You know, the Ericast has a long history of disappearing for awhile, usually in the summertime, usually because I'm busy with fun stuff. But when historians look back at this gap in the schedule they're going to say, "Ohhhhhh..." Want a quick check-in? Here's your show.
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I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't record a profound thought from a dream last night, not because it was probably that profound but because I'd like to look back at what I thought was profound. Or, maybe it was. Who knows? Oh, well.
The Electrified Mind podcast disappeared. A "Daily Empowerment Podcast" that was weekly, and now there's no sign of it. It was a fun podcast and they always closed with the same song, which turns out was a royalty free one... and it seems appropriate to cap this return with what I used to do in the early years of the podcast. I'll put it after the close in case you don't want a musical interlude... but I think it's worth a listen in this age.
Help You Out (ft. Jonathon Robins) by Leonell Cassio
https://soundcloud.com/leonellcassio
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2JiBzMv
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/hDCwRot8NWs.
Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.
I've not lost my voice and this is an actual episode, but it's a bit of a throwback while locked in our pandemic-sheltered world. Wondering about where this voice came from? Here's your show.
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This is normally where I'd put a summary... but you just have to listen to this one for yourself. It's only 10 minutes; you'll do fine.
Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.
I thought about calling this episode "What a Month!" but I already did that two years ago so I'm picking a particular topic for this episode. Wondering what it is? Here's your show.
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"I ask that everyone treat each other kindly, show gratitude for the work that’s being done, and forgive any mistakes."
Questions? Reflections on leadership? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.
I hope that title didn't scare you because, no, I'm not planning on ending the Ericast. But I have changed my personal podcast listening habits. Wonder what they are? Here's your show...
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You know the drill - I'd love to hear from you!
I'm down to the wire on the end of the year and the end of a decade, depending on how you count. Want a quick update on how this fall went? Here's your show.
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There's really no topic for this episode -- it's truly a "Yeah, life has happened the past couple months. Here I am." Still there?
Questions? Comments? Objections? Interjections? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and contribute.
Where did October go? Well, I was busy jetting off to a location literally dozens and dozens of miles from home. Let's recap the EDUCAUSE Conference. Here's your show.
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I'm trying to get better at flying. Nasal spray helps.
This year's EDUCAUSE focus was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Last time, seven years ago, it was on student retention analytics. Seven years before that was lecture capture. And eight years before that I had a focus on "computer competency" because that's where I started my career, so I don't really know what the other key themes were at the time.
I try to make the most of whatever opportunity I'm given. I don't always succeed, but if I'm conscious about preserving "an attitude of positive regard" then i can watch out for living in negative space.
Do I want to be a CIO? (Hint: No.) That's best explained by a clip of Tony Wrighton on the Zestology podcast and his interview with Chris Ryan, author of Civilized to Death.
Questions? Comments? Observations? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and share.
Sometimes you hear things that weren't said. And sometimes you don't hear things that were said. Confused? Curious? Here's your show.
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Spoiler alert: I made it 10 seconds into this episode without making a mistake. Can you hear it?
Are crickets good luck? I don't think so, but I have to live with it.
I listen back to my podcasts after they're published, not for vanity's sake but to make sure that everything is as I intended it to be, that it sounds okay, that I didn't misspeak, etc. And from the last episode, I caught myself saying something that sounds like something I didn't actually say...
(I have a common phrase -- "the God of the Universe". That probably dates back to a record that I had when I was a little, little kid -- a really cool transparent red acetate record that discussed the nature of the universe.)
So, what did Neil Armstrong actually say? (No, that's not a non sequitur; listen to the episode.)
There are at least three distinct topics in this episode, so share your thoughts on one or more of them at 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742)
Every once in awhile, someone -- like an old friend -- says something really profound that pivots your life. Want an example? Here's your show.
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It's still "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month" but I'm bringing back the "listener feedback at the end of the month" theme... because I couldn't sleep.
