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shy-marker-pliers · 4 years

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High school AU thingamabob

Dark

17 year old senior

class president and is kinda high and mighty about it tbh

“yes i know student council can’t really make any changes without the input of the superintendent but IM THE PRESIDENT AND YOU’RE NOT SO SUCK MY DI-“

does sound/lights for all the shows the school puts on

dating wilford and no one knows how or why they’re together

had a deep as hell voice and a beard the second he hit puberty

takes every ethics/psychology class he can

wants to be a lawyer

that one kid that everyone fears but is actually kinda chill if not a little surly

wears a collared shirt and tie to school every day and would totally get made fun of for it if he wasn’t terrifying

listens to classical music unironically

“oh my god i’m so going to fail this test” *proceeds to get the highest grade in the class*

protector of the gays™️

person: *says something mean to a student because they’re lgbtq+*

Dark: *teleports in front of said student* omae wa mou shindeiru

Wilford

19 year old senior

Yes he still has the mustache

doesn’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks of him

deadass wore a dress to school after one of his friends got made fun of because she wore a suit to a school dance

b u f f a s h e l l

could bench press a teacher if he really tried

on the cheer team

“no i’m not wearing pants, this miniskirt makes my ass look great!”

everyone’s bodyguard

usually attracts a crowd of nervous underclassmen

has mild dyslexia

tol

gives his friends piggyback rides

president of the drama club

works hard enough in school to pass his classes but that’s pretty much it

sleeps in class

Bim

15 year old freshman

vice president of the drama club

wilfords shadow

first freshman to help run the drama club and shoves it in everyone’s face

shouts his gayness from the rooftops

secretly super insecure

loves plants and helps out in the schools greenhouse

named all of the plants but if you tell anyone he’ll stab you

gets mostly B’s and C’s

has mild ocd but not enough to affect him severely

talks like a game show host cause he thinks it makes him sound attractive

it doesn’t

Google(s)

16 year old juniors

identical quadruplets

they have to wear different colors every day or else no one knows which one is which

they’re called the googles because their backpacks match the colors of the chrome logo and they’re super smart

straight A 4.0 GPA students but Oliver has to try a little harder than his brothers

all of them are in the robotics team except for ollie

Blue works on programming and red and green are on the build team

Ollie is the sweetest day of sunshine to ever exist and everyone loves him

he’s basically adopted Eric as his lil bro

tutors people in the library every tuesday and thursday

the other googles disapprove of his relationship with bing but he makes ollie happy so they don’t do anything about it

they all work in a supermarket and they’re saving up for college

ollie wants to be a vet, red and green want to be engineers, and blue wants to be a web developer

Bing

17 year old junior

mostly A’s, a few B’s.

his full name is zachary bing but people call him bing because he’s always trying to one up the googles

dudebro

was pining after ollie for months before chase finally felt sorry for him and told ollie how he felt

they’re dating now and it’s adorable

so soft for his boyf

a really good skater and wins a lot of local competitions

doesn’t study but still gets p good grades

wears sunglasses all the time because he has light sensitivity

Has ADHD

s t r o n k

always challenges people to arm wrestle him

can sing really well and plays gitaur

shares a youtube channel with chase where they skate and to challenges and stuff

Dr. ipiler

18 year old senior

Everyone calls him doc because he helps the school nurse and takes every single biology and health class there is

all A’s

really wants to be a surgeon

best friends with Schneep

huge star trek/harry potter nerd (ravenclaw if you’re wondering)

almost always at schneep’s house studying or just chillin’

kind of a control freak

thinks he’s charismatic but he’s actually kinda annoying

but annoying in a funny way

has a pet ferret that he sneaks into school

feral

espresso and sugar flows through his veins

“i actually got a good sleep last night.” “oh really?” “yeah bro i got a whole half hour!”

super dark bags under his eyes

Host

17 year old junior

all A’s except for in gym class

he has eyes in this

his real name is Simon Charles Teller (there are specific meanings to those names btw look them up) but he’s called The Host because he does morning announcements every day.

has gold eyes and a lot of people find it unnerving

“hey i have a podcast you should totally listen to it”

nocturnal

spends all of his free time in the library

always reading in class but the teachers don’t really care bc his grades are good and he does his homework

wants to be an english/poetry teacher

crushing on the cute shy kid from his english class

doesn’t talk much but he’ll still be nice to you

that one kid who’s always correcting the teachers

Runs the D&D club (he’s the dungeon master)

Eric Derekson

16 year old junior

Mostly high B’s, a couple of A’s.

lives with his uncle mark after he ran away from his abusive dad and is living a happy life

the guy that always volunteers to take care of the class pets over the weekend

animals love him

has anxiety, mild paranoia and autism.

animals, harry potter, and pokémon are his hyperfixations.

he also really likes gardening

crushing big time on hostioli

spends his entire english class staring at him and blushing

is seriously considering joining D&D club just to be able to talk to him

he’s in the art club

wants to be a vet and maybe do some freelance art stuff on the side

Ollie keeps yelling at him to just ask host out already but he’s too nervous

my poor bb boi

Wears sweaters all the time

wears headphones to block out noise if it ever gets too loud at he goes into sensory overload

disaster bi

Yan

18 year old senior

gets C’s

non-binary

has a makeup tutorial channel on youtube and has a pretty decent following

That one weeb

dyes their hair a new color every week

also has a new crush every week

everyone knows who their newest victim is because they never stop watching them

draws anime or cute animals for every art class

wants to be a a fashion designer

does MMA

everyone kinda stears clear of them

writes their first initial along with their crush’s on every notebook they own

has gotten suspended for beating kids up on multiple occasions

doesn’t really have that many friends but they don’t mind

spends their lunches watching their crush

in the drama club and the art club

Randall Voorhees

18 year old senior

C’s and D’s

Eric’s cousin/bodyguard

they have a lot of the same classes and walk everywhere together

loves animals and has like 10 pet rats

he doesn’t really care about his grades because he knows that he wants to be a woodworker/construction guy

makes little houses out of scrap wood for his rats and Eric thinks it’s adorable

always sneaks his rats to school and lets them have play dates with dr. iplier’s ferret

“nO IM NOT RELATED TO JASON VOORHEES HES NOT EVEN REAL SO SHUT THE HELL UP-“

used to live in nyc in queens and still has a pretty strong accent

completely incomprehensible when he’s excited or angry bc of the accent

everyone is jealous of his hair

spends like 100 dollars on shampoo and conditioner and stuff but it’s worth it

acts like the straightest guy in existence but could not be more gay

his boots are always muddy

Yancy

16 year old sophomore

his name is Yancy Bird

g...get it? like jailbird? ahaha...ok i’ll stop

permanent resident of the detention room

but he gets to just chill out and read for an hour so he doesn’t really mind

mostly gets detention for beating up kids that bully others

fuck the system

always wears a leather jacket and blue jeans

“hey, the 50’s called and they want their-“ SMACK. “shut up.”

takes a lot of criminal justice and psychology classes ironically

in the botany club but if you tell anyone they’ll never find your body

everyone is surprised when they find out he’s friends with Eric and ollie

pan but in denial

“i’m not gay guys, that ain’t me, i’m just comfortable with my sexuality. so i can admit when i see a guy with a handsome face and pretty eyes-“

that song is great btw you should listen to it

anyway

always makes really dark jokes and everyone is like “are you ok?”

except for his friends they just laugh

“lmao wouldn’t it be funny if everyone like...died”

#markiplier #markiplier egos #darkiplier #eric derekson #the host #wilford warfstache #yancy iplier #randall voorhees #bim trimmer #high school

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kateeorg · 4 years

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Point-by-Point Scoob Analysis (second viewing, bc I’m bored)

Spoilers below!

Why Venice Beach, I have to wonder? And why this song? I don’t dislike it, but I’m curious about the reasoning

The gyro scene is really fun XD

Shaggy’s intro is perfect - the music, the “Casey’s Creations” and Mystery Machine aesthetics, just beautiful. You can see the little shake in his hand as he switches to the podcast - he’s so alone :(

“I lose a lot of balls” funny AND sad. And Young Sheldon being lonely is on point for him

Gyro meat - convenient! But yeah, I can see how Shaggy’s weird lunch combos would be off-putting to others

Oh, he found him ON Halloween?? That’s so odd. (But on brand)

“Well mostly man. It’s mostly just the suit that’s falcon.”

“Like no way bruh” Really? That... sounds odd coming from Shaggy.

...Since when do young boys care about blood sugar? Also, “We’re okay with that” XD

Baby Fred, Daphne, and Velma are also perfect

...No. No no. RBG is not a Slytherin. But that, braces Velma and Hogwarts references very much modernize the series and put them firmly in modern day (without going too out there).

The kids are such badasses, it’s awesome

The replication of the original credits is *perfect* - they even got the original Space Creep sound

Scooby handles the accounting? Also, how old are they supposed to be? If they’re expected to pay taxes and get called millennials, are they late 20s?

I’m really not convinced by the Simon Cowell bit, I’m sorry. They could have made him a bland British investor, not attached to the name. There really should have been some more time invested in this scene (but I AM glad Mystery Inc never agreed with Simon, or even considered he was right) (Also Simon - haven’t you heard of networking? Making friends to get ahead?)

Scooby bowling is such great physical comedy, and the chase is very Scooby Doo

Hyper-specific police code ftw

Falcon Fury!

You know Scooby and Shaggy are having a bad day when they’re *happy* to be in danger

The falcon entrance is admittedly funny

I really wish if Blue Falcon and Dynomutt had to have such a bug role, there’d been more about how Dynomutt feels about his original owner basically ditching him. It seemed like that was supposed to have more significance, and then it didn’t.

