The Powder Keg of Awesome: Recent Episodes
The Powder Keg of Awesome
You want awesome? Well you’re going to need to get off your ass and go make some...the powder keg of awesome does not light itself!
In this podcast, hosts Jerry Kennedy and Jackie Dotson riff on why being able to “Think Less and Do More" is more essential than ever. Lighting the powder keg of awesome requires being able to cut through crap, speak the truth and make stuff go.
Tamara Dorris was back in the studio to talk about her latest book and to chat about a bunch of other stuff, too. Check it out...it's funny. (P.S. This is also the final Powder Keg episode to air on Blog Talk Radio. You can find us at our new home over on LibSyn by clicking here.
The one where Jackie, Jerry, and Michael bid farewell to BlogTalkRadio and say "Hello!" to Libsyn! As usual, we wander off the rails a little, and by the end there's been some fun discussions about life, the universe, and everything in between.
Hey kids...still working on the re-boot of the Powder Keg. Pardon our dust as we spend a little more time making a better program. In the meantime, please enjoy this classic with Micia Mosely!
Join us as we talk with Micia Mosely. Micia is a comedian AND educator and she is funnier than hell. Micia is going to be performing in the 2013 Sacramento Comedy Festival!
Micia and Jackie went to High School together in Brooklyn, New York. Micia splits her time between NYC and Oakland, CA and she's been a much sought-after Powder Keg guest.
While we do some housekeeping on the Keg this week, please enjoy this replay of our interview with Tess Vigeland. Tess Vigeland is a veteran journalist, and a well-known voice to millions of American radio listeners. She is the CEO of Tess Vigeland Productions, a Los Angeles-based multi-media company. Until November 2012, Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with special guest Christopher Cook, artistic director of the Green Valley Theatre in Sacramento as we talk about community theatre and whatever else comes up---you never know what may happen when theatre people are in the house!
Join us as we chat with photographers Constance Faulk and Eric Vogel.
Constance & Eric are an intimate portraiturist duo who shoot sexuality in all it's glory. They say, "Sex positive intimate photography is what we do. Our shoots are fine art, private couple commissions, and various commercial projects. We believe that erotic, sexy photography not only CAN be a source of strength and inspiration for everyone, it SHOULD strive to be."
Tired of outside forces dictating what sexy is or is not, Constance and Eric joined their talents to pursue a visual journey through the erotic and sensual. A difficult task given that the visual media has all but been saturated in terms of gloss, blatant, sexual imagery. With various projects and their own relationship as tools, they continue to depict incredibly personal acts and moments, often times putting the viewer right in the middle of the emotions experienced. Together they continue to inspire, arouse, and educate audiences worldwide.
Norm! So here we go again. One of the main problems with international guests (especially the ones calling in from the rurals of Southeast Asia) is the internet connection. So this time, we pre-recorded just to make sure nothing gets dropped. Check out our convo with Norm, and enjoy a fresh perspective on the world around you!
Join us as we have our quarterly show with our favorite finance person, Stacey Powell of the Finance Gym.
They say 5 times is a charm and that's good because today will mark the 5th appearance of Norm Schriever on the Powder Keg of Awesome. Norm is to us what Alec Baldwin and Christopher Walken are to Saturday Night Live.
The reason why we keep asking Norm back on the show (aside from the fact that he's super handsome) is because he is out there in the real world, making real stuff and being real about it. There's no BS with the Schriever and we love him for it.
Norm is in Cambodia right now and he has a new book out: The Book Marketing Bible: Essential marketing strategies for self-published and first-time authors, or any writer looking to skyrocket sales. (not an affiliate link).
Join us as we chat with Josh Mathe.
Josh is a speaker, author, fitness expert, nutritionist, ultra endurance athlete, and life adventurer - Josh Mathe is passionate about squeezing every last drop from life, and helping others do the same. Josh owns One10 Performance & Nutrition and serves at the Executive Director for the Sustainable Health Institute. While much of his time is spent speaking at events or running through the wilderness, he still makes time for individual clients (personal training, nutrition consulting, and business coaching) because the human touch is central to his core philosophy.
Josh is working on a new book, In The Footsteps of Greatness, One man's journey to conquer his demons & the entire 223 mile John Muir Trail
Join us as we chat with author Dan Waldschmidt about his new book, Edgy Conversations.
Dan is an International business strategist, speaker, author, and extreme athlete.
His consulting firm, Waldschmidt Partners International, solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savvy companies all over the world.
'EDGY Conversations is a gut-wrenchingly honest, no-holds-barred discussion about confronting and fixing the beliefs and behaviors that limit your ability to be amazing. It tackles head-on the uncomfortable yet powerful truth that pain, fear and love – yes, love – have a huge impact on success.
Join us as we chat with Rob Nicholson, founder of The Nicholson Center, in Ohio. Rob is an old friend of the crew and he's had a tough winter in Ohio. The severe cold this winter has kept his clients home and resulted in the closure of his center. Rob is currently on a mission to save the Nicholson Center.
Join us as we chat with Pamela Slim, author of the new book Body of Work.
Pamela Slim is an award-winning author, business coach and speaker. She spent the first 10 years of her business as a consultant to large companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab and Cisco Systems, where she worked with thousands of executives, managers and employees.