I did get some feedback way back in June. Every so often I think, there's got to be a better way to automate these podcasts and stitch files together and maybe we could just take the feedback and push it straight into a feed...
...okay, so maybe that's not a good idea, and maybe automation isn't all that it's cracked up to be. But we do get calls from reliable longtime listeners, like the one Matt made right after I was talking about informercial giants...
How long will be it before spelling things out with the phone keypad makes no sense? I'm glad my car dashboard still includes it because I only know our main office number based on how it's spelled.
Anyway, that brings is to the final call of this month's show, which came right after the last episode about my Tall Mike Stand.
I called and talked to Mike after he left this message, which was great, and we didn't get to dive into the church-naming conversation. Some other time! As an aside, Gimlet Media has a podcast on "startups" and the series from a year ago was on "church planting"... where one of the things they mention is competition for attendance numbers so that the math works out to become financially self-sustaining. That's also a topic for another day. But during that call with Mike (after I mentioned how wonderfully amazing it is that we can pick right up in the conversation after being away from each other for years) he said, "You can't make old friends. You can make new friends, and they might become old friends, but you can't make old friends."
And it's funny that he mentioned the church-naming thing, because we actually visited our old Berean Baptist stomping ground a couple weeks back thanks to a break in our Oak Hills Church schedule. We walked into our small-group classroom and picked right up where we left off three years ago. Jonzer was at the coffee cart upstairs (and apologized for being behind on listening to the podcasts; I pointed out I was behind on recording them, so he was probably fine). It was really strange to drop into an environment like that and get another living example of the value of "old friends".
So, if there's any advice in this podcast, I guess it's to go out and make some old friends... and you do that by either strengthening the old friendships you have, or make some new friendships and keep them strong enough to become old.
Let me know what you think! 701-645-3742 (which, while you're using a device that can spell something out, spells out 701-645-ERIC).
I got a tall mic stand, so it sits on the floor and doesn't pick up table vibration. But if I do a podcast on that topic, nobody's going to listen. Maybe it'll sound better if I just move the words around? Here's your show.
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I'm not kidding. That's really what this episode is about. I'm still trying to streamline the recording process because that's the only thing that's keeping me from coming down here to Studio A (which is comfortably cool in Minnesota summers) and getting an episode recorded. In this case, it's going to take three or four times longer to post this than it did to record it.
Thanks to Matt from California for the feedback -- in Northern California, which I assume was earthquake free this month. One of my colleagues experienced a 3 a.m. aftershock while at a conference in Long Beach, which is south of L.A., and I realized that "experience an earthquake" might be on the bucket list that I don't keep.
People live. People die. I get that. But sometimes things line up in a way you didn't quite expect. If you ever wanted a peek inside my fascination with get-rich-quick celebrities, here's your show.
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We're continuing with "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month." And while I'd much rather be upstairs sleeping right now, I came down to Studio A because the chances of me getting a podcast out on a Friday night are slim, and then we're in June already!
Growing up reading magazine ads but having no money to send the $9.95 and the SASE. The famous "What is this woman doing?" ad that I can't find any sign up; that might be my summer research project. (Anyone know what it was?)
Whether they knew it or not, people know the kind of world I'm talking about because Don Lapre was popular, and popular enough to be parodied by David Spade on SNL. He'd set up a half-hour informercial where he'd stand someplace exotic like a beach and tell you the magic of "placing tiny classified ads..."
Well, that didn't end well. "Lapre died on October 2, 2011, while in jail awaiting his trial, which was scheduled to begin on October 4, 2011."
The other infomercial king at the time was Carleton Sheets. His informercial theme was real estate, and his videos usually featured palm trees between him and the ocean. In search for more information years and years ago, I came across the website of John T. Reed.
John T. Reed maintains a website of "real-estate-invesement gurus" and in addition to discussing Carleton Sheets, he spent a realy long time documenting his lawsuit with a guru named Russ Whitney. Those lawsuits were settled in 2005 and that information is gone now... but it stuck in my head.