The shake button XD and Dastardly is fantastic from the first

...right, because this script wasn’t also written by middle-aged men.

Also, how’d she know about the blue light?

Velma fanning out is fun

The robots make me uncomfortable, and I’m not sure why.

Muttley <3

I appreciate that Falcon was trying to be resourceful.

“You’re now out of... everything.”

Scooby and Shaggy’s gift is to inspire - they’re the lucky charm

...And this is where I started to dislike Falcon. He’s just... he’s too dumb. The bravado is one thing, but then Fred is a little too similar. I think Falcon is supposed to be a foil for Shaggy, but I don’t know... didn’t quite work for me.

OH! I didn’t get the connection between the Greek restaurant at the beginning and the Cerberus plot until now! Nice.

DeeDee deserves more credit, hands down. Honestly, make her Blue Falcon.

I love all the references in the arcade - Hex Girls, Hong Kong Phooey, LaffALympics

The fun house scene is really cool! And funny, so colorful

My mom really liked this bit with the Ferris Wheel and the bumper cars and the smoke cloud - more traditionally cartoony

And I started to dislike Falcon more here. -__- (Like you acknowledge Shaggy is hurting and then just decide let’s give the dog a super suit instead of focusing on the mission? 90% of what goes wrong in this move is his fault and I don’t like it)

Okay. I get that Shaggy is really insecure. And Scooby isn’t reassuring him at all. But it feels like there’s more going on here, and I wish he’d had the chance to talk about it more than he did to give us more context. (But I still maintain this is less contrived than Shaggy falling for that Mary Jane girl in the live action film, so I’ll let it pass)

I actually really like Daphne’s characterization as the people person (though I feel real bad Grey DeLisle wasn’t given a chance to voice her), and how the gang are quick to realize how much Shaggy and Scooby contribute. They were never down on them, but it’s still important.

Messick Mountain :)

Velma as Dynomutt was great

I do really like the plot and how it ties to friendship. Also, Muttley is perfect, my parents loved him.

Poor man’s Hemsworth

I initially questioned whether Scooby would really be safer off the ship. But of course that’s not the point - this kicks off the conflict. Remember kids: NEVER give someone an ultimatum.

I appreciate that this was the only poop joke in the movie. Unlike the original Scooby Doo movie...

And now Shaggy realizes he was an ass. But seriously - the “Shaggy’s refusal to change is tearing them apart” thing needed a little more finessing. I see where they were going, but didn’t quite make it home.

The Captain Caveman bit was a little... eh? Not sure what I’d put there instead. It does the point of showing Falcon and Scooby they’re not really traditional hero material.

Scooby looks so sad as he gets taken :(

See, this is where I feel like Falcon and Fred were too similar, though it is pretty funny

See... I don’t think this speech was earned. It’s beautiful. If I saw it in isolation it would be great. But something was missing in the buildup. I can’t see how Shaggy made it from “I screwed up” to “Friendship changing is okay.”

This whole Athens bit is so beautiful and cinematic, I hope this gets a chance to be in theaters someday!

Flying mystery machine!

FLUFFY!

Mystery Inc reunion <3 But poor Fred, his van up in flames

(Someone set this to “Your Wagon is On Fire” from Trail to Oregon!)

Dastardly and Muttley is actually pretty sweet, but not a Scooby-Shaggy redux. (My parents love the snicker)

THE ASCOT RETURNS! But this is usually the part where he figures out a trap.

Scooby and Shaggy growing and embracing their roles on the team <3

“I’m so weak” - my parents and I laughed hysterically at this

The Dynomutt-Falcon moment was nice :) (again, not sure it was earned). Also, cool wings are cool.

This really is a Scooby Doo Avengers

Shaggy becomes important in the worst possible way :(

“Back when we were kids, you saved me. Now it’s my turn.” Damn with the feeeeels

Scoooby :(

“But why would Alexander make a gate that would separate him from his best friend forever?” Martyrdom is not the only way, y’all

Aw, Dynomutt is trying

Had to throw in an unmasking

I guess they got backing after all!

(Wait... was Dick Dastardly the Simon Cowell at the beginning??? That would make so much sense, actually!! Is this confirmed?! )

Don’t know how I feel about the new Mystery Machine, but Fred is happy :)

DeeDee deserves a raise

Falcon Force! Falcon realizes he needs friends too. But Dastardly is at large...

Okay, second watch was less off-putting. I do like it! It’s colorful and sticks to the cartoon, and there’s clearly so much love here, for Scooby and all of Hanna Barbara. Admittedly, this isn’t really a mystery - it’s a superhero origin story, which admittedly the trailers should have prepared me better for. But we’ve seen Scooby mysteries on the big and small screen, so I see why they had to change it up to justify such a blockbuster animation project. (Not unlike Recess: School’s Out going from middle school slice of life to save-the-world adventure.) And we do get mystery-solving shenanigans in the beginning.

But as a result, things do feel a tad bit dumbed down, particularly with Blue Falcon, Fred, and Shaggy’s development. I don’t love that aspect, but I can see why that compromise had to be made.

So all in all, I think it’s a solid film! It’s more Trolls than Pixar, but honestly? Not sure I’d have Scooby Doo any other way.

#scooby doo #scoob movie #scoob 2020

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dragons-bones · 4 years

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The White Vault Season Three Roundup

Posting this as the tenth and final episode of the season is now in public release!

So I listened to the early release of the season finale on Saturday, screamed a lot, and immediately sat down and re-listened to the whole season. The following post is being put behind a read more for both length and season-wide (finale included) spoilers and includes discussion and theorizing for season four, which Travis confirmed is the penultimate season. (IS IT OCTOBER YET.) Please DO NOT READ until you listen to the finale!

First and foremost, I was originally a little concerned that season three would end up hitting all of the same story beats as the first two seasons without anything new, particularly on the matter of the mystery: lots of puzzle pieces that still don't quite fit together. Arguably we still don't have any clear answers...but we have a lot more pieces that I think we're seeing the overall shape. There is definitely some sort of centuries-and-continents-spanning conspiracy, one dedicated to keeping the shadow monster(s) and totem monsters fed, or appeased, or something, along with the people and civilization that revolves around these creatures. We don't know the why, we don't know the how, but I am personally surprisingly at ease with not having anything answered at this point--honestly I am having an incredible amount of fun speculating in my own mind and reading other fans' takes on tumblr and reddit. Travis and Katie confirming we have a fourth and fifth season to finish telling the story gives me a lot of confidence, particularly since season four is going to take a vastly different tack than the first three seasons.

The Documentarian confirms in the opening of episode one that she had come into possession of the information she presents to whom we knew as of episode five to be Graham "Fuck You I Have A Shotgun" Casner just a few days ago. Episode ten confirms that the events of season three literally occurred within the last few weeks and Dr. Zhou "Fuck You I Have A Frying Pan" Liu, Dr. Josepha Guerrero, and Simon "Fuck You I Am Getting Off This Mountain If I Have To Tobogan Down It" Hall may still be alive up in the caves. I am practically frothing at the mouth with excitement because this really raises the stakes for next season, and while I'm more than certain the entire cast isn't making it out alive...enough might. And in this situation: the dangers are known by both the rescue party and the scientists; and the scientists are the kind who might be able to begin putting our puzzle pieces together, along with whatever the Documentarian acquires elsewhere.

I want to give an especial shoutout to Peter Lewis as Graham Casner. I remember when I first listened to The White Vault, I was a bit uncertain about his voicework: he has a very deliberate, almost stilted-sounding delivery as Graham. His performance really clicked for me when we got the segue ways of him narrating Russian journal entries into an English translation: his Russian, to my ear, sounds very smooth with no hesitation. My thought is, English isn't Graham's first language, and his measured way of speaking is how he ensures he organizes his thoughts properly to be understood. And just--his performance this season was SO GOOD. Especially in the finale, he sounded so raw and angry and just a little bit broken over the discovery that the body Dr. Liu and Dr. Guerrero found truly wasn't Dr. Ureta (I thought, in episode nine, that they're comment of "that's not Dr. Ureta" was more a metaphoric "that's not her anymore" based on what they knew of Simon's experience so far), but Rosa. Like. Holy shit. 10/10 Peter Lewis, godDAMN.

(Aside: props to all the voice actors this season. We really heard them come into their stride as the season progressed, but special props to: Danilo Battistini as Lucas, who showcased Lucas’s descent into (religious fervor inspired?) madness; Eric Nelsen as Simon, who got saddled with a lot of the technical archaeological talk and made it sound natural (really evident when you listen to the bloopers); and Diane Casanova as Eva, who did a fantastic job showing her dealing with the stress of the situation while still remaining snarky and defiant.)

And now to Rosa--who was, unquestionably, my favorite member of the Fristed expedition, so I was, in fact, yelling like a mad thing while my heart went icy and broken when the body was identified as hers. So, I remember reading in a post-episode speculation thread on reddit earlier in the season that maybe the tunnels between Svalbard and Patagonia were connected and this was the same shadow monster as the Fristed team encountered. I thought this was particularly far-fetched bullshit, but, uh apparently not? Good job, fellow speculator! You called it! Perhaps they're not physically connected (that stretches my suspension of disbelief beyond the breaking point, considering Svalbard and Patagonia are on literal opposite ends of the planet), but maybe it's a space-time distortion, and the deep caves between Svalbard and Patagonia (and Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China, and wherever else this strange civilization has pockets of activity) are linked via supernatural means. And a space-time distortion would explain why to Graham, it didn't seem too much time had passed for him in the tunnels before he found a way out, even though it was weeks if not months before he was located.

