1% Better: Recent Episodes
Chad Owen
Let's get 1% better. Everyday. Together. It compounds to a 38x improvement after a year of daily work.
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work...Remember that our sons and our grand(daughters) are going to do things that would stagger us.” — Daniel Burnham
This podcast was first inspired by the above quote. We must always be listening, teaching, and forging ahead together along the path of lifelong learning. And we must make no little plans. Won’t you join me? Call or text 917.971.3737 to share in the journey.
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Filling the Blank Page w/ Freewriting, Looping, and Timers
Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
[00:00:12] This morning. I tried an experiment to get over my fear of the blank page or the blank audio file, so to speak. And I've been reading a lot about, uh, writing habits and techniques and experiences of many different authors. Um, Stephen King's on writing is a book that I always find myself returning to. It's just a really interesting kind of half memoir half, um, treatise on writing from one of my favorite authors and I've been trying to get into the writing chair for some time now, but um, have a hard time overcoming the blank page. And so of course, uh, I went to the place with all the answers, YouTube, uh, and lost I don't know how many, uh, hours over the past couple of days, uh, going down that rabbit hole.
[00:01:04] Two people, uh, inspired me to combine two different techniques into one which I'm trying out now. Um, and this is the end result of that. Um, Many of you may be familiar with the concept of morning pages from from the creative and writer, Julia Cameron. She suggests that one of the best things you can do as a creative is to begin every morning writing three pages of longhand free writing where it's stream of consciousness, uh, with no purpose. Um, You just write and you don't stop writing until you've finished those three pages .
[00:01:44] I have tried that in the past and I'm trying it on and off now. Um, but I was often frustrated in that I felt that that work didn't really amount to anything or it didn't directly apply to the projects that I wanted to get done.
[00:02:02] Sure there's some value in getting the head junk out of your head, uh. To clear and make way for your better ideas, but I still felt like that was not wasted time, but just not optimized time in the mornings. And so that's why it's been hard for me to stick to that habit. Um,
[00:02:21] I think I intellectually understand how and why free writing can be an effective technique to tap into creativity, but I wanted it a little more practical way of, uh, having it help me in what I'm doing. So in my rabbit hole of a YouTubing, I came across two different videos, uh, both around this idea of free writing, and then also around this idea of dictating. I think the extemporaneous and improvisational nature of these podcasts, relates to the free writing activity to some degree, and so I found this video by this woman, Lauren Joy Shishinda where she talks about combining free writing with this concept of looping.
[00:03:09] So she says that once you spent your five, 10 or 15 minutes in free writing, think back on what you've written for 30 seconds or so and choose a concept or an idea, image character ,theme, issue, challenge, et cetera. Turn to a new page or a new section, and then begin the free writing exercise again, and then you do that for five, 10, 15 minutes. And then you pick another concept and do it again.
[00:03:39]By the third or fourth time, you'll have, uh, unlocked your your brain and gotten into that flow. And that was a really interesting idea, but I wasn't quite sure how I would apply it. Well then I came across, uh, an interview with the author Christopher Downing, who wrote the book Foolproof Outlining, and he suggests that after you've done your warmup activities of which he suggests a lot almost 40 minutes of warming up before we actually get to to the actual writing. Um, but when you, when you start to write he has this interesting, uh, timed technique, and I'm a huge fan of timers, uh, go back to the time timer episode. He suggests when you sit down to write a scene or a chapter or whatever, the piece of writing you're you're working on is to begin with as short of a time. As you can to summarize it as short as concisely as you can. So, uh, you can start with a 30 second writing activity to just jot down, uh, the one sentence summary. Then you can spend two minutes to rewrite or redictate and elaborate on that one sentence summary. Then set a timer for five minutes and do the same activity and so you're not actually rereading or editing what you've written or spoken previously, you're remembering what was remarkable or interesting from what you'd previously written, and then just simply rewriting it on the fly as you go.