So, fast-forward to the fall of 2017. I had signed up for some sort of "internet investing" seminar that was being held at the new Radisson Blu hotel attached to the Mall of America. If nothing else, it'd be cool to see the hotel. So I went, and the speaker introduced himself as "Russell Whitney". That sounded realy familiar. Long story short, this was Russell Whitney Jr., who's the spitting-image son of Russ Whitney of 1980s real estate marketing fame. The seminar was for MOBE, which was an internet-marketing Ponzi scheme (which then got shut down by the FTC last summer).
Prior to that shutdown, Russell gave an interview on a marketing podcast talking about overcoming his (major, dangerous) drug addictions and staying 100% clean because of his addictive personality (NSFW language in the podcast, but it's a really great interview: https://www.droppingbombs.com/russ-whitney-be-rich/ )
Last September, he posted an Instagram photo with a touching note that concluded: "I love my wife and son with all my heart. They have made my life complete. # success # familymatters"
(You're right; this story doesn't end well.)
Miami-Dade is an open-records county and less than 24 hours after I requested it I got a copy of the coroner's report: Russel Whitney Jr. died on November 20th, 2018 of "Acute Combined Drug Toxicity (Heroin, Fentanyl, Acetyl Fentanyl, Oxycodone and Cocaine)"
What do you do when you have a "comeback story" and the comeback doesn't stick?
People, businesses, faith communities - they all have names. But do they really mean anything? Yeah, I think they do. Here's your show.
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I had intended to batch some shows, but we see how that went. So this is live-to-harddrive on April 29th, after an amazingly strange past few weeks. Many of us had to take a detour from things like podcasting, because we were shoveling.
So, I'd intended to get this show out before Easter, when it would've made sense, but I didn't.
Better than last year's Minnebar blizzard, I have to say...
The Ericast Studio A is slightly less cluttered now and we'll see what summer brings.
Questions? Comments? 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or drop a note to me (eric) at ericast.com, or find me on the social medias.
A few weeks back, listener Digital Dan pointed out it had been 45 days since that last Ericast. Want an update? Here's your show.
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The weekly podcast that now comes out about once a quarter. That's not good. Amber googles, smart bulbs, etc. Tuya bulbs. Winter was hard! This is one of the most scatter-shot, thrown-together Ericast episodes in a long time.
But you can still reach out! 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC), or via your social media method of choice.
It's a new year and time for resolutions of sorts. Wondering about my top priority for 2019? Here's your show.
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You know, "2019" seems to roll off the tongue pretty well. My wife was trying to get our Alexato play the podcast and she discovered that it's hard to find this "Ericast" but there's at least one other "Eric Cast" out there. But I'm pretty sure I'm the original. I know at least one other person listens to the Dweeb Thoughts feed, so in 2019 I might try to be more regular about that.
But the real thing I'm focusing on is getting rid of saying "ummmm" because I'm realizing it's really distracting! Maybe I'll make that an official 2019 goal, or at least a quartly one. (Mark Mason mentioned "The 12 Week Year" in his Late Night Internet Marketing podcast, episode 159: Keys to Achieving Your Goals in 2019)
Also, I'll do fewer personal details (I think, maybe?) because I noticed when going through the back-catalog that it's hard to get to the meat of a podcast topic while slogging through the basics of my life. That won't change for the nearly 14 years of back-catalog on the podcast, but maybe it'll be better in the next 14 years.
Listener feedback will still be key to the Ericast. It's one of the best features of Seth Godin's "Akimbo" podcast so I'd like to keep that up here.
Closing with the life updates rather than opening with them (because you didn't think they'd disappear entirely, would you?) I have a weird problem where something is syncing old photo collections into my Photos directory, which causes my fairly small SSD drive to fill up, which causes Windows 10 to turn on automatic compression so it can function. Very odd. So I'm declaring auto-syncing bankruptcy right now and am uninstalling Google Drive (that was easy) and iCloud (which is taking forever... leading me to wonder if that's what was causing the syncing problem). Stay tuned to find out more.
