About

I don't consider myself a great writer. Yet, writing has continuously been a doorway that's led me to wealth and success. It's funny how that works.

My interpretation about myself and my life has changed over the years. As of today, February 17, 2023, I will provide my best effort to introduce, and explain, who I am. Should you revisit this page in the future, don't be surprised if you see a different version. I'm human, after all — I evolve!

The Basics

Let's start with some general info.

Hello, my name is Raymond Duke. I was born in 1982 which makes me 41 at the time of this post. I'm an American. My parents and grandparents are from America, too. My ethnicity is mixed; my mother's family is originally from Mexico and my father's from Eastern Europe.

Visually, I looked Hispanic growing up. I had dark skin, dark features, etc. This created a contrast with my last name — Duke — and teachers would often look confused when calling my name during roll call.

I was a good boy growing up. Straight A's in grade school and in the third grade, I won a state award for a story I wrote about elves living in a tree. But around the time I became a teenager, my life took a different direction. I was lost, confused, and cared more about being cool than being successful.

After attending five different high schools due to moving or expulsion, I dropped out. Looking back, I was damn lucky. I did things — bad things — that could've put me in juvenile hall (i.e., a prison for young people). I lost friends due to drugs as well. Fortunately, I never got sucked into hard drugs. Probably because I seen how they destroyed the lives of people I knew.

Around the age of 18-19, I had the realization that I didn't want to become a disappointment for my mother. I wanted to get back on track, but I wasn't able to do so while living with my family. I needed freedom and independence to figure things out.

This feeling grew inside of me until, one day, I packed my things and told my mother, "I'm outta this hell hole" and left home. For the next few weeks, I slept in my car while making money operating a CNC machine at a iron factory in Wilmington, California.

Eventually I saved enough to move into a motel. Things weren't much better. There were shootings outside, roaches in my room, and drug deals happening in the hallways outside my room. But I was alone. I had space to think and develop.

For the next several years, I worked odd jobs and upgraded my living conditions. It's important to note that it didn't happen overnight. I was on my own, figuring things out, and trying to find what I wanted to do with my life. I also attended community college and even got a degree at California State University, Long Beach. After graduating, and being 33,000 USD in debt, the number one thing I learned was this: I like writing.

It was an expensive lesson. The good news, I developed my writing and skillset to make that money back — and so much more.

Initial Breakthroughs

Around the same time I was graduating college, in my late 20s, I got into copywriting. In a nutshell, copywriting is sales in print. It's the art and science of using writing to help businesses make money. Since I liked writing and needed money, it was the ideal opportunity for me to pursue.

In my early days of being a copywriter I took any job I could. While this paid the bills, it wasn't that enjoyable most of the time. For example, writing copy about office chairs isn't very interesting.

One of the first breakthroughs I had was offering product description writing for people selling on Amazon. This was a nice niche to get into at the time. After making a page on my site that offered this service, I started ranking on Google and getting people to pay me — upfront — for my services. Aside from the payments, it was fun getting all kinds of random products sent to me weekly.

Another breakthrough I had was feeling comfortable enough to actually charge what I needed instead of what I felt I could get. It happened after a consultation I had with someone who contacted me on my website. Because they contacted me, I knew they were interested and willing to pay.

Toward the end of the call when she asked, "How much?", I looked at my notes and, after a short pause, said "$30,000". She paused for a moment and said, "Okay". I was thrilled, but kept my excitement inside until the call was finished.

I had more breakthroughs over the years and this eventually led to me thinking: "Why work at home when I can work from anywhere in the world?"

Traveling Nonstop, All Year Long

I can thank a friend of mine, named Jeremy, for opening my eyes to traveling. He was someone I was working with at the time who was spending time in Cape Town, South Africa. On Tuesday, he said invited me to join him. On Friday, I was there.

During the trip he asked if I booked a one-way flight. I didn't understand. I had booked a roundtrip because I thought that's what you do when you travel. How naive I was. Because he was going to Tanzania after South Africa, and said I should join, I cancelled my roundtrip.

We had spent about a month in South Africa. I even rented a car and drove to Port Alexandria. During the trip, I rode an ostrich and bungee jumped off a bridge.

I ended up traveling for the rest of the year, only to go back to America for a short time and travel the world again. I eventually lived and worked from 40 different countries.

I wouldn't be the man I am today without traveling. Traveling is arguably the most-important thing that's influenced who I am and how I view the world. I have many, many stories. I'll do my best to reference them on my blog in the upcoming months and years.

Expectactions

As this is my personal blog, I intend to write about the things I'm interested and involved in. One day, I write something business related – like a new discovery I'm involved in for making money. The following day, it could be a peanut butter cookie recipe I like.

One of the regrets I have about my writing is I was too focused on quality. That's not to say the things I've written in the past were of high quality. It's more like, I was trying too hard to write top-quality content.

I realize this was a mistake that was holding me back. That's why my goal as of now is quantity over quality. By focusing on quantity, I'm increasing the chances for high-quality writing to flourish.

There's of course more to me than what I've written here on this page. But if you've read this far, you now have a good idea about who I am, what I've done, and where I plan to go.

Thanks for being a reader of my site. See in on my blog.