This is a story about a man, his dog, and how he spreads the gospel of good dogs and things that are fun. With that said, I’m Aaron, my dog is Smell, and this blog is how I keep record of all the places that I fall in love with along my journey. Aaron Nicholas Reinhard. https://AaronandSmell.com
AaronandSmell.com
Two Cool Dudes, Doing Cool Stuff.
“This will all be yours one day” – I remember that line from my father when I was little. It seemed fun then. I became the 5th Generation of a U.S. based Manufacturing business that dates back to 1891. Sometimes I feel ripped off. Now I live in a van that is sometimes down by the river. “But we did it”
“THE SHOP”
AKA “THE SEAL” or “THE LASER DEN“
I knew this was a business that was ultimately going to lose to the Internet unless we became part of it. Our main accounts Circuit City & CarMax and disappeared overnight. It had never occurred to my father to get on “the net”. In 2010 I purchased my first domain, LazerEngravingPros.com and started learning how to use WordPress. I watched my friends “get real jobs”, fall in love, get married, have children, get divorced, die, switch careers, travel the world, get remarried, have more children, leave the country again. What was I doing? I was not doing any one of those things. I was in a relationship with a business.
I put my whole entire self into that shop for a long time and I worked very hard at it. All days become the same. There are no “days off”. It all blends together and over time you start to feel a pulse.
That is your heart and the business operates from it, don’t expect to share either with anyone else.
I feel like I always had to put the business first and I am salty about it.
I was in a relationship with something that was already sentient and I had no real control. A combination of 5 Government agencies will mentally thrash you. You will decide it’s not a good idea to be in business and you will close down, you are making a poor choice and if it is an option, take it. Get your life back.
This is the story of me getting my life back. This is Aarons chance at being his own person.
Becoming my own person.
I started becoming my own person about five years ago. I am still not very smart, but I learn from my mistakes. I was able to rapidly accellerate and improve my quality of life based on my experiences, resources and my keen sense for loop holes and exceptions.
My Skills
Im really good at the internet. I don’t work for anyone else, just myself. But I like to lift people. The yearly harvest always brings a better yield when you can help people along the way. I know that there are people looking out for me from above. The coincidences are too high and ever since I made it my mission to expand myself as a person, instances have taken place that are way too coincidental, they are magical.
Back in the day – I knew I needed to market to people on the internet, so it all started with WordPress. At the time you only needed a 300 word blog-post, one picture with an alt tag / 2.6 Keyword Density ratio. It was easy to rank on top or on the first page of Google. Getting “good at google” has been my most useful skill throughout time and has evolved into something I never could have imagined.
Here we are in 2026, the shop is stronger than ever. I had to factor for every possible entity and scenario. It’s tough with a small crew – when the pressure is on you. It’s immeasurable but it has molded me into something that can feel without showing my cards.
Supression seems like a skill, but also a disorder.
