Filling the Blank Page w/ Freewriting, Looping, and Timers

Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast. 

[00:00:12] This morning. I tried an experiment to get over my fear of the blank page or the blank audio file, so to speak. And I've been reading a lot about, uh, writing habits and techniques and experiences of many different authors. Um, Stephen King's on writing is a book that I always find myself returning to. It's just a really interesting kind of half memoir half, um, treatise on writing from one of my favorite authors and I've been trying to get into the writing chair for some time now, but  um, have a hard time overcoming the blank page. And so of course, uh, I went to the place with all the answers, YouTube, uh, and lost I don't know how many, uh, hours over the past couple of days, uh, going down that rabbit hole. 

[00:01:04] Two people, uh, inspired me to combine two different techniques into one which I'm trying out now. Um, and this is the end result of that. Um, Many of you may be familiar with the concept of morning pages from from the creative and writer, Julia Cameron. She suggests that one of the best things you can do as a creative is to begin every morning writing three pages of longhand free writing where it's stream of consciousness, uh, with no purpose. Um, You just write and you don't stop writing until you've finished those three pages . 

[00:01:44] I have tried that in the past and I'm trying it on and off now. Um, but I was often frustrated in that I felt that that work didn't really amount to anything or it didn't directly apply to the projects that I wanted to get done. 

[00:02:02] Sure there's some value in getting the head junk out of your head, uh. To clear and make way for your better ideas, but I still felt like that was not wasted time, but just not optimized time in the mornings. And so that's why it's been hard for me to stick to that habit. Um, 

[00:02:21] I think I intellectually understand how and why free writing can be an effective technique to tap into creativity, but I wanted it a little more practical way of, uh, having it help me in what I'm doing. So in my rabbit hole of a YouTubing, I came across two different videos, uh, both around this idea of free writing, and then also around this idea of dictating. I think the extemporaneous and improvisational nature of these podcasts, relates to the free writing activity to some degree, and so I found this video by this woman, Lauren Joy Shishinda where she talks about combining free writing with this concept of looping. 

[00:03:09] So she says that once you spent your five, 10 or 15 minutes in free writing, think back on what you've written for 30 seconds or so and choose a concept or an idea, image character ,theme, issue, challenge, et cetera. Turn to a new page or a new section, and then begin the free writing exercise again, and then you do that for five, 10, 15 minutes. And then you pick another concept and do it again. 

[00:03:39]By the third or fourth time, you'll have, uh, unlocked your your brain and gotten into that flow. And that was a really interesting idea, but I wasn't quite sure how I would apply it. Well then I came across, uh, an interview with the author Christopher Downing, who wrote the book Foolproof Outlining, and he suggests that after you've done your warmup activities of which he suggests a lot almost 40 minutes of warming up before we actually get to to the actual writing. Um, but when you, when you start to write he has this interesting, uh, timed technique, and I'm a huge fan of timers, uh, go back to the time timer episode. He suggests when you sit down to write a scene or a chapter or whatever, the piece of writing you're you're working on is to begin with as short of a time. As you can to summarize it as short as concisely as you can. So, uh, you can start with a 30 second writing activity to just jot down, uh, the one sentence summary. Then you can spend two minutes to rewrite or redictate and elaborate on that one sentence summary. Then set a timer for five minutes and do the same activity and so you're not actually rereading or editing what you've written or spoken previously, you're remembering what was  remarkable or interesting from what you'd previously written, and then just simply rewriting it on the fly as you go. 

[00:05:17] And then he suggests you spend 10 minutes doing the same and then 20 minutes so that you'll have revised or rewritten. This material four, maybe even five times spent roughly, um, you know, 45 50 minutes doing this an hour. At most. And you'll have a piece of writing or thought that is um, more coherent, more expressive and more inclusive of of creative ideas. 

[00:05:51] What you should know is that I have created this podcast in that very same method. I came in this morning and had no idea what I wanted to record. Uh, I mean, I had many ideas, but I couldn't choose any of them. I was faced with a blank recording window on my computer, and so I just told myself that I was going to hit record for 30 seconds and see what came out. 