In 2005, she started the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog, which is now one of the top career and business blogs on the web. In the last 8 years, she helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to start successful businesses.
Pam’s first book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur was released in Spring, 2009 and won Best Small Business/Entrepreneur Book of 2009 by 800 CEO Read. Her new book, Body of Work, gives a fresh perspective on the skills required in the new world of work for people in all work modes, from corporate to non-profit to small business.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they sit down with entrepreneur Jeffrey Louie of Capsity Offices Co-Working Space in Sacramento, CA.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with psychologist Mark Ettensohn, PsyD. Finally Jackie will not be the only shrink in the room! Mark is a therapist in private practice in Sacramento and he's also an actor.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with Sacramento filmmaker Christina Marie of Cow Town FIlm Productions. Christina is making a new film called "The Dark". Christina says, "Last year we set out to break Roger Corman's film making record of shooting a movie in just 72 hours (Little Shop of Horrors 1960). We shot in an abandoned haunted hospital in Northern California using 3 extraordinary Indie film crews running 30 pages a day and finished in just 58 hours without compromising on quality, stunts, and Practical FX!"
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with author, musician and playwright Larry Kirwan. Larry is best known as the front man of the New York-based group Black 47. He is the author of the novels Green Suede Shoes: An Irish-American Odyssey and Rockin' the Bronx. Currently Larry's play, "Hard Times: An American Musical" is performing in New York City. Larry is also the host of "Celtic Crush" on Sirius Radio.
Larry's band, Black 47, recently announced that they will be retiring in November 2014 after 25 years together. They just recorded a new album, "Last Call" which will be released later this year.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with Dr. Paul Lanning.
Dr. Paul Lanning serves as Managing Director of RPR Fundraising, overseeing client relationships and day-to-day operations while serving as lead counsel for a select number of clients.
He previously served as President and CEO of the Foundation for California Community Colleges for more than four years from 2007 to 2011. Under his leadership, the Foundation entered a new era in which a number of groundbreaking initiatives were launched to benefit, support and enhance the California Community College system. Key successes include securing the largest gift to any two-year system of higher education in the nation’s history, raising national awareness of the need for greater private support to public two-year colleges, creating the organization’s resource development and marketing/communications departments to increase the Foundation’s capacity to attract support, and continuous growth and enhancement of numerous programs and services that impact California Community Colleges.
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Join Jerry and Jackie as they talk to Srinivas Rao of theskooloflife.com and unmistakablecreative.com. Srini is a surfer and a writer. His most recent book is "The Art of of Being Unmistakable".
Srini says, "I believe there are things you should have learned in school but never did. In April 2009, I completed my MBA at Pepperdine University. After two degrees, 10 years of work experience, and a series of failed relationships I never felt more unprepared for life. A few weeks later my bank balance literally hit zero and I moved back to my parents house.
It seemed like I was right back where I started at the age of 18 when I went off to UC-Berkeley for my first degree. That summer I became obsessed with surfing because I needed a way to escape how bad my life had become. That was the start of an incredible journey of riding waves, building a media empire, and sharing my ideas with the world. I became a student of The Skool of Life."
Join us as we interview long time PKA listener and all-around Linchpin, badass and blogger Mo Nishiyama. He writes the popular Blog de Meaux from his perch in Portland, Oregon.
Join us as we chat with Rebecca Dickson. Rebecca is: Founder of Write Raw (#writeraw), creator of #justwrite, author, editor and writing coach.
Join us as we chat with Casey Bankford and Kevin Madsen of SlimBooks.com "SlimBooks are bite-sized, brilliant books, that you can read in an hour or two. Nothing longer than 100 pages. Books you can actually finish. More fun to write, more fun to read, and easy to share."
Join us as we have our quarterly show with our favorite finance person, Stacey Powell of the Finance Gym. We will, in keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, be talking about gratitude and finances, but in our usual irreverent, fun Powder Keg way.
Join us as we sit down with Tracy Saville of the Possibility Media Group. Tracy has visioned, built, and/or executed lasting, impactful businesses, social impact initiatives, and helped design and drive innovative creative and business development strategies that drive profit and game-changing impacts for people, organizations, companies, and government for more than 25 years. She believes that technology and creativity gives us the tools to think divergently about how best to re-shape the future of our children and their children’s children.
Today on the Keg, Jerry and Jackie will be chatting with Chris Brogan, yes THE Chris Brogan, THAT Chris Brogan... Chris is the CEO & President of Human Business Works, an education publishing and media company dedicated to helping professionals work better, do the work they want and be brave. He is the co-author of The Impact Equation, and Trust Agents. He hosts a terrific podcast "The Human Business Way". Jackie had the good fortune to meet Chris at The World Domination Summit in Portland this past July.
Yep, it's that time of the month again. Join us and our Wine Wednesday ambassador Christine Trice of OMG Wine for our monthly Wine Wednesday feature. We will be featuring a local winemaker.