[00:05:17] And then he suggests you spend 10 minutes doing the same and then 20 minutes so that you'll have revised or rewritten. This material four, maybe even five times spent roughly, um, you know, 45 50 minutes doing this an hour. At most. And you'll have a piece of writing or thought that is um, more coherent, more expressive and more inclusive of of creative ideas.
[00:05:51] What you should know is that I have created this podcast in that very same method. I came in this morning and had no idea what I wanted to record. Uh, I mean, I had many ideas, but I couldn't choose any of them. I was faced with a blank recording window on my computer, and so I just told myself that I was going to hit record for 30 seconds and see what came out.
[00:06:18]Uh. It was pretty incoherent and all over the place until the very end when I remembered the free writing and looping video. And so I took that concept and then rerecorded this for two minutes, elaborating on it, and then I made the connection to Christopher Downing, and then I spent five minutes recording this episode, and so there's a there's three previous episodes that are much shorter and all over the place. And then because I want to bring all these episodes to you in 10 minutes or less. This is my 10 minutes, uh, quote unquote final, uh, take for the podcast.
[00:06:55]I think I'm onto something here, combining free writing with looping and this idea of setting longer and longer timers for yourself to go back and just rewrite what you've written.
[00:07:07]Aside from the blank page another thing I struggle with is having the editor inside of me, uh, come out a little too strongly when I'm just sitting down to put pen to paper or to type or to speak on the podcast and this idea of throwing away work, uh, and then coming at it anew as how you do the editing and revising is really fascinating to me.
[00:07:33]So I know that there's many other creatives of you listening to this. I'm curious what tips or techniques have you used or been successful at in overcoming the blank page for the blank recording window or the blank canvas. You can get in touch directly with me at 917.719.3737. I love getting your voice messages and texts.
[00:07:58]Let me know what's worked for you and, uh, we can share in our creative endeavors. Thank you so much for listening until next time.
Hey, Chad here, coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
[00:00:10]An indispensable tool for me has been Calendly. Calendly is a web app that connects to your different calendars and allows people to book different types of events or different times to connect with you. So, for instance, I set up an hour long, a video chat event in Calendly and then people can click up a public link that shows them availability on my calendar.
[00:00:43]It's a great way for me to be able to share my availability with people without giving them direct access to my calendar where they can see everything that's on it. It essentially, will just tell them, Chad's available between noon and four, and allow them to just one-click book and then it will send us both calendar invitations.
[00:01:03] I've been using this tool probably for two to three years, but I think as we're all transitioning or have transitioned to working remotely and virtually it's been an indispensable tool.
[00:01:16] As long as I have my obligated, events on my calendar, it makes it really easy for people to book time with me. Everything from client meetings, client calls, client virtual workshops to podcasting sessions to catch ups with friends, you know, in the middle of the day.
[00:01:36] I think as our schedules in some ways got completely free. they also, Got consumed by all of the day to day. you know, that comes with with staying and working from home, whether that's childcare or, you know, did the general home maintenance and taking care of ourselves, et cetera, and getting that that much needed, outdoor time.
[00:02:00]Calendly allows me to block out specific periods of time as well for certain activities. So, for example, I don't allow any events on the calendar before 11:00 AM. And the reason for that is so that I can protect that morning time for what I call my deep work. I'm a morning person, so that's the hours in which I feel like I'm most productive, and so I want to protect that time and Calendly makes it really easy for me to set the times of day in which, different types of meetings can be booked. so that my client calls are maybe a little later in the afternoon, you know, you can also set a cutoff time where maybe you don't take any calls after 4:00 PM cause you went to start winding down your day.
[00:02:47]It's really simple and easy to use. You just log in with your, with your calendar providers whether that's through Office 365 or Google and then you just tell it what calendars you want it to look at to check for conflicts. And then as you're setting up a meeting, you just give it a name, a duration, and then what times of day and days of the week, you'll, be open to those events.
