Check out my friend Ahmed Hayman's Blog!

Ahmed Hayman's Photography (blog) 

 Check out my friend Ahmed Hayman's blog.
He's a photo journalist from Egypt whom I met here in Denmark at, of all places, the train station where he was taking portrait photos as an assignment for his journalism class. As it turns out, the shot he took of me came out great!  All of the photos of his that I have seen are simply excellent. What a guy!
Thanks Ahmed!

The Bad Times Aren't So Bad in the Quarterfinals!

April 9, 2011
As of today, "The Bad Times Aren't So Bad" has fallen to 8th place with 81 votes in the 1/4 finals and really needs your support to win a spot in the Semi-finals of the YouBloom Song Contest. The leaders are up with over 150 votes, so I hope that those of you who haven't voted yet will do so and please spread the word to all your friends and encourage them to vote as well. Let's try to catch up to the leaders, OK?.
Thanks very much,
J. D.

Well, "The Bad times Aren't So Bad" made it into the quarterfinals! Thanks for all your support everyone! The voting in the quarterfinals began on April 6th and runs until April 12th. I'm sure the competition will be stiff so we'll really need all of you come out and vote if we are to have a chance of making it into the semi-finals.

For those of you on Facebook, don't forget to click the"like" button to share the voting page  to your profile. For those of you on Twitter, be sure to "tweet" the page to let all your friends know about it and ask them to cast their vote as well.

I really appreciate your support!

Below is the direct link to vote for The Bad Times Aren't So Bad.
Thanks again,
J. D. Haring

Vote for me in the Youbloom Song Contest

A Responsibility to Share

Last week I had a visit from my friend Lloyd. He’s from Nigeria but has lived here in Denmark a long time. We talked about a lot of things, and at a point, he said something that made me stop and think.

 “In my country we believe that if we find something that improves our life; a medicine, a product etc., we have a responsibility to share it with others…it’s something we live by”!

I thought about my old friend George, who came to me almost ten years ago to share something with me that had improved his health and his life.

He urged me to try USANA, science based nutritional supplements. I was resistant at first. You know how it is, right? I had taken lots of vitamins before but never noticed any difference. But George was very persistent, passionate really and he said “just try them for two or three months and let your body tell you what you need to know”. So I said, “why not? …he’s a close and trusted friend and I have certainly spent money on worse things in my life than vitamins. I’m on my way back to Scandinavia for two months. I’ll help George out and give USANA a try while I’m on tour”.

I was surprised to find, that very soon my health was improving. I actually felt better and my body did tell me what I needed to know. I sent George an email and told him “Geez, these things are working. I didn’t know I was feeling bad until I started feeling better”!

And that’s the deal. They work, I can feel them working, and that is the difference, simple as that. I’ve been taking them ever since and I’ll take them the rest of my life.

I made another realization along the way. I thought I was helping my friend, but in fact, it was he who was helping me! Thanks George!

So now it’s my turn to fulfill my responsibility and share USANA with you.  l make the same recommendation that was made to me. “Try them for two or three months and let your body tell you what you need to know”.

Just click on the word USANA which is a link to my new USANA website. Watch the short video about Dr. Myron Wentz, the scientist behind USANA, and see what inspires him to do everything in his power to make a difference in the world. Then, take a look around the rest of the site for more information.

Whenever you decide to try the nutritionals, you can just click on “The Essentials” or “Health Pack” in the boxes to the right of the video. These are links to where you can order direct. And/or, if you are interested in learning more, as well as how to save up to 25%, just click on the “Contact Me” tab, fill in and submit the form. I will be notified that you have done so and I’ll be in touch to help you get started.

Active Listening

The first years of my working career, I was in the clothing business. One of the stores I worked in had five salesmen, of which I was the youngest. Within the first year I was selling 1/2 the store. How did I do it? Simple... I didn't sell! I listened to the customer, got to know him a bit, found out what he was interested in, in need of, or looking for, and helped him the best I could by providing choices, information and ideas for alternatives he may not have considered. I only offered my opinion when asked or I deemed appropriate in order to help him in his decision process and best serve his needs.

Active listening is the key to success in almost everything; relationships, business, life. Active listening is one of the best and most important ways by which we can determine the nature of, as well as the potential of the relationships we develop, whether they be personal or professional and thus truly be of service, not only to others but to ourselves as well.

I enjoy sharing and recommending to others those things which have improved my life, and although I might urge someone strongly to try something I believe in, like USANA nutritionals, it is still, ultimately, their decision. One must respect that. Offering the USANA Business Opportunity is perhaps when being an active listener is most important because, I for one, am not interested in just selling a USANA Business Package. I'm interested in helping my new business partners decide on the best USANA Business Package, tools and resources they need to help ensure their success as a USANA Associate and develop a healthy, lifelong partnership/relationship.


The first years of my working career, I was in the clothing business. One of the stores I worked in had five salesmen, of which I was the youngest. Within the first year I was selling 1/2 the store. How did I do it? Simple... I didn't sell! I listened to the customer, got to know him a bit, found out what he was interested in, in need of, or looking for, and helped him the best I could by providing choices, information and ideas for alternatives he may not have considered. I only offered my opinion when asked or I deemed appropriate in order to help him in his decision process and best serve his needs.

