Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Last Wednesday was a stressful day. I got a late start to my day, which was totally my fault. I knew that my morning was going to be very unproductive and I needed to get a jump on it. But that didn’t happen. Some friends of ours are currently buying a house, and we agreed to watch their kids for a few hours. I knew that while the kids were here, I’d very likely not be able to work very much.

I really didn’t mind. I had a busy day, but not a day that was so busy that I couldn’t handle a few interruptions and distractions from the kids. The kids were really great and I actually got more work done than I thought I would. Their parents arrived around noon and we all ate lunch together. I hadn’t planned for that, but it was really great spending time with them. It was refreshing actually.

The whole thing took a bit longer than I thought it would, though, and I had to push back a meeting that I had scheduled. Again, not too big of a deal. After I wrapped up the meeting I just had 3 things left on my agenda for the day. First I had a podcast to produce for a client, second I had to come up with an episode for Thursday’s Stuff I Learned Yesterday, and third, I planned to attend men’s Bible study at church with my son. I estimated the podcast production to take 1.5 to 2 hours at the most, I estimated the Stuff I Learned Yesterday episode prep to take 2 hours, and I estimated Bible study to take 1.5 hours, including travel time and chatting with the guys.

I started working on the client podcast and it was almost immediately clear that my schedule was going out the window. The recording was in pretty rough shape. It was an interview with someone who was connected via Skype. Most of my clients use Skype as a part of their podcasts. Many of our podcasts use Skype. Skype is usually pretty good and often great. But sometimes, Skype is terrible. Read More...

The post 72- Impacting Your World appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Today’s episode is going to take a similar direction as episode 26. In that episode I spoke about the importance of being surrounded by strong peers. I want to talk about this topic again today because it’s that important. It’s important in every single aspect of our lives. I want tell you about some things that have happened over the last two weeks that have made me realize just how important this is. Now, stay with me on this. The first part of this may seem like a Golden Spiral Media infomercial, but I promise it has a point.

One month ago today we published our review of the final episode of Revolution. When we recorded and released that episode I didn’t know what the future looked like for us. Of course, I can’t see the future, but I mean that I didn’t even know what podcasts we’d be doing over the summer. At that point I had spoken with Emilee about possibly doing Falling Skies but we had not yet finalized our plans. I had had a very preliminary conversation with Doug Payton about Under the Dome and had a very preliminary conversation with Brian Kane about possibly doing something. Now here we are just one month later and we have more podcasts going at one time than we’ve ever had in our history.

Emilee and I will be recording our podcast for the Falling Skies season 4 premiere tomorrow night. You can join us for that live recording at 8pm eastern over at www.goldenspiralmedia.com/live. We’ll begin the live show with an interview with Doug Jones, the actor who plays Cochise. We also already have 2 episodes available that recap the series to date.

Brian Kane and Kevin Bachelder recorded the first episode of Arrow Squad last week. I’m not an Arrow fan. I saw the pilot at comic con a few years ago and liked it, but never got into the show. Having said that, I LOVED their first episode. I highly encourage you to check it out. Look for new episodes from them about once a week. Read More...

The post 71- Stop Collaborate and Listen appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share stories submitted about dads. Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page.Read More...

The post 70- Friday Forum Father’s Day Edition appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Remember way back in episode 3 when I told you about my proudest moment? That was the episode where I lost all of my friends because of my arrogance. That was a really hard but very important lesson for me to learn. I’m sorry that I had to learn it the hard way, but I’m glad I learned it at such a young age. Today I want to tell you another story about that time of my life. In fact, today’s story helped lead up to the lesson I learned in episode 3.

So there I was, 19 or 20 years old, working part time at the bookstore, and really enjoying it. I was looking for an opportunity to take on more responsibility. I knew that the best way to be given more responsibility was to do a good job with the responsibilities that I already had. Whether it was sweeping the floor, taking out the trash, putting up merchandise, or working the cash register, my goal was to do them all to the best of my ability.

My hard work paid off. One day an opportunity opened up as the department head of Bibles and church supplies. The store had quite a few Bibles, several hundred different types including over 20 english language translations, nearly a dozen foreign language translation, and a multitude of styles within each translation. There were dozens of study Bibles, that is Bibles that had notes included to help give insight to the reader, reference Bibles that specialize in cross-referencing various Bible verses, Childrens Bibles, Bibles for teens, women, men, married couples, and pastors.

In addition to the regular paper Bibles, there were protective cases to put Bibles into, highlighters and note taking supplies, and Bible software.

The church supplies section included things like postcards that churches could use for various reasons, paper to use for announcements and note taking during church services, offering plates, communion supplies, witnessing literature, and record keeping supplies.

I knew nearly nothing about all the various items. I knew a little bit about a few of the Bibles, and knew some of the uses of some of the church supplies, but I knew I didn’t know nearly enough to be able to answer the variety of questions I’d need to know in order to properly assist customers. Still, it was a promotion and a position I wanted, so I put my name in for it and I got it. Read More...

The post 69- The Tasty Reward of a Steak Dinner appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

A while back I went to an event at my church.

There were several people there that I was excited to see because I don’t get to see them very much. You know how you have those people in your life that you don’t see very often but you still think of them as good friends. I love having those people in my life.

Well anyway, the night moved forward and a few of those people said hi to me and I was glad to get a chance to chat and catch up with them. But a few of those people never did say hi to me. I was happy to chat with the friends that I did talk to, but I was also a little disappointed that I never did talk to a few of the others who were there.

Later in the evening after we got home, I told my wife Carrie how I had the chance to talk with some people, but there were a few that I didn’t talk to. I went on to tell her that they never came over to say hi to me. Carrie asked if I had approached them to say hello. I thought about it for a second and said, “No, no I didn’t”.

All of a sudden it hit me. Read More...

The post 68- Say Hi First appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.