[00:03:12] So, for example, if I only wanted to record podcasts between 4:00 and 8:00 PM on weekdays, I could set that right up in Calendly so that when someone clicks on the Calendly slash Chad slash podcast link, they see all of those weeknights slots to record podcasts. I wanted to share Calendly with you all because it's really helped me, protect some of my time to to be productive, and, and not have to be constantly showing up onto meetings, all day, every day and also to make it really easy to connect with others. just sending out a link, you know, asking to reconnect with someone, or, to record a podcast session with someone it's made it so much easier for me to just send a link, than all of that back and forth that you would typically have to do of, "Oh, which of these three times works for you? Oh, none of those. Well, how about this?" It's just a simple, you know, practically two clicks and you've got something scheduled.
[00:04:12] Other fun ways that I've used this is scheduling virtual board game sessions, with friends and family. like I said, podcasting sessions, and before we all, were sequestered at home. I also use this for coffee meetings as well. It made it real easy to schedule.
[00:04:27] I hope you get as much use out of Calendly as I have the past few years. It's well worth the subscription fee, although they do have a free version available.
[00:04:37]I'm curious what tools you've used or techniques or practices you have, to better manage your calendar, your schedule, I'll call it your peak productivity hours? I would love to, to learn, from all of you, so get in touch. Send me a text or voice message at 917.719.3737 and share some of the ways in which you're getting 1% better each and every day.
[00:05:05]Thank you so much for listening until next time.
Edit audio as easy as Google Docs w/ Descript
[00:00:00]Chad: Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% better podcast.
[00:00:11] I've been recording all of these podcasts into a program called Descript. You can go to Descript.com and I'll just let you watch the homepage video. Uh, it will tell you everything you need to know and really, I think sell you on the product. Descript is a [00:00:30] program for Windows and Mac that allows you to record straight into the program. It will create a live transcription of what you and your other co-hosts are saying, and then it gives you a Google Docs like editing interface so that instead of messing with an audio program like Audition or Audacity, um, you can edit audio as if you were just simply editing a [00:01:00] Google Doc. And I think using Descript has cut down my audio production time at least by half, maybe even more than that. It's amazing to hit stop in the recording and and have, uh, already transcribed document that I can go in, um, cut and paste. I can eliminate filler words like all of the Ums and Ahs, which, uh, you probably won't hear in the rest of this episode because it automatically has [00:01:30] deleted them.
[00:01:32] And you can also add in uh, music, other tracks, and you can record multiple people, uh, into the system at a time if you've got multiple microphone setups. um,
[00:01:43] Another favorite feature of Descript is how easy it is to get captions. For all of your podcasts and videos as well, so those of you publishing video content that want to have captions for folks that don't have their audio on when they're scrolling by your videos in their in [00:02:00] their feeds. Descript makes it super easy to attach those caption files for your videos as well.
[00:02:09]Because Descript is doing the transcription for you. You can even put the full transcripts into your podcast show notes, um, for those of you that want to make it SEO or search friendly.
[00:02:23] There's a free version of Descript that allows you to record and transcribe up to three hours of content and I'm one of their paid users. Uh, Can't recommend it highly enough.
[00:02:35] For those of you interested in experimenting with podcasting. I don't think there's any more excuses, uh, for it being too hard. Descript makes it extremely easy to go from hitting record to publishing. I'm able to get these episodes out in less than 20 minutes, including the recording time, which I think is absolutely incredible.
[00:02:56] For all of you fellow podcasters. I'm curious how you've [00:03:00] improved your workflow . Either an increasing their production quality, uh, cutting down on the time to publish and, uh, maybe tips, tricks and tools that that you found helpful. You can get in touch directly at nine, one, seven, seven, one, nine, three, seven, three, seven, leave me a voice message or a text.
[00:03:20] And let me know how you've gotten 1% better in in your podcasting until next time.
[00:00:04] Chad: Hi, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better podcast.
[00:00:11] An app that I've been using for the past two months has really improved my email game. So, I don't know how much time all of you spend in your email inboxes, but it often takes up much of my mornings. I'm an inbox zero practitioner, [00:00:30] have been for a number of years, and I'm always looking for ways to get to inbox zero faster.