As always, share your thoughts. Next week I think I might talk about what's on my podcast roster for 2019 -- I did that once before but it's been a few years now, and tastes change. Questions? Problems? Worries? Call 701-645-3742, email me (eric) at ericast.com, or reach out on social media.
I've always promised to mix in a bit of theology into the Ericast, and this is one of those episodes. Regular listeners will love it. Some in the "silent majority" might not. But I really, really believe in this message. Here's your show.
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No, that episode title isn't a typo; this episode is focused around a three-word quote from Paul Prins, who I first met when he demoed Freshvine at Minnedemo in July 2013. (In fact, I just realized that I mentioned it on an Ericast at the time, entitled MinneDemo 2013 Hipsters...)
Anyway, this episode talks about the importance of Grace and Forgiveness. Sure, sure, we know it's important. No, it's really important.
Agree? Disagree? Comments in general? You know what to do. I'd love to hear from you.
Sometimes a book really affects you... and here's one example, with the twist of a really strange timeline. Curious? Here's your show.
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It's been awhile. And it's was quite a summer, and quite a fall. Thanks for sticking with me... Or for joining the Ericast family for the first time. Sorry I still haven't figured out my room noise. Maybe that's what kept me away from the mic. I'll try to change that.
Starting when I was 11, I spent my summers in Cornucopia, Wisconsin -- and lived up there year-round from age 16 to 18. Had I not been homeschooled, I would have turned the graduating class of the consolidated school district from 13 to 14 people. Lots of stories there.
But early on -- maybe before we even bought the house and were just passing through -- I spotted a book exchange at the tiny post office. And in that book exchange was a paperback with the gleaming foil title: WARDAY
By the time Warday had come out in 1984, I had started a club called "Kids For Peace". I knew about the issue of nuclear proliferation before Special Bulletin and The Day After and Threads. And I don't think that the following generation -- the "late Gen-X" born in the early 80s -- really understand what it was like to live under the thread of a Soviet nuclear attack.
Anyway, I had never heard of the book, but with some trepidation (simply because it was spooky) I watched Warday pass on October 28, 1988. And that, was exactly 30 years go.
If this timeline starts to sound messed up, it's because it is. And it's explained in a Warday review I found thanks to Google, from Mitch Edgeworth. He does a better job than I could, so I read it.
Thoughts? Reflections? Reach out at 701-645-3742 or any of the usual Ericast venues.
Huh. It's been 300 episodes since the Ericast started in March of 2005. Want me to say something about that? Here's your show.
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I'm still here, so are you, and I think we both appreciate both of those facts! 701-645-3742 is the listener feedback line even though I don't put much of that feedback in the show anymore, but we'll see how we do.
Can't find my July episode on the computer but it apparently happened. I said it was in "Studio A" so it should be on this computer. And the theme was "Everyone is quitting..." but I'm not.
I promised that I had nothing special planned for this episode, and I keep my promises!
Since the July 1st episode that apparently happened, I went to Colorado and I have plans for Studio D. It's been a good, full Summer, with more ahead for Fall.
Questions? Ideas? Give a call at 701-645-3742 or reach out any other number of ways.
I'm back with a short (?) reflection on the fact that not everyone is. It's been a great spring and early summer, but without some of the things I thought would be around this year. Want the update? Here's your show.
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Remember that the Ericast is a "personal podcast"... and I've got an explanation of that phrase late in this episode. June was a month of stay-cation time. (Back to work tomorrow!)
Technical note: Our old web server, circa 1997, has been decommissioned. The logo was held on that template and as some point I got a login prompt instead of just an empty graphic.
Other features of this episode: Vocal Fry and some a low-level background hum in Studio A which I think is from my CPU fan (and which I bashed down with a noise reduction filter, which creates issues of its own...)
Ignite Minneapolis
Patrick Griffith
Remodeling Clay podcast
Possible highlight of the summer: Meeting Matt from California in person. Pro: I introduced him to the Juicy Lucy. Con: I gave myself a Chris Farley show moment of not driving him up past some of the Minneapolis lakes.