(Brief side note: definitely the Svalbard totem monster that got him, that strange walrus-like entity with the super-elongated phalanges. Also features in Artifact. That totem monster scares me and scares me deeply.)

So does this mean the shadow monster at Fristed and Piedra are the same, able to travel between locations depending on which ones have people near them? (SPOILER FOR ARTIFACT: it's implied there's more than one and they can "travel" via the totem animal artifacts END SPOILER) Does this mean we might see "Jonas" again? Oooooh, two shadow monsters, das bad, das really bad.

(Another brief side note, since I didn't do an episode nine roundup: the dark part of my mind that loves the creepy horror elements of this podcast was overjoyed at being slam-dunked right into the fucked-up-edness of the return of the still-beating heart and teeth in a stone box. Just. Good shit, lots of nightmares, jumping at shadows that night, S U P E R B.

...Wait, Rosa's is the first body actually found, even though we know the shadow monster killed her. Karina's, Walter's, and Carito's bodies never showed up, and we know their hearts and teeth ended up in the stone boxes. Does that mean Rosa's didn't? Is there specific significance to this?)

The sites do seem to be very different: China was a mountain village, most of the village open air with their private ritual rooms carved into the mountainside; Svalbard's might be under a glacier, and is an entire underground village, with its ritual sites buried beneath it; and Patagonia is less a proper village and more a winding system of living quarters and open public/ritual spaces. Svalbard is also currently the only one (that we know of, we have no information about the interior of the China site) using teeth to pave its stairs so, uh, take that as you will.

Teeth appear a lot. I have a thing about teeth, and yet The White Vault doesn't ping it? It's rather strange.

RAIMY. RAIMY YOU GO GET YOUR MAN. PROUD OF YOU, PLEASE DON'T DIE. (Honestly, though, I get the feeling if the shadow monster breathes anywhere in the general vicinity of Raimy, Simon will go batshit and beat the thing to death himself. He is injured but he is pissed.)

I continue to have low expectations about Eva's survival. That she got off the mountain is a surprise--stalked by the shadow monster, perhaps hoping she lures more people to the caves?--and that her 'infection' (excuse me as I continue to have flashbacks to Jane Prentiss in TMA Season One and cry uncontrollably because oh my gooooooooood) hasn't, y'know, gotten properly ugly yet. But goddamn I love her spirit, I love that she's so determined to get the rest of the team out. I WANT her to survive, but all the clues are pointing at REALLY BAD SHIT happening to her.

I remain deeply curious about whether or not Dr. Ureta’s previous trip to the Patagonia site is what primed her to be the first victim of the Piedra team. This might very well be something we don’t ever receive a proper answer to--sometimes some mysteries remain so, after all--but I do find it telling that we have very little of her personal thoughts, unlike the other members of the team (aside, of course, from Lucas).

Dr. Guerrero remains the loose end for me: Simon and Dr. Liu have both shown an utter lack of fucks to give about not letting this monster have them, but Dr. Guerrero was so tunnel-visioned on the science of the find that we notes and thoughts we have her don’t give us a conclusive enough picture about what to expect going forward. But we might end up surprised.

I’m very interested to see what Maheer and Dragana bring to the table: Maheer is obviously the Documentarian’s man because of a very nice paycheck, and Graham’s grumbling about Dragana’s prodding for details has me on alert mostly because Graham is my guy and he deserves a fucking nap and a vacation for all the shit he’s had to deal with.

The White Vault: Iluka is coming up this month on Patreon; I’m willing to bet this is what the Documentarian is preoccupied with while Graham and the rescue team head into the mountains. I’m really curious to see whether or not this might have anything to do with the events of the short Acquisition? I feel we’re due for that to come into play...

There is just. So much. So damn much.

IS IT OCTOBER YEEEEEEET.

#the white vault #spoilers #white vault spoilers #white vault episode 3.10

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vestedbeauty · 3 years

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How to Deal When You're Not Comfortable With Silence

New Post has been published on https://vestedbeauty.com/how-to-deal-when-youre-not-comfortable-with-silence/

How to Deal When You're Not Comfortable With Silence

Family life is loud. Even if the family’s not the yelling kind. There’s always someone talking, moving around, microwaving popcorn, playing with the dog, or flushing a toilet. For many moms, the craving for just a minute (okay, an hour or two) of silence and solitude becomes more like a desperate need.

“Hello darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence”

Simon & Garfunkel

(But I like this cover by Disturbed way better!)

Especially for introverts who rely on alone time to recharge. We get how the psychological warfare tactic of blasting loud music non-stop could make a human go nuts.

I have no idea how it is for extraverts. (Please let me know!)

Empty Nest, Quiet Nest

It’s those little things that form the soundtrack of life with kids still in the nest. When the kids move out, mid-lifers look forward to being able to eat what we want, watch what we want, resigning from our taxi-driving job, and walking around naked at home (like that really happens – okay, hubby just read that and demonstrated!).

We know we’ll miss seeing and talking with them every day, like, a lot. But for many of us, it’s a bit of a shock to finally have the silence we frequently craved for so many years.

In some ways, it’s a gift – the silence leaves space for deeper concentration, creativity, and sort of a meditative state. But silence can also leave us feeling lonely, anxious, and longing for the old days. Even the introverts among us. We need both. The proportions differ from person to person and time to time, of course. Some of us are naturally better suited to tolerate – even embrace – silence.

But if it’s not in your nature to love a bit of silence, what do you do?

Check Out the Gifts Silence Offers

Silence can do some pretty cool stuff for our health, in the right doses. It lowers blood pressure, boosts our immunity, helps the brain to grow new cells in the hippocampus region (the part that helps us learn, remember, and regulate our emotions), and decreases stress. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time for silence to work its magic. Just a couple of minutes can improve blood circulation and drop blood pressure.

Nice for the body, but how about your mind and mood?

Silence can help you concentrate, create, and calm you down. If you’re into personal development, you may have discovered that silence helps you become more aware of what’s going on in your mind. Some also say that practicing silence helps them be more patient.

Where it gets really interesting is when scientists start experimenting with silence. Some cool findings:

Noise raises our cortisol and adrenaline levels. Feeling stressed out? Silence may be the answer.

Silence even beats music when it comes to relaxing.

If you can’t sleep at night, try adding some silence to your day and kiss insomnia goodnight.

So, maybe there’s something to sitting in silence.

Give Peace a Chance

When I was working out my morning routine, I discovered that spending about an hour outside worked wonders for my mood and focus. It also boosted my creativity for the day. (Kind of important as a writer!) But when I started, I stuck my earpods in my ears and then tackled my outside project of the day.

Oops.

Sure, the music made mulching feel like dancing, so it was way more fun.

But when I experimented with silence instead, it was even better. Granted, outdoors isn’t silent. There are birds, crickets, dogs, chickens, and traffic sounds filling my ears. But they’re not loud enough to drown out my train of thought.

I enjoyed it so much that I started trying silence on my road trips to see the kids. Before, I’d always have so many podcasts to listen to that I’d put them on 1.5x speed. Or, I’d plow through an audiobook (and take the long way if I needed a few more minutes to finish). But in the silence, I am with me. My thoughts are clear, loud, and easy to capture. (I sometimes scribble in a notebook – eyes still on the road… makes for interesting interpretations later!)

How to Get Comfortable with Silence

Start small. If you feel anxious in silence, it might be because it seems interminable. If you feel trapped or out of control, that’s anything but peaceful. But if you practice silence on purpose, on your own terms, it’s a whole different experience.

Try silence in your car. Next time you’re out running an errand, turn the music off and just let your mind roam. You don’t have to try to enter some deep meditative state or anything (probably not safe, anyway!). Just let your thoughts go where they want to go.

Build silence into a routine. Choose a chore, task, or some delightful moment you enjoy every day. Try doing it silently and see what happens. If you forget and slip out of silence, just go back to it when you remember.

Practice silence with a partner. Ha. No, that doesn’t mean give them the silent treatment! It means both of you agreeing to be silent together. Maybe take a walk, sit and watch the sunrise, or do some yard work near each other.

Cut back on filler noise. I know a lot of people who say they need background noise all the time. If the TV or Spotify isn’t running constantly, they feel anxious. They don’t have to pay attention to the background sound; they just need it on. I’m sure it’s true – the brain gets used to a certain environment and changing it can lead to feeling really uneasy. But it’s worth experimenting with adding bits of silence in. Again, if you’re cutting the noise on purpose and you’re in control, that should eliminate a lot of the anxiety you might feel.

In Midlife, More than Ever

I suspect our lives may grow quieter and quieter as we get older. Sure, we still cause a ruckus when we’re with friends and family, telling stories and laughing until our sides hurt. But we come home to quieter homes now than we did when the kids were home. Some of us live alone (and I guess, at some point, we all will).

The ultimate in good mental health is to enjoy our own company and to be comfortable in our own skin. That can take some practice. Now’s the time to start. Not only are there huge benefits to reap by enjoying periods of silence now, but having the power to enjoy silence could make a big difference later in our lives.

#Silence

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bestbooksintheworld-blog · 5 years

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If you want to be great, you must learn from the greats. That was one of the biggest lessons that I have learned in my young life so far. I learned the importance of this concept by talking to literally thousands of successful people, as well as reading plenty of books written by and recommended by successful people. If someone is where I want to be, living a life that I want to live, I make it my mission to learn everything I can about them and how they got to where they are. I always make sure to ask people which books to read to acquire the information that further me along my journey.

One of the biggest entrepreneurs that I love following is Gary Vaynerchuk. His message is always so positive and passionate. I read his book (which is listed below) and listen to his podcast often. There is so much to be learned from great minds. The importance of reading does not go unnoticed, as Gary preaches about it quite often.