Join us as we chat with Phil Gerbyshak, Milwaukee based badass and all around cool guy. Phil Gerbyshak is the chief connections officer who works with small businesses and organizations to increase employee & customer engagement by using social media to create and build relationships. He helps them understand it’s really not about the tools; it’s all about the conversations they participate in and the connections they create and cultivate. Phil worked in IT for much of the past 15 years, and has focused his efforts on understanding and leveraging the social media space for over 8 years. His work building relationships using blogs was spotlighted in the 2005 book What Nobody Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere.
Every year we like to do a show with the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Green Valley Theatre in Sacramento. Join us as we broadcast live from the theater for fun and live music brought to you by the Transylvanians of Rocky Horror.
Yep, it's that time of the month again. Join us and our Wine Wednesday ambassador Christine Trice of OMG Wine for our monthly Wine Wednesday feature. We will be featuring a local winemaker.
Tess Vigeland is a veteran journalist, and a well-known voice to millions of American radio listeners. She is the CEO of Tess Vigeland Productions, a Los Angeles-based multi-media company. Until November 2012, Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money.
Bet you didn't think anyone could make teaching proper grammar both fun and entertaining? Well, you thought wrong. You haven't met Marcia Riefer Johnston, author of Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them)" "Marcia used to write letters by the boxful. She has contributed posts to her daughter’s Peace Corps blog, texts to her son’s Droid, and answers to her husband’s crossword puzzles. Her words have landed on billboards, blackboards, birthday cakes, boxes of eggs, and the back of her book. She lives in Portland, Oregon." I got to meet Marcia in Portland this past summer and she is a delight!
Join us as we chat with musician Steve Schalchlin. I bet you have never heard of Steve? That's okay, neither did we, until Steve brought down the house at the World Domination Summit in Portland in July 2013.
Steve is a composer, lyricist, singer and pianist. From his website, "The Bonus Round"... "I call this the Bonus Round because I shouldn't even be alive. (In the Bonus Round, time goes faster and the prizes are better.) I survived a deadly bout with AIDS in 1996 and have gone on to win awards for my songs in the musical THE LAST SESSION(The 1998 LA Drama Critics Circle Winner for Best Music & Lyrics, for instance) -- co-written byJim Brochu who won Best Book)." Steve is funny, entertaining and inspiring. Tune in and see!
Join us as we talk with Micia Mosely. Micia is a comedian AND educator and she is funnier than hell. Micia is going to be performing in the 2013 Sacramento Comedy Festival! Micia and Jackie went to High School together in Brooklyn, New York. Micia splits her time between NYC and Oakland, CA and she's been a much sought-after Powder Keg guest.
Yep, its that time of the month again. Join Jerry and Jackie and our Wine Wednesday ambassador, Christine Trice of OMG Wine for our monthly Wine Wednesday feature. We will be interviewing a local winemaker about how they are making stuff go in the world.
Today's show will be massively exciting on several fronts. For one, it's our 100th episode. Nearly two years after we decided to finally execute on our idea of hosting a show together, well, we haven't killed one another (or anyone else) and we are still lighting the keg week after week. We have a very special guest on the show today (making this a "very special episode", Mike Rohde of Rohdesign. Mike is the brains behind "Sketchnoting". He even wrote a book about it. You may recognize Mike's work from the 37 Signals book Rework--he did the illustrations. I met Mike at the World Domination Summit in Portland back in July. We bonded over an Elk Burger. It was awesome. Tune in and see what I am talking about.
Join us as we interview the always badass and funnier than shit Erika Napoletano, aka Redhead Writing. This year Erika had a run-in with some poachers who plagiarized her work word for word. I invited her to join us on the show to talk about poachers. You can assume there will be lots of swearing, not just because we're talking to Erika, but because we hate us some poachers.
Join us as we kick it old school on the Keg: back to basics. No guests. Just a good old-fashioned riff, Keg style.
Yep, its that time of the month again. Join Jerry and Jackie and our Wine Wednesday ambassador, Christine Trice of OMG Wine for our monthly Wine Wednesday feature. We will be interviewing a local winemaker about how they are making stuff go in the world.
Join us as we sit down for an in-person conversation with author Norm Schriever.
You're probably wondering "why is Norm appearing on the show AGAIN??" (He was just here in May). Well, for one, it's our show, we book who we want to. But really, Norm is a PKA favorite and in addition to his new book out: South of Normal, he told us he was going to be in Sacramento one last time be
Join us for our quarterly show with Stacey Powell. Stacey is the founder of Creating Answers and the Finance Gym. Stacey says, "The day I started blogging for Forbes was the day I stopped hiding behind my 'financial expert' persona, and started Telling the Truth. I was an auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, I grew a not-for-profit from $500,000 to $3,000,000, and I've financially co
Join us as we chat with Eric Sterling of Portland, Oregon. Eric started a little company called Digital Pour. He makes electronic beer boards that bars can use to advertise different beers as well as track keg levels and all kind of other crazy metrics.
Join us as we chat with our old friend Richard Hassman, aka the business resource guy. Richard has long been a fixture on the Sacramento scene, but he is leaving us and moving to Boston to be with his girlfriend.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview CJ and Tammy Renzi. CJ and Tammy are a Texas couple who fell into the trap of working too much and not taking care of themselves. Finally they said "enough!" and changed their entire lifestyle, both their careers and as a couple. They recently published a book about the experience: The End of Wishing Our Days Away. Join us as we talk to them about this incredible take charge transformation.
