In this episode (which is going to be posted on both 2030podcast.com and PodcastReporter.com), my co-host, Matt Cox, and myself will be catching up after illness and bad, rainy weather on the situations with the following topics:
the “loser-states” and their politics finally hit home, with both the New-Scum governor and the candidate for the Senate from Commie-fornia, Schiff (who was censured from the House of Representatives for lying and other acts against good faith);
an update from Matt about the situation across the pond, namely Charles III and the unwanted Camilla (especially the cancer situation with the King and the hope of having a good king on the throne with William, Prince of Wales);
Upcoming elections — both good and bad — on the local scenes both in Commie-fornia and Texas;
The setting for podcasting today and in the near future — especially with the threats of being persecuted and marginalized and canceled, etc.;
The situation with the Swifties and both Kelce and his girlfriend — and how this may upset both football, as well as the upcoming elections;
The horrible situation with democrats and the feebleness of Bo-Jiden and his dementia and possible alzheimers;
Sad situation for Vietnam Veterans today — since they are dying every day at an alarming rate;
The ridiculous situation and request by Maddow the “mad-cow” as she asks that no one reveal or talk about injuries or harm from the “vaccinations” as the anti-vaxers will pick this up and enumerate on the truth;
update on movies — e.g., Oppeneheimer, Archie (Cary Grant) and others;
The lies about electric vehicles and the promotions by the democrats (especially AOC);
The stupidity of Nikki Haley and her funding;
Upcoming travels and important dates to keep;
The ridiculous lies told by Bo-Jiden at the State of the Union rant by a demented man suffering from near Alzheimers, and the stupid chant from the females on THE VIEW screaming “4 more years” — how idiotic is that?
the FAIREST and most evenly reviewed discussion of the SOTU was from No Agenda show by Adam Curry and John C Dvorak from the Sunday show’s first hour on 10March2024;
the rebuttal by the GOP by Katie Britt, senator from Alabama — where some mothers in the USA favorably reacted, as stated in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQw0-AkgQGM
And this important reflection from Bill O’Reilly on 8March24:
Matt,
After the State of the Union speech, we need to include the following aspects that Bill O’Reilly pointed out today:
President Biden got through the State of the Union with good energy. Nothing new. Not admitting he made any mistakes. Here are some of my real time observations.
Mr. Biden looks frail. First up, attacks Trump over NATO. Second tells Putin that we will not “bow down.” Then tries to tie January 6th into Ukraine – threat to democracy. Blames Trump.
So we are 25 minutes into the speech and nothing new at all. Spoke too fast. The President says he’ll give Americans $4,800 a year if they buy a home. Vote buying? Surely. #StateOfTheUnion
Mr. Biden rolling on the class warfare front. He’s going after the wealthy in order to fund the “working people.” Socialism here we come. Bernie Sanders exhausted from applauding.
President says America is safer today than when he took office. Meanwhile, the Democrat Governor of New York is sending the National Guard into the subway to protect folks.
We did have a remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, in a somber way. Too bad that the rest of the country hardly remembers that “day of infamy.”
You can see the album art for several of these podcast shows below:
and
and
So the key question should be: When is it time to terminate or close down your entrepreneur startup business?
And we will discuss my key startup business, Matrix Solutions Corporation, as the major case-in-point.
In general, what would be some factors or reasons or environments that would have me consider shutting down my entrepreneurial business? We can try to list them, and we can then discuss them.
Health conditions;
Business customer situations;
Entrepreneur desires to continue;
Where hobbies are fun and desirable, yet the business environment is not;
Business conditions (i.e., paperwork, taxes, documentation and other secretarial-type work);
the need to “feel free to pursue other endeavors”; or
the need to just be “retired” with no responsibilities to business or requirements of tasks due;
and one of the most likely: the need to still be involved in business, but the customer environment and the condition of the business model is not suitable or desirable to pursue; and
the cost of keeping the business operating is creating a loss every year, due to customer, product, and other reasons — and this is NOT SUSTAINABLE; and
finally review the EXIT STRATEGY and EXIT PLAN for the business in the charter or business plan for the company.
So, one may ponder what needs to be done, what needs to be planned and what needs to be executed within a given time frame to exit the business legally and for good — although you may reserve the right to begin another entrepreneurial business, should a new technology or opportunity strike your desire to pursue another venture (health and other environment conditions permitting).