I am obsessed with the book collection that Tai Lopez often displays on his social media. I have been following Tai for a few years now, and I love everything that he preaches. He makes it super easy to catch some quick morning inspiration on his snapchat. He always keeps us up to date with the books that he is currently reading and he hosts many giveaways on his page. I love how incredibly engaged he is on his social media. I seriously feel like I know the guy.

These entrepreneurs, as well as a long list of others, have taught me many incredible life and business lessons. One of the most important things that I have learned from every single mentor that I have looked up to is that one of the biggest differences between the rich and the poor. To validate the importance of reading even more, almost all millionaires share this commonality: they read regularly.

Here is the most awesome book list that you will come across! If you take in just half of the wisdom between these pages, I guarantee your whole life will change. Reading self improvement books will unlock parts of your mind that you didn’t even know existed. This newly acquired knowledge will make you unstoppable. When you can really control you own thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions, your whole world will just fall into place. When you can learn to turn your thoughts into things, you will create the life of your dreams.

If you do not have time to read lengthy reviews to find a book that you would like, I have severely shortened them to give you a small glimpse of what the books are about without the headache.

Without further adieu, let’s discover your true power.

For Personal Growth

These books will have you feeling onto of the world as you unlock your true potential and become a real life super human! A great life starts with a. great mind, and with this book list you will learn from all the best. Positive thinking and reading these amazing books will definitely change your whole life. I guarantee it.

1. The Secret

I had to put The Secret first on the list because it is my all time favorite, The Secret has truly changed my life. This self-help book is all about the power of positive thinking, and the Law of Attraction. As you will learn, I am obsessed with the law of attraction and love teaching other people how to unlock its incredible power. Everyone HAS to read this book. If you want to learn how to turn your thoughts and dreams into reality, this is where you should start.

Get the Book

2. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

As I always preach, learn from those that are ahead of you. Gary Vaynerchuk shares so much knowledge in his book Crush It! Between these pages you will learn how to turn your passion into your job. He teaches you to leverage your dreams on social media and turn yourself into a brand.

Get the Book

3. Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich is truly a golf mine of knowledge. I always express the importance of learning from other successors, which is exactly what Napoleon Hill did. This book is filled with knowledge from over 500 of the most successful men in history including Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and so many more.

Get the Book

4. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Robert Kiyosaki really makes learning about the importance of financial literacy fun to read in this story about a boy with two dads: a rich dad and a poor dad. Through his story you really see and understand the differences between the rich and the poor. Understanding the difference is the crucial first step in choosing which path you will follow.

Get the Book

5. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

This book really teaches and inspires you to break from your nine to five to live the life you deserve. It shows you how to turn your skills and passions into businesses for less than $100. Sound’s like knowledge that you can’t afford to miss.

Get the Book

6. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny

This awesome fable explores the life of the fictional lawyer Julian Mantle. This young man sold his Ferrari and everything he owned to become a Monk and learn from the ancient Sages of Sivana. Deep in the Himalayan mountain he learned the seven virtues that the Sages of Sirvana followed, where he vowed to teach them to others.

Get the Book

7. What I Know For Sure

First of all, I want to learn ALL that Oprah has to teach. If she breathes exactly 4,574,563 times in a day then I want to do the same. I’m probably not kidding. Her list of incredible successes go on and on. She has shared so much of her knowledge along her journey through her talk shows, television network, magazine, and so much more. In What I Know for Sure, she shares the incredible life lessons that she has learned along the way.

Get the Book

8. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Simon Sinek does a great job of showing real examples of how great leaders communicate. He disects many key elements to inspiring others, and shows you how you can inspire action. He also has an amazing TEDx talk, which is the third most watched of all time.

Get the Book

9. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

The 4-Hour Workweek is one of my most recommended books. Use this guide to live the life of a millionaire without actually being one. You will learn to be more effective and create the life that you dream of. Tim Ferriss lives his life by the 80/20 rule for many great reasons. Have no idea what the 80/20 rule is? Stop what you are doing right now and check out the next book.

Get the Book

10. The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

Lean how this amazing principle can really change your life! Boost your effectiveness in your business and in your life after learning about the 80/20 Principle and learning how to use it. I love how Richard takes on a very personal perspective making it easy to relate this principle to your own life.

Get the Book

11. The Power of Positive Thinking

Another amazing book that will change your life. Learn how to unlock the powers of the mind and unlock your true potential to create your own successes. Learn why and how you have to control your life by controlling your thoughts.

Get the Book

12. How to Win Friends & Influence People

A mentor gave me this book, and after reading I instantly knew why he insisted I read it. This book is truly a blueprint to dealing with people. When you read this book, you will learn how to make other people genuinely like you and how to make them think your way.

Get the Book

13. Outliers: The Story of Success

The Outliers is a book of multiple case study’s that cross different time periods and different successful people. Malcolm Gladwell shares with you why he believes that people are not successful due to I.Q but rather due to a number of other factors such as opportunity and meaningful hard work. Learn why it is important to put in the work and to seize opportunities.

Get the Book

14. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

This was one of the best self help books of 2017 for a good reason. Mark Mason shows you why it is important to find something meaningful and important in your life to use your time productively. Stop giving a f*ck about all of the meaningless things that the world has to distract you and only give a f*ck about what is important.

Get the Book

For Women Book

GIRL BOSS

Want to really be inspired? Learn about how Sophia Amoruso went from starting an online business for $50 to becoming the CEO of her own company, worth over $250 Million. The best way to become a girl boss is to learn the mind set of other girl bosses.

2. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers (A NICE GIRLS Book)

In this book, Dr. Frankel examines many things that women do that are ruining their careers and holding them back from unlocking their true potential. You have to think link the big boys to play with the big boys. Learn how to take control of your career by soaking in the lessons lines out for you in this book.

3. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

You Are A Badass is one of the most kick ass motivational books that I have ever read. Read this book to help find your true passion on life, and chase your dreams despite anyone else’s opinion. Let your inner badass shine. It is time to be great!

4. Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur

This is another amazing motivational book that will have you ready to set goals and go kick ass. This is for women with a job while trying to pursue their side hustle or business, and just for women looking to gain confidence.

5. Rich Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan for Getting Your Financial Life Together…Finally

If you haven’t already figured it out by the title, Rich Bitch is a very blunt book on a financial plan to get your life together. Nicole Lapin makes this book funny and easy to read, which makes it easy to soak up her advice and more importantly to take action. I also love that you can read this book in order or out of order. It makes this a fun and easy book to grab on the go to read in the car or in the waiting room.

6. In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs

Grace Boney really put together a gem filled with knowledge in her book. She travels the world interviewing 100 amazing women, and now shares all of their knowledge. This empowering book will surely have you ready to follow your dreams.

For Business/Entrepreneurs Books

These books are also very motivational, but leaning a little more toward the business side. This is not only for the seasoned entrepreneur but for the new or aspiring entrepreneur as well. There is so much great information to be soaked up between these pages. Check out my list below!

1. The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs must have a certain mindset to truly be successful. Learn how you too can think the way successful entrepreneurs do. This will be crucial on your journey. The aspiring entrepreneur can take just as much from this book as the seasoned business owner.

2. Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Jonah Berger will teach you how and why things go viral and stick around. He will also show you how to do it yourself. Once you understand why things become contagious, you can create content that sticks around.

3. Conscious Capitalism, With a New Preface by the Authors: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

I’m not going to lie, I have not read this book yet but I have been told that I should include it. I have had this book recommended to me by many people so I will definitely be reading it soon. The core values in this book are great and I look forward to learning about this conscious business mindset.

4. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel, the starter of PayPal, put together an awesome book on start ups and making them a success. He shares the many lessons that he learned along his journey to becoming a billionaire.

5. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

Good is the enemy of great. In this book, find out what it takes for good companies to become better than their competition. Don’t be good, be great! This book analyzes 28 companies on their successes or losses to better understand why and how they happen.

What books have you read that have really changed your life? I mean, had you ready to conquer the world and gave you a whole new understanding of life? any query Comment below

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robertemeryofficial · 5 years

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It's Q&A time! I run this fun little escapade on my Facebook page, and I’ve decided to port some of the fabulous questions into this blog post. I’ll endeavour to keep it updated as and when I’m not painting my nails.

If you have a burning desire to ask me a question, either go and take some Gaviscon, of pop over to the Book of Face here and write to me.

At the age of about ten my parents gave me a choice; drama (I was acting in professional productions at that age) or music. I chose music, and at that point I knew this is what I was supposed to do.

In terms of proper work, I’ve really done that since I was small. I played with Simon Rattle when I was about 13/14, went on my own tours “Robert Emery: Live in Concert” when I was 16, and produced and conducted a rather large scale series of concerts with the Birmingham Philharmonic when I was 17 - so I honestly can’t remember life without music!!!!

I should also say if you are interested in the story of my rise to madness, it's all written here.

I guess I find it very hard to switch off from music. It involves so many different things from MDing as you can listen to here, though to shutting myself away for a day to compose, or have a day of meetings about future TV projects. So I tend to have very little time when I’m not working. On the odd occasion, if it’s in the evening I’ll try and watch an episode of whatever series I’m into (although it takes me ages to get through them - it took nearly two years to get through my favourite which is the West Wing) or during the summer I’ll potter about in the garden.

I can’t really garden very well, but I have a ‘California’ style garden which only looks great when it’s really neat. So I’ll tidy.

Sports; well to be honest I hate exercise! So that’s sports out. And I don’t watch it unless I’m enjoying it live (I’m going to Wimbledon this year for example).

