Stuff I Learned Yesterday

As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, today’s lesson also came this past weekend while I was visiting Chicago with my daughter.  One thing I didn’t mention in yesterday’s episode was that doing the meetup was not my idea.  I did mention that Matthew organized the event, but I think I should clarify that the whole event was led by three Golden Spiral Media listeners, Matthew, Emilee, and Melissa.

I think it’s amazingly cool that our listeners want to hang out so much that they took it upon themselves to organize a meetup and planned to hang out whether I was there or not.  In fact, last year they did that very thing.  I was in Seattle and couldn’t attend the meetup they organized last year.  When I found out that they were planning another event this year, I immediately started making plans to attend.

I mentioned the event during dinner one night and my daughter immediately perked up and asked if she could go too.  I had already thought that it would be cool to take one of the kids with me, and Kari agreed that it was a good idea.  Taking Addison along with me would serve a few purposes.  First, we’re planning a trip to Hawaii next fall and our kids have never flown before.  Colby seems to not really be worried about it, but Addison was a bit unsettled at the thought of her first flight being such a long one that would be over a large body of water. Read More...

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I am exhausted.  I am encouraged.  I am inspired.  I am feeling blessed.  All of these things things are because of the same thing.  I just returned home from spending the weekend in Chicago where I got to spend some great one on one time with my daughter, Addison, eat some of Chicago’s tastiest pizza, and meet and hangout with some wonderful members of the Golden Spiral Media Community.

When I started podcasting in 2008 I had no idea that it would lead me down such a life changing path.  I thought it would be cool to podcast with some friends and that we might even get a few folks to listen to us.  I never thought I would care so deeply about the listeners of our podcast, or that they would care so much about me.  

The last 15 months have been the best and most rewarding that I’ve ever experienced as a podcaster.  When we announced that we were doing a party for the finale of Fringe, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.  Would we have a thousand people show up, or would we have 3 people show up?  Would people actually come to Oklahoma City?  Would it be something that people reflect on fondly, or would it be a train wreck that they look back on as a waste of time. Read More...

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The Friday Forum is here! Thanks to everyone that has sent in a Friday Forum contribution. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to [email protected], or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com. 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.

This week’s Friday forum contributions come in from from Ben, Mike, and Mark. Ben shares a story of a recent trip to a pro-am golf event with the lesson of giving up, or moving forward. Mike shares the story of creating a video of memories of his grandma and the lesson of keeping it authentic when learning new skills. Mark shares a challenge to find someone and pay them a compliment this weekend. Read More...

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I could make today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday really short and sweet.  If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.  I mean, that’s not the way it works 100% of the time, but it’s a pretty solid statement.  I would say that the vast majority of the time, if you don’t ask, you won’t get what you seek.  Let me share an example that drastically impacted my life.

This story begins in the fall of 2012.  During that time of my life I was very discontent with my job at the bookstore and focused on building a career in new media.  Things were progressing, but not quickly enough for my satisfaction.  I was really struggling.  I it was either late October or early November.  I had no desire to go through another Christmas season in retail, but at that point there was no way to avoid it.  There was one morning in particular that I was getting ready for work and it was the last place I wanted to be.  My heart wasn’t there.  My passion for  that career had gone.  

I couldn’t ask God for another opportunity because I felt like doing so would be selfish.  The truth is, my job was great.  It was a steady paycheck and a comfortable salary with a company that had values and a mission that I believed in.  Yes, there were a few people there that I thought were bad apples, but the majority of the people there were great.  The people in my department were awesome.  Most people would want the type of job that I had.  To ask for something else would be out of line. Read More...

The post 14- You Do Not Have Because You Do Not Ask appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

I recorded the first episode of The Fringe Podcast speaking directly into the digital recorder while standing in my closet.  I thought the clothes in the closet would help absorb any echo from my voice, and also drown out the noise from my kids in the other room.  Jason ended up not wanting to drive to my house each week, and never even used the equipment he’d help pay for.   We would bring him in via Skype each week.

There is so much I didn’t know back then.  I had no idea how to get rid of that chirping electrical sound from our computers.  I didn’t know about shock mounts.  I had never even heard of a compressor/limiter/gate.  We landed an interview with actress Jasika Nicole about a month after the show premiered.  From an audio quality standpoint, that interview was and is a disaster.  

In fact, it is such a disaster that when I was at new media expo 2014 I sat in on a session that had Ray Ortega as one of the panelists.  I was surprised when he mentioned this Fringe podcast that interviewed one of the actresses and how terrible the audio was.  He went on to say a few other very critical things about the podcast.  Keep in mind that Ray Ortega and I had never met.

Later that day I saw Ray out in the hall and I swooped in.  I asked him if he remembered the exact name of the Fringe podcast.  He said that he didn’t.  I told him that I was quite sure that he was talking about my show.  He stammered a bit and insisted that I was probably mistaken.  I described the audio to him and the actress that was in the interview.  We both agreed that it was indeed my show that he’d just trashed to the audience of New Media Expo. Read More...

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