Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Today I have not one story to share with you, but two.  On the surface, these two stories seem completely unrelated.  Honestly, I suppose they are completely unrelated.  The first story took place nearly 30 years ago.  The second story took place 2 weeks ago.  As I thought about what I learned from the recent story, it reminded me of the older story.  I think they share a common thread, so I’m including both of them in today’s episode.

The first story took place when I was probably 8 to 10 years old.  My brother and I always spent a lot of time with my grandparents, that is, my dad’s mom and stepdad.  My mom’s parents lived in California, and I only remember meeting them one time.  There were a couple of other times I met them, but just like my Disneyland experience, I was too young to remember.  My step grandpa was the only grandpa I ever knew, and never considered him  anything other than my real blood related grandpa.  Because they lived here in Oklahoma, they’ve always been a close and important part of my life.  Read More...

The post 12- Words + Action = Belief appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

If you’ve listened to all the episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, then by now you know that I spent a good chunk of my life working for a bookstore.  I started out as a part-time cashier, worked my way up to store manager, worked as a buyer for a short time, and then worked as the e-commerce director.  Many of you also know that after nearly 19 years with the company, I left there almost one year ago.  In fact, this Saturday, April 5th, will mark the one year anniversary of the day I turned in my resignation.

My decision to leave the bookstore was not easy nor was it made quickly.  A few years ago I started a business that I hoped would help transition me from the bookstore to being full-time self employed.  That business is a website design company called Dramatic Traffic.  I still own it and have local clients that I serve under that name.  Most of my new clients are served under the more widely known company I own, Golden Spiral Media.  

To help grow Dramatic Traffic locally, I joined a Wednesday morning group of other small business owners and entrepreneurs.  I knew that I had a lot to learn about being in business for myself and I wanted to learn from others who had blazed that trail before.  They didn’t have a website designer in their group and eagerly accepted me as a member.  Several members of the group spent time with me one on one and shared their wisdom and life stories with me.  One of those members was a man in his late 60’s named Mr. K. Read More...

The post 11- A Look Into the Eyes of Regret appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Thanks to everyone that has sent in a Friday Forum contribution.  If you submitted a Friday Forum and don’t hear it on the show today, don’t worry.  I still have it and will very likely use it on next week’s Friday Forum episode.  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 come to us from Mark.  Mark sent in a story that’s long enough to take up the entire duration of today’s show.  While it’s perfectly okay that Mark’s story is this long, please don’t think that your Friday Forum story has to be this long.  In fact, for most Friday Forum episodes, I envision 2 or 3 stories from various callers.  Read More...

The post 10- Friday Forum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

There was one particular stretch of time though that was challenging.  It started when we  set up a new store in Denton, TX.  Denton was close, only about 2.5 hours away from home.  The setup took a month, and that included staying a week or so after the store opened so that we could be there to assist the new employees as customers started arriving.  We would travel down to Denton on Sunday and come home either Friday night or Saturday afternoon.  This gave us a day to spend with our families before we headed back to Denton.

Now, not all of the setup crew was from Oklahoma City.  The company pulled in top employees from all over the company to come help set up new stores.  Two of us from the Oklahoma City market were part of the team so we would ride down together and room together once we arrived.  My traveling partner for that four week stretch was a good friend of mine named Ben.

Ben and I had a lot in common and being around him really made the drive time pass more quickly.  We were both competitive, so when one of us decided to pull a simple prank on the other, it was on like Donkey Kong!  Read More...

The post 09- The Fire Sauce, The Hot Tub, and the Prank War appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

We have tried very hard to teach our kids to think of others before themselves, don’t do things to other people that you wouldn’t want done to you, be responsible for their own behavior, treat everyone with respect, and to never, ever be afraid to wear a Doctor Who shirt in public.  We all know that as parents, our kids are observing us and learning from us.  Sometimes they’re picking up our bad habits, but hopefully, if we do our job right, we’re teaching them those things that are good and noble and honorable.

Of course, none of us as humans or as parents are perfect, so sometimes I screw up as a parent.  But the story I want to share today is about one of those times where I got it right.

Dallas Comic-Con 2013 took place right around Mother’s Day and my wife thought that a good present for her would be to give her a weekend of relaxing at home...alone.  In fact, when I asked her what she thought about me taking the kids down to Dallas for Dallas Comic-con, her first words were, “Sounds like a great Mother’s Day present!”  This would be a win for everyone involved.  Kari would get to enjoy some peace and quiet, read her books, work on some cross-stitching, and relax.  The kids would get to take an adventure out of state, and I would get to get my geek on. Read More...

The post 08- Teaching With Action appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.