Join Jerry and Jackie in the studio as we interview Nicole Lundeen from Fat Red Couch, Inc. FRC are interactive media publishers, based here in Northern California, out of San Rafael. Nicole is responsible for founding the company and directing the production and development of over a dozen titles. 25 years experience in multi-media production plus 15 years of entrepreneurial leadership. Founder of several start-ups engaged with developing product and content creation and delivery. Background includes management roles at Autodesk and California Closets. Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Yep, its that time of the month again. Join Jerry and Jackie and our Wine Wednesday ambassador, Christine Trice for our monthly Wine Wednesday feature. We will be interviewing a local winemaker about how they are making stuff go in the world.
The robots are coming back! Join Jerry and Jackie as they bring back Graham Ryland, local entrepreneur and founder of Barobo, Inc. Graham was a speaker at TEDx Sacramento in August 2012.
Barobo Inc. is launching a $40,000
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview local author Tamara Dorris. Tamara has a new book out, Secrets of a Spiritual Guru: Real Estate, Yoga & Lies (Guru 1) (Volume 1)
Join Jerry and Jackie for their monthly Powder Keg feature, "Wine Wednesdays" with Christine Trice of OMG I So Need A Glass of Wine or I'm Going to Sell My Kids". Christine snagged us an interview with Cheryl Murphy Durzy, proprietor of Mommy Juice Wines. http://www.mommyjuicewines.com/
Join us as we interview author Norm Schriever, again! Norm is a PKA favorite and he has a new book out: South of Normal.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview author Katherine Stewart and chat about her book The Good News Club. The book is A chilling exposé of the well-funded, highly coordinated effort by Christian Nationalists to use public schools to advance a fundamentalist agenda.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview author Marci Nault of 101 Dreams Come True. Marci has a new book out called The Lake House. She will be talking about the book, making stuff happen, and whatever else comes up!
What happens when your scheduled guest cancels at the last minute, your co-host has a major family emergency of epic proportions, your other co-host has traffic woes and your producer is left holding the bag? You manage to put a show on anyway. Join Jerry and Mike as they riff off the cuff, Powder Keg style!
Karl Palachuk joins us to discuss his book Relax, Focus, Succeed and his penchant for puns. Join in for what promises to be a rollicking good time!
Join us for our monthly Wine Wednesday with Christine Trice (you know, the one from OMG Wines)! Christine is joining us for our 80th episode of the Powder Keg of Awesome!
Join us as we interview financial badass Stacey Powell. Stacey is the founder of Creating Answers and the Finance Gym. Stacey says, "The day I started blogging for Forbes was the day I stopped hiding behind my 'financial expert' persona, and started Telling the Truth. I have the experience to call myself an expert: I was an auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, I grew a not-for-profit from $500,000 to $3,000,000, and I've financially coached countless entrepreneurs, not-for-profits, and individuals. But it was my personal experience of making some major financial mistakes that led me learn how to help myself, and then others, change their financial life. It is my mission to change the way Americans interact with their money and their finances."
Join Jerry and Jackie as we interview business badass Illana Burk. Illana abandoned us in Sacramento last year and moved all the way up to Portland. She'll be joining us via Skype. Illana is the founder of MakenessMedia.com
we've got a great show planned for you. We will be interviewing David Watts Barton. David is a native Sacramentan who now makes his home in New York City. He writes all about it at davidwattsbarton.com David is a writer, actor and musician. He is the past host of the interview show Insight on Capital Public Radio. His writing has appeared in The Sacramento Bee, as well as in The Miami Herald, The Orange County Register, The Portland Oregonian, The San Francisco Examiner, The Rocky Mountain News, The San Diego Union Tribune and the International Herald Tribune. He is the former editor-in-chief of the Sacramento Press.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview, all the way from Chicago, Nathan Kontny. Nathan is the brains behind the fantastic blog ninjasandrobots.com He was a software engineer on the Obama Presidential Campaign (and fist bumped by the President himself) and he is currently hard at work on an app called "Draft". Draft is a project to help people become better writers and we're going to be asking him all about it.
This week on the Keg, join us as we interview Jim Pelley and Adam Frick of the ULink Network, which started here in Sacramento. Best friends for years Jim Pelley who started Laughter Works Seminars and Adam Frick creator of FolsomLiving.com frequently discussed how business owners connect to their marketplace. The discussions often revolved around effective use of technology and personal relationships with a need for systematic follow-up.