[00:00:40] I had been using Gmail for this but my cousin Nick, shout out to you, shared a tool with me that's improved my email game at least 5x probably even 10x and that tool is Superhuman. Superhuman is developed by the [00:01:00] same people that had that really cool LinkedIn social profile plug-in for Gmail called Rapportive and they've been sort of in stealth mode for a long time and you actually need an invitation from an existing user to even get an account which is why I had to ask my cousin Nick to hook me up. But it is a subscription. So, you might think, well Gmail's free, and my work gives me Outlook, why do I need, [00:01:30] you know, to pay for an email app?
[00:01:32] Well, the ease of use, the keyboard shortcuts, and all of the just nice simple easeful touches that they put into the app, I think are more than worth it. I've improved my email processing at least by 5x so I know that I'm saving at least a few hours a week in email,
[00:01:53] and so it's more than worth the $30.
[00:01:57] I think the killer features of [00:02:00] Superhuman are, the keyboard shortcuts, and the Superhuman menu, or kind of quick access menu, which makes it really easy to pull up and run any of the commands or tasks that you're trying to do in your email inbox. You can also break out your inbox into kind of sub inboxes.
[00:02:22] Now, I know Gmail did this like with its Promotions and Important inboxes, but you didn't really have any control or choice over how [00:02:30] Gmail did that for you. In Superhuman you can set up custom filters to not only filter out like news and other promotional emails, but you can even create like a team
[00:02:40] inbox, that's just for people emailing you from your company's domain. You can set up a VIP inbox for important clients or customers. And essentially the number of inboxes you can create are limitless. You just create a search filter and boom; you can create a new [00:03:00] email inbox. Just hitting the Tab Key will take you through each of the inboxes and then again using keyboard shortcuts, that'll be familiar to most Gmail users, you can go through and process your inbox at blazing speed. A very important part of my email processing and inbox zero method is to delay or push into the future messages that I can't or don't want to act on or respond to immediately. Superhuman has the [00:03:30] best Remind Me feature out of any app that I've ever used, and I've used a lot.
[00:03:35] You can use natural language to hit the keyboard shortcut and say remind me in two weeks or remind me next Thursday or remind me in 10 days or remind me on January 1st. And what it'll do is bring that email back to you, if there's been no response before that date. And so, this allows me to send emails
[00:03:59] to [00:04:00] customers or clients asking for a piece of information or asking, you know for a signed contract. If I haven't heard from them in three or four days, it automatically brings it right back to me and remind me. So,
[00:04:11] this Remind Me feature is more than worth the price of entry.
[00:04:15] Not only can you snooze messages to come back into your inbox, you can schedule emails to send out later. So often what I will do is write an email, you know after business hours, but I don't necessarily want to be sending an email [00:04:30] to someone at nine ten or even midnight. So, what you can do is just write the email.
[00:04:35] And then schedule it to go out first thing the next morning and your recipient is none the wiser of you actually wrote that email at 1:00 in the morning.
[00:04:43]One thing that I often will do is when I schedule a meeting with someone, I will write and schedule for sending later an email that goes to them the day beforehand saying "Just wanted to confirm that we're still good to meet." There's a really fantastic [00:05:00] onboarding email series that you get, I'm still getting them two months later, where Rahul the founder just shares one easy tip with you every single day and I've been getting faster and faster in my use of the app and learning even more about the cool features that they're developing that are very, very unique amongst all the email apps that I've used.
[00:05:24] As I mentioned before Superhuman is still invitation only. So, if you'd like to get an [00:05:30] account, just text me nine one seven nine, seven one three seven three seven and I'll put you in touch with the onboarding team. They schedule a 30-minute call with you to go through your email process. And they walk you through the app and set up workflows that will be most beneficial to you.
[00:05:47] I hope you find Superhuman as useful to you as it has been to me. I'm curious what other email apps or plugins are crucial to your email workflow and how you've made [00:06:00] email 1% better or more. Again, you can share that at nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven and thank you so much for sharing.
