Episode 180 – Avoid Embarrassment. Do Nothing!

embarrassment
Avoid embarrassment. Don’t do anything.

I heard a new phrase the other day.

Social Embarrassment

I had never heard that before. I’m supposing it needs capitalization, but I’m not sure.

Lately, I’ve been chasing people to get things done. To take action. Yes, it’s a common problem, but when I stumbled onto the notion that people sometimes don’t take action for fear of “social embarrassment” I just had to sit down inside The Yellow Studio and fire up the Aphex 230’s and the microphones. Okay, they’re always fired up. I never turn them off.

I’m sure there’s a lesson there somewhere.

Mentioned in today’s show:

Dan Moran founded Sound Warehouse
Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, is butt-tackled
Presidential gaffes
A guy left me a not-so-kind review at iTunes, but I wasn’t embarrassed by it
• ABC’s Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell
• Alyssa was the 22-year old girl who weighed in at 414 pounds on last night’s show
Mormon missionaries dominate a basketball game
• I love Matchbox cars. Always have.
• I’ll be your free accountability partner. Just email me.

Now, go do something!

Randy

Episode 180 – Avoid Embarrassment. Do Nothing! Read More »

Episode 179 – Self-Sacrifice: Maybe There Is More To Life Than Chasing Your Passion

despicable-me
Gru knows what he wants.

The Despicable Me franchise is more than imaginative. And cute.

It’s real.

In the original story, Gru epitomizes lots of people. The minions aren’t the only ones he views as  existing only for his purposes. He owns them.

He’s the consummate autocrat.

Despicable?

Hardly. He’s doing what countless people exhort us all to do – fulfill yourself by doing what YOU want. Make your life all about YOU. Find out what YOU want to do. Find out what YOU are best at. Stop doing what YOU don’t want to do. Start doing only the things YOU want to do.

I’ve been a Christian for 45 years now. I’m still learning and admittedly, a long way to go in many respects. However, I can’t get past what the Bible teaches. I can’t buy into the popular notions about happiness, pursuing passion and success.

I confess it’s a mindset. Well, partially. But it’s much more really. It’s a faith thing. It’s a belief thing. It’s a truth thing.

We love to consider anomalies and outliers as average, but they’re not. We want to read stories of people who went from homeless to millionaire in 90 days. You’ve heard people say of their own success, “If I can do it, anybody can do it.” Perhaps that ex-homeless millionaire said it. And we instantly think, “You know, he’s right.”

No, he’s not.

Jason Whitlock wrote a story about Tiger Woods, who came in 6th at the British Open this weekend. Whitlock talks about Tiger’s curse. Bad karma for his past sins. Yet, there’s really nothing to prove that such things exist. Bad behavior has consequences. Bad behavior is often found out. See Aaron Hernandez, Bernie Madoff and scores of other people who behave badly.

But this isn’t about scoundrels. It’s about us. Ordinary people chasing dreams. Average people struggling to rise above average.

Also mentioned in today’s show:

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
• Jeffrey Gitomer – “give value first”
• Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
James Dalman – friend, web design coach, consultant, stud designer & more
Douglas T. Hawkins – a financial planner and attorney friend (I now voice his blog)
• This is the blog post on Doug’s site that I refer to, Wealthy Is As Wealthy Feels
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook)
• NBC TV show, The Voice
• The other day I made this post on Facebook (my personal page). I would appreciate your “liking” my BulaNetwork page.

FB-Easton
Easton Cantrell, my grandson, is about 6 months old.

Thank you for listening!

Randy

Episode 179 – Self-Sacrifice: Maybe There Is More To Life Than Chasing Your Passion Read More »

Episode 178 – How I’m Preparing To Launch A New Podcast, ChasingDFWCool (Part 2)

chasing dfw cool
I’m not just going to chase DFW cool. I’m gonna catch it, too.

I probably should have sub-titled these episodes, “How You Can Launch Your Own Podcast…Or Anything Else!”

Did you miss Part 1? Click here. It’s much shorter than this one. The next episode will absolutely, positively be shorter! I had a lot of ground to cover in today’s show, but I didn’t want to drag this out into a third part. But no matter, it’s a podcast…that means you can listen to it in chunks suitable to your schedule.

I decided to record today’s entire episode on video, too. I’ll upload that to YouTube very soon. It’s part of my current fascination with YouTube. 😉

Let’s dive into the actual preparation stuff now. Part 1 dealt with the stuff that prompted the idea and other “soft” stuff. Now we’re going to discuss the actual things that must be done to successfully launch a podcast.

Here’s a list:

• The subject of the show
• The name of the show
• The domain for the show
• The format of the show
• The technology required to produce the show
• How to get podcast cover art
• How to do podcast show notes
• How to find guests
• How to line up guests
• How to interview guests
• When to release shows (including frequency)
• Submission to Apple iTunes and other podcast directories
• How to market the podcast
• Sustaining the effort

There’s a lot to it. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. And there are plenty of podcasting experts who have lots of great advice. Free.

Podcast Coaches And Experts

Cliff Ravenscraft aka Podcast Answerman has a series of 8 video tutorials that are completely free. You don’t even have to opt in with your email address. Additionally, Cliff has hundreds of podcast episodes and accompanying show notes filled with useful information to help people launch a podcast, or improve an existing podcast.

In addition, Cliff offers a comprehensive in-depth training course called Podcasting From A To Z. It’s an intensive 4-week course designed to take people from no podcast to launching their podcast. This is group coaching that usually consists of 30 people or so. Just yesterday he posted this video which can give you a glimpse of the kind of help he can offer you.

The crown jewel of Cliff’s enterprise is Podcast Mastermind. That group is intended for people who approach podcasting with a more professional approach. It is a paid membership requiring a minimum commitment of 1 year.

As you can see, Cliff has a wide variety of resources. You’re bound to find something useful.

Dave Jackson runs the School of Podcasting. He does some podcasting coaching, consulting and has a membership area, too. His podcasts and show notes offer lots of free information worth checking out.

Daniel J. Lewis‘ site is The Audacity to Podcast. Like Cliff and Dave, Daniel also does podcast coaching and consulting. He also offers podcast cover art design work.

Ray Ortega is a podcast producer. That’s his day job, but it’s also his passion pursuit. He operates a site, The Podcaster’s Studio.

There are others, but that gives you a great idea of the talent out there ready to teach you a thing or two about podcasting. Each of them have their own style and focus. You’re bound to find a connection with one or more of them. Check them out. Listen to 3 or more episodes of each one and that should give you a better idea of how they approach their work.

Also mentioned in today’s show:

Entrepreneur On Fire with John Lee Dumas
Mixergy with Andrew Warner
Jian Ghomeshi with Studio Q
Fiverr.com
Audacity recording software
Audio Technica ATR2100 hi-quality, low cost microphone
• iVideoHero is an online course that teaches you how to create great videos using your Apple iPhone. The iPhone can record shockingly good audio, too.
Music Radio Creative with Mike and Izabela Russell, one of my favorite podcasts – just needs to be longer and more Izabela 😉

I hope this inspires you to give podcasting a go. Don’t be bashful. Jump right in and figure it out along with the rest of us.

Randy

 

Episode 178 – How I’m Preparing To Launch A New Podcast, ChasingDFWCool (Part 2) Read More »

Scroll to Top