Welcome to our new monthly feature, Wine Wednesday with Christine Trice (you know, the one from OMG Wines)! Christine has joined us a few times in the past, and we decided it would be fun to get together on the first Wednesday of every month to talk about wine and work and whatever else crosses our minds. After a few minutes chasing various topics (including Jerry's pulled groin, Girl Scout Cookie wine pairings, U2 and Public Enemy, and the possibility of a Jim and John Harbaugh making out forJackie and Christine's entertainment), we moved on to more worthy topics. Christine shared details about an upcoming fundraiser she's put together for Sutter Middle School called A Taste of Sutter. If you're local to Sacramento and a lover of the vino, you should check it out. We also talked about Drink Careers 101, a new Kickstarter project that Christine is participating in. This is a very cool collaborative project started by the folks at Mutineer magazine. The discussion about Drink Careers 101 led to a quick discussion about the non-linear path to success. In a world of folks looking for shortcuts and "sure-fire" formulas, Christine reminded us that the steps that lead to success are often unexpected and that you often can't plan for them. More often than not, you just have to be paying attention and willing to say yes to the opportunities that come your way. From there, we explored the topic of sensationalism and ambush in the news media, specifically an incident involving Katie Couric and a group of mommy bloggers. The conversation led to a discussion of the over-simplification that seems to be the default setting of pundits, talking heads and news agencies. Whew! That's a hell of a range for a sixty-minute show. Give it a listen, leave a comment to let us know what you think, andset a reminder for next week's show!
In today's episode we will be interviewing Francisco Dao. Francisco Dao is the founder of 50Kings, a private community for technology and media innovators. He is a former leadership columnist for Inc.com, a lifelong entrepreneur, author, and former stand-up comic. He writes every Tuesday and Thursday for PandoDaily. Francisco coined the term "smanker". He always brings a bold and irreverent take to topics and we cannot wait to riff with him.
Today, on the Keg, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Nicholson, founder of The Nicholson Center, in Ohio. Rob is an old friend of the crew and we’ve been wanting to have him on the show for a long time. Rob is the kind of guy who can get stuff done. He started out building business when he was a college student. These days Rob is involved with Idea Pitch, in Columbus, Ohio where they recently had a competition where $3000 was shared among the top 3 finishers.
On PKA we are all about being around people who make stuff go. Coincidentally, we’re located in Northern California, near the heart of the commercial wine industry. We have access to all kinds of great wineries and winemakers. So about once every month, Christine will be bringing us wines and we will be talking about the wines, the people who make them, and even have interviews with local winemakers. Of course, we will hold fast to our PKA tradition of letting the conversation goes where it wants to go. We will continue to always be fast, friendly and totally not safe for work.
You missed this one. We know you did, because we've been watching the numbers. No worries; we did it at an odd day and time, so it was easy to miss. Here's the thing, though: it was too good for us to let you miss it. So rather than leave it on the shelf, we've decided to go ahead and re-run it this week. Trust us...you'll be glad you didn't miss it after all. No need to say thank you...just send wine. :-) Here's what you missed: Join Jerry and Jackie as we do a special Tuesday episode of the Powder Keg of Awesome with special guest Peter Buffett! Emmy Award-winning musician Peter Buffett has an acclaimed career that spans more than 30 years as a professional musician, composer, philanthropist and author. Buffett's latest venture is his inspiring book, Life Is What You Make It. The title, now available in paperback, has been translated in over 15 languages and has sold nearly half a million books worldwide. Personal and revealing, instructive and intuitive, Life Is What You Make It is about following passions over conventions, transcending your circumstances or status, taking up the reins of your destiny, and living life to its fullest.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they talk about, among other things, yesterday's epic interview with Peter Buffett. As usual, we ended up all over the map, with the key theme: getting vulnerable. How do you get vulnerable with other people? What happens? Jerry and I get into one of our legendary debates over “how much is too much” when sharing stuff with new people, in new situations. One phrase we agree on: “You gotta practice showing up and telling the truth”.
Join Jerry and Jackie as we do a special Tuesday episode of the Powder Keg of Awesome with special guest Peter Buffett! Emmy Award-winning musician Peter Buffett has an acclaimed career that spans more than 30 years as a professional musician, composer, philanthropist and author. Buffett's latest venture is his inspiring book, Life Is What You Make It. The title, now available in paperback, has been translated in over 15 languages and has sold nearly half a million books worldwide. Personal and revealing, instructive and intuitive, Life Is What You Make It is about following passions over conventions, transcending your circumstances or status, taking up the reins of your destiny, and living life to its fullest.
Frequently we get asked about our tactics and strategy, in building a business and building a podcast. I had a conversation with one of our listeners about it and during the course of that conversation, it dawned on us that all along our strategy has been “dude, lets try this”. We started our podcast because we wanted to start one, we figured we’d try it and if we liked it, we’d keep doing it. That’s it. Nothing more complex or profound.
Today on the Powder Keg of Awesome we will be interviewing , once again, the fabulous Allen Fahden this time in person at Powder Keg Studios. Always a fun chap to chat with, Allen has a new book coming out called "Another Boring Derivative Piece of Crap Business Book" .
Join Jerry and Jackie as they finally get a much-wanted in-person interview with show regular Norm Schriever. Norm Schriever is a humorist, cultural mad scientist, enemy of the comfort zone and author of "Pushups in the Prayer Room," a wild, irreverent account of a year spent backpacking around the world. He grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut, where he was never accused of over-studying, and went on to live in North Carolina, Colorado and most recently in Northern California.
Dissatisfied with a conventional existence, Norm sold or donated all of his possessions and moved down to Costa Rica in 2011 to pursue his passion of writing. His first book was written in the sleepy surf town of Tamarindo with the help of his secret weapons: fresh ocean air and Baileys in his morning coffee. He now resides in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua where he is writing his next book, 'Get Happy,' a memoir about life as an ex pat, and writing for the Huffington Post.
