Stuff I Learned Yesterday
About Stuff I Learned Yesterday
Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a podcast that aims to encourage, inspire, challenge, motivate, and improve the lives of those who listen to it. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is released each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode ranges from 5-15 minutes long and contain short stories based on real events and lessons learned by the hosts. Friday episodes are called the Friday Forum and are filled with inspirational and motivational thoughts submitted by Stuff I Learned Yesterday listeners. Submit your story for a Friday Forum episode by calling 304-837-2278, visiting our feedback page, or click on the Send a Voice Message button on the left hand side of this page.
116- Recognizing Influence
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Do you consider yourself an influential person? Think about it for a moment. It’s not a trick question. Do you consider yourself an influential person?
I believe wholeheartedly that there is only one answer to this question and that answer is yes. We are all people of influence. Let me give you a few examples.
Last night my son and I were out for our evening stroll. It was getting dark and the sun was already out of view. As it sank below the horizon it painted the sky with beautiful shades of pink, orange, purple, and gray. Colby and I walked along the sidewalk and talked about how beautiful it was. He told me that he thought it looked like a forest with a fire lighting up the back side of it. A moment later the sun was gone. We made the turn back toward our house and he said, “Dad, I really like going on these walks with you. I like spending any time I can with you.” Guess what? I’m influencing him. Read More…
115- Friday Forum
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, since I work from home I only wear shoes and socks about 1 day a week, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Justina, Ana, and Barb. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…
114- Just Because It Looks Good, Doesn’t Mean It Sounds Good
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(Photo Credit: giovanni gallucci, LiveLoudTexas.com)
As you will probably recall, the last couple of weeks have been stressful for me. The stress was brought about because of 3 things: finances, my Podcast Movement presentation, and the launch of my first digital product. You probably also remember that I launched my first digital product, Audacity Mastery, last week. I still have some things I need to add to the website and some marketing plans to roll out, but the stressful part of that project is now behind me.
I stressed over Podcast Movement because I wanted to help people. Those who bought a ticket to Podcast Movement spent their hard earned money to learn more about podcasting and become better podcasters. I didn’t want those who came to my session feel like they wasted their time. I didn’t want the people who gave me the opportunity to speak to feel like they made a bad decision. Therefore, I put pressure on myself to live up to these self imposed expectations. Read More…
113- Meaningful Work
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Our daughter Amelie is now four and a half months old. I am madly in love with her. She brings more joy to my life than I ever imagined possible. When our daughter was born my wife Carrie took two months off from her job. After the two months was up it was time for her to go back to her full time job. I work for myself and have flexible hours so it made sense for me to take care of our daughter during the day.
I didn’t know what to expect staying home all day with a baby. And trust me, there is no way to describe it until you have done it for yourself. All of you stay at home parents know what I mean. Read More…
112- Ignited By Community
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I met Chris Brogan over the weekend. Who is Chris Brogan? Chris is a New York Times bestselling author of 6 books about social media, achieving goals, building influence, entrepreneurship, and other similar topics. He’s a frequent keynote speaker at conferences about those topics and he’s consulted for companies like Microsoft, Disney, Coke, Google, and a bunch of others. To folks like you and me, he’s kind of a big deal. He at least has a pretty impressive resume.
Chris was invited to be the opening keynote speaker at Podcast Movement. He gave a very interesting and humorous presentation about the way podcasters should treat listeners. After his keynote was over, he hung out the rest of the day. He was part of another panel later in the day, but other than the time he was on that panel, Chris was out mingling with all of us with less impressive resumes.
He didn’t go back to his hotel room and hide. He didn’t have a group of people around him to keep people away. No, it was just the opposite. He took time to meet every person, sign every book, hear every story, accept every business card, and shake every hand that was offered to him.
I’m not the type of person who typically gets enamored with celebrity. That’s not to say that I don’t get nervous when I get the opportunity to interview a celebrity. I do. But that has more to do with the anticipation of the interview. I get nervous no matter who the person is in those situations. I even get nervous when I’m the one being interviewed.
Since I don’t get enamored with celebrity, I don’t go out of my way to speak to them unless I have a legitimate reason to. In Chris’ case, I had a legitimate reason. Read More…
111- Et Tu, Brute?
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I just returned from a fantastic weekend at Podcast Movement 2014. The experience exceeded my expectations and I can not wait to return next year. I’ll be sharing a different story about Podcast Movement 2014 every day this week.