[00:06:18]Uh. It was pretty incoherent and all over the place until the very end when I remembered the free writing and looping video. And so I took that concept and then rerecorded this for two minutes, elaborating on it, and then I made the connection to Christopher Downing, and then I spent five minutes recording this episode, and so there's a there's three previous episodes that are much shorter and all over the place. And then because I want to bring all these episodes to you in 10 minutes or less. This is my 10 minutes, uh, quote unquote final, uh, take for the podcast. 

[00:06:55]I think I'm onto something here, combining free writing with looping and this idea of setting longer and longer timers for yourself to go back and just rewrite what you've written. 

[00:07:07]Aside from the blank page another thing I struggle with is having the editor inside of me, uh, come out a little too strongly when I'm just sitting down to put pen to paper or to type or to speak on the podcast and this idea of throwing away work, uh, and then coming at it anew as how you do the editing and revising is really fascinating to me. 

[00:07:33]So I know that there's many other creatives of you listening to this. I'm curious what tips or techniques have you used or been successful at in overcoming the blank page for the blank recording window or the blank canvas. You can get in touch directly with me at 917.719.3737. I love getting your voice messages and texts. 

[00:07:58]Let me know what's worked for you and, uh, we can share in our creative endeavors. Thank you so much for listening until next time.  

Hey, Chad here, coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast. 

[00:00:10]An indispensable tool for me has been Calendly. Calendly is a web app that connects to your different calendars and allows people to book different types of events or  different times to connect with you. So, for instance, I set up an hour long, a video chat event in Calendly and then people can click up a public link that shows them availability on my calendar. 

[00:00:43]It's a great way for me to be able to share my availability with people without giving them direct access to my calendar where they can see everything that's on it. It essentially, will just tell them,  Chad's available between noon and four, and allow them to just one-click book and then it will send us both calendar invitations.

[00:01:03] I've been using this tool probably for two to three years, but I think as we're all transitioning or have transitioned to working remotely and virtually it's been an indispensable tool. 

[00:01:16] As long as I have my obligated, events on my calendar, it makes it really easy for people to book time with me. Everything from client meetings, client calls, client virtual workshops to podcasting sessions to catch ups with friends, you know, in the middle of the day. 

[00:01:36] I think as our schedules in some ways got completely free. they also, Got consumed by all of the day to day. you know, that comes with with staying and working from home, whether that's childcare or, you know, did the general home maintenance and taking care of ourselves, et cetera, and getting that that much needed, outdoor time. 

[00:02:00]Calendly   allows me to block out specific periods of time as well for certain activities. So, for example, I don't allow any events on the calendar before 11:00 AM. And the reason for that is so that I can protect that morning time for what I call my deep work. I'm a morning person, so that's the hours in which I feel like I'm most productive, and so I want to protect that time and Calendly makes it really easy for me to set the times of day in which, different types of meetings can be booked. so that my client calls are maybe a little later in the afternoon, you know, you can also set a cutoff time where maybe you don't take any calls after 4:00 PM cause you went to start winding down your day. 

[00:02:47]It's really simple and easy to use. You just log in with your, with your calendar providers  whether that's through Office 365 or Google and then you just tell it what calendars you want it to look at to check for conflicts. And then as you're setting up a meeting, you just give it a name, a duration, and then what times of day and days of the week, you'll, be open to those events. 

[00:03:12] So, for example, if I only wanted to record podcasts between 4:00 and 8:00 PM on weekdays, I could set that right up in Calendly so that when someone clicks on the Calendly slash Chad slash podcast link, they see all of those weeknights slots to record podcasts. I wanted to share Calendly with you all because it's really helped me, protect some of my time to to be productive, and, and not have to be constantly showing up onto  meetings, all day, every day and also to make it really easy to connect with others. just sending out a link, you know, asking to reconnect with someone, or, to record a podcast session with someone it's made it so much easier for me to just send a link, than all of that back and forth that you would typically have to do of, "Oh,  which of these three times works for you? Oh, none of those. Well, how about this?" It's just a simple, you know, practically two clicks and you've got something scheduled. 

[00:04:12] Other fun ways that I've used this is scheduling virtual board game sessions, with friends and family. like I said, podcasting sessions, and before we all, were sequestered at home. I also use this for coffee meetings as well. It made it real easy to schedule. 