See you in Episode 300!
It's my annual review of Minnesota's technology un-conference, and this time Candela joins me. Interested in a special double-length stereophonic episode? Here's your show.
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Technical note: This week's episode was recorded with my trusty old Olympus WS-320M with two lav mics and a "dual-mono to stereo" adapter plug. It's the quick, easy, and super-cheap way to record two people and split them on the left and right channels. Let me know if you like the sound and interview style; I don't think most interviews are separated on L and R channels to this extreme, but it works for me.
So, I said last week that Dan's April Fool's episode saved the show. Wondering what I meant by that and what the plan was? Here's your show.
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I'm recording this early (which is unusual) and it's an incredibly cold April. But the sun now is the same as it is during the "State Fair" (which is a big deal here in Minnesota; it closes Labor Day weekend) so it's melting off. Recent mornings it's been 10 to 15 degrees, and remember that we do degrees in Fahrenheit around here.
So, I missed March entirely, which is the birthday of the Ericast. We're officially a teenager now!
Anyway, the April Fools show had been in mind since late last year, and what it was going to be was a parody of a radio morning show. It's Rick and Karen in the mornings, on KZ10! Karen, tell us what kind of traffic we're seeing from Chopper 10 and the KZ Action News team live over Fargo! ("We don't have a helicopter, Rick.") Okay, then we'll assume there isn't any traffic, because there never is. Remember that when you hear the new Bruce Springsteen song, be the tenth caller to the studio line with the 'phrase that pays': Nobody plays more music than Fargo's powerhouse for today's top hits from Bismark to Moorhead to put the rattle in your cattle, 99 1/2 FM KZ10.
It was going to be great.
So, to flesh it out I went out to YouTube to grab some audio from old Duluth TV commercials that I'd put up years ago... And they were gone.
The entire account was gone.
The way my brain works is I get some sort of whimsical idea, and then I buy a domain name that goes with it, and then I build a site around it, and then nothing happens with it but I hang onto it forever because I can't let it go. Welcome to my brain.
We bought our first VCR in 1985 and I'm a packrat, so I have all sorts of things taped off-air, and that means that there are snippets of news shows and commercials in boxes and boxes of tapes. The thing that marked that era was the gigantic hairspray-based hairstyles -- Google "Faith Daniels" if you want to see the epitome of "the look". So, I bought a .TV domain and "Big Hair TV" was born! And I never did much with it, except for uploading about a half-dozen clips of mostly Duluth television to its YouTube account, and threw a Wordpress-based video indexer onto the domain.
Now there's no sign of it. I never got an email saying it was going to be shut down. It was originally part of a free "Google for Business" account (so it had the "admin@bighair.tv" email address) and that was tied to a Gmail address. And all of that got deleted. (Like, completely deleted -- I have all the credentials and things cached on my computer and it comes up as deleted.) And when that got deleted, the YouTube account got deleted. And when that got deleted, all the videos disappeared.
So, those videos and their comments are gone. They original encoded files for upload are still sitting on my hard drive, but the world will never see them.
That obviously distracted me from getting the radio parody done, and really got me thinking about how our digital content is or isn't managed.
I doubt it was a DMCA take-down, because that should've triggered some sort of notice... and nobody cares about old videos. In fact, one of the anchors is PR and marketing executive in the Twin Cities and used the screenshot from my video in his presentations (which was fun to see -- he'd been one of my father's journalism students so it was one of those "small world!" things to introduce myself and make that connection). Point being, it was a weird thing to get a reminder that everything on the Internet is permanent... except when it isn't, and might disappear without warning. If Kevin ever wants to find that old clip of himself at the news desk with Stacie... he can't.