So we discuss these factors in a writing method commonly called “state of the mind” or additionally, “stream-of-consciousness” styles.
Most important is the condition of my health and the effects on it due to agent orange exposure and injuries caused when I was in Vietnam during the war as a combat infantryman in the jungles, mountains and rice paddies — as well as concussions due to parachute jump landings that caused injuries when I was a paratrooper with my second tour of duty in the 82nd Airborne Division.
As I mentioned, the stream-of-consciousness method was used in the latter part of the discussion recorded. I hope it was meaningful to you.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2023, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Strugglingbiz.com and 2030podcast.com and grumpyoldbears.com. All rights reserved.
In the podcast episode and post titled “The Top 3 Podcast Planning Mistakes,” Ben delivers a summary of what he considers are the top mistakes in planning your podcast shows:
Thinking that it is all about YOU;
“Build it and they will come”;
Not providing a clear call to action.
While certainly, these 3 are key mistakes when planning your show, I venture to say that there are others — and the gravity is a matter of opinion. In fact, Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting show has covered in many episodes of the past other key mistakes that he feels are catalysts when a podcaster determines that he has failed and that it is time to podfade a show.
I, myself, feel that other key mistakes were NOT to understand what your objectives are in starting your podcast, as well as not knowing who your audience is and what kind of VALUE is that you need to deliver to them.
And there are others that can be classified as either smaller mistakes of less offensiveness or those that focus on the business and the personal areas.
But, in looking and listening to the podcast episode by Ben Krueger, let us not forget that Ben also delivers his own personal call-to-action for the reader or listener to be aware of his free and fee resources — both his book and his roadmap. I have seen these and they do, indeed, provide good suggestions for the new or aspiring podcaster. And this is true in the area of PLANNING your show.
Also, Adam Curry (i.e., the podfather) also gives us one mistake that beginner podcasters make is that they do not create a podcast show that is really considered “an outsanding product.” Yes, the quality of the show is reflected by the followers or subscribers, the downloads and the responses to calls-to-action of the show itself. His case in point is his show called No Agenda, where he implemented the “value-for-value” model of contributions (either “time, talent or treasure”). I mention this because many think that their show may deserve the merit of being great — when in reality, no feedback or proof (other than social proof from only reviews) can back up that thought.
When I met with Adam the last time we had lunch together and with him during his meetups in Austin over the years, the idea that came through loud and clear was the proof that many hours of preparation and thought and planning went into each episode of his show. It was not the scenario of a couple of “dudes” sitting around a microphone and ad-libbing any sort of babble with expletives, just because they were having fun.
In my situation, I also started a podcast show several years ago whose main objective was just to have fun and really just play around with the audio infrastructure of podcasting with a co-host. This was the show called Grumpy Old Bears — but we really had no plan for success nor any means of feedback of proof. It was just a fun “hobby” for us, whereas the other podcasts I do have in operation now (such as this one) provide feedback to me on the content, the downloads, the acceptance and social proof, etc., to prove and demonstrate the VALUE they provide to their intended audiences.
So, again, I would advise the aspiring and new podcasters to give a quick listen to the 8-minute episode from Ben to learn about how one can disillusion one’s self when it comes to podcasting, and how this type of mindset can lead to creating and implementing some of what Ben Krueger considers the top 3 mistakes in podcasting. And hopefully, you can correct those and put yourself on the correct road to success in your podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In a different perspective, Adam told his truth about what he saw in the event — and how it has totally become different than the OPEN podcast events of the podosphere from the 2005 conference starting in Ontario, California. Now, the conference has become “woke-o-rama” and full of cancel-culture and repression of speakers and ideas, as well as censorship. What a sad thing this was to happen to what was once the last bastion of free speech.
I do not need to review all the negative things to which this event has reverted to. After all, I did participate and present at the very first Podcast Movement conference in 2014 in Dallas. And it was the event that did turn out initially to be the way that ex-founder Gary Leland had envisioned — that is, with the fervor, excitement and enthusiasm and openness for all podcasters and podosphere aficianados, but without any cancel culture, censorship or woke-ness.
And now, you can consume the episode from Adam Curry to see what the Podfather had experienced in this new woke-based event. I am sorry to hear it, and perhaps you will find it difficult to believe that it had turned into this type of event.
And I do believe Adam Curry much more so than I do the organizers and owners of the Podcast Movement conference (mainly because Gary Leland had sold his part of the movement in 2019).