[00:00:00] Chad: Hi Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
[00:00:11] I’m not sure how all of you are listening to this podcast. Might be on LinkedIn or a podcatcher maybe even Spotify. But by far my favorite podcast app is Overcast. Overcast is developed by Marco Arment and some of you [00:00:30] might have seen him. He loves to write and podcast about everything Apple. But he's also a programmer and developer and has made this app on his own I think for the last five or six years. Which is how long I've been using it.
[00:00:45] It's more than worth the cost to unlock the paid version. You get so many amazing features, two of my favorites being the Smart Speed function and the [00:01:00] Voice Boost function. I'm one of those people that likes to listen to podcasts at faster than real-time speed. And one of the things that Marco has done is put in a feature called Smart Speed where it cuts out some of the gaps and silences in shows and so while it's not speeding up the voice, it can actually cut out you know a couple of minutes on some of the longer podcasts. And you wouldn't even know that [00:01:30] it's doing it. There's also some really great controls for listening at half speed and I think all the way up to like 3x speed if you're so inclined. And the second feature voice boost does a really good job of fixing those few podcasts that maybe don't quite have as high production value where maybe the volume is a bit weird or some of the levels are off.
[00:01:50] Marco has done a really great job of normalizing the voices on those podcasts. And again, it's one of the great features that makes overcast so useful to [00:02:00] me. There is a paid version which eliminates the ads and I think 10 dollars a year for an amazing podcast app is more than worth it. Marco just revamped the recommendations engine using all of the data from who listens to what on Overcast to recommend episodes and podcasts. I found this feature really great at discovering related podcasts two things that I'm listening to so if I'm listening to a lot of podcasts on a particular [00:02:30] subject then a few float up to the top of the recommendations and it's a really great way for me to discover new podcasts new voices and a diversity of coverage on a particular subject that I'm looking to learn.
[00:02:43] You can choose whether you want to subscribe to episodes automatically download them, delete them. You can create smart playlists that I use to organize podcasts by topic, and it will dynamically update those playlists [00:03:00] as new episodes are released. And you can also export the data. And I love to do this to just understand a bit more about my listening habits,
[00:03:10] how many episodes that I listen to and it also track, what episodes I've favorited as well.
[00:03:16] As the podcasting industry continues to get hotter and hotter, I keep coming back to this wonderful fantastic app created by a single developer, which I think is really cool. Especially when you have [00:03:30] companies like Spotify that are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into this space. You know, I kind of like to root for the little guy.
[00:03:37]For those of you that already have maybe a podcast app of choice and you want to give Overcast a chance, you can also export your .OPML files from your existing apps and import them straight into Overcast for a seamless transition.
[00:03:52] Overcast is an invaluable app that I use all day every day. And I think you should give it a try to [00:04:00] it's a great way to discover and organize and listen to all of your favorite podcasts.
[00:04:06] So I'm curious, what apps do you use to get 1% better. You can share with me at nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven and as always, thank you so much for sharing.
011 - Hardcore History - 200115
[00:00:00] Chad: Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
[00:00:09] I hope you don't mind me coming here to share and recommend other podcasts to listen to. It is one of my absolute favorite ways of not only learning. But it's the reason why I'm here sharing with you on this podcast. I think sharing and teaching is the [00:00:30] best way for me to learn. So it's a real thrill for me to share with you.
[00:00:34] All of the learning resources methodologies tools hacks tips tricks Etc. And I can't decide if this is my absolute favorite podcast, but it's definitely in my top. I would say. Five podcasts of all time and I know it's one of the most popular in the world based downloads in that's Dan Carlin's podcast [00:01:00] hardcore history.
[00:01:01] Each episode is at least 3 hours long some of them go on for as long as five hours. That's pretty much an entire audiobook in just one episode in most of the series that he does are between three to six or seven episodes. And
[00:01:19] what Dan delivers is the most in-depth researched with first-second third-hand accounts, from some [00:01:30] of history's most interesting and complex time periods. So he has turned his research mind and excellent podcasting voice to everything from the death of the Roman Republic to the rise of Genghis Khan to the Eastern Front during World War II and most recently the [00:02:00] beginnings of World War 1 and the rise of imperialist Japan before World War Two.
