Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:27 — 6.6MB) | Embed

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday.  My name is Darrell Darnell, I’m the guy who once sang Butterfly Kisses live on the radio as part of an elaborate April Fool’s prank and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.  In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’ll tell you the story of how I overcame one of my biggest fears, and received an amazing reward in return.

Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum. Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what you’ve learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from you. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on the right hand side of this page.

What I Learned Yesterday:
Today’s episode is titled, The Day I Slew the Fear Dragon.  If you enjoy comic books, sci-fi shows, the geeky side of pop culture, or super hero movies, then chances are that you know what comic con is.  Many people associate the word comic con with a massive gathering of geeks and pop culture nerds each July in the sun bathed city of San Diego, California.  But in reality, that event is actually called Comic Con International or even San Diego Comic Con.  There are many comic cons happening all year round in cities all around the world.  In 2013 I not only made my 3rd trip back to San Diego Comic Con, I attended Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con, Dallas Comic Con, and Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia.

There are many things to love about comic cons, and one of my favorites is the opportunity to see and often speak to the people that have worked tirelessly to create books, TV shows, and movies that I love.  Sometimes these encounters with celebrities have come in one on one conversations,  sometimes they’ve come in small group conversations, but most of the time I’ve simply been one of thousand of giddy geeks in a room for an hour as the actors and producers sat on a stage and spoke about their work.  I don’t get nervous or scared during the one on one conversations, and I no longer get butterflies when I’m part of a round table discussion, but those massive rooms filled with people…those are the ones that make me nervous just thinking about it right now.  My fear is the peers.

My first year at San Diego Comic Con I got up in front of nearly 5,000 people in Ballroom 20 so that I could ask a question to the stars of my favorite show, Fringe.  I was disappointed, but mostly relieved when time ran out before I even got close to the microphone.  I attended 4 other comic cons, as I mentioned before, and never got up enough nerve to even approach the microphone line again.  And then came Dragon Con 2013.  It seems only fitting that I would finally slay the fear dragon at con bearing its name.  But first, a little background.

Dragon Con 2013 was a comic con unlike any of the others I’d attended.  At this con I had plans to meet up with about 10 listeners of The Fringe Podcast that I now considered friends.  In addition to them, I had plans to meet up with a few other podcasters that, like me, were a part of the TV Talk network.  TV Talk had given us all some promo shirts to hand out and asked us to help spread the word about TV Talk.  One of those other podcasters is a guy named Mike.  Mike is a fantastic dude and hosts the best podcast on the planet for the show Continuum.

Continuum had a really nice presence at Dragon Con.  Three of the shows stars were at the conference and they were putting on a different panel each day.  The same was true for Fringe: three cast members with a different panel each day.  On the second day of the con I attended a Continuum panel and saw that Mike was already there in the audience.  I found a seat next to him and when the time came for fan questions, Mike did something I’d never had the courage to do.  He went up to the mic to ask a question.  He told the stars his name and that he is one of the hosts of Liber8, a Continuum Podcast.  Then something cool happened.  The stars of the show sat up in their seats, smiled, and gave him cheers.  They knew exactly who he was, and thanked him for his podcast.  As you can imagine, when Mike returned to his seat, he was pretty excited!  I told him that I’d always dreamed of something like that happening to me, but I’d never had the courage to approach the microphone.  He and the others with us encouraged me to get over my fear, but inside my head, that seemed impossible.  What if I stutter over my question, I thought.  What if my question is dumb?  What if the person in front of me asks my question and I can’t think of another one?   Then I’ll just look like and idiot!

Later that day I was scheduled to speak on a panel with other fan podcasters.  Oddly, this activity makes me nervous, but only slightly.  I’m with other people so there’s safety in numbers.  There was also a Fringe panel right after I wrapped up my panel, so my Fringe friends agreed to save me a spot in line.  When I arrived to the line, it was snaking its way around a hall through a queueing room, and then back out into the main lobby.  Finding my friends was going to be tougher than I thought!  I walked up to the queueing room and began scanning the faces to find a group that I recognized.  Off to the right hand side I hear my name and then again, and then again, and again and again.  I found my friends and several of them are waving to get my attention.  As I made my way through the line to get to them, there was another group of people sitting in a circle on the floor.  They wanted in on the action too and began shouting my name and waving.  They had no idea who I was and I had no idea who they were, but I decided to play along too.  I walked up to them and began talking to them as if I knew them, asking them about their day so far.  We all shared a laugh and I felt pretty encouraged by it all actually.  But then something REALLY cool happened.

On the other side of this group was another section of the line and someone stepped out of that line and approached our group.  She said, “your name is Darrell, as in THE Darrell?”  I said, “You mean The Fringe Podcast Darrell?”  She said, “Yes!”  I confirmed that I was indeed The Fringe Podcast Darrell and she told me how much she had enjoyed our podcast and how cool it was to meet me.  Meet ME?  Are you kidding me right now?  So as you can imagine, I felt like a rock star.  I have a level of confidence that I’ve never experienced before and I determined in that moment that I was going to take advantage of all the confidence and adrenaline pumping through my veins.

As fortune would have it, when we got inside the panel and the usher seated us, my seat ended up right on the aisle a mere 36″ from the microphone.  They started the panel and almost immediately encouraged the audience to line up for questions.  Before my self doubt could say a word I leapt to my feet and stepped behind the mic.  I didn’t want to go first though, so I politely gave up that spot to someone else.  Soon enough it was my turn at the mic.  The spotlight is on me, all eyes are focused at me and I can feel them on my back as if they were laser beams.  And then something AMAZING happened.

Before I could even utter a word, there was movement from the stage.  A smile came upon the face of one of the actors, and she spoke to me.   She said, “Well hello, Darrell from The Fringe Podcast.”  I was stunned.  I have to admit that the next few seconds are a blur.  I know that I said hello back to her and I know that quite a few people in the audience then recognized me and they cheered.  What?  They cheered for ME?  The actor recognized ME?  What kind of alternate universe is this?  I asked my question to one of the other actors and he answered.  I then sat down and really couldn’t believe what had just happened.  I just got called out from the stage by one of the actors of my favorite show and then got cheers from the audience.  Take THAT, fear!

So here’s what I learned by slaying the fear dragon.  I learned that fear is robbing me of rewards.  How many times have I lost out on a rewarding experience because I listened to the voice of fear?  What have missed out on because I let doubt defeat me?  I can not go back and change any of those decisions or slay any of the fear dragons that got the best of me, but what I can do is learn from my dragon slaying experience and stand courageous when that dragon and I cross paths again.  You and I both know that there is not just one fear dragon in our lives.  In fact, our paths are FILLED with them.  We must take courage and boldly defeat them every time they raise their ugly heads.

For you, that dragon may cross your path every day.  Don’t give up.  Don’t be weary.  Be encouraged!  When you slay that fear dragon, you become stronger.  One day you’ll look back on the path you’ve walked and you’ll see the carcasses of dragons and you’ll know that you couldn’t possibly be where you are, if the path had been easy or if you’d allowed fear and doubt to reign over you.  Sometimes these dragons are keeping you from earning the personal satisfaction of being recognized for the hard work and passion you’ve poured into a podcast, and sometimes that dragon is standing in between you and the most important opportunity of your life.  Whatever the case may be, you’ll never win if you listen to the voice of fear.

I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.

[sc:stuff]