Robyn Reese @4dsandr

A couple years ago, Mikala Sposito applied for a work ethic scholarship from my foundation. She asked for $2,700.00 to help realize her dream of becoming a welder. (Actually, her first dream was to become an Olympian. As a kid, she excelled at horseback riding, dance, soccer, and track, but not quite at the Olympic level. So, Mikala adjusted her dream and focused on something within her reach. Precisely the kind of commonsense approach to making a living we try to encourage.) Toward that end, Mikala filled out the application, jumped through all the necessary hoops, and signed the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, as all applicants must. According to our internal ranking system, which is inherently subjective and relative to each batch of new applicants, Mikala scored a 94, and was awarded $2,100.00, or roughly 80% of what she asked for. This is typical of the average percentage awarded to an excellent applicant. As a rule, we almost never award the entire amount requested. We want our recipients to have some skin in the game, and we encourage all applicants to apply for additional scholarship funds elsewhere, which Mikala did. But in this case, if I had it to do over again, I think I’d have awarded Mikala the full $2,700.00. Why? Because this woman is precisely why I award work ethic scholarships in the first place, as recent headlines prove. Headlines all over the country that identify Mikala Sposito as the sole welder to represent Team USA in the upcoming @WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai. This is a very big deal. The World Skills competition is often referred to as the Olympics of the skilled trades, so it looks like Mikala’s dream is coming true after all. And it seems to me her journey is worth a brief encapsulation. Before she applied for a scholarship from mikeroweWORKS, Mikala demonstrated an affinity for welding in SkillsUSA. As a senior at Dexter High School, she won 1st Place at the SkillsUSA Michigan high school competition and went on to place 14th nationally. Then, as a freshman at Washtenaw Community College, she repeated her success by taking 1st Place in the Michigan college division. She then advanced to nationals, where she finished 8th in the country. That earned her an invitation to the Team USA pre-trials, which whittled the nation's top 16 young welders down to three. At the final USA Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama, each competitor was evaluated on precision, safety, technical execution, craftsmanship, and multi-process capabilities under extreme time constraints. Mikala Sposito took the Gold, officially becoming the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills. Next week, she’ll face off against the absolute best of the best from all over the world. I should point out that Mikala would prefer it if the press didn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand. (She’s a welder – not a “weld-her.”) But today, the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female. At mikeroweWORKS, our female applicants are closer to 20%, but I assure you that percentage could be much higher. Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove that in spades, and I want to offer her my sincere congratulations, and invite all of you to do the same. Because Mikala Sposito is exactly what our country needs a lot more of. People who understand that talent is never enough to compensate for laziness. In her application, she wrote, “Hard work beats talent any day of the week, and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.” She also connected with every point of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge but said the final tenet resonated with her the most. “Some people choose to be lazy. Some people choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.” My favorite quote, however, is Mikala’s response to seasoned professionals who see her wield a torch and call her a “natural.” “I’m not a natural,” she says. Far from it. And none of this came easy. I worked and trained 60-80 hours a week for two years to get here.” Regardless of what happens in Shanghai, the job offers are already piling up, including the most recent from SpaceX. She hasn’t graduated yet, but the future looks bright, and I for one would not bet against her. PS. I never do this, but since my name is in the title of the foundation, I suppose I can. Mikala – please accept the additional $600 you requested from mikeroweWORKS two years ago. Shanghai is expensive, and since you’re representing all of us, we’d like to provide you with a little walking around money. The check is in the mail. Now…go get the gold!

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🚨 Hear me out… I’m sick of pretending this is a functioning country with a functioning government. Congress is not “divided.” It’s not “gridlocked.” It’s not “just politics.” It is a criminal class of 535 people who have spent decades selling this country piece by piece while lecturing the rest of us about democracy, values, and the rule of law. They pass spending bills they don’t read. They pile debt on people who weren’t even born yet. They take money from foreign interests, lobbyists, PACs, and industries they regulate, then act shocked when anyone calls it what it is: influence-peddling. They protect their own. They investigate their enemies. They never investigate themselves with the same hunger. The worst part isn’t even the money. It’s the moral rot. A government that can lecture parents, churches, and working people about morality while shielding predators, burying files, redacting names, and treating elite sex-crime networks like a scheduling inconvenience has no moral authority left. If the same evidence, the same flight logs, the same sealed names, and the same “we can’t comment” stonewalling applied to anyone outside their class, those people would already be in prison. For this crowd, it becomes “complicated,” “ongoing,” or “not the right time.” Foreign interference isn’t some abstract threat they discovered last week. It’s a business model. They take the money, take the trips, take the talking points, then wrap themselves in the flag and tell you anyone who notices is a conspiracy theorist. They will fight harder to protect their donors and their secrets than they will fight to protect the border, the budget, or the people who actually pay for all of it. I don’t hate “government” as an idea. I hate this government, the one that treats citizens like a revenue stream, treats accountability like an attack, and treats the most disgusting crimes as a club you only get punished for if you’re not connected. No more polite language. No more “both sides” anesthesia. If Congress had a shred of honor left, they would open every sealed file, name every protector, cut the foreign cash pipelines, and submit themselves to the same laws they impose on everyone else. They won’t. That’s the point. They are not public servants. They are a protected class. And the country is rotting under them. - B