[00:04:27] I hope you get as much use out of Calendly as I have the past few years. It's well worth  the subscription fee, although they do have a free version available. 

[00:04:37]I'm curious what tools you've used or techniques or practices you have, to better manage your calendar, your schedule, I'll call it your peak productivity hours? I would love to, to learn, from all of you, so get in touch. Send me a text or voice message at 917.719.3737 and share some of the ways in which you're getting 1% better each and every day. 

[00:05:05]Thank you so much for listening until next time.  

Edit audio as easy as Google Docs w/ Descript

 [00:00:00]Chad: Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% better podcast. 

[00:00:11] I've been recording all of these podcasts into a program called Descript. You can go to Descript.com and I'll just let you watch the homepage video. Uh, it will tell you everything you need to know and really, I think sell you on the product. Descript is a [00:00:30] program for Windows and Mac that allows you to record straight into the program. It will create a live transcription of what you and your other co-hosts are saying, and then it gives you a Google Docs like editing interface so that instead of messing with an audio program like Audition or Audacity, um, you can edit audio as if you were just simply editing a [00:01:00] Google Doc. And I think using Descript has cut down my audio production time at least by half, maybe even more than that. It's amazing to hit stop in the recording and and have, uh, already transcribed document that I can go in, um, cut and paste. I can eliminate filler words like all of the Ums and Ahs, which, uh, you probably won't hear in the rest of this episode because it automatically has [00:01:30] deleted them. 

[00:01:32] And you can also add in uh, music, other tracks, and you can record multiple people, uh, into the system at a time if you've got multiple microphone setups. um, 

[00:01:43] Another favorite feature of Descript is how easy it is to get captions. For all of your podcasts and videos as well, so those of you publishing video content that want to have captions for folks that don't have their audio on when they're scrolling by your videos in their in [00:02:00] their feeds. Descript makes it super easy to attach those caption files for your videos as well. 

[00:02:09]Because Descript is doing the transcription for you. You can even put the full transcripts into your podcast show notes, um, for those of you that want to make it SEO or search friendly. 

[00:02:23] There's a free version of Descript that allows you to record and transcribe up to three hours of content and I'm one of their paid users. Uh, Can't recommend it highly enough. 

[00:02:35] For those of you interested in experimenting with podcasting. I don't think there's any more excuses, uh, for it being too hard. Descript makes it extremely easy to go from hitting record to publishing. I'm able to get these episodes out in less than 20 minutes, including the recording time, which I think is absolutely incredible.

[00:02:56] For all of you fellow podcasters. I'm curious how you've [00:03:00] improved your workflow . Either an increasing their production quality, uh, cutting down on the time to publish and, uh, maybe tips, tricks and tools that that you found helpful. You can get in touch directly at nine, one, seven, seven, one, nine, three, seven, three, seven, leave me a voice message or a text. 

[00:03:20] And let me know how you've gotten 1% better in in your podcasting until next time. 

[00:00:04] Chad: Hi, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better podcast.

[00:00:11] An app that I've been using for the past two months has really improved my email game. So, I don't know how much time all of you spend in your email inboxes, but it often takes up much of my mornings. I'm an inbox zero practitioner, [00:00:30] have been for a number of years, and I'm always looking for ways to get to inbox zero faster.

[00:00:40] I had been using Gmail for this but my cousin Nick, shout out to you, shared a tool with me that's improved my email game at least 5x probably even 10x and that tool is Superhuman.  Superhuman is developed by the [00:01:00] same people that had that really cool LinkedIn social profile plug-in for Gmail called Rapportive and they've been sort of in stealth mode for a long time and you actually need an invitation from an existing user to even get an account which is why I had to ask my cousin Nick to hook me up. But it is a subscription. So, you might think, well Gmail's free, and my work gives me Outlook, why do I need, [00:01:30] you know, to pay for an email app?

[00:01:32] Well, the ease of use, the keyboard shortcuts, and all of the just nice simple easeful touches that they put into the app, I think are more than worth it. I've improved my email processing at least by 5x so I know that I'm saving at least a few hours a week in email,

[00:01:53] and so it's more than worth the $30.  

[00:01:57] I think the killer features of [00:02:00] Superhuman are, the keyboard shortcuts, and the Superhuman menu, or kind of quick access menu, which makes it really easy to pull up and run any of the commands or tasks that you're trying to do in your email inbox. You can also break out your inbox into kind of sub inboxes.