He sees his words as a way to illuminate the commonalities of human existence, and thereby hopes to leave this planet a little better than how he found it.
It’s a new year at the Powder Keg of Awesome and our 65th show. Join us today as we crawl out of our holiday drink & party phase and riff on “thrashing”, “shipping” and “busy work” because we find a lot of entrepreneurs spend more time looking and acting busy than actually doing their work.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview local high school student John Adams and Fresh Producers founder Rabbi David Wechsler-Azen. John, 15, is a student at Hiram Johnson High School and participates in the Fresh Producers fundraising program. John will tell us about how being in Fresh Producers sparked his interest in cooking, healthy eating and he will share how he lost weight and helped his parents and grandmother lose weight and eat healthy as well.
Join Jerry and Jackie on the show as they interview the legendary Guy Kawasaki. is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of ten books including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. Guy has a new book out: A.P.E. How to Publish a Book APE’s thesis is powerful yet simple: filling the roles of Author, Publisher and Entrepreneur yields results that rival traditional publishing. We call this "artisanal publishing"--that is, when writers who love their craft control the publishing process and produce high-quality books.
Join Jerry and Jackie on the show as we interview Patrick Schwerdtfeger. Patrick is a speaker and author and a leading authority on self-employment and global business trends. Patrick Schwerdtfeger spoke at the TEDx Sacramento event on Thursday, August 30th, 2012. His 8-minute speech was entitled Learned Intution: How to Become Superhuman
Join Jerry and Jackie as we interview Rabbi David Wechsler-Azen. Rabbi David is the Founder and CEO of Fresh Producers, here in Sacramento. Fresh Producers is a non-profit organization that educates, enables and inspires young people to become agents of change in their own food system in a way that improves everyone's health, wealth and skills for life.
Join Jerry and Jackie as we interview, live and in-studio, the fabulous Christine Hinkley Trice. If you are on Facebook, you may not know Christine, but you probably have heard of OMG I So need a glass of wine or I am going to sell my kids. Christine is a badass local entrepreneur, massage therapist and founder of Brown Bag Botanicals.
t’s the day before Thanksgiving, crazy travel and food shopping day. So we kept it simple and did a remote show over Skype, like we used to do way back in the early days of the Powder Keg of Awesome. And our very topic: keeping it simple. As we’ve mentioned on the show before, people unnecessarily complicate things. We think that if something is too simple, then it’s too obvious and therefore lacking in value. Jerry brought up Occam’s Razor (way too early in the morning for that). My advice: “you gotta get out there and do some work”.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview our super special guest, Jason Kintzler, as he Skypes in from his home and headquarters in Lander, Wyoming. Jason Kintzler is the Founder and CEO of PitchEngine, a content creation platform that transformed the PR industry. He is the author of “The New American Startup” which details the story of how western independence and self-reliance led him to create a disruptive technology from the unlikeliest of places.
Jerry came bounding into the studio this morning, iPad in hand, excited to report that he has been re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. In a nutshell, it’s a book about a human raised on Mars, by Martians and now he’s trying to adjust, on Earth to what it’s like to be human. See, Elton John said himself that Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids! But I digress….
Naturally, we veered off the path of Stranger in a Strange Land, as we do, and launched into a rant against “deliberate obfuscation”, when people deliberately make things complicated and convoluted in order to hide the fact that “there’s no there there”. Our producer, Michael Clark coined a Latin phrase to sum this up: Articulatum Ad Infinitum.
Adding complexity to something does not equal adding value. So, in your life, how can you simplify your message?
Join Jerry and Jackie this Halloween as we celebrate "formal day" on the Keg. We will be dressed to the nines for our show today and decided to complete the formal circle we'd have a guest on the show with a British accent! We will be joined by the fabulous Fiona Ross. Fiona has spent many years working with businesses large and small, both in her native Britain and here in California. Fiona spent 10 years as a systems trainer in the UK and has a wealth of experience with all things organizational, administrative and managerial. It'll be smashing & brilliant. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they are joined by local speaker Dane Laverty. Dane was a featured speaker at TEDxSacramento and speaks on the topic of creative religion. Dane left the church he was raised in and started thinking "now what?" Creative religion is the answer he came up with. Tune in to learn more!
Jerry and our faithful producer Mike cooked up some fun: they broadcast from the Green Valley Theater Company with members of the cast of their production of theRocky Horror Show. The topic of today’s show was, “how do you cram the thing you love to do into your life”.
And the cast talked about how they work their passions into their everyday lives, as well as what happens when you decide to drop the things you love to do from your life.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview local real estate badass and wine enthusiast Tamara Dorris. We've long wanted to have Tamara on the show and cannot wait to share some great wine and conversation and see what she has to say.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview Graham Ryland, local entrepreneur and founder of Barobo, Inc. Graham was a speaker at TEDx Sacramento in August. Graham is an engineer and he is into Educational Robotics. Barobo, Inc. aims to make robotics more affordable, adaptable, reconfigurable, and reprogrammable for education, research, and industrial applications. Its flagship product, the Mobot, is a modular robot, designed for transformative K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they celebrate their 50th show as we continue our little series of interviewing local business people here in Sacramento who are making stuff go. On show 50, we will be interviewing Lee Chazen. Lee Chazen is an educator and entrepreneur as well as the founder and developer of Global Challenge, a game-based project for social studies teachers. Lee has worked on political campaigns, taught high school social studies and speech and debate, delivered workshops on a range of educational topics and performed on French horn in many different musical ensembles. He’s passionate about TED, new ideas, creativity, music and hiking. In other words, he's gonna have something interesting to say!
