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Randy Couture, his family, and pro M.M.A. fighters raise money for disabled American Veterans with a little help from Shoemoney and Purposeinc. A story in pictures.

Shoemoney, Friday morning. This is a typical reaction to my driving.

We spent the day at Randy Coutures Gym for Mixed Martial Arts.

This place was seriously for training. Note above “By the Shake Machine”

We met with Ryan Couture, Randy’s son. Also are Jeremy’s new Fighters.com shirts. They are actually red, and look cool, but show up orange in some of my photos.

This is Gina Carano fighting. She also is Crush on American Gladiators. She was lighthearted, funny, bad ass and hot all at the same time. The pros train there from 4 to 6 each day. Ryan and Randy were gracious enough to let us sneak in. You can also watch the training each day online for a fee.

Gina going to town. She was only training with guys by the way, and they did not seem to be pulling any punches.

This is Mike Whitehead in the middle of training. He trained hard. At first glance like myself he looks like a big, mean guy. Once you get to know him, he is really nice, and fun.

Here is one of the gloves they use. You will notice there is a little padding but not much. Jeremy says that when they have tested these, the force of a punch is about the same as if you had no gloves on at all.

Friday night, my wife Jo (Jorunn) and I, went to Mainland, a new restaurant in the Palazzo hotel and casino by the Venetian. Mainland was unreal, a good bargain, and has a picture of Mao and Elvis as their main graphic.

Pad Thai, I wish I had some now.

Saturday morning Randy Couture had the 5K to raise money for his charity, the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation. Shoemoney and I posed with a group of Marines there to run the event.

Here is Randy with everyone ready to start the race.

This is Randy, his pretty wife Kim (Sugar Free) Couture (also an MMA fighter) and some of the guys who have gone face to face with I.E.D.’s and other Middle Eastern Explosives. Notice the artificial running legs. These were way cool!, and Randy’s charity buys these for some of the guys.

The U.S. Marines had a color guard. The played the national anthem. As they played the national anthem with me and Shoemoney standing by Randy, and the disabled Veterans, I really felt a sense of responsibility as an American to help take care of these individuals who had sacrificed so much for America.

Randy was so surprisingly sweet and nice it would have blown you away. He is not that huge of a guy, but simply a brilliant and able fighter. His eyes just glowed and he exuded warmth and took time to talk to anyone who walked up to him. Having someone like this at the pinnacle of such a sport serves as an incredible role model for millions, of warmth, generosity, and patience. I was really moved by Mr. Randy Couture.

Randy Couture and me! As a kid I studied a few types of martial arts. The argument was always there as to which martial art is best, Kung Fu, Thai Kwon Do, Kempo, Shotokan, or one of the others. The fascinating thing about Ultimate Fighting, or MMA, is that it sorts this out. You feel very safe when standing next to the best fighter in the world.

When the race started the marines took off running in cadence, which means that they have a Marine chant that they sing as they run.

Here is Shoemoney with Randy Couture. I was real happy to be part of that moment, because I know how much Jeremy loves M.M.A.

These were two of the veterans coming across the finish. The one guy obviously is running on one of the cool racing legs. The other guy lost both of his eyes doing what he believed in. It really brings to mind how committed is one to the things he believes in. How much are you willing to sacrifice for what you believe in?

Here is Kim Couture and Mike Whitehead finishing the race. By this point it was probably coming up on 100 degrees.

Here come the Marines at the end of the run. Randy stood right out there in the heat, smiling and taking pictures through the whole run.

Here is Mr. Jeremy Schoemaker and Kim Couture.

This was awesome. This guy came up to Shoemoney and said that he was a reader of Shoe’s blog.

This is Douglas Charlie Fenton. He has been blown up by I.E.D.s (those improvised bombs) three different times. If you ever find yourself giving up after a little adversity, just think of him. Can you imagine after having two of those things blow up on you still sticking with it and going out to do your job again?

Jeremy (Shoemoney) was the major sponsor of the run, so they put the new fighters.com logo on all of the bottles.

I asked Kim if she would put on a Fighters.com t-shirt for a photo. She happily agreed. Then afterwards I asked if she wanted to keep it. She said “Of Course!”

I then asked Kim Couture if she would get me in a Choke Hold for a photo. It looks cute and funny, but I could feel the pressure, and there is no way that I could have gotten out of it.

I just think this picture is adorable. Jeremy puts out an image of being kind of tough and edgy. There is also what I consider the real him underneath, and I think this picture really captures it.

Just a dam fun photo.

