We BUY / SELL / TRADE Cell Phones & Tablets and we clean Bad ESNs for Sprint phonesFor those of you who know me outside of the internet, you know that much of my adult life has been spent working in and around the wireless industry.  I spent nearly 5 years working in retail, starting off as a Blue Shirt Adviser (Retail Sales Representative) and working my way up to Assistant Manager, before leaving to go into ministry for a while.  However, during my time working for a Sprint Affiliate, I started buying and selling cell phones as a hobby.  At first I would buy phones to resell, as a way for me to pay for upgrades.  While I wasn’t quite around for the original bag phone, my first phone was before the first colored display model.  Since that first phone I have been a little obsessed with updating to the latest and greatest.  My current cell phone is none other than the iPhone 4s (expect a review shortly).

I think my hobby started sometime around June or July of 2006 when a generous customer of mine gave me a $100 phone for free because I had helped him out.  After that first phone I was consumed with trying to buy and sell phones to make money.  I became very good at that process and soon started making around $10K per year from my phone hobby – plus I got FREE phone upgrades!!!  Recently though, I have turned my hobby into my profession.  I have not had a job outside of buying and selling cell phones, since March of 2011.

I don’t know why I have always liked the name SquawkTalk, I think it’s because it combines my last name (Parrott – Have you heard parrot’s squawk before?) along with the fact that ‘Talk’ is what we do on cell phones (and yes it has that dual purpose of being how parrot’s talk – by squawking).  Anyway, I have liked the name for a while, but I never just got around to doing anything with it, recently that changed.

In December I registered the domain name www.SquawkTalkWireless.com and started putting together the site.  It took a while, because like most things, I grow weary of projects that take a while.  However, feeling motivated the other day I put most of the finishing touches on the site, and even though it’s a no-no, I started heavily promoting the site at about 90% completion.  That ‘heavily promoting’ part was finally making the decision to pay for advertising.  I have never really paid for any advertising before, but this time it really did feel like the smart thing to do.  I paid $75 a month to reach my EXACT target audience, and that site just happens to get around 120,000 hits a month.  I am hoping that my ad works out.  But more importantly, SquawkTalkWireless.com is my full time business, and since it is, I wanted to share it with you.  I have also added a link to the top menu here on DiscipleshipGuy.

What does my site do?  Well, you should check it out for yourself, but one of it’s primary purposes is to be my store front.  Many of the phones I sell will never be listed on that site, but my service will be and that’s important.  Many people are surprised to find out that my full time job is buying and selling cell phones, tablets and services.  They are even more surprised when they find out that I am supporting five kids and a wife.  To tell you the truth, much about where we go and what we do in life is surprising.  I am constantly amazed at the journey that the Lord takes us through, and lately there have been several… let’s say ‘teaching moments’, that the Lord has been doing.  Many times I want to give up what I am doing and move on to something that is more secure or something that has benefits but then I remember all the blessings that God has provided through this opportunity.  Anyway, take a second and check out my new site, SquawkTalkWireless.com and if you need a cell phone let me know :)

Recently I had the privilege of facilitating a group from our church through the 4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice DVD set by Mark Virkler.  Nearly 20 people from our church signed up to go through the class.  We took 13 weeks to go through this 10 DVD set.

The first week we met we spent the time getting to know each other, passing out handbooks and journals, answering 10 questions about their current ability to hear God's voice.  Next we watched 1 DVD a week for 5 weeks.  During week 7 – the midpoint of out class, we spent the time practicing hearing God's voice for ourselves – and each other.  This was a great opportunity to practice what we had been learning.  The next 5 weeks we continued watching 1 DVD per week.  The final week we spent going over our initial 10 questions that we had answered during the first weeks class.