Join Jerry and Jackie in the studio as they interview local Sacramento business person Kevin Knauss. This will be one of a series of interviews with local folks who are making stuff go... a little differently from the way "it's always been done". We love our Linchpins on PKA.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview model and author Naima Mora. Naima is the winner of Cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model. She's written a new book: Naima Mora’s Model Behavior ™ is a simple, yet powerful book that offers authentic truth, and a stunningly beautiful and engaging reading and listening experience. Presented first in a multi-media digital format as more than just an eBook; part inspiration and part roadmap for anyone looking to take his or her life to a higher plane, this beautiful online, iTunes first edition also offers video of her most recent music performance, intimate, professional photographs taken by leading photographers in fashion and design, and narration in Naima’s own words.
Join Jerry and Jackie live at Powder Keg Studios where we talk to you about Throwing Away Your User Manual!
We love interviewing guests on the Powder Keg of Awesome. A few months ago, we had Norm Schriever, badass author of "Pushups in the Prayer Room" on the show. We enjoyed it so much we are having him back on the show, because Norm doesn't sit around waiting for permission, Norm makes shit go! Norm will be coming to us live via Skype from his current pad in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, where he is writing his next book. He's going to tell us all about it!
Join Jerry and Jackie live from Powder Keg Studios in Sacramento as they riff on a special secret surprise topic, as well as celebrating a major milestone: last week's episode had over 1,000 downloads! A Powder Keg First.
This morning on the program, Jerry and I lived a guest-free existence. Periodically, we take a break from guest interviews and just riff whatever stuff happens to be top of the mind that week. Today Jerry riffed on the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” and we talked about making decisions and take paths that no one else is taking. We also discussed that once you make the decision to take the path not traveled, it’s imperative to stay conscious of your decision because life and the resistance will continually throw you curveballs in an attempt to steer you back to the well-worn path.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they talk to local Sacramento badass Marty Keller. Marty is a fun guy and we know he's going to bring something exciting to the table. Marty Keller has had many careers, including twelve years in California state government, which is why he calls himself 'a recovering bureaucrat.' He has a Masters Degree in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University, and is currently committed to curing Boomeritis in his lifetime
Join Jerry and Jackie as they chat with special guest Christopher Cook, artistic director of the Green Valley Theatre in Sacramento as we talk about community theatre and whatever else comes up---you never know what may happen when theatre people are in the house!
They say the third time is a charm. So, this week we finally managed to catch up with Sacramento filmmaker Christina Marie. She will be joining Jackie and Jerry in the Powder Keg Studios to talk about Sactown, filmmaking and anything else that comes up in our riff.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they celebrate their 40th show! A splendid time is guaranteed for all on this show of shows, and if you don't like it, full money back guarantee! Jerry and I were both itching to get on the air today, because we wanted to riff about resistance. We have riffed about it on the show before, but we took it to a deeper level today. Because, you see, The Powder Keg of Awesome is not an all-knowing Ivory Tower of knowledge. Quite the contrary. The Powder Keg of Awesome is a living laboratory. We are living out the concepts we teach and talk about. To that end, Jerry and I talked about how we are coping with resistance as we try on new roles and build new projects in the real world.
Today on the Keg, Jerry and I celebrated the fourth of July in high style by declaring our independence from mediocrity and conformity.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they interview the fabulous Kristi Hyland. Kristi has gone through some major, huge-ass life change in the past 12 months and she will be on the show to talk about how she has navigated these changes and how she continues to gracefully make stuff go in the world.
This is it: the episode where Jerry gets naked and talks about what it was like to end his 37-year relationship with the Jehovah's Witness organization. Jerry says it was one of the scariest things he's ever done. But that's what indoctrination does; whether it's religious, political, or educational indoctrination, it creates ridiculous fears, boogeymen who keep us cowering in the corner. Well, Jerry's not cowering anymore...who's next?
This week, Jackie took a much-needed vacation to the hinterlands of Seattle and Portland, leaving Jerry to run the asylum. He got some help from our trusty sidekick and self-appointed producer, Michael Clark. In today’s show Jerry and Mike unveil, aka launch our newest adventure: The Riff Raft. We started the Riff Raft because people need a way to get help in making stuff go, without having to deal with the snake oil salesmen and affiliate programs that care more about putting you in their endless sales cycle than they are about getting your stuff done.
So excited for this one!! We've got the Redhead herself, Erika Napoletano! If you're not familiar with Erika, she's the author of the Redhead Writing blog and the new book, The Power of Un-Popular. This is gonna be awesome!
We'll be talking to Norm Schriever, author of "Pushups In the Prayer Room." We'll be talking to Norm about the book and what it's like to literally walk away from it all and travel around the world. To learn more about Norm and get your copy of the book, check out http://www.normschriever.com. See you Wednesday!