Mike was just the coolest guy. When you saw him fight he looked bad ass as all hell. As soon as he was off the mat he was all smiles and jokes. Right after this picture I asked Mike if he would take off his shirt and trade with me so we could get a fighters.com shirt on him for a photo. He didn’t even hesitate, and just ripped off his shirt. I did too, but I think Mike looked more impressive.

This is Mike Whitehead with Shawn Tompkins Bulldog. Shawn, not in the picture, is Randy Couture’s trainer.

From left to right we have Kim Couture, then Ryan Couture’s girlfriend who was so cute i could barely stand it, then Ryan Couture, then Valerie who handles scheduling and business matters for Randy who was also drop dead beautiful. Randy surrounded himself with gorgeous women working with him.

More importantly each and every one of them were as sweet as can be including Randy, his kid, and Shawn who i never got a photo of. I honestly expected a little bravado and tough guy fronts from their group.

I personally have interviewed thousands of people over the past 20 years, and consider myself and expert on judging and choosing staff. Randy has hand picked a group of the nicest, warmest people I have ever met. In fact the ONLY other place I have ever seen such a concentration of sweet people is my chiropractic office.

Randy Couture with me in a rear naked choke. What can I say about this one?

They had a raffle and after the first few prizes were won, I looked over at Jeremy and said “You will win the next one!” He didn’t, but he won the prize after that. Jeremy won a t-shirt with a bunch of the top pros signatures on it. The next prize was the same thing, and I won!

This nice woman looked at me and said with a sad look in her eyes, “You won my prize! I wanted to win that!” I almost felt guilty enough to give it to her. I am glad I didn’t because of what happened next.

The same woman then won the next two prizes in a row! First she won a signed lithograph or poster of Randy. Then on the next drawing she won a ONE HOUR TRAINING SESSION WITH RANDY!!!! Then I was jealous of her.

As we left the event Jeremy whipped out his Airbook. He has a way cool, I am going to buy one this week, Sprint internet card. You can see it hanging off the back right part of his computer, and resting on the armrest. It looked like a little cord that plugs into the USB and that is it. It was way fast. He then downloaded all of the photos off of my camera and got them onto his blog before I even was back to the hotel!

I went back to the gym and ran into Shawn Tompkins. This guy is Randy Coutures trainer. A formidable fighter himself, he has also trained 10 different national and international champions in different styles. So there were a few things that were pretty crazy about meeting him. First off, again, was this warm smile and truly open heart. You could just feel it. The other thing, and I hate to even mention it because I feel like it is my personal secret, is this. For $150 you can get trained by Shawn. Look, I am in Vegas about 4 plus times per year on business. I usually mostly work, walk around with my wife, eat, and go swimming. From now on when I go to Vegas I am going to call Shawn.

For the price of what you will lose in Las Vegas at the lowest limit table at the Mirage in 30 minutes, you can get trained by someone who is arguably the best fight trainer in the world. I am so pumped about this, that I might just need to take another trip out there soon to take advantage of this.

You may have seen this fight on pay per view. They charged 25 cents and we had 2 viewers.

Just standing in that ring bouncing up and down makes you feel like you want to fight someone. I am sure if someone had just tapped my nose, I would have ended up crying and getting the Lysol and gloves by the shake machine.

My wife and Shoemoney at the Wynn hotel. I always think it is kind of funny when my real life world and the cyber world intersect. Usually it is my wife sitting on the couch while I tell her about this or that that Shoe or Matt Cutts said.

Just a cool picture.

Thanks for looking at all of this.

To the whole Couture family, Love you guys! Thanks for being such gracious hosts!

Readers, Please leave a comment so I can hear what you thought!

Internet Marketing can take you places.

Places you never dreamed of.

Most of what I have done has been to do well in Google, so I have followed the Google Sensei Matt.

He has led me on the path of do first, write what you do, then others may link to you.

As a result of this, I try to do things, especially things that help others, even if only to make them happy.

My other teachers like the old Chinese Monks in the Temple, Stefan Juhl, the Mad Hat, Mr. Shoe, Pamelund, and others have taught me other ways to view the same elephant.

The poker tournament is coming up in November at Pubcon. Today was crazy with all the e-mails going back and forth with the Venetian hotel, dealing with everything from Security to what I can do for the sponsors, to how we can get enough food and drinks for the players and guests.

This weekend, for reasons I can not yet disclose, I am going to Vegas to meet up Mr. Shoe himself.

The destination?

On Friday Jeremy and I are going to the Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts Gym to meet with Ryan Couture the son of Randy Couture. Randy is the 5X world champion in mixed martial arts. He has been the world champ in two classes.

