Stuff I Learned Yesterday

I’m really excited about Podcast Movement. As the days tick by and Podcast Movement draws closer, my excitement grows. I love the opportunity to learn from other people and this conference will have some amazing leaders and teachers. The thing I look forward to the most is meeting new people and reconnecting with others. I learned quite a while ago that the best moments from conferences are normally found in the hallways and the coffee lines. Those are the moments when one-on-one conversations and real connections are made. I’m also looking forward to this conference because it will mark a milestone achievement for me. It will be the first time I have have led a solo session at a conference. Back in 2012 I had a goal to speak at a conference. That was really the entirety of my goal. It didn’t matter what context or conference. I simply wanted to be invited to be a speaker at a conference. I saw it as an opportunity to test the waters for the future career goals that I had and I saw it as a way to challenge my

Have you heard the philosophy that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react? I believe in this idea 100 percent. I’ve noticed that people who believe in this idea are happier, pleasant to be around, and even more successful in everything they do. Sure, I’ve found that it’s easier to believe in this philosophy when things are good, and not as easy when life gets hard. But, in the good times and in the bad times, it’s my reaction that counts. My reaction is the only thing I have control over anyway, so, might as well start there. Now I’d like to talk with you about a related idea that comes wrapped in a slightly different color paper. Read More... The post 88- The Second Arrow appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

When I was growing up I can remember talking with my friends about what we thought our families would be like when we got older and what we thought life would be like when we graduated. I thought that I’d graduate high school, go to college for 4 years, find the right girl along the way and get married when I was around 22. I then thought after I’d been married for a few years that I’d have kids. I wanted 2 or 3 kids. I think most of my friends pretty much had the same plan. Funny how things change once stuff gets real. I didn’t graduate college 4 years after graduating high school. I didn’t get married at 22, but I was close. I got married shortly after my 23rd birthday. Once I got married, something weird happened. As a kid and even a young adult, the thought of having kids and starting a family was a really cool idea. I looked forward to it. However, once I got married, that all changed. I don’t think it happened immediately, but some time very soon after I got married I realized that the idea o

It’s been exactly 30 episodes since the last time I talked about my flower beds. When I first mentioned my flower beds and my neighbor with the green thumb back in episode 31, I mentioned that I was committed to the hard work and dedication it would take to keeping the plants alive and making sure the flower beds were more beautiful than they’d ever been. It’s been nearly 3 months since I recorded that episode and I’m happy to report that not only do the flower beds look better than they ever have, I continue to learn new stuff through the process of keeping the beds looking good. Before I get into today’s story I want to let you know that some of you have asked to see pictures of my flower beds. Now, they still aren’t going to win any yard of the month club awards, but you can see a picture of my yard by going over to the website and checking out the featured image for this episode. Again, this is episode 86 of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. I’m really enjoying taking care of my flowers. I still don’t lik

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I’ve never traveled outside of the US but hope to do so one day, 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. When it comes to your website, you want to make sure you’re hosting it with a company that is reliable and it’s using technology for today’s internet standards. That’s why we recommend HostGator. HostGator offers hosting plans for as little $3.96/month and offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and a 45 day money back guarantee. Visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/hostgator to sign up for HostGator web hosting today. Friday Forum Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Mark and Karen. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More... T

I love my job. As you know, I left my job of nearly 19 years in May of 2013 so that I could become an entrepreneur. I had the dream of making a career out of podcasting and it’s been a great first year. I’ve acquired several new clients over the last year, and I’ve been privileged to help a lot of people start or improve their podcast. It’s fun to think about the relationships I’ve formed, especially when I think about the fact that most of my clients were complete strangers to me this time last year. I wonder who I’ll be working with this time next year? Just the thought of all the opportunities heading my way and people who will be a part of it really excites me. One of my clients is Zac Johnson. Zac is one of those guys who realized at a very young age that he would be an entrepreneur. He’s been in business for himself since he was in high school and has achieved a lot of success. Zac is now 18 episodes into his podcast, Rise of the Entrepreneur. In each episode of Rise of the Entrepreneur Zac int