Join us as we interview the magical Jessica Clark from Room to Breathe.biz Jessica is a brilliant badass in business and will be sharing her insights and wisdom about systems, going to bed early and whatever else we feel like asking her!
Join us today when Jerry and I interview the awesometastic Shay Wheat. Shay is a local entrepreneur and speaker who is all about lighting the keg and making stuff go.
Today, on the show, we had local Sacramento badass Tracy Saville. Tracy is currently Co-CEO of T2 Performance Solutions, Publisher of Leading Possibilitiesmagazine, as well as a publisher with her company Possibility Place. In other words, Tracy has a lot going on. Over our favorite glasses of breakfast, we found out how Tracy makes stuff go in the world and what she is doing to make Sacramento and the world more badass.
Today we had a true keg of awesome in the Powder keg Studios with special guest, designer and artist Steve Hamm. Today's episode definitely falls under the great "not safe for work" label, where we riff about creativity, making stuff, conquering fear and inventing new words.
Today, the prolific web designer and developer Michael Clark joined us on the Powder Keg of Awesome to talk about the creative process and how he applies that to working with clients to help them with developing their web presence. It was a fun show. We had our first live studio audience, some great breakfast beverages, and it was our first "overtime" episode of the Keg.
Today on the Powder Keg of Awesome we will be interviewing the fabulous Allen Fahden. Allen has a new book coming out called "Another Boring Derivative Piece of Crap Business Book" and we get to ask him all about it!
Today Jerry and I did an on-location podcast from the TEDx Sacramento live simulcast of the TED conference. We talked about evolution, not the science theory, but how it's vital to be able to evolve to thrive in the world today.
In today's episode Jackie and our faithful pinch-hitting co-host Richard riffed about mastery today. We referenced George Leonard's work The Five Keys to Mastery: Surrender to Your Passion; Practice Practice, Practice; Get a Guide; Visualize the Outcome; and Play the Edge.
Jerry and Jackie had the awesome privilege of being able to riff with Johnny B Truant about making stuff go, The Badass Project and his new book The Bialy Pimps.
Join Jerry and Jackie as they talk about what it means to leave "everything on the page".
In today's episode, Jackie and Jerry discuss dealing with "the dip", the time when what you're doing gets hard.
In today's episode, Jackie and Jerry talk about beliefs and the importance of knowing your belief system because beliefs drive behaviors.
In today's episode, Jackie and guest co-host Todd Pillars, talk about "actively waiting" for the fruits of our labor.
Join Jerry and Jackie this morning as they interview Business Intuitive Susan Rueppel. Susan will be talking about how to use your intuition to bring more awesome into your life. Susan helps entrepreneurs and business owners who struggle with developing or growing their business as quickly and easily as they’d like. Susan's clients get a clearer vision, specific strategies and a practical, prioritized roadmap to get their business from where they are to where they desire to be. Visit her website at: www.chiefintuitionofficer.com
Happy New Year! Today Jerry and Jackie talk about the importance of not forgetting the old year, but rather taking the lessons learned in 2011 and applying them to your daily life in 2012.
In today's episode Jerry and Jackie talk about "looking back in order to move forward". We discuss how it's important to periodically take stock of what you've been through to in order to gain perspective and keep old stuff from turning into "baggage".
In today's episode, Jerry and Jackie riff on Thoreau's teaching, specifically, thinking and acting independently of the crowd.
In today's episode, Jackie and Jerry talk about being subservsive and upsetting the apple cart!
In today's episode, Jerry and Jackie talk about conformity and compliance and how this gets ingrained in us.
In today's episode, Jerry and Jackie talk about the power of masterminding to solve problems and obstacles in work and life.
In today's episode, Jackie and Jerry talk about forcing yourself into uncomfortable situations and describe the concept of "edgework", forcing yourself out of your comfort zone.
Today, guest host Richard Hassman and I talk about change and how the most annoying phrase in the world is "that's just the way I am". We explore myths about change and steps you can take to help yourself make changes in your life.
In today's episode, Jerry and Jackie interview Marci Nault of 101dreamscometrue.com Marci talks about how she decided to go after what she wanted in life and shares her tips and successes along the way.
In today's episode Jerry and Jackie riff on resistance. Of course we really didn't want to riff on this topic, but resistance to the resistance is futile!
In today's episode, hosts Jackie and Jerry shatter "I'm not tech savvy" and other myths. We look at how our self-assessments hold us back. What stories are you telling about yourself that keep you stuck?
In today's show Jerry and guest co-host Richard Hassman talk about saying yes to opportunities and possibilities that pop up in life.
In this episode Jerry and Jackie talk about Steve Jobs' quote: "You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back". We riff about taking action in life without knowing all the variables in advance.
In today's episode, Jackie and Jerry riff on what does it mean to think less and do more, giving you permission to shut off your brain once in awhile!
Welcome to The Powder Keg of Awesome! In this inaugural episode your hosts, Jerry Kennedy and Jackie Dotson, discuss what the Powder Keg is and where this show headed: on the bullet train to Awesomeville. You want some awesome in your life? Well, you're going to have to get up and make some!