Well, it is up to you to make up your minds to see if this is a turning point in open podcasting and if will be the beginning of the ruin of the podosphere. If so, then this should not be an event that I will support any more, as I do support the openness of the podosphere and podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a theme that I do review annually — and that is, in remembrance of the Allied invasion of France in WWII in the battle for Normandy, we reflect on Operation Overlord (i.e., called D-Day — which, for airborne troops, was something that occurred with every combat jump, because every jump was referred to as a “d-day.”). I do this because I, myself, served in the US Army Airborne in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (which was a major unit in the assault over Normandy in the early morning of 6 June 1944). And thus, to the thousands of paratroopers and glidermen that assaulted the Normandy fields, we honor and dedicate this episode to them.
I also was able to know one of the paratroopers who did assault Normandy in operation overlord — in fact, he had made all 4 combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII . His name was Al Essig, and he did pass away several years ago. May he RIP. As a paratrooper some 50 years ago, I do honor and respect the bravery of such men who volunteered to go airborne.
Now, for this episode, I deliver some audio of a book that was written by another paratrooper who served with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. His name was Darrell G. Harris, and he also has passed away a couple of years ago. He wrote a book about his experiences in WWII, and it was called Casablanca to VE Day: A Paratrooper’s Memoirs. DG Harris had made 3 combat jumps — in Sicily, Salerno and Holland (in Operation Market Garden, which mission was immortalized by the book by Cornelius Ryan and movie of the same name called “A Bridge Too Far.”
The above player, and the one below, are the mp3 files for the audio content of the book by DG Harris, Casablanca to VE-Day: A Paratroopers Memoirs.
Now, Ryan was the same author who also wrote the book, The Longest Day, which was also made into a movie in 1962, with a lot of stars and celebrities playing the actual roles of live veterans from WWII, in portraying both the airborne parachute element and the seaborne invasion on the shores of Normandy. One element that was different and which started a trend in Hollywood movies was that actual Germans spoke German in their portrayal of the Axis side, while British subjects portrayed the British forces, and the French portrayed the French forces. And each group spoke in their native language with English subtitles. So you did not have American or Canadian actors portraying Nazi troops and speaking German (in their broken accents). This has now become a trend in Hollywood to accentuate realism.
So, too, in celebrating the success of this incredible and monumental operation in time of war, we reflect upon the theme that breaking new ground in your medium should be something that you, as a podcaster, should consider in order to drive to success in your area of the podosphere.
By this, we mean that other podcasters are now going forth with the new podcast apps, or with new practices for requesting and getting donations (e.g., using the value-for-value model, which was encouraged and widely used by Adam Curry and John C Dvorak of The No Agenda Showfor the past several years — and which other podcasters have now taken up as their own method of getting financial support in the donations from their listeners or “producers”).
So the question we ask now is “what can you do to make yourself different from the rest of the podcasts, in whichever way or manner or activity that you can bring to the table as fresh ideas?”
And if you reflect upon the enormity of D-Day, 6th of June, 1944, many of the activities and tools and tasks of the operation were new and many untried — but the end saw success for the Allies who dared to make the assault at a place and time that was not anticipated by the enemy (or, in your case, the “competition”).
What we would suggest is to have a planning session with yourself to reflect, analyze, plan and commit to a test of planning, producing, publishing and/or promoting your podcast in new ways or with new ideas in order to make your show more successful. If it works, then great! If it does not work, well, you have succeeded in sowing the seeds of perhaps what could be the next task, following, standard or item in the podosphere for others.
So if you are brave enough to plan and execute this new operation — just as the Allies did for Operation Overlord in assaulting Normandy in WWII (in many ways) — perhaps you, too, can achieve a breakthrough success for yourself and maybe for others in the area of podcasting. And we wish you well, as we will look for those who would be doing these types of innovations for success and promoting them.
So, in honor of the 82nd Airborne Division and those who found in the air and on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944, we look forward to remembrance of Operation Overlord (both for the Airborne parachute and glider operations, as well as the beach assault on the shores). Remember, your contribution of creativity could actually turn out to be THE LONGEST DAY for you in podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Cornelius Ryan. All rights reserved.
As you will hear in this repurposed episode, the comparison and contrast is that of a requested deliverable (usually by subscription) like a podcast episode that is designed for CONSUMPTION as opposed to the “shiny object” like the social media post that usually results in just a momentary quick hit.