And lastly, of course I try and get some dedicated ‘boys time’ with Master T; where we are usually quite inventive on what we play.

I love the workshop. This is where we all get together before rehearsals commence and work with the writers to create the show. It's about making the songs work with the script, making the rollercoaster ride the best is can possibly be for the audience, and finding the holes in the show that need plugging. It's a very tense and tiring process, but one that is thrilling from start to finish.

And of course, the sitz-probe comes very close to being in top spot. Take a read of this article to see the daily life of an MD.

You can also listen to a podcast on creating a musical here.

I’ll be a bit controversial here and say I don’t tend to listen to music.

For one, when I’m in a project and I listen to music for work for maybe ten hours a day, the last thing I want when I ‘switch off’ is to listen to more music! Secondly, if I’m writing or orchestrating something, I don’t want it to be influenced by what I’m listening to.

I like talk radio; LBC in particular.

If however I’m in the kitchen, we tend to either have Classic FM, Radio 3 or Scala on. We also listen to a lot of musicals (Hamilton and Big Fish are my two favourites at the moment), and we seem to be playing Clean Bandit a lot as it’s nice and upbeat!

Finally, we have a great sound system in the house so I sometimes treat myself to a Sibelius symphony or a Rachmaninov piano concerto!

Me: Teddy, what do you think the name of the Partridge that's walking past us is called? Teddy: Ostrich the Donut

Sitting around a dinner table recently, he says to a family member "You know, you have a really fat tummy like mine" as he sticks out his stomach as much as possible - the table went silent for a few seconds before we all burst out laughing.

Like most children, he also picks up when adults find something funny - and uses it to the best of his ability. One of my personal favourites was the time his CK's were coming out as T's. This meant the word Train Track came out as Train Twat. 😂

And finally, there is a rare bird called a 'Blue Footed Booby' (it's real as you can see here), and when he found this out, every time we were in public place and a bird is close, he shouts at the top of his voice 'LOOK DADDY, A BLUE FOOTED BOOBY!!!!!'

I have written a musical, and I’ll be writing another one for 2021 to be premiered in Switzerland. The musical I wrote (with the fabulous Moritz Schneider) was called Anna Göldi (again has its world premiere in Switzerland). You can here some of the music here: https://www.arts-festivals.co.uk/musicals

Here is another video with a song from Anna Göldi:

Books, Music and Videos that feature Robert Emery

The Rhythm of Life - Joanna Forest, Arts Symphonic, Arts Voices & Robert Emery

Stars Are Rising - Joanna Forest, Arts Symphonic, Arts Voices & Robert Emery

4Colors - Seven, Arts Symphonic & Robert Emery

The Art Is King - Seven, City of Prague Symphony Orchestra & Robert Emery

Bat out of Hell (Original Cast Recording) - Cast and band of Bat out of Hell Manchester 2017 & Robert Emery

Singing My Dreams - Carly Paoli, José Carreras & Robert Emery

That Is His Story - Olga Thomas, Arts Symphonic & Robert Emery

Royal Platinum Love Song - Olga Thomas, Arts Symphonic & Robert Emery

Imagine - Angie Ott, City of Prague Symphony Orchestra & Robert Emery

Return of the Voice - Russell Watson, Arts Symphonic & Robert Emery

Anthems - Russell Watson, Arts Symphonic & Robert Emery

Only One Man - Russell Watson, Claude-Michel Schönberg & Robert Emery

Robert Emery: Live In Concert - Robert Emery

Related & Recommended Posts

#Backstage #Great Composers #composers #5 Classical Hits #I Hate Classical Music #Beethoven #Strauss #Pachabel #Grieg #Bizet

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nightrainlily · 6 years

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DAY FOUR: THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW

I’m writing this post from the land of The Great British Baking Show, and that’s all I can think about since landing in the UK.

but first, let’s backtrack to this morning: we woke up to some blustery wind, but Joelle and I ran anyway to Lerhamn and back (any further and my calves might have split open). after packing up, and while running, I felt the hurt that comes with leaving a place you love, but it was entirely different—it’s the second time, and each time might be my last.

of course I plan to come back to Sweden. but if I don’t make it back for many years, everything, from the people to the landscape to the feeling of the town, might be entirely different. something small: they might convert the loft house where I’ve stayed into an office. something big: Amalia and Erik might move away to other cities or countries. everything about this place which I hold so dearly, and which I was so pleased to find unaltered, is subject to change.

since we’ve been here, I’ve reread my last few posts from my Sweden blog. saying goodbye to my host-family was about as emotional as last time; I kissed Fellini and hugged everyone else with a promise to see them soon. I hope to follow through, and hope to return to Sweden before the changes mentioned above, or ones like them, inevitably occur.

after going through no less than four passport checks, we collapsed into our seats and prepared for the short trip to London. the captain somberly informed us we were delayed an hour due to tarmac traffic. about five minutes later, that time changed to just a quarter of an hour. we’ve unfortunately had bad luck with our flights, but not too bad; both times we’ve heard worse news (possibly no flight, delayed an hour) and come out with slightly better news (flight twenty four hours later, delayed fifteen minutes). I’m grateful every time we touch down in a new city because we almost didn’t make it there at all.

on the flight, I listened to some real bops. I’d like to say some words about a few of them, previously mentioned in my daily playlists, because they’re just so freaking good. here we go:

1. The Body Is a Blade - Japanese Breakfast. I love this whole record, and this song is a more recent favorite off it. the hook goes: “the body is a blade that cuts a path from day to day.” isn’t that just beautiful?

2. Girl - Beck. I love new Beck (Seventh Heaven made my top fives songs of 2017), but I also love old Beck. New Pollution, Debra, Where It’s At are all songs I find myself craving on a regular basis. I rediscovered Girl while searching for a song to round out a playlist with Christine and the Queens, HAIM, and Vampire Weekend. remarkably, it fits like a glove.

3. Nobody - Mitski. I knew this song was gold when I heard it, but my taste was validated by a podcast I’ve been enjoying recently, Wonderful. the two hosts are married, and the show is centered around stuff that they like or enjoy. just, like, nice things. it’s so refreshing and positive and cute and sometimes I hear about great things that I also like. Mitski’s sound is evolving, and I think I like it.

4. I Know - Fiona Apple. another Wonderful recommendation! although I was already a Fiona Apple fan, I’d neglected her ballads, and I’m so glad I took the dive into her discography and discovered this sweet song. it feels like love.

5. Águas de Março - Antônio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina. the real reason I added this segment is because I wanted to talk about this song. it was recommended to me by a friend who plays jazz guitar and listens to a pretty eclectic range of music, and as soon as I heard it I played it again. and again. every time I hear it I get happy. it never fails to put me in a good mood, and I never fail to smile at the moment in the last chorus when she laughs as she’s singing. it’s such pure joy. all I can do is recommend it to you and beg you to get your Brazilian groove on.

now, back to the real content you’ve all been skimming for: The Great British Baking Show.

although it will always be GBBS to me, in the UK it’s really called the Great British Bake Off, for reasons unknown to me and every other diehard binger of the four seasons available on netflix. the show has been on the BBC, and now channel 4, since 2010, but we’re going to pretend that it simply ceased to exist when it tragically left the BBC. the series begins with twelve bakers, with one elimination each week, until there are just three bakers left to compete for the final. along with a single elimination, each episode one baker is also awarded the coveted “star baker” title. each of the episodes, whose themes range from chocolate to cake to pastry, takes place over the weekend, in three parts: the signature challenge, the technical, and the showstopper. for the signature and showstopper, bakers are encouraged to practice their recipes throughout the week, but the for the technical, they’re presented only with ingredients and a vague recipe written by one of the judges, usually for something obscure. the technical is the only blind judging; the other two challenges are presented by the bakers individually whereas the technical is based on ability to meet the requirements of the dish alone. each of the challenges is tightly timed and harshly judged by the professional palates of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, then comically enjoyed by Mel and Sue, the charming hosts.

I’ve thus far neglected to mention the most delightful aspect of the whole show: it’s filmed in a huge white tent in a park. I repeat: in a tent. in a park. whereas shows like chopped or iron chef are filmed in dark, concrete warehouses and are very stressful to watch, GBBS is fun and light and distinctly British. when something goes wrong, they say “crikey! that’s bullocks” and move the heck on. the contestants are supportive of one another and become friends. sometimes, they even help each other out in the tent. if you’ve never seen GBBS, please do yourself a favor and watch it. you’ll feel like a new person. and if my praises of the show don’t at least pique your interest, you don’t have a soul and you can stick with Hell’s Kitchen or Cupcake Wars, you heathen.

I’m delighted to be in the country that produced such wonderful entertainment. I think maybe I’ll watch an episode now.

cheerio,

amaya

1. Space Cowboy - Kacey Musgraves

2. Loves Me Like a Rock - Paul Simon

3. Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush

#europe2018

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dorothydelgadillo · 6 years

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"Podcast Guest Interviews Ft. Dan Moyle of Interview Valet" (Inbound Success Ep. 38)

Looking for a quick, inexpensive and effective way to build thought leadership while promoting a personal or corporate brand?

In this week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast, Interview Valet CMO Dan Moyle explains why participating in podcast guest interviews is an impactful strategy for expanding brand awareness and shares the process Interview Valet uses to book interviews and ensure their clients are fully prepared to ace guest appearances.

Listen to the podcast to learn why podcast guest interviews are a winning inbound marketing strategy, what goes into Interview Valet's strategy, and how Dan's clients are realizing ROI of 1000%+.

