It’s been a minute – today’s podcast is a toolbox episode rather than a conversation and hope you dig it.

So we’re a few months into the new year and wanted to bring you up to speed on some of things I’ve been working on, tools I’m using to create space and time, and trying to build the best year yet.

Some topics I cover: 

– Reading goal for 2020 and tactics to read more

– New Habits (Digital Dieting, Optimizing Content Delivery, and Apps I’m using to try to Create Time)

– Saying NO and creating Immovable Objects in my Schedule

– More food and drinks with creative folks

More conversations in the can and ready to go – coming soon!

How often do you talk to Alexa or Siri? Voice tech is quickly becoming a facet of the way we operate in our daily lives.  And while you may not have a smart speaker in your home or like to talk to a virtual assistant, it will become a primary way your kids will interact with computers.  And synthetic voice will test our views on what’s real, and our view of AI.

Today I’m talking with Geraint John, host of the Voice for Voice Podcast all the way from across the pond in Brixton, UK. Geraint is neck deep in Alexa tech, developing skills for clients and is really in tune with what’s next in voice. 

We talk about building Alexa skills, privacy synthetic voice and the future of voice tech. Tune in.

Follow Geraint on Instagram – and check out the Voice for Voice Podcast to learn more.

This week I’m sharing a conversation I had with health/wellness blogger and influencer Georgie Morley. I first discovered her photography of Nantucket (a beautiful island off the coast of Massachusetts) on instagram and was always curious how she built her blog and turned her journey into her career. So I reached out and Georgie was incredibly generous with her time for this interview.

In this conversation (which we conducted over Zoom) we talk about how she started her blog and grew a following without being in a big city, how to work with brands and run your blog like a business, getting comfortable sharing your story, the art of selfie photography and much much more.

You can follow Georgie on Instagram at @georgiemorley and @greyladygirl or check out her blog at InIt4TheLongRun.com

I’m a huge fan of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and laughed my tail off at the episode about Chiitan (and Chiijohn). And I was even more surprised to hear that the costume of Chiijohn came from a little place called Geppetto Studios in Utica NY.

I was lucky enough to get to hang out and have a conversation with Scott and Will of Geppetto Studios in their ‘Warehouse of the Weird’ where they create high-end costumes and puppets for TV, film, music videos, trade shows and much more. They’re masters of their craft and we dug into how they got into this niche business, their move from Brooklyn to Utica, and some of the wins and fails they’ve had along the way. You can learn more about what they do at GeppettoStudios.com

I’m super excited to share this conversation I had with Big Mike Morrill. Mike is obsessed with Kaizen, or the process of continuous improvement. We talk about his journey of applying this manufacturing process to his business (Total Solutions), and even his relationships. Learn how to eliminate struggle, 1 minute at a time.

Mike also has a great TEDx talk on this very topic.

I’m (finally) kicking off Season 2 of Rust Belt Startup with a shorty, or a toolbox episode. It’s a recap of my recent album launch, how to ‘show your work’ and some tips on how I reverse engineer projects.

Season 2 starts now and we’ve got great long-form interviews coming up. If you want to see the project referenced in this episode, visit PostcardsPoetryandProse.com

This is it! We’re sticking a fork in season 1 of Rust Belt Startup. Today is a bit of a throwback episode. It’s a conversation that I had in front of a live audience in Utica, NY with Hugette Montesinos.

Hugette is the founder of Disfunkshion Magazine – which is way more than a magazine at this point and has turn into a lifestyle brand, consultancy, digital services and more. She’s an Instagram guru and has grown her following organically to over a quarter-MILLION engaged followers.

In this conversation we talk about her journey as a solo-preneur through building her team and launching the first issue of a magazine. How did she get distribution? How did she get her first customers? How does the brand evolve?

Then we get tactical and spend a lot of time on how you can grow your Instagram the RIGHT way. We take questions from the audience and you’ll get real-world advice that you can apply to your social media profiles. 

You can learn more about Hugette at the Disfunkshion Magazine website or follow her on Instagram.

Thanks for sticking with me this season – I’ll be back after the new year with Season 2 of Rust Belt Startup.

This week I’m super excited to share a conversation with one of my favorite songwriters out there- Ryan Montbleau. He has built an audience and a career through a steady stream of thoughtful songs, working with amazing bands of musicians and almost non-stop touring all over the country for more than a decade.

He has a new album out called The Woodstock Sessions and you can learn much more about Ryan at RyanMontbleau.com.

In this conversation we go into the guts of what it takes to build an audience, life on the road, rest, and his approach to creativity and songwriting. I hope you dig it.

I think deep down in all of us, there’s been a period of time when we’ve wanted to sell our stuff, drop everything and go out and see the world. Today on the podcast I’m talking to Ryan & Brittany Parr who are about to embark on that very journey. They’ve sold the house, sold their stuff and have moved into a 5th wheel camper to travel for an indefinite period of time as they try to live the digital nomad life.

I sat down with them in their almost-finished new home – a 28 foot 5th wheel camper We talk about how they built their own personal brands and businesses using social media, how they plan to make money on the road, minimalism, raising their daughter and what they think they’ll find on their upcoming journey.

You can follow them online via Instagram at ParrForTheCourse if you want to follow their journey, or you can follow Ryan at BearBonesStrength/Instagram, and Brittany at ParrPhotoCo/Instagram.

We’re talking citizen journalism and the media landscape with Brett Orzechowski. He’s launching a new project called Stateline NY. It’s a media site with a collection of interesting and in-depth stories covering a host of issues that are relevant across upstate NY.

We talk about the role that long-form and mixed media journalism plays in today’s landscape, and some of the common issues facing upstate NY.

Each story is told in a different way: documentary, data visualization, audio, and mixed media. Stories are available for $2.99 each at StatelineNY.com