You may recall that we had a Golden Spiral Media community meetup last friday night while we were in Dallas for Podcast Movement. Dallas traffic is normally bad, but the traffic on Friday was among the worst that I’ve ever experienced there. It took us over an hour longer than expected to drive down from Oklahoma City.
While we were sitting in Dallas traffic I got a text from another podcasting friend of mine, Jason Cabassi from The Walking Dead Cast. Jason asked if a friend of his named Michael could join us.
Jason and I last saw each other at New Media Expo in January of this year. At that conference Jason also introduced me to Michael. I spent a lot of time at New Media Expo hanging out with Jason and Michael. We had dinner together one night and went over to the Venetian for gelato one day. Of course, Michael was more than welcome to come to the meet up.
When we finally arrived at the hotel, we checked in and headed for our room to drop off our luggage. We didn’t have a lot of time to relax before it was time for the meet up. The time soon arrived for us to head down to the lobby to meet up with those who were attending Podcast Movement before heading over to the restaurant. We got on the elevator and I was excited to immediately recognize a face of a familiar podcaster standing right at the front. I enthusiastically greeted him by yelling out his first name, “Caesar!” The friend smiled, said hello, and asked me how things were going. Read More…
110- Friday Forum
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite coffee mug, besides my Golden Spiral Media coffee mug, is the one I bought at the original Starbucks in Seattle, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Bonita and Colby. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…
109- Don’t Blame the Red Haired Lady
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I loved driver’s ed. What’s not to love, right? Every kid dreams of one day getting behind the wheel and experiencing 4 wheels of freedom. I took drivers ed my sophomore year of high school and I was paired with a guy named Wayne. Wayne was a senior.
While I was taking the class so that I could learn how to drive, Wayne was taking the class so that he could get a reduced rate on his insurance. He’d already been driving for a couple of years and didn’t need near the instruction of myself, or anyone else in the class really. This worked out in my favor.
On some days in drivers ed we studied state laws, sat through lectures, watched odd and slightly gruesome safety videos, or took tests. On other days we got behind the wheel and drove around town.
Of course, my favorite days were the ones when I got to drive, but I really liked the entire class. I did really well on the tests. As far as I can recall, I only ever missed one test question the entire duration of the class. I still remember the question because I felt silly for missing it.
The question was, what do you do when you come to a blinking red light. It was a multiple choice question and I circled the answer that said that you should wait for the light to turn green, and then proceed. Of course, the light will never turn green in that situation and the correct answer is to treat it like a stop sign. It was a simple case of me overlooking the word “blinking.”
When I was 15 ½ I took the written test to get my permit. I did great, although I did miss a question. This time the question had to do with bicyclists. I didn’t know that they were supposed to ride in the same direction of traffic. Read More…
108- Something Will Fall Off
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A couple of years ago I found myself overwhelmed by my schedule. Between work, family, church, my social life, and everything else I found it hard to keep up. I got stressed out and started becoming irritable. I was exhausted.
I was talking with a friend about how my schedule was too crowded and I was having a hard time cutting things out so that it could be more manageable.
This friend used the phrase plate size to describe a person’s schedule. He also talked about how everyone has their own plate size, some people can handle a lot and some people can’t handle as much. Listen to this episode or read more…
107- A Walk to Remember
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Fatherhood is awesome. Sure, there are moments where it can be difficult and frustrating and scary, but those times are far eclipsed by the moments of joy, fun, enthusiasm, and bonding. One of my favorite things to do is spend time with my kids one-on-one. During these one-on-one times they get my full attention, and I get theirs.
Sometimes I’ll take a Saturday morning and take one of my kids to breakfast or lunch. My son, Colby, likes to go to a local restaurant called Colby’s grill. Not only does it share his name, it has great food. My daughter likes to go to a local spot called Around the Corner Restaurant. It’s exactly what you think of when you imagine a small town diner. It’s homey and delicious.
Recently, Colby and I have been taking walks together in the evenings. It’s the perfect time of day for a walk as we’ve just finished eating dinner, Bernard is out in the flowerbeds gathering pollen, and the air is cooling more each moment as the sun is dipping lower into the horizon.
We step out the front door, spend a few minutes watching Bernard, and then one of us will choose which way we’re going to go. Our neighborhood has a walking trail a couple of blocks away, so we usually meander around one of three routes we can take to get to the trail.
Along the way we talk about life. As you can imagine, life is pretty hectic for a 9 year old on summer break. He tells me about his latest adventures on Minecraft or a new skin that he has made for his character. Sometimes he tells me about his progress on a game called Portal. Sometimes he asks me how my day has gone. Read More…