Oh, well. At least I can drop the domains and save about $35 a year. Because any time you buy a .TV domain, you really need the .COM to back it up. :)
Speaking of... as I was putting these notes together, I wondered what was at "bighair.com" -- because, who knows; if they want to start a television show, I've got the perfect domain for them! And this is even more interesting (to us geeks): Their registrar has gone under. So, their domain (which has never had anything at it) lapsed a year ago, but the registrar hasn't released it for repurchasing, because the registrar doesn't exist.
So even when you think things are completely safe because you've branded everything under your own domain rather than YouTube or Gmail or something you don't control... it's still not completely safe because if your domain registrar ceases operations, you can't get to the place that owns your name.
All of the Big Hair excitement was right before my trip to Utah with Chloe, which was the main focus for March, so those two things are my excuse for not getting some sort of birthday acknowledgement into the feed.
The Ericast continues to be what it always has been: A peek inside by brain. In audio form, so is it still a "peek" or does "peek" mean it's visual? See, that's the kind of observation (another visual term!) that you find only on the Ericast! Or maybe you find elsewhere, but it's randomly imposed on you only on the Ericast!
One last note: A listener request. We have someone who alleges (with good intent!) that I once did an episode about telephone prefixes and the invention of the naming scheme that led to things like swing-era songs named "Pennsylvania 6-5000!" Do any of my dedicated listeners remember anything like that? I don't... but I have almost 300 of these behind me. There's no secret stash of show notes -- what's written is what's published, so you've got access to the same back-catalog of notes that I do. It would take some sort of memory of "Oh, that came up when you were talking about such-and-such..." and I don't have that.
Remember, your feedback really matters. Let me know you're out there! 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or any other means of tracking me down and letting me know what you think.
This episode comes to you thanks to one listener, but that means something different than what it meant last time. I'll explain next week. In the meantime... Here's your show.
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Questions? Comments? Call the Comment Line mentioned in the show!
This episode comes to you thanks to one listener. Wondering where I've been? Here's your show.
Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
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When "money is no object" I don't get a self-driving Tesla or a... what else is a hip car? No, I get a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited. Why? Listen and find out.
We're kicking off a brand new calendar year for the Ericast, and it's already a week into it. (I did the math!) You know what that means? Here's your show.
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Reminder that you're listening to a "personal podcast". It's a bit like reading a lifestyle blogger, except I don't have a niche lifestyle that I podcast about. And that's okay. What I hope is that it's interesting -- maybe useful, maybe entertaining, maybe profoundly life changing, maybe just an intriguing diversion. But interesting. Thanks for listening.
I figured I could kick off the podcast by doing a "what's Eric listening to?" like I did last year. And then I went looking, and discovered that I did "My Podcast List" in January 2015. And, ironically, that realization -- that I was two years off in my memory -- fits right in with the theme I chose this week: time sure is speeding by!
One week of a brand new year has already flown by in a blink. I'll get back to that in a couple minutes...
I narrowed down my podcast list recently, so this is actually pretty current for what I truly listen to:
Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood - has "changed hands" over the years and changed formats, but a consistent favorite since Jon Gordon ran it as "Future Tense" years ago.
Get-It-Done Guy, Stever Robbins. Short, entertaining, good concepts; if you’re fairly straight-laced, don’t be put off by the quirky persona). Hasn't changed since 2015!
Remodeling Clay with Clay Shaver. Every Thursday. Can't miss it. It's not "self help."
The Order of Man from Ryan Michler. Framed as guys' issues but not necessarily for men only. I smile my way through the intro, but the content is usually excellent and always interesting.
The One You Feed from Eric Zimmer. Named after the wolf metaphor. I'm getting used to this one.
The New Man (NSFW language) – interview podcast good exposure to new people/ideas. I keep it in the feed but don't listen regularly and its schedule is almost as bad as the Ericast.
Reply All. I really, really love this show. Think of it as an edgier version of NPR by people who left NPR but have all the talent of NPR producers.
Late Night Internet Marketing with Mark Mason (perpetually on the border of podfading so I really should give up on him particularly since I'm not doin internet marketing work... but I'm still emotionally rooting him on to succeed.)