The reasoning behind the 10 questions was simple, to give us a basis for understanding where we where before the class, as well as how much we had grown during the class.  Our group all experience impressive growth in our ability to hear God's voice through Mark Virkler's teaching.  At the beginning of the class  most of the people in the group described their ability to hear God's voice as a 1 or 2 on the scale of 1-10.  However, by the end of the class most group participants would describe their ability to hear God's voice as a 8-10 on a 10 point scale.

Mark Virkler does an excellent job of teaching everyone how to hear God's voice through the 4 Keys, which are:

  1. Stillness Yourself Down
  2. Looking for Vision
  3. Tuning to Flow
  4. And Journal

However, in my opinion, the thing that Mark Virkler does better than anything else, is to help you break out of the things that prevent you from hearing God's voice.  Many times we hear God's without recognizing it, however, it's the fear and doubt that prevent us from acting on what we believe God is speaking to us.  I would highly recommend this teaching to anyone who want's to be able to hear God's voice, it will change your life!

4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice

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Matthew’s Mind: The 50 Commands of Christ

by Matthew E. Parrott July 14, 2011

The thoughts of a renowned Philosopher… Who is only renowned unto himself… Sometimes these thoughts are really provoking or challenging, sometimes they are just something to chew on…   A while back I was on Lance Walnau's web site, LanceLearning.com, and he was promoting a free download if you registered for his free newsletter.  Since [...]

Read the full article → Faith

CFA July Question: Defining Biblical Generosity

by Matthew E. Parrott July 4, 2011

The Christian Financial Alliance was created to help readers.  The idea is simple: Create a panel of biblical finance gurus, who take seriously the call to teach the Bible accurately with grace and truth.  Once a month, we post a question with responses from our panel to provide you with well-rounded, sound, biblical advice.  For more information, or to join [...]

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Rob Bell and Love Wins…

by Matthew E. Parrott July 1, 2011

First of all, I am a little bit late to the discussion, I know.  However, when I first heard about this book that Rob Bell was writing, called 'Love Wins', it was after reading a blog post somewhere on the topic.  Shortly afterwords people all over the web were giving their opinions of Rob Bell, [...]

Read the full article → DiscipleshipGuy

The Eighth Letter – Restoring Unity & Hearing My Voice

by Matthew E. Parrott June 28, 2011

In Revelation 1:4 John writes (through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) to the seven churches in the province of Asia.  In October of 2010, there were 25+ authors who presented their own letters (the 8th letter) to the Church in North America.  The event was hosted by Andy Crouch, Sr. Editor at Christianity Today [...]

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Matthew’s Mind: God Wants to Give You His Anointing…

by Matthew E. Parrott June 17, 2011

The thoughts of a renowned Philosopher… Who is only renowned unto himself… Sometimes these thoughts are really provoking or challenging, sometimes they are just something to chew on…   While watching the Brennan Manning video below, I was thinking about a particular story he told.  He talked about having the opportunity to pray over someone [...]

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Christian Financial Alliance Core Beliefs

by Matthew E. Parrott June 14, 2011

Recently, DiscipleshipGuy joined the Christian Financial Alliance.  This alliance is focused on  defining a set of core beliefs regarding biblical finance and holding ourselves accountable to it.  The great part about this is simple:  There are many bloggers in the blog-o-sper who claim to base their financial principals on sound Christian advice / doctrine.  However, [...]

Read the full article → Christian Financial Alliance

Matthew’s Mind: Are We Pharisees?

by Matthew E. Parrott May 29, 2011

The thoughts of a renowned Philosopher… Who is only renowned unto himself… Sometimes these thoughts are really provoking or challenging, sometimes they are just something to chew on…   I have had a frightening thought that I have struggled with for as long as I remember.  I have always wondered what the difference was between [...]

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Google Voice + Sprint Integration Review

by Matthew E. Parrott May 26, 2011

I have been using Google Voice now for about 2 years.  At first I had many questions about what Google Voice was or how I could benefit from it, however now I find that it has become an integral part of my communication.  However, since many people still aren't familiar with Google Voice and what [...]

Read the full article → DiscipleshipGuy
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