[00:02:22] Now, I know Gmail did this like with its Promotions and Important inboxes, but you didn't really have any control or choice over how [00:02:30] Gmail did that for you. In Superhuman you can set up custom filters to not only filter out like news and other promotional emails, but you can even create like a team

[00:02:40] inbox, that's just for people emailing you from your company's domain. You can set up a VIP inbox for important clients or customers. And essentially the number of inboxes you can create are limitless. You just create a search filter and boom; you can create a new [00:03:00] email inbox.  Just hitting the Tab Key will take you through each of the inboxes and then again using keyboard shortcuts, that'll be familiar to most Gmail users, you can go through and process your inbox at blazing speed. A very important part of my email processing and inbox zero method is to delay or push into the future messages that I can't or don't want to act on or respond to immediately. Superhuman has the [00:03:30] best Remind Me feature out of any app that I've ever used, and I've used a lot.

[00:03:35] You can use natural language to hit the keyboard shortcut and say remind me in two weeks or remind me next Thursday or remind me in 10 days or remind me on January 1st. And what it'll do is bring that email back to you, if there's been no response before that date. And so, this allows me to send emails

[00:03:59] to [00:04:00] customers or clients asking for a piece of information or asking, you know for a signed contract. If I haven't heard from them in three or four days, it automatically brings it right back to me and remind me. So,

[00:04:11] this Remind Me feature is more than worth the price of entry.

[00:04:15] Not only can you snooze messages to come back into your inbox, you can schedule emails to send out later. So often what I will do is write an email, you know after business hours, but I don't necessarily want to be sending an email [00:04:30] to someone at nine ten or even midnight. So, what you can do is just write the email.

[00:04:35] And then schedule it to go out first thing the next morning and your recipient is none the wiser of you actually wrote that email at 1:00 in the morning.

[00:04:43]One thing that I often will do is when I schedule a meeting with someone, I will write and schedule for sending later an email that goes to them the day beforehand saying "Just wanted to confirm that we're still good to meet." There's a really fantastic [00:05:00] onboarding email series that you get, I'm still getting them two months later, where Rahul the founder just shares one easy tip with you every single day and I've been getting faster and faster in my use of the app and learning even more about the cool features that they're developing that are very, very unique amongst all the email apps that I've used.

[00:05:24] As I mentioned before Superhuman is still invitation only. So, if you'd like to get an [00:05:30] account, just text me nine one seven nine, seven one three seven three seven and I'll put you in touch with the onboarding team. They schedule a 30-minute call with you to go through your email process. And they walk you through the app and set up workflows that will be most beneficial to you.

[00:05:47] I hope you find Superhuman as useful to you as it has been to me. I'm curious what other email apps or plugins are crucial to your email workflow and how you've made [00:06:00] email 1% better or more. Again, you can share that at nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven and thank you so much for sharing.

[00:00:00] Chad: Hi Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.

[00:00:11] I’m not sure how all of you are listening to this podcast. Might be on LinkedIn or a podcatcher maybe even Spotify. But by far my favorite podcast app is Overcast. Overcast is developed by Marco Arment and some of you [00:00:30] might have seen him. He loves to write and podcast about everything Apple. But he's also a programmer and developer and has made this app on his own I think for the last five or six years. Which is how long I've been using it.

[00:00:45] It's more than worth the cost to unlock the paid version.  You get so many amazing features, two of my favorites being the Smart Speed function and the [00:01:00] Voice Boost function.  I'm one of those people that likes to listen to podcasts at faster than real-time speed. And one of the things that Marco has done is put in a feature called Smart Speed where it cuts out some of the gaps and silences in shows and so while it's not speeding up the voice, it can actually cut out you know a couple of minutes on some of the longer podcasts. And you wouldn't even know that [00:01:30] it's doing it. There's also some really great controls for listening at half speed and I think all the way up to like 3x speed if you're so inclined.  And the second feature voice boost does a really good job of fixing those few podcasts that maybe don't quite have as high production value where maybe the volume is a bit weird or some of the levels are off.