Have you ever had someone ask you question that rocked your world? I have. I was asked a simple question by a guy I had never met before and it changed my life. Several years ago I had a job that just wasn’t working out for me. There wasn’t anything wrong with the company, the people I worked with or even the job itself. It just wasn’t a good fit for me. I had been looking for a way out but didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So, I hung on to that job a lot longer than I probably should have. Then I was asked the question. The question was in a book. The question changed my life forever. Read More... The post 83- The Question That Rocked My World appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

I mentioned in a previous episode that I sing and play guitar at my church. What I didn’t tell you is that I’m the worship leader and I’m, shall we say, rhythmically challenged. Most of the time I’m fine. That’s not to say that I alway keep in rhythm. I don’t. I have a tendency to speed up as a song goes on. I have to really focus to keep from speeding up the tempo. However, speeding up the tempo isn’t usually that big of a deal. The band sticks with me and we all stay together. The drummer has worked with me in rehearsals to help me more aware of my tempo during the entire song and I don’t really ever get so fast that it’s hard to sing along, it’s just faster than it was when we started. If gradually getting faster as songs progress was my only problem, I probably wouldn’t bother telling you about it. After all, it’s a problem that most people won’t notice. My bigger problem is that I will flat out lose my rhythm from time to time. That is, I’ll be strumming along, playing a song that I’ve done a

I played golf over the weekend. You might be impressed to hear that I shot a 68. You might be less impressed to hear that that is just my score for the first 9 holes. In case you don’t really know that much about golf, professional golfers will easily score below 68 for an entire round of 18 holes. Unfortunately for me, golf is one of those sports where a higher score is better. I really enjoy playing golf, but I am also really terrible at it. I hate that it’s so expensive to play, and I’d play more often if it didn’t cost so much. In fact, it had been about 2 years since the last time I’d played a round of golf. I typically play with my dad and brother. Before we ever approach the first hole it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that my dad and brother will be competing for the top spot and I will claiming third place. That was certainly the case this weekend. After the first hole I was down by 3 or 4 strokes and that was the closest I would come to the lead all day. Since I know that I’m terrible

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite Dum Dum flavor is root beer, 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. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is brought to you by Golden Spiral Media. Not only does Golden Spiral Media host and produce podcasts about movies and TV Shows, Golden Spiral Media also offers a full range of audio production and website design services. Whether you’re a small business or entrepreneur looking for a website to impress your clients, you’re a podcaster who wants to trust someone else with the editing process, or you’re just starting your own podcast, Golden Spiral Media can help. Visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/services today. Friday Forum Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Doug and Coop. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely

Just last week I was at my favorite coffee shop. I ordered my usual cup of black coffee and sat down at my favorite table to get some work done. At the table next to me there were two men enjoying coffee and chatting away. One of the guys was younger and one was a little older, perhaps a father son relationship, I don’t really know, but it was clear that the older one was a sort of mentor or teacher to the younger one. I am an expert at working in noisy, busy environments, I can tune out everything going on around me. You could let the zoo loose inside the coffee shop and I wouldn’t even know it. And that is exactly what I did on this day, tuned the world out to focus on my work. I can’t even tell you what the two men were talking about, I was focused on my work. But out of nowhere I just happened to clearly hear one sentence that the older man said in response to something the younger man had said. It was such a simple thing, but it really caught my attention and I have been thinking about it ever since. Rea

Are you ready for a lesson on auto repair troubleshooting? Good. There are 3 things required to make an engine operate: air, fuel, and spark. These three things not only have to be present, but they have to be combined in just the right way at just the right time. If you have just 2 of them, you get to call a cab, hop on a bike, or take off walking. Last Saturday the kids and I hopped into my car to go grab some PVC pipe from the hardware store, but my car wouldn’t start. It had given me some trouble the week before, but after a couple of attempts at starting it, it fired up. However, on Saturday, it was a different story. While I knew the car was not out of fuel, my first thought was that fuel was not getting into the combustion chamber. The likely candidates would be the fuel filter, or the fuel pump. Since the fuel pump is located inside the gas tank on my car, replacing it would require removing the gas tank and mess of other things that are beyond my ability to do myself. So I decided to start w

I just published episode 48 of We Have To Go Back Podcast which is the LOST podcast I do with my wife. We love LOST. We love LOST so much that when we found out last fall that a get together was being planned in Honolulu for the 10th anniversary of the LOST premiere, we immediately started making plans to attend the event. This is a big deal for us for several reasons. We’ve never traveled anywhere together for a fan gathering before. Yes, I’ve gone to several comic-cons, but Kari has never had any interest in those. Kari doesn’t really like to travel. We’re taking the kids along with us on the trip. This is a big deal because we’ve never taken a family vacation before. We never took a family vacation when I was a kid, so this will be my first family vacation ever. We’ll also be extending our stay so that we can take our time and really enjoy the island and time together. We’ve reserved a condo that’s on the 35th floor and has an unobstructed view of Diamondhead and beautiful views of the ocean.

