best which made it stimulating to me.

After 4 years of studying psychology every chance I got using the power of the internet to self educate using text books, video taped classes and forums and the like, I discovered the power to find myself through this medium.

Dr. Phil's book Life strategies really opened my eyes to a lot of things and to apply my wisdom and help others. It was after reading Self Matters and Life strategies around the age of 24 that I became ambitious to learn about how psychology played a role in self esteem and mental health.

I figured what better way to help people than psychology and self esteem?! I actually utilized all this training to help myself then applied lessons to helping others understand life better. I’m still no expert but I am pretty good at figuring things out.

I decided to start my company "The Jerrico Effect" (no longer around officially, I ditched it to start writing) which started out as a solution to insomnia but became one of my life's most challenging yet educational on the job training courses.

I developed amazing insight into the human condition over the next 4 years and generated a product line of 40 Meditation/self help CD's mainly for self esteem awareness and insomnia relief.

I was able to network all of my skill-sets and to motivate myself to learn even more to generate and run a business. I learned like Henry Ford to hire experts around me and paid them based on profits. I was amazed how many people were willing to barter for their work and expertise (and I did see their credentials).

I’ll go more into my self-made business ventures below the next section…

I'm engaged to a gorgeous, intelligent, compassionate and above all PATIENT woman-

Michelle- the love of my life. I live in Bend, Oregon. I moved here almost 2 years ago from California. I've since adopted the terms "Oregon is a Paradise" while "Sacramento is a Concrete Paradise".

Trees and beautiful foliage truly inspire more than concrete and bad air! I'll never leave this paradise!

For years I learned to make music for meditation and insomnia relief purposes. Over time I developed an entire line of CD's and a business was born. I ran it for 4 years then decided to try something else. Once I developed 40 CD's the "fun part" of the business was over and the "manufacture and ship" part began.

I decided to stop, hoping to pick it up later (4 years later I'm still not ready to do it). The CD's sold like hotcakes and people loved them, they eventually were pirated and even blasted on internet radio stations. It was making the music that I adored, I had self taught myself Adobe Audition and became quite proficient at it. I would eventually utilize these skills later in voice-over work and screen capture (with zooms etc...) tutorials.

One of the things I'm about to embark on is marketing videos for  the company I now work for. They want to create a whole section of the business just for this.

I wanted to use my brain more and write. This period of my life was a great deal of fun but I was ready to move on to a more consistently stimulating concept- writing and stimulating my creative and curious side.

I wanted to get out of the Meditation CD business and move to writing pastures... The writer in me was calling me (again) ...

At some point it was no longer enough and I wanted to move in a new direction. In building all my websites (ads for my CD's and distributors on eBay to use to sell them) I did a lot of writing and discovered I had a knack for writing and really enjoyed it.

I didn't just write "sales copy" I hated that stuff and knew everyone else did too. I innovated to create educational pieces to sell the CD's. If they didn't buy them at least they learned how to manually fix issues like self esteem, insomnia, and more. People loved these articles and that pushed me to want to write. I didn't end up writing for 3 years though, I rejoined the "rat race" and never had time nor energy after work.

The calling kept wispering in my ear at night and I started to blog. That lead me to hubpages and the rest is history.

I had written several books (but not finished any of them) over the years and at some point decided to spread my wings in a new direction.

I had acquired an incredible pedigree of skill sets from web design, to computer science, to psychology and many more over the years.

I always generate projects, careers, even took jobs for no other reasons than to learn a skill to reach a goal (of course I did it to pay bills too but that wasn't my motivation for where I would work).
I found myself wanting to use all my skill sets as I did in my company but I wanted to be more passive than business like. I wanted to write and earn a living with it. It finally became time to figure this out- I guess the timing had to be right- or is it write?

I worked for a while at Wal-Mart moving pretty quickly into management from cashier (within 6 months), and got my managerial skills upgraded. I hated the way they treated employees or how they wanted me to treat my cashiers but I persevered for no other reason than to learn management skill-sets.

I learned a lot about management in my company but this was a different angle. After Wal-Mart wasn't working out I had saved enough to just take about 4 months off.

This is when I found HubPages.

I'll just briefly talk about my HubPages career. I found HubPages when I was on Craig's list looking for a writing gig. I had no idea how to generate money from writing other than to publish books or write magazine articles. I knew there was a way, there were always ads on websites and sites with multiple authors- I wanted to become one!

With a rough start I ironed out the wrinkles (both socially and intellectually/author in me) and started to produce some good hubs that even I liked to revisit. (which will now become “pages” here).

Writing for me is very therapeutic and allows me to write my journal in a way that is fun and helps others through my trials and tribulations, insights and awareness.