[00:01:50] Marco has done a really great job of normalizing the voices on those podcasts. And again, it's one of the great features that makes overcast so useful to [00:02:00] me.  There is a paid version which eliminates the ads and I think 10 dollars a year for an amazing podcast app is more than worth it. Marco just revamped the recommendations engine using all of the data from who listens to what on Overcast to recommend episodes and podcasts. I found this feature really great at discovering related podcasts two things that I'm listening to so if I'm listening to a lot of podcasts on a particular [00:02:30] subject then a few float up to the top of the recommendations and it's a really great way for me to discover new podcasts new voices and a diversity of coverage on a particular subject that I'm looking to learn.

[00:02:43] You can choose whether you want to subscribe to episodes automatically download them, delete them. You can create smart playlists that I use to organize podcasts by topic, and it will dynamically update those playlists [00:03:00] as new episodes are released. And you can also export the data. And I love to do this to just understand a bit more about my listening habits,

[00:03:10] how many episodes that I listen to and it also track, what episodes I've favorited as well.

[00:03:16] As the podcasting industry continues to get hotter and hotter, I keep coming back to this wonderful fantastic app created by a single developer, which I think is really cool. Especially when you have [00:03:30] companies like Spotify that are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into this space. You know, I kind of like to root for the little guy.

[00:03:37]For those of you that already have maybe a podcast app of choice and you want to give Overcast a chance, you can also export your .OPML files from your existing apps and import them straight into Overcast for a seamless transition.

[00:03:52] Overcast is an invaluable app that I use all day every day. And I think you should give it a try to [00:04:00] it's a great way to discover and organize and listen to all of your favorite podcasts.

[00:04:06] So I'm curious, what apps do you use to get 1% better. You can share with me at nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven and as always, thank you so much for sharing.

011 - Hardcore History - 200115

[00:00:00] Chad:   Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.

[00:00:09] I hope you don't mind me coming here to share and recommend other podcasts to listen to. It is one of my absolute favorite ways of not only learning. But it's the reason why I'm here sharing with you on this podcast. I think sharing and teaching is the [00:00:30] best way for me to learn. So it's a real thrill for me to share with you.

[00:00:34] All of the learning resources methodologies tools hacks tips tricks Etc. And I can't decide if this is my absolute favorite podcast, but it's definitely in my top. I would say. Five podcasts of all time and I know it's one of the most popular in the world based downloads in that's Dan Carlin's podcast [00:01:00] hardcore history.

[00:01:01] Each episode is at least 3 hours long some of them go on for as long as five hours. That's pretty much an entire audiobook in just one episode in most of the series that he does are between three to six or seven episodes. And

[00:01:19] what Dan delivers is the most in-depth researched with first-second third-hand accounts, from some [00:01:30] of history's most interesting and complex time periods. So he has turned his research mind and excellent podcasting voice to everything from the death of the Roman Republic to the rise of Genghis Khan to the Eastern Front during World War II and most recently the [00:02:00] beginnings of World War 1 and the rise of imperialist Japan before World War Two.

[00:02:09] Now I know that this has a bit of a militaristic bent, but even if you're just tangentially interested in any of these time periods, you have to listen to these episodes. He must read at least two dozen books on each of these subjects [00:02:30] because he brings these accounts and reads them in the podcast. You know taking us right into that moment sharing, you know letters and communications between soldiers or between world leaders and

[00:02:44] I can't convey to you how intricately researched and well-crafted Dan's storytelling is in each of these eras.

[00:02:54] I’m only kind of partially interested in military history, but I think [00:03:00] Dan makes it so compelling and tell such a rich story from all angles that I think

[00:03:08] picking one of these topics most interesting to you and giving the first episode of try is definitely worth it. If you really enjoy the podcast, I know that Dan has the back catalog available for the price of a typical audiobook, but he releases the newest and latest episodes for free in the podcast feed.

[00:03:28] So subscribe now [00:03:30] so that you can get those episodes for free and if you enjoy them you can buy some of the back episodes.

[00:03:36] Dan publishes these episodes maybe once a month sometimes once every three months. That just tells you how much research and painstakingly detailed his processes for writing and recording these episodes is. Again, if you have any interest in the time periods of World War 1 or World War II the [00:04:00] Roman Republic the Punic Wars.

