Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:46 — 6.3MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mark Des Cotes, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Derek for his wonderful contributions to this podcast, and like him, I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share the story of how I came to be talking to you today.
Friday Fourm
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. 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 or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
What I Leaned Yesterday:
I’ve been a fan of Golden Spiral Media for a while now, and this particular podcast since it’s launch. Well, before it’s launch actually since Darrell told me all about his plans for this show when he hired me to designed the artwork for it. So you can say I’ve been on board from the start. Now as Darrell mentioned when he made the announcement that I would be the new host, I’ve sent in Friday Forum submissions on a number of occasions. Six to be exact. On a side note here, since I can’t submit to the Friday Forum anymore I’m now expecting you to step up with your own. If you don’t think you have any stories good enough, which I find hard to believe, I’d still love to hear how something you’ve heard on this show has touched you. Can you relate to Derek’s adventures with a newborn? Have Mandy’s toddler troubles touched home? Or are you also an amature gardner discovering your green thumb like Darrell? I would love to hear how one of their stories has affected you and made you take action. Ok, where was I, oh yes, back in June I sent Darrell a message letting him know that if he wanted a break I would be willing to host SILY one day a week. Darrell told me he appreciated my offer, but he had just brought Derek on board and Mandy would be starting in a couple of months.
Fast forward to September. I was surprised when Darrell sent me an email with news of Derek’s decision to step down as a host of Stuff I learned Yesterday. I loved Derek’s contributions and his take on things will surely be missed. Darrell was looking for a replacement host and was wondering if I was still interested in the spot. I immediately said yes. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to officially join the Golden Spiral Media Family and to be a part of this wonderfully insightful podcast. Over the next several days I kept pondering what my first episode should be about. I chose and discarded several stories from my life as I tried to decide on the perfect one for my SILY debut. Don’t worry, I’ve kept a list of those stories for future episodes. Some of them are real doozies. Then one night, still undecided, I was contemplating the paths my life had taken and how they’ve led me to where I am today. Suddenly a light bulb clicked, I had my story.
It was September 19th 2012; I had just upgraded my iPhone 4 to Apple’s iOS 6 that had been released earlier that day. As I was checking out the new features I noticed a new App on my home screen called Podcasts. What’s this I thought? I had never heard the word before, and had no idea what a podcast was. Curious, I opened the App and was shown an introduction screen that asked me to choose shows to subscribe to. Not sure what to do I scrolled through the categories and came across one called TV & Movies. Being a self proclaimed TVaholic I stopped to have a look. Sitting right there at the top of the list was a show called “The Revolution Podcast”. This is interesting I thought, I had just watched the Revolution premier the night before and thought it was a great show. Curiosity peaked, I clicked the subscribe button. There were two episodes that downloaded, an introduction episode explaining what the TV show and podcast would be about, and a review episode discussing and dissecting the pilot episode. I listened to both and was instantly hooked. I couldn’t believe how many things these guys were talking about that I had missed while watching the TV show. The next day I got exited when a little red flag appeared on the Podcasts App Icon showing I had 1 new episode downloaded. The boys had interviewed Tim Guinee, the actor who played Ben Matheson on Revolution. I thought wow, these guys are amazing, they know so much about the show AND they get to talk to the actors as well. If you’re listening, don’t let it go to your heads guys, I was new and gullible back then. Anyway, a week later episode 4 of the podcast came out covering the 2nd episode of Revolution. During that podcast Jeremy, Darrell’s co-host, was going on and on about some of the plot points and how they could be explained by introducing time travel to the show. Now time travel in Revolution would later become a running joke on the podcast, but at the time I just thought Jeremy was completely nuts. So much so that I just had to put in my 2 cents. I typed up a message and sent it in with my thoughts on the show and why I thought time travel was a ridiculous notion. So what happened? Darrell read my feedback on air. I got so excited that I played it for my wife and anybody that would listen. I felt famous and I was instantly addicted to not only Podcasts, but sending in feedback as well. After a couple of weeks of writing in, I finally took the guys light hearted jabs about wanting audio feedback to heart and recorded my first feedback. To say I was nervous in an understatement, I used the voice recorder on my iPhone and must have rerecorded it a dozen times before finally sending it in. When they played my feedback on air and I heard my voice, I felt like I was part of the GSM team, after that first voice feedback I don’t think I missed a single week for the rest of Revolution’s run and have sent in feedback to numerous other podcasts.
During that time, I started hanging out in the Golden Spiral Media chat room during the live recordings of The Revolution Podcast where I met some great Revolution fans from around the globe. At their urgings as well as constant mentions from Darrell and Jeremy, I decided to check out this other show called Fringe. My family and I watched it together and I listened to the entire back catalogue of The Fringe Podcast throughout my watch. I had discovered that listening to TV fan podcasts dramatically heightened my appreciation of the TV show they were about. At that point I started looking for podcasts for all my favourite shows.
In April 2013 I started watching a little show called Orphan Black. I loved the pilot so much that I immediately tried to find a podcast to go along with it. To my surprise I couldn’t find any. A couple of weeks went by and still there were no Orphan Black podcasts. That’s when a thought occurred to me, why don’t I start my own? Nervously I contacted Darrell and asked if he would help me start my very own podcast. He happily agreed. I purchased an inexpensive microphone on eBay, downloaded the free software Darrell suggested, and with his guidance I learnt the procedures for recording, editing and publishing a podcast, and formed Solo Talk Media. Now, by the time I was ready to begin it was a bit late to podcast about Orphan Black since there were only 3 episodes left to air, so I chose another new show about to start to get my feed wet on called Under The Dome. I loved the freedom podcasting gave me to share my thoughts on the show and I especially loved the feedback I received and seeing the download numbers, knowing that hundreds of people were listing to what I had to say. Knowing I had found a new passion, I once again sought Darrell’s expertise and with his advice I purchased the equipment I needed to improve my audio quality and take my podcast to the professional level. I followed Under The Dome with an Orphan Black season 1 in review podcast, going over each episode in a spoiler free fashion so as not to ruin the show for those first time watchers. Now, a year and a half later I have 2 seasons of each show under my belt and plans to add more shows in the future.
Through Solo Talk Media as well as through submitting feedback to many other podcasts I’ve come to know a lot of people I would otherwise have never met. Some of those people I talk to on a regular basis and count them as good friends. I hope to one day actually meet them face to face. I’ve also carved out a very small name for myself in the podcasting universe. It still floors me when some big name podcaster I admire tells me they’ve heard of me. I still have a long way to go and I’m so happy you will be a part of my journey.
Here’s what I learned.
Life is funny. Every day we’re faced with hundreds of decisions to make. Some of them major but most just seem inconsequential. Should I have cereal or toast? Do I wear the blue shirt or red shirt? Do I start this new task or finish that other one first? There are so many decisions you make throughout the day that don’t seem that important. The thing is, you never know when one of those seemingly unimportant decisions may change your life. After all, I’m here, talking to you today because just a little over two years ago I looked at my iPhone screen, saw a new app and said, Podcasts? What’s this?
I’m Mark Des Cotes and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and Facebook.com/GoldenSpiralMedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned yesterday, visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/subscribe. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]