Jeremy is the main sponsor of their charity 5K run to raise money for American Veterans who have been severely injured. I am not a huge fan of any war, but as an American, and a friend to many warriors (meaning Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Air Force guys), I take responsibility for the actions of our country even if I don’t agree with those actions 100%.

I am very proud to help support Randy’s charity, which is doing some real good, for some guys who gave it all for us, and are now being asked to give it all every day for the rest of their lives as a result of what they lost.

On Saturday during the run, Jeremy and I are scheduled to meet with Randy Couture, 5 time Heavyweight Mixed Martial Arts Champion of the world.

So here I sit, writing my blog, tomorrow night I pack, and then on Thursday night I am off to Vegas, to meet up with Jeremy (Shoemoney) Schoemaker, and Randy Couture, the heavyweight champ.

This Internet Marketing Stuff really can take you places, huh?

Much Love

dk

Over the past 6 months I have run into this really nice guy by the name of Scott Skinger.

First he was in the poker tournament. Here he is seated between Dan Perry, the guy who won, and some other bald guy wearing sun glasses. He blogs on mountany stuff and also has a site that does computer stuff video training.

Then I ran into him again at the Elite Retreat.

Scott is the one with the red arrow pointing toward his head.

By the way, that was one heck of a dinner with one heck of a group of people. The amount of brilliance at the table that night was amazing.

So anyways, Scott is this really nice guy who I keep bumping into. There are many people like this we all meet. Great guy, but I can’t remember exactly what he does. You remember he is polite, considerate, warm, which are all the basics, but it is not enough to really seal the deal in business.

So what does it take?

It takes Brownies!!

Yesterday I am at my chiropractic office. Usually my chiropractic office and my Internet businesses do not intersect very often. But I am standing at work, right after treating a patient, and one of my staff walks over and goes “Who is Scott Skinger”?? I think for a moment, Scott? Scott? Oh yeh! They nice guy from the poker tournament and the Elite Retreat.

I ask her why?

She says, he sent you brownies!

My ears perk up, and curiosity sets in.

Sitting in front of me is a box of brownies. They had a nice personal note with them thanking me for having dinner with him, and how nice it was to meet me and my wife.

There is no sales pitch in the note. No asking for anything. In fact I had to Google Scott to even see what his sites were.

So my wife and I have eaten two of the brownies, and the rest are in the freezer to be consumed slowly over time.

Scott got my attention. I already knew and liked him, but now with the brownies I will never forget him for the rest of my life.

As a result of Scott being a great guy and getting my attention he got this article written about him.

So what is the lesson in this. Do something nice. Send someone some fricken brownies for gosh sake, knit them a hat, especially someone with a blog, and see what happens? Just ask yourself, unless you are Jeremy, who gets more free crap than anyone else in the universe , how often does someone send you a nice thank you?

You can’t pay for links or you will get busted by Google right? But no one can ever stop you from being nice. All of the cool links I have ever gotten were simply by doing nice stuff for people. I have had cartoons drawn of people, had a poker tournament, brought burritos and chiropractic to firefighters etc. etc. Just do nice stuff for people with websites, and see what happens!

We have been working with Randy Couture’s organization, Xtreme Couture GI Foundation to try to come up with something special for a project coming up. If you don’t know who he is, Randy is the 5 time world champ in mixed martial arts.

In talking to Randy’s son, I found out about the 5K charity run they are having in Vegas weekend after the one coming up.

The money from Randy’s charity goes to help American troops who have suffered massive losses. Examples of this would be guys who lost their arms or legs, and are on their way to becoming homeless.

If you want to mention it on your blog, I am sure Randy will be very appreciative.

Stay tuned to this blog for something exciting to be announced in the next few weeks!

As anyone who knows me knows, I have a special spot in my heart for wordcamp San Francisco, the original!

In fact when it comes to wordpress and Matt Mullenweg I am like a crazed Beatles fan from the 60’s.

This year it has been announced that Wordcamp San Francisco will be on August 16 at the Mission Bay Conference Center.

I am actually going to miss the overheated, no where to sit, no way the bathrooms could stay totally clean, no where to park, gritty feel of the Swedish American Hall.

It should be a blast!

The wordcamp site is not taking signups yet although I check it every week or so.

I will keep snooping around until I figure out where to sign up, then I will post it here.

I highly recommend you go! Where else can you hang out for like a half hour asking Matt Cutts questions because nobody else there knows who he is. This year though, I smell a change in the air…

By the way, while we are waiting for wordcamp 2008 san francisco to begin, start thinking about what the ultimate snack would be to eat while you are listening.