I’m going to say this as calmly as possible: Watching Caitlin Clark in the WNBA has become genuinely hard to stomach. Not because she struggles sometimes. Not because she makes mistakes. Not because she gets criticized. That comes with being great. It’s hard to stomach because it has become obvious that the league, the officials, the media, the players, and even her own organization have all decided that the most important thing is not letting Caitlin Clark become too big. And that is insane. This league was handed the most marketable, electric, revenue-generating player women’s basketball has ever seen, and instead of building around the moment, too many people seem obsessed with humbling her. She gets fouled. Held. Hit. Cheap-shotted. Mocked. Targeted. Then when she reacts like a normal competitor, suddenly everyone wants to analyze her attitude. No. Her attitude is not the story. The story is that a generational player is being treated like a problem by the very league she helped drag into mainstream relevance. This reminds me of the worst kind of youth coach... the one who sees a special player, feels threatened by her talent, and slowly drains the joy out of her in the name of “teaching humility.” That is what this looks like. The freedom she played with at Iowa is disappearing. The fire is still there, but the joy looks damaged. The confidence looks weighed down. She looks like someone constantly fighting the refs, opponents, narratives, coaching decisions, jealousy, and a league culture that should be protecting its golden opportunity instead of resenting it. And let’s be honest: Stephanie White has not helped. Benching Caitlin Clark randomly when she is controlling the game tempo, or having your best shooter off the floor in critical game ending minutes when a victory is within reach is basketball malpractice. Limiting her rhythm, downplaying her greatness, benching momentum, and treating her like just another piece instead of the engine is absurd. You do not take a player who changed the economics of your sport and manage her like you’re afraid her greatness might offend the room. Nike deserves criticism too. Other players get signature shoes rolled out with urgency, while the biggest draw in women’s basketball is somehow still waiting on that signature shoe. That is not confusing. That is revealing. Fans are not stupid. They see the fouls. They see the double standards. They see the jealousy. They see the media resentment. They see the league benefiting from her popularity while refusing to fully embrace her. And here is the part the WNBA better understand quickly: People are not tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be humbled. They are tuning in to watch Caitlin Clark be great. If she walked away tomorrow, the fans would follow her. The sponsors would follow her. The energy would follow her. The high salaries and the charter jets would follow her. And the league would be forced to confront the uncomfortable truth it keeps trying to avoid: Caitlin Clark did not need the WNBA nearly as much as the WNBA needed Caitlin Clark. At some point, her family, her agent, and her team need to ask a hard question: How much longer do you let a league profit from her while allowing the culture around her to beat the spirit out of her? Because from the outside looking in, this does not look like normal adversity anymore. It looks like abuse. It looks like a league trying to break the very player who made millions of people care. x.com/i/status/20609…

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5 months ago

Thought Steph left her fire in Connecticut! 🥵

77 310 5K 3.6M 1K

2025 Kennedy Varsity Football team! Roll COUGS!

Surprise, surprise ✨ Introducing the 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝗮 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘆 🤩 @LisaBluder x @thinkiowacity x @HerkyOnParade #Hawkeyes

Yesterday evening will go down in history as one of the most memorable northern plains chases for me personally. Little did I know that I would capture the most incredible shelf structure of my career, and quite possibly a contender for structure of the year. These photos were taken from Poplar, Montana to Williston, North Dakota! I hope you all enjoy them! #ndwx #wxtwitter

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The cheap shots on Caitlin Clark are an embarrassment for the WNBA. This player should be suspended. Clark is the only reason I’m even watching a WNBA game right now. What a joke. x.com/nfwu_/status/1…

Sweet, Sweet Victory 🤩 #Hawkeyes

Ever wonder what it’s like to work in emergency meownagement? 🐱 🦺

Our divers >> 😮‍💨 #Bearcats

Teach your children to make memories with those they value in their life. Show that value with time and understanding.

Trans people never ever forced their transness unto me. Wish I could say the same for these religious zealots coming to my home trying to gang bang my soul.

“Hey Siri - show me a picture of Simpson Success.” Siri -

The Growth Guide I have been posting threads on wealth, real estate, and personal and professional development. My mission is simple: to help > 1 billion people grow: personally, professionally, and financially. All of the threads can be found below. Enjoy, and please share.

Lol “for my convenience”

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@Theholisticpsyc Iowa

We just reached 700k🎉 As a huge thank you to this community, I’m giving away signed copies both of my books. TO ENTER: 1. Retweet this 2. Comment where you’re from Winner chosen and announced tomorrow. Open internationally. GOOD LUCK.

@froggybsb03 @DonnaSinkArch @AshleyGWinter @CaraSantaMaria @gorskon I've always wanted a bed with boob holes!