The $100 MBA Show. This one I listen to and then skip past the irrelevant episodes.
Smart and Simple Matters with Joel Zaslofsky. "Creating Community, Simplicity, and Authenticity with You." Someday I'll do a whole show on my relationship to/with Joel.
And wrapping up with three that have stayed in my feed for years:
Achieve Your Goals podcast with Hal Elrod
5 A.M. Miracle with Jeff Sanders
And in catching up on those, I heard something interesting from Hal Elrod. It's a great podcast and episode 201 is particularly interesting because you hear him on the episode, which has been rare as he's been fighting cancer. If you want to hear more about that, listen to this episode, as he and co-host Jon Berghoff discuss their "top three tips for achieving your goals in 2018". It reminds me of my "Goals vs. Desires" realization that dates back to 2008 and I don't think I've ever done an episode on it... maybe that'll be the next Ericast...
Always eager for your feedback! Getting a video clip from Matt in sunny California while he was on a 60-some-degree bike ride and I was sitting inside in sub-zero temperatures (not sub-freezing... sub-zero. Fahrenheit) was one of the most soul-refreshing experiences I've had in a while. So, your feedback really matters. Let me know you're out there! 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or any other means of tracking me down and letting me know what you think.
Wrapping up 2017 by revisiting an old theme as we move into 2018. Here's your show.
Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment
This is a throwback or review of a topic I addressed back in February 2017: how to better cope with (and perhaps even embrace) your "inner critic" that wants to cut you down. I always liked that episode, so i was pleasantly surprised when I heard Chandler Bolt's Episode 26 of the Self-Publishing School. Don't be scared away by the topic (if you're not into the idea of publishing a book) -- his guest was T. Harv Eker and the entire episode was great... but one part in particular stuck out.
Take a listen to this shorter-than-average episode and let me know what you think (of both the content and the timing; I'm thinking that 10 to 12 minutes might be a better length than 20?). As always, 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com -- or find my wherever finer social media is found.
When an interesting opportunity comes along... what should you say? Here's your show.
Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment
When unintentional caffeine induces insomnia, you get an unusual episode... but the thought still carries through. This week, inspired by advice from PR strategist Arik Hanson, I juxtapose the advice from Jenna McCarthy on Modern Ontrapreneur (and, yes, their brand spells it "Ontrapreneur") with advice from Natalie Janji on the Achieve Your Goals podcast with Hal Elrod (and Jon Berghoff, who's filling in for Hal while Hal is undergoing cancer treatments).
These are both episodes from 2017, but the conversation really goes back to 2015 and even 2012 (and to the beginning of human history, I suppose) with podcaster-bloggers like Michael Hyatt:
How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty [Podcast S06E04] - Michael Hyatt
#027: How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty [Podcast] - Michael Hyatt
5 Reasons Why You Need to Get Better at Saying “No” - Michael Hyatt
Note (and this is bonus show-notes material not discussed in the podcast) that this isn't about dealing with rejection and being told "No," like Jia Jiang discusses. This is you (or me) saying "No" to yourself or to other people. Or, per Jenna McCarthy and Arik Hansen, saying "Yes".
Thoughts? Want to say "Yes!" to me? Cal 701-645-3724 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and let me know.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to make an Ericast episode? Here's your show.
Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment
In what might possibly be the dullest Ericast ever (and one of the longer episodes, though it's only about a half-hour -- hang in there!) this is a narration of the entire episode-creation process, from logging in and plugging in the microphone (which was harder than it should be!) to hitting "publish" (and then coming back to tweak the posting).
In some ways I really hate to put this into the Ericast archive (especially right before the Minnesota Blogger Convention, since this will be the episode that any new friends will encounter if they rush out to listen and learn more about me) but I wanted to bond with longtime listeners and true friends-of-the-Ericast who might wonder why I disappear for long stretches of time. No, it's not rocket surgery, but it isn't trivial.
Better episodes are ahead, but I'd love your feedback on this one. Questions? Ideas? Call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know!