Active listening is the key to success in almost everything; relationships, business, life. Active listening is one of the best and most important ways by which we can determine the nature of, as well as the potential of the relationships we develop, whether they be personal or professional and thus truly be of service, not only to others but to ourselves as well.

I enjoy sharing and recommending to others those things which have improved my life, and although I might urge someone strongly to try something I believe in, like USANA nutritionals, it is still, ultimately, their decision. One must respect that. Offering the USANA Business Opportunity is perhaps when being an active listener is most important because, I for one, am not interested in just selling a USANA Business Package. I'm interested in helping my new business partners decide on the best USANA Business Package, tools and resources they need to help ensure their success as a USANA Associate and develop a healthy, lifelong partnership/relationship.

The Bad Times Aren't So Bad- Live - J. D. Haring (Americana)

The Bad Times Aren't So Bad entered in Q1 Heat 5 of the YouBloom Song Contest

Well, today starts another round in the YouBloom Song Contest. This week is Q1, Heat 5 and my entry is "The Bad Times Aren't So Bad. So, here we go again. I keep trying and I hope you'll all come out and vote.

Here's how to do it. Click on the link below to get to The YouBloom site:

http://www.youbloom.com/ybsc/entry/2021/

Then you just log in or sign up, click on "Listen & Vote", search for either J. D. Haring or The Bad Times Aren't So Bad and cast your vote. Voting for Q1, Heat 5 starts today lasts until midnight on Sunday.


My last two entries did fairly well, they both ended up in 6th place, but we need to make it into the top 3 in order to move into the quarter finals. It'll take a couple hundred votes earn a spot. I hope you'll take a minute and vote and get all your friends to vote too.

Thanks for your continued support,
J.D.

March 10th, 2011
Hi Everybody,
I have heard that some people have had difficulty casting their vote. I have written to YouBloom and they say the site seems to be working properly and offered these instuctions:
1) Login to User account
2) Click on Listen and vote
3) Search for artist/band/song (The name must match exactly as you have entered it e.g. You have entered your Artist name as J. D. Haring - note the spaces between the characters.)
They could search for Haring and find your song that way.
4) Click on the name of the song The Bad Times Aren't So Bad
5) Click on the Vote button
Hope this helps, J.D.

March 13th, 2011
Well, with only two hours left to vote, The Bad Times Aren't So Bad remains at #1 with 71 votes so it appears we will make it in to the quarterfinals! I'll be sure to let you know when I know for sure. I'll post the final result here on my blog as well as on Facebook as soon as I get official notification.

Thanks to all of you who supported my music and cared enough to vote. it is much appreciated.

The next step is that we will need to get everyone to vote again in the quarterfinals. Voting for the quarterfinals will begin April 6th but I will make another Facebook event and give you all the instructions to do that. I hope you'll continue to support the effort.

I am sure that we will need all the votes possible to get into the semi-finals. Probably at least 200 votes will be needed to win so please do what you can to get all your friends to vote as well.

I'm thinking of entering another song into either heat 6 or 7. What do you all think? Should I re-enter Sophie's Eyes or try another song? I'd appreciate your feedback. It could be cool to have two songs in the running.

Thanks again so very much to all of you, I'm really touched by your support.
Adios for now amigos,
J. D.

March 15, 2011
Well, it's official!
The Bad Times Aren't So Bad has made it into the quarterfinals!!  Thanks to all of you who have supported my music and gotten out to vote! I'm touched!

Voting for the quarterfinals begins on April 6th and I will be sure to make a Facebook event and of course a new post on this blog to let everyone know when and how to vote.

In the meantime, I'm thinking of entering another song in one of the last heats of this contest. It could be very cool to have two songs make it into the quarterfinals... 'ya think? Maybe it's too much to ask? I'd appreciate your thoughts and comments.

I'll let you all know when I decide. Until then, thanks a million!
J. D.

The Poet entered in The YouBloom Song Contest, Q1, Heat 4

Feb. 29, 2011
Well, it's the first day of voting and The Poet is currently at # 8 but almost 200 votes behind the leader so I hope you'll all get out and vote! All the detail on how to do that are listed right below.
Thanks for your support,
J. D.

Feb, 27th, 2011
Well, today I entered my song "The Poet" in the YouBloom Song Contest, Q1, Heat 4. I would really appreciate your vote. The voting  for Heat 4 begins February 28th. All you have to do is go to the YouBloom SongContest homepage, create a free user account and clock on "Listen & Vote". When you get to that page you can search for J. D. Haring or The Poet in the search box near the top of the page. There you'll see the song listing and information as to when you can vote.

Here's the link: http://youbloom.com/ 




Sophie's Eyes ended up in sixth place and although it made a pretty good showing, only the top three songs move up to the next round so "Sophie has to wait a while". Thanks for all those who supported my song and I hope you'll all come out and vote for The Poet in Heat 4...and get all your friends to vote as well.

Please post any and all comments, thoughts and/or whatever's on your mind. I'll be glad to hear from you!