[00:04:01] There’s so many different eras that he's turned his attention to and absolutely all of them are worth listening.

[00:04:10] After you've checked out an episode or two. I'm curious what your thoughts are and if there's any other podcasts or audiobooks that you feel like do as good of or better of a job telling the story of these particular time periods. You can get in touch it nine one seven nine seven one three seven [00:04:30] three seven and thank you so much for sharing.

010 - Dan Sullivan Question - 200114

[00:00:00] Chad:   Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.  

[00:00:11] There’s a question that I've added into my repertoire this year that has done more to improve the quality of my conversations than any other tool I've picked up and that question came to me through Blair Enns at Win Without Pitching. But the origin is [00:00:30] from Dan Sullivan, a strategic coach. So a huge hat tip to both of them for introducing me to this question and I'm just going to ask the question of you, The Listener, and then discuss why it's been such a powerful tool.

[00:00:46] So imagine that we're catching up three years from today over coffee and you're looking back over those three years to today. What has [00:01:00] happened both personally and professionally for you to feel so happy about your progress?

[00:01:05] And then I just listen.  What this question does is cuts through so much of the I call it head junk get right to the heart of the matter, which is you know, what is it that you need both personally and professionally to be happy and I think happy is an interesting quality because it's very subjective.

[00:01:29] But I think it also [00:01:30] elicits really powerful responses in people. And I think it's important to both ask personally and professionally in both context. So if I'm catching up with a friend, it be interesting for them to share about their professional goals and aspirations because I might be able to help them through my network and vice versa in a professional setting,

[00:01:50]I think it's really important to ask about the personal side because often our deepest motivations and needs and wants at work, stem from things in our personal lives, [00:02:00] whether that's like, you know, what we're passionate about and interested in doing, or you know, how we want to create a professional life that supports our personal lives as well. And there's some really fantastic follow-up questions that you can get. If you read the book around, you know, what obstacles stand in your way what opportunities are there that we can capitalize on but just simply asking this question has unlocked so many interesting conversations for me.

[00:02:26] As far as I know this is one of the things that [00:02:30] launched Dan Sullivan's career in the 70's coaching executives and corporations with this question. And kind of driving his whole strategic approach to coaching.  And If you find yourself in a situation where you're catching up with someone or you know taking a potential client meeting, ask this question. You can kind of tailored to your needs. So changed it a little bit like, you know, imagine if we're catching up over coffee two [00:03:00] years from today.

[00:03:00] You can say three years from today, but wouldn't change the wording very much because I actually think sticking to the script is quite effective and the most important follow-up to this is you just need to be quiet and listen. I've often had people spend 5 10 even 15 minutes responding to this question without any follow-ups and it's an invitation for people to really open up and share not only what's on their mind but things that are standing in their way to achieving [00:03:30] their goals and maybe touching upon some of the opportunities that they see in order to reach those goals.

[00:03:37] So I've used this question both in my personal and professional life to great success. And again wanted to say thank you to Dan Sullivan for sharing this question and making it, you know, freely available to all of if you're even more curious about how to use it and some of the follow-up questions, I would encourage you to get the book on Amazon. And [00:04:00] there's a lot of great free resources on Strategic Coach as well.

[00:04:03] I know that Dan publishes a book at least every quarter that talks about all of the methodologies and tools that he uses in his training program. I would love to hear the results of all of you asking this question to people whether that's in your personal or professional life, and I'm curious what kind of answers and results you get from asking this question, You can always share with me by texting or calling [00:04:30] nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven. I hope this question proves is useful to use it has for me and as always thank you for sharing.

[00:00:04] Chad: Hey. Chad here. Coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast.  Today, I would like to mention a podcast that's coming to an end. I know like it seems like every podcast goes on and on forever, but this particular podcast is definitely binge worthy [00:00:30] and it tells the story of a start-up from start to finish.

[00:00:35] Over the course of five years and about 30 episodes.

[00:00:41]And the best part is that the podcast is about a podcasting company. So you might know the company that it's about I'll give you a hint. It was recently acquired by Spotify. To the tune of two hundred million dollars [00:01:00] and the company was started right here in Brooklyn, New York.  the podcast I'm talking about is of course the Startup podcast by Gimlet Media and the host and founder of the company Alex blumberg does an incredible job over the course of. five years, seven seasons, more than 30 episodes. 