Transcript

Kathleen Booth (host): Welcome back to The Inbound Success Podcast. My name is Kathleen Booth and I am your host , and this week my guest is Dan Moyle, the Chief Marketing Officer of Interview Valet. Welcome, Dan!

Dan: Thank you, Kathleen, it's a pleasure. I'm happy to be here.

Kathleen: Yeah! It's great having you. We've talked and you've put me in touch with some amazing podcast guests so I'm interested to talk to you and get a peek behind the curtain of what you do with Interview Valet. Before we dig in too deep, though, can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and about the company?

Dan: Sure. So Dan's my name, obviously. I'm a marketing geek, but outside of that, professionally, and just doing it out of passion, too. I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm a biker. I have my Harley that I love to ride when it's nice out, and I'm waiting for that right now. Let's see, I love to read and educate myself. I just recently started a reading program, and every morning I'm up early to educate myself and develop myself.

I'm a podcast host myself. I love listening to podcasts. I've been doing marketing for a number of years now, maybe 10 years or so, something like that. Started off in the TV news business and moved into marketing and did some amazingly fun inbound marketing.

So yeah, it's been quite a ride. And now I'm working with Interview Valet, and, basically, we work with clients -- inspiring thought leaders, we call them, so, coaches, consultants, authors, brands, emerging brands, SaaS companies -- to get them to a new audience. You know, it used to be you could guest blog and reach a new audience and get great SEO and that kind of thing. Well guest blogging has become a very crowded marketplace, but it still works for a lot of folks. Now, instead of trying to interrupt or shout above the noise, we have helped our clients become part of the conversation with an engaged audience through podcasts.

So we get them podcast interviews that are relevant and engaging and bring them value.

Kathleen: You said your client base is inspiring-thought leaders, so if somebody is listening to this, how might they know if they're a good candidate to become a client of Interview Valet?

Dan: Yeah, absolutely. We look at somebody who has a budget to invest in their advertising and marketing promotion, so it's not just "I wanna get on podcasts." Right? You can go do that yourself and get on a bunch of-- at least a few shows anyway. But we want to make sure they have the budget and the means to invest in themselves, to get ROI. That's one of the things.

Authors are great connections for us and great clients for us, so doing a book launch with them has been awesome. We've worked with Morgan James and Simon and Schuster for some of that. With that said, it's generally gonna be non-fiction books, so somebody who's written a book about business or sales or marketing or leadership or something like that -- and they often will have something else besides the book, right? A consulting business or reaching a new audience for speaking gigs, that kind of thing.

So, if you wrote a book and you just want to sell it, podcast interviews may not be the best way to go. However, if you have other things in that whole machine behind the scenes, that's very good. And then for us, it's working with people in, basically, three areas. We work with anything to do with business, that could be sales, marketing, leadership, development, coaching, real estate investing or financial stuff. One of our clients is a CPA, so it runs the gamut as far as business goes.

The other one is health, wellness, and nutrition. So, fitness coaches that have online courses -- that kind of thing. And the other one is faith and Christianity, and we have a lot of connections to faith-based podcasts. So we help with that as well. So that's kind of our world.

Kathleen: It sounds like what I'm hearing you say is that your best clients are really individuals interested in building their personal brand and being a guest on a podcast is one way to do it as opposed to individuals interested in promoting a corporate brand.

Dan: Well, that's a big part of what we do, but we also will sign on some great companies that want to promote their brand through their people. So if it's only a brand, probably not. But if it's your brand through people... For instance, one of our clients is a software as a service company that helps people with their social media advertising. Two of the co-founders are our actual clients so they talk about their company, they talk about their story as co-founders and one as the marketing person and one as the business set-up person. Not set-up, but the kind of nuts and bolts of it all, right? So, like that.

We work with HubSpot as one of our clients. We've worked with a couple of different executives to get out there or their different personalities to get out there for the brand and for themselves.

You're right Kathleen, it's not just the brand, but it's somebody within that brand.

Kathleen: And fair to say that somebody within the brand needs to be someone who's really passionate about and dedicated to content creation?

Dan: Absolutely, yeah. The nice thing about podcast interviews is that you are creating content as you're just talking. Like, we're just having coffee talking, right? You're creating that content, but you definitely have to be passionate about it. It takes time, it takes effort, and it takes a knowledge base to be able to comfortably talk with podcasters around the world.

Kathleen: So, as you said earlier, anybody can go be a guest on a podcast. And certainly there are people who hustle and get out there and make the contact. I feel like, from the little exposure that I've had to Interview Valet, I was able to immediately see you have a much more structured process around this.

Talk to me a little bit about the process that you all use for positioning your clients and doing outreach and securing these interviews. And there is even a process around how you follow up on the interviews you secure.

Dan: The success is in our systems, right? And relationships. It's not just a system, it's relationships, but the systems are huge for us. If I want to go out and just be on a bunch of podcasts, I'd have to go search for the right kinds on my own . And so often, I don't know who my audiences is, so we work with our clients to figure that out. Me as an individual, I could just try and go research a bunch of shows, but I'll tell you what, Kathleen, there's over 400,000 podcasts on Apple podcasts alone. So, good luck with that.

And how do you figure out what kinds of terms and keywords and that kind of stuff? They have some of that, but not everything's great. How are the numbers? Do they have a good audience? So all that research -- we have those systems in place, we have a team -- we call them podcast porters -- and they have those relationships. And those porters are the ones who research shows, who know them, who have that relationship. The system's in place to find them and then that relationship is built on people.

You don't talk to a dozen people at our company, Kathleen. You had one person, probably, that reached out to you and said "I've got a few guests, how do these look?" so that you're not being inundated with a bunch of stuff from our company. So, those systems are in place to be able to find those podcasts.

And then outreach... I mean, gosh. Our State of Podcast Interviews report recently found that the more downloads a show has or the bigger the audience, the much less likely they are to take a cold pitch. So me as an author, Dan as an author, if I want to go try and pitch myself to a show and they get a lot of downloads -- if they've never heard of me, they're not even going to take my pitch. But if they've heard of that agency that they trust, now all of a sudden it's got more weight and it's not a cold pitch anymore, it's a warm introduction.

So those processes and systems are in place for us and, you know, it's things like regular email. We use a little bit of automation, we love automation, but in this age of automation, the relationship is so important. We do outreach very organically, using things like videos. You know, Loom video in an email goes so much further than just a bunch of text. The one-sheets that we created for our clients are all very consistent in their quality, and so it's not just some person on MS Paint with a Word doc. This looks good.

Kathleen: So talk for a second about those one-sheets because that was one of the first things I noticed when you all reached out to me. I should clarify, Interview Valet reached out to me not to book Dan, so he's here because I actually chased him down and said: "You need to come on my podcast!"

It was about somebody else, about a client of theirs and that was part of what reminded me I needed to contact you. But you had a really nice, as you call it, a one-sheet, which is sort of like a prospective on the potential guest. So can you describe that a little bit and maybe we can put a link to an example of one in the show notes?

Click here to see an example of an Interview Valet One Sheet

Dan: Oh, sure! Yeah, absolutely. So a one-sheet has two functions. Number one, it gets the hosts' attention or the producer of the show (some shows are big enough to have producers or a gatekeeper of some kind). It gets their attention. It has to look good and be consistent. You know, our branding is very consistent, so as they get used to seeing those, it's easy to just glance at it and go "Okay, I know who this is."

Kathleen: I wish that listeners could actually see what I'm seeing right now. So Dan was saying his brand is consistent, and we're recording this on Zoom. I use the audio but I get to see Dan when we talk. The colors of Interview Valet are black and red. And I know this because he's sitting there in a pullover that is black and red that has "Interview Valet" embroidered on it in red and white. And he has his mic with the red cover and then the sleeve that he has over his mic that says "Inbound Evangelist Dan Moyle" and it's all black and red. It's all on-brand. So he is walking the walk.

Dan: We do. We try to, anyway.

Kathleen: Great! I think it's great!

Dan: We learn from the best, with IMPACT and HubSpot and all those guys. There are so many great marketers out there doing it that we just try to learn from the best.

So these one-sheets are ready to get your attention as a host. They're going to have the headshot on there of the client so you can see them. We like to see people, right? It has their name, obviously, and a tagline of some kind. So on mine, it's "Dan Moyle, an inbound evangelist." And then there's a key-focus of some kind. You know, "empowering business leaders to be better or whatever that might be." And then there's the bio, and we try to keep it concise. I try not to have a ton of paragraphs and a ton of words because we know, everybody is busy and you've seen the same bio again and again. So we try to make it a little bit unique compared to the every other bio that that client might have.

We'll try and keep it concise and then there's typically a suggested show intro, you know maybe one paragraph, maybe two at the most. Because again we know that show hosts are very busy and if we can give you the tools to create your own intro from what we have, or if you wanna read ours that's fine. We try to make it as easy as possible, so all of that adds up to a "yes," right? The other function of that one-sheet is to help fuel the conversation, right?

So the suggested interview topics. These are the things that the client -- the certified guest that were offering up -- is very versed in. It's their talking points basically. So as the host sees it, hopefully they say "Oh yeah, these are great headline looking subjects, I'm very curious. I want this for my audience." And then it helps fuel that conversation during that interview of, "So tell me more about this ... you know, tips to be a great guest, Dan." That's my one-sheet.

All that adds up to be this professional looking document that we create for our clients -- to help a host say yes and then have a great conversation.

Kathleen: Now I feel like I have to ask you about your tips to be a great guest.

Dan: Yeah, gosh. You know-

Kathleen: Is that something that you ... do you actually coach your clients on that?