I stumbled upon a great online job where I work now full time. After Wal-mart I decided to bow out of managerial jobs (stress) and go back to working where I could interact with people. After 4 months of a break, I became a bit of a hermit and needed my people skills back! I got 2 jobs, one graveyard as a waiter, one as a cashier in the day shift (I slept at night or wrote on HP).

I was able to quit both my jobs at Mel's Diner (waiter) and Lowe's (cashier) to do this full time and generate twice what I made at both places combined.

I write articles for a content creation company and I've never been happier. I'm now in full control of my schedule, earning potential, and I have a boss that is truly amazing.

Imagine your boss actually listening to your suggestions, hearing your needs and paying real bonuses (not just promising them).

I haven't heard an alarm clock, woken up before noon, or felt like I had to "work" for a living  in over 3 years. The only exceptions are when I don’t want my lazy side to kick in and sleep 16 hours only to find myself useless to anyone :) especially myself on my day’s off! (not sure what that is anymore- days off)

It's truly possible to ditch the offline slave labor jobs to work here in online earning haven. I started using my writing skills and now have more skill sets than I can even remember at once!

I get stumped when someone asks what I do, simply because I do so much I haven’t been able to quantify it- so I just stick with “Writer, manager (I manage writers for a content provider company), and Netrepeneur!”

There are literally 1000's of ways to make money and all fun (different people like different ways). I love to write and manage writers in my "day job" (4pm-10pm but no hard times I have to be there) as well as freelance to supplement my income.

I enjoy writing on various sites, (but have just left HubPages) because not only can I write what I want with no pressure, but my writing literally pays my rent every month and bills!

Many would say I’m living the dream but I’m not quite there yet- I dream bigger always to keep me moving up.

My writing became quite popular because of the subjects I picked. The detail I offered as well as innovative looks into all things psychology seemed to be what people wanted to read. Having a captive audience helps motivation to keep writing; in fact for me it fueled it.

Since the beginning of my author career - a passive income at this point- I've been fascinated by crowd-sourcing sites, its creators, and its communities. It is possible to earn what you make right now at your menial job (12k/year or 1-2k a month or so) full time. I’m living proof.

If you write articles a certain way and consistently you can in time generate a passive income that grows as you write.

There is a "docking" period usually 6 months to a year where you earn less until you build up your skill sets in many areas, but most of that time is learning the basics of writing the right way. Luckily- EVERYTHING I learned over 4 years at Hubpages is applicable instantly here- just a new venue same concepts.

I love how my articles AND my education are all transferable to a new site. You’re not locked down to a site that doesn’t treat you fairly. I look forward to seeing this is dynamic, so far it’s pretty incredible.

I spent the past 6 years (4 on HP 2 years before that just writing journals of what I learned with a real pen and paper!) writing and learning how sites like this one, Squidoo, Hubpages, and others worked- how the sites tick in detail.

My goal was to crack the algorithm and to learn how to make the most money possible there consistently.  This later lead to my ability to do it HERE consistently. Some topics I write on are:

• Writing

• Psychology

• Adobe Photoshop (image manipulation for websites, articles, and projecting (dream board building))

• Adobe Audition (music creation and sound effects etc...)

• Camtasia (video creation, editing, tutorial building etc...)

• Website building (writing, images, videos, articles, all of the above!

• Teaching, learning consistently

    ... And more

I enjoy manifesting things into being, especially innovative things. I also enjoy improving upon things including inventions, sites, business models, marketing, psychology tools, and especially inventions that become products (so far I've not tried to market any of them but have created many for other companies and friends with companies).

I also love solving problems and am quite good at it- especially on computers. I'm an adept computer user although programming code I've dabbled in is a bit more complex than I'm comfortable with- but HTML I'm pretty good at.

Many have called me a jack of all trades or a MacGyver, but I’m just always learning, growing, adapting, and expanding my knowledge-base so nothing, no problem, or challenge- is out of reach. I enjoy the journey to learning more than the destination!

I have a passion for helping people and teaching people to become their best self. I have a passion to share my knowledge everything I learn, that I've EARNED through blood sweat and tears so others can (l)earn like I do. It's truly exciting to make money doing what you truly enjoy doing.

All the things in my past lead me to and set me up for what I do today. Had I not crashed my windows operating systems a bazillion times, and pushed myself to learn as many skill sets as possible- I'd not be in a position to control my life like I can now.

Everything in my life is the product of my past but nothing hard, hurtful, or challenging exists in my mind- only the lessons acquired and the growth it caused.

Below I talk about where I am now...

