What Mike Tyson Taught Me (No, Seriously) -June's Newsletter

So yeah—literally so much happened this month. Honestly one of the most exhausting months I’ve had in a long time.

Right after I published last month’s newsletter, my friend Levi came up and we went camping, biking, UTVing—you know, just doing a bunch of fun stuff. While we were biking, we found this super dope old cop car, which was just… wild. Then that night while camping, things got crazy. I’m talking movie-scene-level stuff. It started downpouring like mad, and it felt like the rain was coming in sideways. Somehow we lucked out with our tarps and stayed warm. The next morning, we hit a hike—but the trail was totally changed since the last time we were there, because of the hurricane a few months ago.

Tri Cities Junk Pros
My dad and I started a new business called Tri Cities Junk Pros. Basically, we haul junk. That’s it. Not that deep, bro😂. But I got my first two jobs in one day.

I called up my friend Ezra and was like, “Yo, wanna make a quick $15?” He was down, so I picked him up in my old F-250 and we rolled out. (It was way more than $15)
First job? Super easy. We went to this lady’s house, grabbed a mattress out of her backyard, and we were done in 5 minutes. And the pay was solid. While we were doing that, someone else reached out and needed help with a big dresser/cabinet. We pulled up, took it apart, and loaded it up. The lady was super happy and grateful, and honestly, it felt amazing. It almost felt like I was just getting paid to hang out with a friend and lift heavy stuff.

Boys Camp + My Birthday 🎉
Right after that, I headed to boys camp, which was awesome. Oh, and it was also my birthday while I was there. Yeah, I’m now officially a crusty old man (rip💀🙏).

We did ziplining, rock climbing, swam in the lake, played a ton of ultimate frisbee… just had a blast. One funny moment: during a devotional one night, my friend Luke went back to the tent early because it started raining. When the rest of us showed up, we found him scrambling like crazy, trying to soak up water that had leaked into the tent. We had to use half our clothes to dry it out. It was a mess—but honestly super funny.

The Shed Job (Oh gosh...)
So this one was another Tri Cities Junk Pros job—and definitely not what I expected. It was me, Ezra, our friend Brayden (who joined halfway through), and this contractor I know, Chris.

The task? Demolish a shed.
Chris showed us how to use this massive hammer to smash the walls and the roof, and that part was actually fun. But it was way harder than it looked. We started at 9 a.m. and didn’t finish until 6:30 p.m. I learned a lot that day—how to ratchet strap stuff down better, how to use tarps, and that you can fit a ridiculous amount of junk in the back of an old F-250. Oh, and we powered through the whole thing with just cookies and water. 💪

The Washing Machine Job
Another fun one. A guy needed his washer and dryer moved from the second floor of his tiny apartment. Earlier that day, I picked up some appliance lifting straps—a lifesaver. The dryer was easy, but the washer? Way heavier.

We got it on a dolly and ratchet-strapped it, but for some reason, I was the guy at the bottom of the stairs instead of Ezra (who’s 6'3"). As we were going down, the washer slipped and flew like three steps. It felt like an angel caught it mid-air… turns out it was just Ezra, yanking the strap with one hand and the railing with the other. Bro saved my life. We eventually got it down and loaded into the truck—in the rain, of course.

Warehouse Cleanout
This was the job where I really stepped up as team manager. My dad and I rented a trailer and had both our trucks. I brought two friends along and we cleaned out this big warehouse.

Basically, the lady who owned it was a realtor who had been holding stuff for people for 10 years. It was just sitting there. So we went in and cleared the whole place out.

At first, I thought we’d be doing dump runs all day. But most of it went to donation centers instead, which felt awesome. I kept thinking about that Mike Tyson quote:

So true. You can have this perfect plan, but real life always makes you adjust. And that’s exactly what we did.

Trek
Trek is basically this pioneer reenactment trip where you get assigned a “family” and live like it’s the 1800s for a few days. I actually lucked out and got the best family ever. Everyone in it was awesome.

There was a lake, and I ended up teaching three other people how to do backflips off the dock (still working on landing them on ground(again)). We pulled our handcarts in the insanely hot Tennessee heat for three miles, then hit a bunch of stations like axe throwing, archery, dancing, and volleyball. It was honestly one of the most fun group things I’ve done in a while. (We also won the Tug of War tournament)

Music: Album Drop!
My album finally dropped! It’s called "Is This Real?"

The “realest” part of it? The cover photo—I actually took it myself. Everything else is made with AI, but I mainly did all the lyrics and directed how it should sound.

The album is about connecting in a disconnected world. One of my favorite songs is “No Signal,” which is about how even with all the ways we can connect, sometimes we still feel alone. Also, the bass hits hard. Same with “Pluto Hours”—if you’ve got skull-crushing headphones, now’s the time.

It was so cool learning how to actually make an album and get it up on Spotify and everything. Feels surreal. I wrote a book at 15, made the album at 16, and now at 17 it’s out in the world. I’m super proud of it—and don’t worry, I’m not falling off after just one album. 😤

What’s next?
I honestly just want to keep doing more junk jobs. I love it. Every night I come home dead tired, but also feeling like I did something real.

With TailorMadeTunes (the AI music biz I started with a friend), we didn’t get much traction. And I realized I was holding onto it too long. But I learned from that, and now that Junk Pros is taking off, I want to go bigger. Learn as many skills as I can this summer, because this is prime time.

June was a crazy, impactful month. I made progress, great memories, and honestly, it feels like last month was forever ago. I’m stoked to see what happens next.

Thanks for sticking with me. See you in July.
Peace,
Michael