Dan: We do. When a client comes on, we have what we call a kick-off call, and I take off the CMO hat and put on the onboarding coordinator hat, and I talk them through all this. We coach them on how to promote the show afterwards, how to be a great guest. We send them a welcome package that has a professional microphone. You mentioned my mic and everything here. This is what we send them, we send them a microphone, an Audiotechnic ATR 2100 professional mic, so that they really sound good.

Being a guest -- being a great guest -- means that you sound good, you have a solid internet connection, you're not doing it on a phone, in a tunnel. We coach them through all of that. Of course we're always in the process of improving, right? So right now, I'm improving the process of all that and I'm creating video training that walks them through each one of these steps. "Here's some tips on how to be a great guest, here's how to set up your microphone, here's how to help us with the one-sheet." All these kinds of things.

We do that on the kick off call. So yes, we coach them through that and that's why we call our clients "certified guests," because they've gone through that coaching and we try to go back and listen to their shows as often as we can and if we have constructive feedback to give them, we will. They want that, so we try to help them improve all the time.

Kathleen: It's amazing how much the little things make a difference on podcasts. Because as somebody who has a lot of guests come on -- and some are clearly more experienced than others -- I found myself putting together an email that I send out in advance. I don't think I sent it to you because I knew that you would know all of this.

I have to cover things like, please don't rustle papers on your desk as we're talking because I don't think people realize how much their microphones pick up on and all of the sudden ... you know, I should do it right now, just as a ... here, I'll do it. Like that sound, or if I started to type, you know ... it's only pounding but people don't realize it and so sending that guidance out and letting people know in advance to not, you know, leave the ringer on their cell phone.

It all sounds really obvious but it's kind of like when you go to the movies and they have to tell it to you before every movie. You still have to tell it to people beforehand, so it is great that you guys are covering that and preparing your guests.

Dan: Some of that feedback came back from our survey that we did. it's things ... like you said Kathleen, well no kidding, common sense right? But we don't think about it.

Kathleen: Yeah.

Dan: When I launched the podcast and starting recording interviews, I would take notes thinking I'm going to be a great interviewer, I'm going to take notes. As I'm typing, it's super loud. I had to stop that very quickly.

Kathleen: Yeah.

Dan: You call them little things but they're big things.

Kathleen: They are, they're big things. Even the click of a mouse, I remember one of the first podcasts I did and I ... I was like what is that sound? What is that sound that keeps happening? It was my mouse clicking.

Dan: Same.

Kathleen: So you learn those lessons very quickly.

Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-

Kathleen: Well I want to turn to the most important thing, which is how does being a guest on podcasts get you better inbound results? Because that's really what this podcast is about. It's about, you know, improving the results you're getting from your inbound marketing campaigns. So you must have plenty of stories -- whether they're anecdotal or actual data -- that you can cite about the impact that being a guest has had on either yourself or your company or your clients.

Dan: Absolutely. So the nice thing is, when you talk about inbound marketing there's ... of course there's all the official definitions, one from HubSpot, some from others or whatever. But really what it comes down to is drawing ideal customers to you with your concept. Right? Doing it through content and everything else, but drawing them to you means becoming part of that conversation. So being on a podcast and being in that conversation -- being a thought leader -- is step one.

Having listeners is great but that's like views on a website. it's a vanity metric. You can't have conversions without views but only views is the same thing as listeners. It's only a vanity thing. We like to turn them into leads by coaching our certified guests on sending them back to your website. As you're talking to someone and you're giving those tips, and the host says "Well that's really great, you know where can we learn more about that?" Well, go back to my website and learn more.

Heres the thing, here's the magic sauce. Pull back the curtain a little bit ... it's not just go to the home page, right? We send people back to what we call a welcome page. The listeners hear it on the podcast and then they see it in the show notes, for those who go to the show notes. It's a link which creates that SEO link and sends value back to your website as the certified guest, right?

It all works together. It's "mywesbsite.com/thispodcast" is the structure -- very simple. So like even, even for us on your show Kathleen, I've got InterviewValet.com/inboundsuccess.

Kathleen: I was going to say, you better have a link, right?

Dan: I do.

So Inbound Success listeners can go download a tip on how to be a great guest, right? They can connect with me on social media, they can read a little more about me and get to know me and they'll see your show's artwork so that they begin to go "Okay, yeah. Dan was on Kathleen's show, I do remember that. This is really cool, Kathleen obviously had him on there so now I trust Dan." Right? If your listeners know, like and trust you, they're going to get to at least know me and hopefully trust me from that.

So we send them back through that welcome page -- you know in digital marketing we often use the term landing page. I think of a landing page as a page with a form and no navigation. I have to take that one single action.

We like to tell our certified guests that listeners are at different points in their path with you after listening to you on that podcast. They might kind of like you, so they're willing to take a small action. So we have a CTA on that page, that's a small action -- very little barrier to entry. Maybe it's an infographic with no email-gate.

Then there's a medium yes, and for some people that might be buy the book. If I'm a sales evangelist type author, maybe they have my sales evangelist book on there and you can buy the book. Twelve bucks on Amazon is a pretty low barrier to entry, but it's still something. Or maybe it's a video, a free video tutorial that you have to give me your email for, and you watch my videos.

Now I'm hearing you on podcasts, and I'm seeing you on video ... now we've got a relationship. Then the heck yes, is the "buy now" button basically. So for a consultant that might be "book time on my calendar," for a speaker it might be "have a discovery call to see if I'm right for your event." Whatever that might be, it's the "heck yes," the big yes.

So that's the inbound part of it, is getting those listeners to go back to that website. It should always be very easy, if I've got a very complicated name ... you know Schwarzenegger or something? We all know Arnold, right? If you have a hard to spell name, make that URL as simple as you can, and then the slug afterwards as simple as you can. If you have a long show name, were gonna make that a concise, you know, slug as it were.

That's really important to us, too. That's kind of the inbound side of it.

Kathleen: So you've got these welcome pages and obviously people will be able to see an example of that when they if they check out the show notes and click though on yours. What kinds of results in terms of conversions -- well traffic and conversions -- do you see on those?

Dan: Conversions are awesome. We've seen them as high as 75, 80%

Kathleen: Wow.

Dan: Yeah, it's incredible. Way back in my mortgage marketing days, I was happy with my landing pages getting a 40% conversion rate.

Kathleen: Yeah.

Dan: That was unbelievable. 20% was like, "Okay, we're good." These are converting at 50% and above for the most part. Now, traffic -- that's the other side of it. How often is the host putting the actual welcome page link in their show notes? That all depends, obviously, on their audience, right? We've found conversions to be incredible.

I want to tell you one of my favorite client stories. Craig Cody is a CPA, and he lives in New York and he wanted to expand his reach beyond just his borough in New York. I don't know if he's in Manhattan, Brooklyn, where he is exactly. But he's in a borough in New York and he was doing pretty well. He wanted to help other companies and other people expand their reach -- entrepreneurs, expand their portfolio as it were.

So he decided to do podcast interviews. When working with us, it's 12 interviews minimum and we suggest two interviews a month, minimum. And it's going to be $700 a month.

Kathleen: I was just going to ask about pricing, so you've already answered my question on that.

Dan: Yeah. So pretty plain pricing, and of course that includes everything that we just discussed, right? There's no upsell, there's no premium, there's no ... we will do all this for you. We will help you with getting promotion, we do all the prospecting, all the follow up, I mean all these things.

Kathleen: So am I right that that comes out to about $350 an interview?

Dan: Yep.

Kathleen: That's really reasonable, I mean if you were trying to get interviews yourself and you've factored in the time value of money, you've probably spent that anyway.

Dan: Oh at least, yeah.

So Craig decided that this was going to work for him, so he goes out and he starts getting interviews. $350 per interview isn't cheap, but it's reasonable depending on what you're doing right? It's not just twenty bucks a pop, right? So he goes out and he finds the value of a new customer for him, whatever that is ... he figured out that in the first nine months of working with us, he had a 600% ROI. So whatever he spent with us, he made back six times.

Kathleen: That's great.

Dan: Incredible. Well then, after working with us for 18 months, that 600% became 1200%. Part of that is because of the evergreen nature of podcasts right? I mean, if I'm listening to this podcast six months from now, all of a sudden I hear, you know, the value ... and I go back to the show notes and I come back. Now all of a sudden, I've got returning people which is awesome. So Craig found that and after 18 months it was like 1200% ROI.

Just incredible. He's growing his brand well beyond just his area as a CPA. He's consulting companies around the country. That return value for his clients is huge.

Kathleen: I imagine that's like the gift that keeps on giving. Because it's a little bit like when you discover a great new series on Netflix, and you're coming in on season three, but you can go back and binge seasons one and two. I think a lot of people do the same thing with podcasts. I know I certainly do. I just started binging a new one this past week, and so you're absolutely right. The actual episodes may have been recorded awhile ago, but for those people just discovering the podcast ... they're just hearing it. There's certainly a lot of evergreen value there.

That's really interesting. Do you find that once your guests have worked with you for a little while it starts to snow ball and they begin to get asked to come on podcasts, you know, on their own? Is there a graduation phenomenon if you will?

Dan: It's funny you say the word snowball because first of all, it snowed this morning here where I'm at in Michigan. But secondly, I just actually wrote this idea for our team about how every interview is a snowflake that adds to a blizzard of awareness that you create. So it's funny that use that -- it's like you were in my head there.

Kathleen: ... and then it turns into an avalanche.

Dan: Yes.