As for myself, I have been off the social media for now quite a few years, and it has been a healthy and remarkable experience — healthy in both body and mind and soul. In other words, as Adam Curry of the No Agendashow states, I am “OTG” or “off the grid.”
I firmly agree with what Paul Colligan summarizes in his article, and what the end thought of this podcast episode is — that social media posts are momentary, quick hits of emotion where you are being spoken down to, as well as brainwashed. And also, the podcast episode is a deliverable where you can do some thinking, contemplating, and judging or acting upon the result — in other words, CONSUMING.
Yes, this is consumption of the podcast vs. emotional momentary quick hits of social media without having the real benefits of consumption.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson and schoolofpodcasting.com and Paul Colligan and ThePodcastReport.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a theme that is being mentioned more and more in the podosphere and its news in the various news-casts and newsletters — and that is the possibility of censorship coming from the lame-stream media and the democrats of the USA, as they want to control a narrative, even in podcasting.
Up to the second quarter months of 2021 (i.e., the time of this writing), podcasting was still an open forum, where most of the media hosts still did not have total control of the content, but instead, let the podcasters deliver their messages in the manner that they wanted. Oh, sure, there were censorship situations (like Alex Jones and some episodes of the Joe Rogan Show) where the podcasters and the content were censored by the employees who worked in the firms that hosted the podcasts. And that means that those employed by the media firms are so into woke that they are making their own determination of what should be posted and what should be censored, without the permission of the business owners or the logic in doing what they do only because of their own selfish minority leanings and political ideologies.
Well, what this means is that perhaps bit by bit and one by one, the employees of media hosts may sneak their political bias and ideologies into their work (without being stopped by their employers) into the hosting services of the business and thus, influence the messages that are being out there.
What does this mean for the podcaster?
It means that he has to seek media hosts or partners to publish their content and distribute the messages outside of the political ideologies of those whom they hire. That means taking more of a hands-on approach to oversee the processes and tasks of their possible woke employees.
In this way, podcasters can still be assured that their messages will not censored or their content will not be restricted by the left-wing radicals that dominate lame-stream media today — especially by the democrats.
And there do exist certain media hosts — some very well known for their lack of content censorship and others very privately owned by those who advocate free speech (as espoused by the likes of Adam Curry and others like him) who will provide the posting and publishing of content that is free speech (but not radically too wild, such as providing a panel for hate speech, etc., which can violate the terms of service).
It seems that it is up to the podcaster to hunt out the media hosts that will provide a clear distribution of the content on the web in the podosphere without forcing their political ideologies and bias for the podcaster and others who wish to consume their content.
So, what can you, as a podcaster, do to prevent the 2020-type of censorship of content from engulfing your own content?
And the answer is to look deeply into the owners of the business who are the media hosts and see if they do swing to the far left of the political spectrum and are avid censors of the truth to de-platform others and keep the messages away from the distribution platform.
If you can find this sort of information from listening to other podcasts who oppose such censorship (like No Agenda or That Larry Show or Grumpy Old Bens or Randumb Thoughts, just to name a few), then you should pay attention and put a plan into place to confirm that your content will not be subjected to the same woke environment of the censors, and that you can still enjoy the sense of free speech without the Nazi-type intervention from the democrats or the radical left who censor anything they don’t approve of.
And we hope that your plan will provide your podcast the freedom to speak freely and to be published in the podosphere without restriction due to political bias or ideologies.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com . All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a theme of the possibility of censorship in podcasting for the podcaster, as well as the infringement of free speech to those whose passion could be curtailed by not being allowed to publish and distribute their message.
In this episode, Dave interviews Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast show (which he publishes with his co-host, John C Dvorak) and talks about podcasting and its future with Dave, and especially how podcasting can be one of the last areas of free speech in this woke-filled culture.
So, in this hour of the published episode from Dave, the topic of free speech is touched upon. With the censorship of the lame-stream media and the news media so strong in the broadcast area of the media, this was very important to me.
I saw what the cancel culture and censorship results were from “reviews” of podcasting. I got this very early in my career of podcasting, and I quickly had a bad taste in my mouth from a couple of reviews that were just opinions and baseless (and remember, opinions are like “elbows” — everybody has a couple 🙂. And thus, when I re-started the web site and the podcast show publications for this particular show, it did not matter to me that I would not be included or promoted on the Apple platform or any other platform. I did not care for reviews by mindless people who are not like-minded and only want to complain or publish negativity in “reviews.” And this has turned out to be a great result for my podcast show. In fact, this podcast show has grown its audience without any marketing or sales or promotion — it has developed as a good resource for its own audience, and I said to myself “the heck with reviews — they are meaningless, anyway, because the social proof that they claim to provide is not worth the woke-based environment that it brings, and the aggravation of the negative comments are not worth even considering.” And thus, I have not looked back at reviews or subscriptions for these shows that I currently have.