[00:01:28] He shares not only his personal journey [00:01:30] but also the journey he goes on with his co-founder Matt Lieber. How he brings his wife into the company and you know how they go from a dingy office on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn all the way through to their exit getting acquired by Spotify.

[00:01:50] And the reason I'm mentioning this podcast is. Yes, it's a podcast about a podcasting company. So if that's a bit too meta for you [00:02:00] I would understand but the intimacy and the details that you get from Alex sharing his story and the story of the company.  Is completely unique in.  in any history or retelling of not only the founding of a company but the exit of a company.

[00:02:24] I can't think you know outside of books and maybe some longer, you [00:02:30] know, in-depth journalism that you might find in like the Atlantic or the New Yorker. I can't think of a story of a start-up so well told from start to finish in the fact that it's told by an excellent Storyteller Alex blumberg. And it's about a storytelling company.

[00:02:53] I think it's just it's too juicy of a concept to ignore in [00:03:00] so I think you know, who is this podcast for? I think it's for anyone that is.  a Founder anyone that is thinking of starting a start-up anyone that has started a startup and maybe struggled and also anyone that's interested in How storytelling?

[00:03:19] And telling your own story can actually change the trajectory of your company. If Alex had not started the startup podcast. He would not have grown the company [00:03:30] as quickly and as well, I think as as he would have if he had not started the podcast.

[00:03:36]I think the trajectory of gimlet would have been completely different had Alex not started the startup podcast to Chronicle his own journey in the company's Journey as it was getting started and growing coming out with new shows and I  think the mere fact that Alex decided to tell the story. Is a huge factor in its success [00:04:00] and so for me, it's a lesson in the power of Storytelling and how just showing up and documenting and sharing and being vulnerable and inviting people into your process can attract not only fans but an audience and even investors potential new hires.

[00:04:20]And and many more things through consistent and good storytelling. I've learned so many things from this podcast as far [00:04:30] as you know, the importance of getting your elevator pitch right to attracting the right kinds of co-founders or you know collaborators on projects and so much more. So you can find the podcast again with media.com or you can search on Spotify or your podcast catchers the episodes to look out for the ones that's a gimlet in the title. The start a podcast not only Chronicles gimlets story but many [00:05:00] many other stories Dating company the founder of American Apparel a startup bus hackathon tour and so many other startup stories. So if you want to just listen to the story of gimlet look for the episodes that have gimlet in the title, I think the entire catalog of shows in the startup feed are worth a listen. So I hope you check it out and I would love to hear your thoughts on the story of gimlet and and its eventual sale. 

[00:05:29] And if you have any other podcasts that you'd like to recommend you can always reach me at 917.971.3737.

[00:05:39]thank you so much to everyone who has reached out and thank you for sharing.

Hey. Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast.  I've just come back from a Meetup. Yes, that kind of Meetup. It's not just for singles looking to find a date or sleazy [00:00:30] networkers trying to push their business on you. I have been a Meetup organizer and a Meetup attendee i think as long as I have been in New York City, so probably close to eight years now. And it didn't take long for me after having gone to my first couple of Meetups to want to organize my own. 

[00:00:53] The meet up I went to tonight was the first Meetup organized by a woman named Jill [00:01:00] for visual thinking or visual thinkers. These are the people that you might have seen that different conferences or meetings or workshops who are visually capturing all of the ideas maybe on some easels or whiteboards and by the end they have this amazing visual representation of what's happened. 

[00:01:25]This Meetup was fantastic because I've really wanted to work [00:01:30] on my own visualization of ideas. I'm very good at writing lists and and things like that, but when it comes to representing ideas visually in a in a fast handwritten manner, that's not something I'm actually really very comfortable doing it all. 

[00:01:49] So where did I go to try and get better? I went to Meetup. Sure enough, I did some searching and found this Meetup group that had started and they had a [00:02:00] meet up this week. I show up there's five or six of us and we get right to practicing together different, you know, visual thinking practices. 

[00:02:14] And so with just the time it takes to commute and then meet and then come back. [00:02:19] I've already begun a New Journey towards developing my my visual thinking. 