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I once got kicked out of a fast food restaurant for starting a food fight, 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. Golden Spiral Media now has a Patreon page! Patreon provides a way for you to financially support Golden Spiral Media for as little as $1 a month. In return, we’ll be able to do some cool things and improve some of the things that we do. Additionally, you’ll get some cool stuff in return for your support. Head over to www.goldenspiralmedia.com/patreon for more info. Friday Forum Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share two Friday Forum contributions that fall into the category of “stuff I didn’t expect to ever receive for the Friday Forum.” You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 30

About 10 years or so ago I was working at the bookstore and I had just been promoted and given the responsibility of organizing the e-commerce operations for the company. Our company had its own distribution warehouse and it was designed to send one massive order to each store every week. It was not at all designed to send several small orders to customers all over the country every day. We knew that it would take a lot of work to scope out the features of the website, build the databases, design the front end, design and connect all of the APIs and hooks into our inventory management system, and many other things that would be necessary before we could start selling online. We decided that while that stuff was being done, we could go ahead and generate some income and learn some operational procedures by selling on third party marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. Amazon had a third party sellers conference each year and we thought it would be good for us to attend. Since I’d only been at my current positio

When it comes to making choices in my life I sometimes feel like I am in the drivers seat and fully in control of everything that is happening. Other times I feel totally out of control, like I’m in the back seat watching the car that is my life run off the road and into a ditch. There are days when it all goes my way and days that I would rather forget ever happened. I struggle to makes sense of my own free will and the hand that life has dealt me. I’ve got my own control issues, but that’s a topic for another day. Today I’d like to tell you two stories. Two stories that illustrate what The Sailor and The Famer have in common with each other. We’ll see if we can’t shed some light on the battle between free will and being tossed around in a river of predetermined circumstances. Imagine with me the first person that attached sails or sheets or whatever he used to a boat. Everyone must have thought he was crazy. “You can’t control the wind, how do you know you will be able to make it back to the shore! You ar

Last Wednesday was a stressful day. I got a late start to my day, which was totally my fault. I knew that my morning was going to be very unproductive and I needed to get a jump on it. But that didn’t happen. Some friends of ours are currently buying a house, and we agreed to watch their kids for a few hours. I knew that while the kids were here, I’d very likely not be able to work very much. I really didn’t mind. I had a busy day, but not a day that was so busy that I couldn’t handle a few interruptions and distractions from the kids. The kids were really great and I actually got more work done than I thought I would. Their parents arrived around noon and we all ate lunch together. I hadn’t planned for that, but it was really great spending time with them. It was refreshing actually. The whole thing took a bit longer than I thought it would, though, and I had to push back a meeting that I had scheduled. Again, not too big of a deal. After I wrapped up the meeting I just had 3 things left on my ag

Today’s episode is going to take a similar direction as episode 26. In that episode I spoke about the importance of being surrounded by strong peers. I want to talk about this topic again today because it’s that important. It’s important in every single aspect of our lives. I want tell you about some things that have happened over the last two weeks that have made me realize just how important this is. Now, stay with me on this. The first part of this may seem like a Golden Spiral Media infomercial, but I promise it has a point. One month ago today we published our review of the final episode of Revolution. When we recorded and released that episode I didn’t know what the future looked like for us. Of course, I can’t see the future, but I mean that I didn’t even know what podcasts we’d be doing over the summer. At that point I had spoken with Emilee about possibly doing Falling Skies but we had not yet finalized our plans. I had had a very preliminary conversation with Doug Payton about Under the Do

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share stories submitted about dads. 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.Read More... The post 70- Friday Forum Father’s Day Edition appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.