Stuff I Learned Yesterday

That’s right, I studied a boat oar. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I must have the most boring life ever if I spend time studying boat oars. Well, here’s the story. A few years ago my pastor began kayaking. Not me. I went with him once. I had a good time and would love to go again, but I don’t really have a desire to do it regularly. However, he’s really in to it. One of the cool things we have here in Oklahoma City is a world class boating facility. A few years ago we voted to dam up the Oklahoma River that runs through the downtown Oklahoma City area and create what we now call the boathouse district. We have rowing competitions here and even have Olympians from all around the world come here to train. We’re currently adding a white water rapids course and some other improvements. As you can imagine, more and more people in our area are discovering the fun that can be had in various types of row boats. Read More... The post 121- Row, Row, Row Your Boat appeared first on Gold

Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes will feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we hear the episode that started it all, Stuff I Learned Yesterday Episode 01-The Contagious Smile of the Garbage Whistler. Read More... The post 120- Friday Flashback appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. Said more accurately, it was the age of foolishness, THEN it was the age of wisdom. A couple of nights ago we had a big blow up in our house. Well, honestly, I had a big blow up. I don’t lose my cool a lot, and I certainly don’t lose it as badly as I did this week. It all happened around dinner time. Read More... The post 119- A Tale of Two Dinners appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

I can be impatient. I want it all and I want it now, as the song by the band Queen goes. I want everything in life to be easier than it really is and I want everything to take less time. When I think about it, I’m not sure what I would do with all the extra time gained by things going faster. I mean, if I’m not already doing what I love then why am I doing all these other things? An easy fix would be to stop doing things that are wasting my time and just do things that I don’t consider a waste of time. (Whoa, kinda just blew my own mind there.) Listen to this episode and read more... The post 118- 99% un-finished appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

For most of us school is now back in session. Some of you may still be waiting until after Labor Day, but for my family, school started last week. We now have a 5th grader and a 6th grader. Last night was parent night at the middle school that my daughter attends. We spent nearly two hours going room by room meeting each of her teachers and hearing them tell us about their teaching and grading style, what they expected out of their students, and what they hoped to teach our daughter by the time the school year is completed in May. She has most of the classes you’d expect: English, literature, math, and science. Our time with her science teacher was fun. He had each of us perform an experiment and then discuss the differing results. He did in five minutes what other teachers didn’t do in twice that time. We fully understood his teaching style and effectiveness when we left. It was really cool and made me wish I’d had him as my 6th grade science teacher. Read More... The post 117- Stop Fiddling Aroun

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... The post 116- Recognizing Influence appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Ente

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... The post 115- Friday Forum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

(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... The post 114- Just

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... The post 113- Meaningful Work appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

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 t

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 Venetia

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... The post 110- Friday Forum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

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

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... The post 108- Something Will Fall Off appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

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

Today’s podcast is all about keeping it real. I’m going to keep it real, and I hope you do to. Okay, let’s start with a test. When I said that today’s episode title was called “The Flowers and the Birds” and then told you about Bernard the bumblebee, did you think that this would be another episode about my flowers? C’mon, be honest. Well, it’s not. Instead, it’s about stress. Stress comes packaged in a lot of different varieties. For example, it comes by being unhappy with a job or relationship. It comes at the loss of income or sudden unexpected expense. It comes with unwanted health news. It even comes with good things like a new job, planning a wedding, the arrival of a baby, or planning a family vacation. The truth is, we can pretty much point a finger at anything and there’s probably a way that it could bring stress into our lives. I wise woman once told me not to worry about the things we can control because we can control them and therefore need not worry about them. That person also told

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, the first time I saw Forrest Gump I hated it so much I almost walked out of the theater, 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. If you have a website that looks like it’s from 1995 or even 2005, you probably realize that your website could use a facelift. You can hire someone like Golden Spiral Media to redesign your website for you and you’ll be glad you did. But if you’re the type that likes to do that sort of thing yourself, we recommend Elegant Themes. The folks at Elegant Themes make world class WordPress template and you can get all of their stuff for the price you’ll pay for a single theme elsewhere. Visit www.goldenspiralmedia.com/elegant and get your website looking good today. Friday Forum Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Mik

When I was 9 my parents divorced. A few months later we moved to a small town of about 800 or so people. About a year after that we moved to a house on 5 acres about 2 miles outside of town. Our house was just off of historic Route 66 on the top of a hill. In the winter time we’d occasionally get enough snow to go sledding. There were plenty of kids nearby and we would sled down the snow covered dirt road behind our house. After a couple of years, some of the other kids moved away and new folks moved in. A husband and wife named Mark and Donna moved into one of the houses. The house was nestled at an angle from the dirt road in front of it. The back of the house came right up to a thick grove but the rest of the property was wide open. The property was guarded by a white wooden rail fence with two open spaces to accommodate the circle drive. It had a large front yard with two aged elm trees in the middle of the drive. On the east side of the house was small barn that had been used as a horse pen b

At the ripe old age of 35 I think I know enough about life to know that I’m not fully in control. I am supposedly in control of my thoughts, actions, re-actions, and decisions. But the big question then becomes, why, when I look at my own life, could I not have accurately predicted any of it? Read more and listen to this episode... The post 103- What’s Coming Around The Bend? appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

I’ve been called a lot of things in my life: liar, trickster, talented, mean, ornery, arrogant, funny, rude, wise. I’ve also had many titles: manager, director, owner, father, husband, friend, worship leader, student, podcaster. However, over the last few months I’ve been called a couple of things that I didn’t necessarily expect: teacher and storyteller. Teacher is not necessarily a word that has never been associated to my name before. I’ve done things like Bible classes at church, teach podcasting courses, and when I was in high school, I even had thoughts of becoming a teacher one day. However, teacher is not a word that would come to mind immediately if I were asked to describe myself. The word storyteller is a word that I would never have associated with my name. In fact, it never had been associated with me until I started this podcast. Since I began this podcast on March 17, I’ve been called a storyteller at least a dozen times, if not twice that. A few weeks ago we were having dinner with Clin