We have:

• 3 cats

• two adults

• a kitten

• an exotic underwater Axolotl

• 3 fish tanks full of gold fish (big and small) and counting

• a cute hamster. Me and Michelle absolutely love to surround ourselves with “life”.

• Michelle brought the two adult cats

• we got the baby/kitten together (we got all the other animals/pets together).

• Our white and black spotted cuddle bug cat is named Blue (like little boy blue, not my favorite name for a cat but...).

• Our Calico Cat is a bit of a "baby" hence her name "Baby" is shy and hides all day

• Our newest addition "Lexi" we adopted from the SPCA at about 4 months, she's an amazingly cool kitten as ambitious and curious about the world as I am :).

• We got the Axolotl in Sacramento at a pet store when I went there to visit Riann/Hailey my god children, and the fish-  

• We keep wanting more (and more tanks! nice feng shui, we love to surround ourselves with life of all kinds.

I published currently over 1,000 articles!!! On topics ranging from Making Money Online to Eyeball bling to psychology to cabinets and laminate flooring.

All of these are perfected and ready to publish but were until recently on HubPages- so it may take some time to learn this site, figure out how to get all the content on here efficiently and effectively (and of course pretty-ily), but you will start seeing more and more as time goes by.

My goal is to have them all up and start writing new stuff specifically from here, in about 6 months.

The Mission:

My interests are varied, very varied, and I’ve always been curious how the world around me works, both mentally and physically. (if your on or have been on this same mission, my articles should prove a gold mine of information- if nothing else, to use to research your own answers).

You could say work I’ve done over the past 6 years (writing articles) has paid off and continues to pay off even now that I stopped writing like I used to. I refer to my own articles consistently for insights and as a shortcut when telling a friend “how” something works or “how” to make money online or “how to not feel lost” and so on.

You’d be surprised how much you learn and forget only a month later, especially if you have your hand in 100’s of projects and groups!

You’d also be surprised how much more effective it is to show your friends a fully compiled, researched article answering their question better than you could tell them yourself! (we always miss the details in conversation).

To remember or re-acquire insights, I browse through my articles often using keywords (like Googling my question) and often I’ve written a article detailing the problem and solution, or ideas, and even many humorous articles about how to write better articles, and more…

Often I’ll get a comment about an article I long forgot about, and I’ll go back to read it and am myself astonished with the details I forgot (and now remember again with clarity)!

I love to write and share my wisdom… my wisdom is the consolidation of all those who’ve come before me and taught me, showed me, or that I’ve read online or in books and magazines. I love to learn, and I love to share.

Writing articles about things that interested me, but like many of you I wanted to make money with my writing. That was the goal, but 6 years later I discovered that making money completely online was not only possible, it’s not too hard to do (just very time consuming, but worth it in the long run).

There is a lot of work getting your first 150 articles written, and often it takes that many before you start to see triple digit checks, but many of you will, like me, land that one article that takes off and all by itself can earn 100.00 a month by itself.

I thought it was a fairy tale to make 100+ a month from ONE article, but I did it (quite by accident).

I wouldn’t be where I am today had I not found community writing platforms and started writing articles.

It took me 2 years to even start to see 50.00 a month, but I also didn’t try to promote anything, but once your articles (if they are potent in information, not just a bunch of articles but GOOD articles people want to read) reach 100+ you start to see magic.

In a previous relationship almost a decade ago I raised a cute little girl named Riann. She was two years old when I met her mother, whom was devorced and pregnant with Hailey. I raised hailey from birth to about 9 years old and Riann from 2 years old till about 8 (they are still in my life but live in another state).

The girls will always be my babies, and they come up here every summer for a few weeks (and we go down to Sacramento where they live all the time too).

The video above was about 9 and 11 years old and they are doing a school cheer and trying to be funny :).

In Conclusion…

So that's the most personal/business sides of me in a nutshell. Of course if you want to know more then you should read my articles as it simply doesn't get any more personal than my writing. I write in a unique style (I’ve been told) that has a fingerprint so to speak of who I am embedded. I find that later when Zoey is old enough she can read my articles here and know a whole other side of daddy.

I don't hold back in my writing, what you see/read is what you get. I write 90% personal struggles, growth, insights, psychology, Romance, Humor and 10% fascination, science fiction, and other things.

I'm honored your reading this!

If you want to read about my Entrepreneurial Adventures from 9 years old till today, that article is coming. I was buying and selling goods in the 7^th grade (blow pops mainly at first) and realized that resources are all around you- you just have to take initiative!

Take a look around, and if you have any questions shoot me an email!

Thank you for reading this page, enjoy my emporium of ezines!
Comments are welcome!