And so, I could understand very well the topic of censorship and cancel culture being discussed by Dave and Adam in the episode on the School of Podcasting. And, as Adam Curry states: “podcasting is one of the last few openly distributed eco-systems” that promotes free speech and avoids censorship and cancel culture at the whim of the ideologies of management of these firms — at least, on the part of the media host that will provide your episodes to the distribution platform to get your messages to the audience who want it.
Thus, I would heartily suggest that you consume this episode to understand both the free speech element of the eco-system and how the benefits of Podcasting 2.0.
And as for this podcaster, my view is: as long as the media host stays out of the business of cancel culture or censoring my messages (and the signal for this is seeing that a “moderator” is appointed as lord of content to allow only the ideology of management to be published), then podcasting can actually be the last frontier of free speech — and it would not be a platform of brainwashed or woke directions, but that of free speech.
We hope that you enjoy the content of the episode interview that is given in these show notes from Dave’s podcast show, and that you can also understand and appreciate the nature of the eco-system of podcasting as an area of free speech for your message.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com . All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we repurpose a previous episode that deals with a review of many considerations for podfading. If you are experiencing some of the symptoms described in this audio episode, we deliver some strategies to deal with the beginnings of podfading and perhaps avoid it altogether.
As you will hear in this audio episode, the 35 minutes are spent with descriptions that lead us to consider podfading and then think about some strategies to either podfade in the right way or to deal with the thoughts of podfading and not do so because of a resurrection of the passion and the good environment that may exist for you.
We hope that this evergreen content can assist you in any way so that any possible thoughts of podfading (for whatever reason cited) can be dealt with in a positive manner that will help you overcome the environment that leads to this thinking, and then help you to steer your shows and your business in the right direction for you to become successful.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Daniel J Lewis and PodcastersSociety.com and noagendashow.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss how your departure from podcasting and downsizing of your shows from several to just one or two may be a bit premature at the time you start to suffer from health complications due to age.
I, myself, a podcaster for the last 15 years, did feel that the world of health complications was crushing in on me and that I would have to exit from the podosphere. And so, in January of 2018, I wanted to give my listeners from the last 3 remaining podcast shows a type of eulogy that will signal my farewell (as at that time, I did feel that I was going downhill and would not recover to my previous level due to my conditions — both mental and physical, especially with the reactions to my complications resulting from exposure to Agent Orange from my experience in the Vietnam War as a combat infantryman).
So, at that time, I did present a type of eulogy to my listeners as I had just finished shutting down 5 of my then current shows. And today, I had withdrawn 15 of my shows, even though since 2018, I did add 2 more shows — and that is my situation today.
Now, besides physical health complications and aging, what other situations would force an avid podcaster to podfade his shows? Well, I know now that aging conditions that start with dementia and alzheimers (the symptoms, that is) can signify slipping into non-productive situations that may force me to podfade my shows and resign myself to treatment in the VA for PTSD, dementia and alzheimers for my injuries and wounds during my time in the service.
But at this time, I have grown much stronger since the time that I recorded my eulogy in audio for my listeners in the podosphere. And because of this, I feel that I am still going strong in the world of podcasting — and this proves that podcasting is a great way to recover from declining weakness from health and other family medical situations, even though the cause of my health situations was 50 years ago.
And so, I wanted to give you in this audio player the six-minute audio episode of this podcast series (episode 95), so that you can hear what a eulogy from podcasting would be like — and you can understand that it was premature.
So I am in recovery and still feeling strong to podcast my episodes and see that my shows are growing with great numbers of listeners and followers. In fact, I have reached a new high for listeners to another podcast show (2030podcast.com) due to the value that others have received — and from their posting not only great reviews, but also republishing episodes in a worldwide stream that has grown my audience of listeners by many thousands.
Thus, I am living proof that age is just a number, but your mental attitude and strength to continue podcasting for passion is most important to overcome both ageism and some of the mental and physical “speed bumps” with declining health.