It does. it's funny because as you build your brand you do get invited on other podcasts. You know, the podcasting world, as big as it is, it's a small world. So as people are listening to it, or as a host of my own show I listen to other podcasts and I say "Oh, that's a great guest, I'm going to go call them or email them." Or whatever it is "Or tweet at them, and invite them." And so that definitely happens out there. We have clients that have been doing this for three or four years with us now, and they've stuck around. That's great, and we'll keep doing it and we'll keep going forward because they know that we help them manage those invitations, too right? We've got a guy named Aaron Walker, who wrote a book View From the Top. He's a big business coach and he's a big speaker, he's got a huge business he runs, and masterminds and stuff.

We run his podcast interviews because he doesn't have the time to even answer, "yes this is a good podcast" or not. We could say "Yep, we'll schedule him. Here ya go." And then we'll get him the brief sheet that helps prepare him for the interview, we'll get his one-sheet over to the host, as you've seen ... all that stuff that we do, we do for him. So he stuck around. We have other guests that come on and they'll do 12 or maybe 24 interviews with us, and do it for one year, and they'll say "Okay. I think I'm feeling pretty good." And they'll move on. Okay great, no problem.

We've taught them how to be a great guest and the value of interview marketing, as a tool. So the bigger we can create that category and make great guests out there, the more we all win. We love that part of it.

Kathleen: Yeah. I think if the ROIs there it's a no-brainer.

Dan: Oh yeah.

Kathleen: Even the cost itself is very reasonable ... just before you consider ROI. So what I'm dying to ask you, is what are some of the gets that you've gotten most excited about -- like, the show placements. Is there somewhere you were like "We just got so and so on this podcast, you're not gonna believe it"?

Dan: Yeah. We've worked with some amazing shows. We've been able to place guests on the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. Of course some of that is the guests themselves, right? If you're on HBR, it's because you've either been published by HBR or you went to Harvard or something like that. Because we had that connection, that was awesome.

We had a guest placed on Lewis Howes, which is a pretty big up and coming show. We work regularly with the Ziglar Show, the Zig Ziglar brand. Kevin Miller, the host of that, is a big fan of ours and we place guests on there. We work with some great shows.

It's funny because we really aim to work in the top 20% of all shows when it comes to audience. So the biggest shows out there, the Joe Rogans of the world, the Gary Vee's of the world, that's like the top .1% Right? And it's gonna take a PR agency, $35,000 just to even have a meeting with them. They only have 50 slots in a year. They're a weekly show and they have fifty guests, right? They're bringing on former first ladies or whatever, like you know, "good luck."

But we work with the top 20% and we work quite often with the top 5% of shows. Some of them are some of our favorite people; A finance show that we work with, Stacking Benjamins, Joe Saul-Sehy.

Kathleen: What a great name.

Dan: Right? It's a great show, and it's got a huge audience. Craig Cody that I mentioned, he was a guest on their show twice. So there have been some great guests, and it's funny when you try and name drop some people. If you're not a regular podcast listener, some of them you may not know. Or if you are, but you only listen to business shows, Stacking Benjamins may mean nothing to you, and that's okay.

Kathleen: Right.

Dan: Or you know, if you're in the health and wellness area, you may not have never even heard of Zig, let alone the Ziglar show. So you know, it's all perspective, right? They're big in that world.

Kathleen: It's all about who their audience is really because that's what matters the most.

Dan: Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Kathleen: So what tips do you have for somebody listening who is interested in building their personal brand, and may be considering this as an option?

Dan: Absolutely. I think podcast interviews are absolutely amazing and powerful, so for anybody even thinking about it, I'd say do it. Just do it. One of the first things is to get a professional microphone and use your laptop on a wired internet connection. Don't think of podcast interviews as "I can just plug in my air pods, or plug in my earbuds or whatever to my phone, and that'll be good, right?"

It'll work, but honestly having quality conversations is so much better. So that's number one. Get a microphone and the Audiotechnica ATR2100 I think is around $60, maybe. So it's not a big barrier to entry. The other thing is, figure out who your audience really is. You want to build your personal brand. Who is that brand going to matter to? Who is your ideal customer, your ideal listener, who do you want to work with?

Go find the shows that you think they're listening to, right? If you have a big value to millennial entrepreneurs, who are they listening to? You know, find those kinds of shows and then follow them on social media, leave them a review in Apple podcasts, and get to know them, pitch them. Right? Reach out to who you think is in charge of that show, and you can get that through the host, you know is one of the gate keepers. If they're a big show, they might have a producer, or a scheduler. That's a big one.

If you can afford it, go to one of the amazing conferences out there that focuses on podcasters. Pod Fest in Orlando, Florida is awesome. Podcast Movement, that moves around the country, they were in Philadelphia this year, a great conference ... you can meet podcasters and get to know them, that kinda thing. Obviously you don't want to walk in just trying to pitch yourself with the guests. Going to meet people is awesome. Those are a couple of tips.

Then finally, be a great guest. Right? Be prepared, be on time. Know your story, don't be too salesy, know the lingo of the audience. Know the host name, and use it. All those kinds of tips, just be a great guest.

Kathleen: Yeah. That's great advice. If somebody was interested in working with Interview Valet, what's the best way for them to reach out and contact you all?

Dan: I mean, I'd say listeners ought to go to InterviewValet.com/InboundSuccess and download the tips to be a great guest, there's nine of them I've got prepared. They can read a little bit from our blog or whatever there and figure that out, and if they're interested, there's a very easy connection right there. They can get on my calendar and talk about it, they can just go to one of our many different ways of contacting us and learning more about us there, and visit it with us if they want to.

Kathleen: Great. I want to ask you the two questions I ask all of my guests.

First of all, company or individual, who do you think is doing inbound marketing really well right now?

Dan: There's so many amazing people that I follow and that I'm fortunate enough to be friends with, and acquainted to, it's hard to pick just one. I think my current obsession though is George B. Thomas. George is such a good dude. Such a heart to serve others and I love what he's doing with teaching people how to do video, and bringing people to him and his story. I think he does marketing amazingly well. That guy's just got a good heart.

Kathleen: Second question. You're somebody whose been in marketing -- particularly inbound marketing -- for awhile. It's a field that is changing all the time, as any aspect of digital marketing is. How do you stay up to date, how do you stay on the cutting edge, what are your favorite ways to educate yourself?

Dan: I love listening to podcasts. Listening to shows like Inbound Success, listening to other podcasts out there that talk about it, and have thought leaders ... that's huge. I listen to podcasts on 1.5 speed, so I can listen to more. When something catches my attention -- like I really want to go back -- I can always go back and listen to it again, or whatever. Obviously reading is huge. In fact I set my alarm for about an hour and a half earlier every morning to get up and have some me time to read specifically professional development books. I just, I know that that's important. As the weather the warms up ... I'm in Michigan, so as we get out of winter eventually here, I want to be able to go on morning walks and listen to audio books.

So those are a couple of my things. And then ... I mean the other thing, just think of ... you can't think of only one person as an ideal audience, right? But I think about me, as a consumer. What do I wanna ... how do I wanna take in information? How do I wanna find a new company? How am I turned off by promotional marketing or advertising? I just keep trying to stay ahead of that curve, right? If I get annoyed with Facebook feed interruptions, is everybody? I don't know, maybe. Then I go look at that data from ... to support that obviously.

I just think of my ideal customers and how would I want to interact with them if the tables were turned. I'd like to think that keeps me on the edge a little bit, 'cause I'm trying to not be annoying as a marketer. I don't wanna ruin everything like marketers like to do. So podcasts, setting aside time everyday to bring purposely and deliberately prove yourself through books and podcasts, I think is huge.

Kathleen: What are some of your favorite books and podcasts right now?

Dan: Let's see, my favorite books ... I love reading anything from Scott Stratten, Unbranding was his newest one. I go back to Unmarketing sometimes. One of my favorites is Marcus Sheridan. I love They Ask You Answer. I want to go read From Good To Great. That's come up in conversation a couple times recently. I haven't read it. That's part of my new push to read new books. That's gonna be my next one. One of my favorites isn't necessarily a marketing book but it was life-changing, The 12 Week Year. That was huge for me, and I think of my life now in 12 week years, rather than just quarters. it's a whole different mind shift. So The 12 Week Year is a big one. Those are my favorite books. Podcasts is hard, there's so many Kathleen-

Kathleen: You can't pick, that's like picking favorite children for you.

Dan: Right.

Kathleen: You're not ... even if have one, you're not allowed to say it, right?

Dan: Right.

And I go back and forth -- I mean you do this -- I'll listen to one, you said binge, right?

Kathleen: Yeah.

Dan: I'll go listen to one and it'll be great, and then I'll find a new one, not that the other one's bad but I'll kinda forget about it. I don't have enough time in the day. Even at 1.5 speed, I bounce back and forth between shows. I'll listen to a few, then I'll come back to a different one, and I'll go back ... there's just too many.

Kathleen: I'm the same way. I too, listen to them when I'm walking or working out or ... my other favorite places to listen to podcasts are grocery shopping and vacuuming.

Dan: Yeah. Absolutely.

Kathleen: I tend to have two or three at once that I'm really focused on, but probably ten to fifteen in the total list that I bounce amongst. There you have it.

All right, well Dan, thank you for sharing all of this with us, that was really interesting. Anybody who is interested in doing more podcast guest interviews should definitely check out Interview Valet, there are some really great resources there. If you're a podcaster, there are some really great guests that you can get through Interview Valet. So I will put those links in my show notes, but if you enjoyed what you heard this week, I would appreciate if you consider giving us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or the platform of your choice. Of course, if you know someone doing kick-ass inbound marketing work, please tweet me @workmommywork because I would love to interview them.

That's it for this week. Thanks for joining me, Dan.

Dan: It was an absolute pleasure, Kathleen. Thank you so much, it was an honor to be on your show.

Kathleen: Thanks.

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