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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, today marks the one year anniversary of the day I launched this podcast, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share some of the stuff I’ve learned over the last year of hosting Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day is: Almonds are members of the peach family. An Almond, technically, isn’t a nut — it’s the pit of a fruit related to peaches, plums and apricots.
Before I go on I want to again take a moment to thank every one of you that helped get Stuff I Learned Yesterday, Arrow Squad and The Blacklist Exposed nominated for a 2015 Podcast Award. It’s incredible that we have three Golden Spiral Media podcasts in the running this year and I’m very humbled to be listed amongst so many other great shows.
Now we need your help with the voting. The way it works is you get to cast your vote once per day, through March 24th. After voting, you may get an email asking you to verify your vote. If you do, just follow the instructions in the email. To cast your vote visit podcastawards.com. We ask that you select Stuff I Learned Yesterday from the General Category, Arrow Squad from the Best Produced category and The Blacklist Exposed from the Entertainment category. You can choose your favorite shows from the other categories if you like as well. Then fill out your name and email at the bottom of the page and press submit. That’s all there is to it. Until the next day, that is, when we ask you to do it again. So enlist your family and friends and get them voting each day as well. With your help GSM could take home these coveted awards. Now back to our regularly scheduled podcast.
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. 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 Learned Yesterday:
By now I think most of you know the story of how this podcast came to be, but just in case you don’t, or you need a refresher, this is for you.
I cut my teeth on podcasting by doing podcasts on TV, film, and technology with the primary focus being on TV. Obviously that’s still the major thing we do here at Golden Spiral Media. However, after talking about those things for over 5 years, I had a desire to do something else. It wasn’t a desire to stop talking about that other stuff, it was a desire to talk about a wider variety of things.
I wanted to talk about stuff that wasn’t based on something someone else created. I wanted to talk about stuff that was on my mind. I wanted to make a more profound impact on the world. I wanted to try to make the world a better place by helping people.
So I surveyed our listeners. I asked them what sorts of podcasts they’d like to see Golden Spiral Media do. No one wanted this type of podcast. When I asked again and hinted at this type of format, still no one was interested.
I thought about it a bit but I decided to stick to my gut. I had a deep desire to do some…thing, and I knew I had to see how far the idea would go. I wasn’t really sure what the format would be or what it would be called. The only thing I knew was that the episodes would be no longer than 15 minutes, it would have new episodes 5 days a week, and it would try to inspire and motivate.
If you’ve never listened to episode 1 of this podcast, you can find out how the remaining details got filled in while I was attending New Media Expo last year and encountered a whistling garbage collector.
I knew creating 5 episodes per week would be hard so I made a list of 30 episode ideas before I ever hit the record button. What I didn’t realize then was that having an idea was not enough. I needed a story to wrap the idea in. In fact, it wasn’t until episode 102 that I fully realized that this was a storytelling podcast.
Even though I knew creating 5 episodes per week would be hard, I had no idea just how hard it would be. As I’ve mentioned a few times before, there have been many times where I’ve woken up and had absolutely no idea what I would be talking about when it came time to record that day’s show. Fortunately, every time I’ve needed an idea, it has always come.
Of course, adding Derek, then Mandy, and then Mark to this show has not only greatly reduced the pressure on me to produce new stories, it has also allowed a much broader perspective to be shared. I love hearing their perspectives and I’m glad to have included them as part of this podcast.
One thing I did get right from the very beginning was the idea of the Friday Forum. When I started sketching out the format of this show, I knew that one important piece would be creating a way to incorporate the voice of the listeners. Listener contributions have always been an incredibly important element in each of our podcasts. So when the idea of the Friday Forum came to me, I instantly knew that it was the perfect fit.
Since I’m on the topic of the Friday Forum, let me ask you a question. This podcast is the only Golden Spiral Media podcast that does not allow written contributions for the Friday Forum. I restrict Friday Forum contributions to audio only, because I feel strongly that the stories will be more impactful if they are heard in the actual voices of those who experienced them first hand.
However, I am considering a change that would allow written feedback. Before I decide, I want to hear from you. So, if you would contribute to the Friday Forum if written feedback was allowed, will you please email me and let me know? You can email me at feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com.
Now back to the episode.
It seems fitting that at last year’s New Media Expo the idea for this podcast was birthed. It was from my hotel room at New Media Expo that I bought the domain name for this podcast. Now, just one year later, this podcast has been recognized as one of the top 10 podcasts in its category and is up for a Podcast Award that will be handed out at this year’s New Media Expo.
I don’t know if we’ll win or not. Honestly, the odds are not in our favor. We’re up against some fantastic podcasts, including the fastest growing podcast in the history of podcasts.
If we win, that will be amazing and…terrifying. I’ll have to get up on a stage in front of a few thousand people, act like meeting Dennis Miller is an average occurrence in my life, and then try to say something not embarrassing.
However, if we don’t win, that will still be amazing. Why? Because of you.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
You are more important that a podcast award. I didn’t create this podcast for the purpose of getting podcast awards, or even for the purpose of getting nominated for a podcast award. I created it because of you. Well, and me.
I created it because I wanted to share my life with you. I wanted to tell you about stuff I’ve learned and do my best to tell you about it in such a way that it made both of our lives better.
I never imagined that families would be listening to this podcast together. To those of you who do listen to this podcast as a family, I am incredibly, incredibly humbled by that. Family time is so important. For you to invite me into that space and share my ramblings with your children is special to me. To you kids that are listening, your parents are making you listen to this because they love you and they want you to have an amazing life and to be an amazing person. If you’re a kid and you’re listening because you like this even without your parents, that’s amazing. If I ever meet you in person, remind me to buy you an ice cream. In the mean time, ask your parents to buy you some.
Seriously folks, whether you’re younger or older, the stories that you have sent me that have shared how this podcast has bettered your life, are the reason I do this. They serve as confirmation that I’m doing what I set out to do: Make the world a better place by helping people. You’ve not only shared feedback about my stories, but you’ve shared feedback about how Mandy, Mark, and Derek have impacted you too.
The reality is, this podcast is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. But like most challenges, it has also been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Time is truly wibbly and wobbly. In some aspects, it seems like just yesterday that I released the first episode. The year has flown by. In other aspects, it seems like the launch was an eternity ago. So I have no idea what the next year will have in store.
What I do know is that as life hands out its unexpected challenges, curve balls, joys, pains, blessings, and setbacks, I will look at each day as an opportunity to observe and learn. Each morning when I raise my head from my pillow, I will do so with the intention that when the night falls and the time comes to rest my head back down, I will do so with more wisdom than when the day began, and having done my part to share love, create hope, instill inspiration, and make the world a better place.
I hope that you’ll do your best to do the same. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I am better because of you.
I’m Darrell Darnell 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.
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