[00:02:28]If you live in a big city like New York, [00:02:30] there's probably far too many meetups than you could ever go to but if you're in a smaller City, I'd encourage you to search as well. There's new meetups that are starting every single week, the best part is if you aren't finding one you can start one yourself.   So I shared with you a meet-up that I discovered and went to this week but a meet-up that I've decided to organize is a New York City design thinking Meetup Where I'm [00:03:00] trying to build a community of like-minded design thinkers to come together share best practices learn together and then practice.  It's far easier than you think and even free to start organizing your own events meet up does a fantastic job of promoting new meetups and once you've chosen the title of your Meetup and given it. A unique description meet up blasts it out to everyone that is interested in [00:03:30] everything that you've put in as your tags and keywords.

[00:03:33] And before you know, it sometimes even that same day you'll have people starting to sign up for the Meetup group and asking you. Hey, when's the first event?

[00:03:43]I love meet ups for two reasons one there in person. You really can't beat getting together and learning and practicing together. In the second thing is everyone is already [00:04:00] self-selecting into the topic or knowledge area that you're also interested in so you could get as specific as. 17th century French literature enthusiasts and you can have a book club around that or it could be a node js developers or it could be a tabletop Gamers and that's precisely one meet up that that I started [00:04:30] just two years ago and it has over a thousand members today.

[00:04:34]With meet up I feel like you have no excuse to not start building your own Community around whatever it is. You want to learn and get better at you don't even have to be an expert practitioner in whatever it is. If you start the group, it will attract those people to the group and you can have them be the ones that teach you and everyone else in the [00:05:00] Meetup.  I cannot recommend meetups highly enough. The the digital platform is very easy to use when it comes to posting events connecting to calendars messaging your fellow members. And it's also really fantastic Discovery platform where if you've got a free night coming up next week and you want to try something new search on meetup.com, and I'm sure you'll find something that you can really dive [00:05:30] into.

[00:05:31] So I'm curious if anyone else is a meet-up organizer, I would love to connect with you or you know, what an interesting recent meet up that you've been to was. You can text me or leave a message at 917.971.3737 thanks for sharing.

Hey. Chad here, coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. It will come as no surprise to many of you that I'm an avid podcast listener. I probably have subscribed to a hundred different podcasts and listened to many different ones over the years. 

[00:00:27] I think it's a perfect medium [00:00:30] for learning. It's on demand. It's asynchronous. I can binge it.  There's so many different ones. Across so many different subjects that have been invaluable to me and I would love to share them with you here and learn which ones have been most helpful to you as well.

[00:00:56] You can always text or leave a message at   nine one [00:01:00] seven nine seven one three seven three seven let me know what podcasts are you listening to to get 1% better?  The show I'd like to bring up today is Land of the Giants. It's produced by Vox, They have a number of great podcasts, but this one stood out to me.  Both because of the reporting that Jason Delray the producer and host was able to do and the subject matter.

[00:01:29] It's all [00:01:30] about Amazon not just. About Jeff Bezos or technology behind what goes on inside of Amazon but a very interesting holistic picture that those two cities where houses have been built and left to people that invented Amazon the idea of Amazon Prime. And also third-party sellers that have [00:02:00] gotten onto the platform and maybe been pushed around a bit, bye-bye.

[00:02:04]big weight of of Amazon. I'm fascinated by not only Amazon's history, but its business model How it's continually innovating.  an avid consumer on the platform both with Amazon Prime media and just the shopping in e-commerce experience and I love learning [00:02:30] all the behind-the-scenes and I think Jason does a really fantastic job.

[00:02:34]Of balancing, maybe the Amazon for good and the Amazon maybe not. So good.  It's just eight episodes so you can probably listen to it the course of a week and it's capped at the end with an interview that Jason did with another one of my [00:03:00] favorite kind of thought leaders out there and content producers Scott Galloway.

[00:03:06]it's a really great discussion that ends the series.

Again, I would love to know what podcast series you've enjoyed that have taught you something maybe outside of your domain or taught you something about what you do that. Maybe you hadn't thought of before. Thank you so much for sharing all of your tips and tricks with me [00:03:30] over the past few days.

[00:03:31]You can continue to do so by just texting me or leaving me a message at 917.971.3737. Thanks for sharing.