[00:02:09] Now I know that this has a bit of a militaristic bent, but even if you're just tangentially interested in any of these time periods, you have to listen to these episodes. He must read at least two dozen books on each of these subjects [00:02:30] because he brings these accounts and reads them in the podcast. You know taking us right into that moment sharing, you know letters and communications between soldiers or between world leaders and
[00:02:44] I can't convey to you how intricately researched and well-crafted Dan's storytelling is in each of these eras.
[00:02:54] I’m only kind of partially interested in military history, but I think [00:03:00] Dan makes it so compelling and tell such a rich story from all angles that I think
[00:03:08] picking one of these topics most interesting to you and giving the first episode of try is definitely worth it. If you really enjoy the podcast, I know that Dan has the back catalog available for the price of a typical audiobook, but he releases the newest and latest episodes for free in the podcast feed.
[00:03:28] So subscribe now [00:03:30] so that you can get those episodes for free and if you enjoy them you can buy some of the back episodes.
[00:03:36] Dan publishes these episodes maybe once a month sometimes once every three months. That just tells you how much research and painstakingly detailed his processes for writing and recording these episodes is. Again, if you have any interest in the time periods of World War 1 or World War II the [00:04:00] Roman Republic the Punic Wars.
[00:04:01] There’s so many different eras that he's turned his attention to and absolutely all of them are worth listening.
[00:04:10] After you've checked out an episode or two. I'm curious what your thoughts are and if there's any other podcasts or audiobooks that you feel like do as good of or better of a job telling the story of these particular time periods. You can get in touch it nine one seven nine seven one three seven [00:04:30] three seven and thank you so much for sharing.
010 - Dan Sullivan Question - 200114
[00:00:00] Chad: Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
[00:00:11] There’s a question that I've added into my repertoire this year that has done more to improve the quality of my conversations than any other tool I've picked up and that question came to me through Blair Enns at Win Without Pitching. But the origin is [00:00:30] from Dan Sullivan, a strategic coach. So a huge hat tip to both of them for introducing me to this question and I'm just going to ask the question of you, The Listener, and then discuss why it's been such a powerful tool.
[00:00:46] So imagine that we're catching up three years from today over coffee and you're looking back over those three years to today. What has [00:01:00] happened both personally and professionally for you to feel so happy about your progress?
[00:01:05] And then I just listen. What this question does is cuts through so much of the I call it head junk get right to the heart of the matter, which is you know, what is it that you need both personally and professionally to be happy and I think happy is an interesting quality because it's very subjective.
[00:01:29] But I think it also [00:01:30] elicits really powerful responses in people. And I think it's important to both ask personally and professionally in both context. So if I'm catching up with a friend, it be interesting for them to share about their professional goals and aspirations because I might be able to help them through my network and vice versa in a professional setting,
[00:01:50]I think it's really important to ask about the personal side because often our deepest motivations and needs and wants at work, stem from things in our personal lives, [00:02:00] whether that's like, you know, what we're passionate about and interested in doing, or you know, how we want to create a professional life that supports our personal lives as well. And there's some really fantastic follow-up questions that you can get. If you read the book around, you know, what obstacles stand in your way what opportunities are there that we can capitalize on but just simply asking this question has unlocked so many interesting conversations for me.
[00:02:26] As far as I know this is one of the things that [00:02:30] launched Dan Sullivan's career in the 70's coaching executives and corporations with this question. And kind of driving his whole strategic approach to coaching. And If you find yourself in a situation where you're catching up with someone or you know taking a potential client meeting, ask this question. You can kind of tailored to your needs. So changed it a little bit like, you know, imagine if we're catching up over coffee two [00:03:00] years from today.
[00:03:00] You can say three years from today, but wouldn't change the wording very much because I actually think sticking to the script is quite effective and the most important follow-up to this is you just need to be quiet and listen. I've often had people spend 5 10 even 15 minutes responding to this question without any follow-ups and it's an invitation for people to really open up and share not only what's on their mind but things that are standing in their way to achieving [00:03:30] their goals and maybe touching upon some of the opportunities that they see in order to reach those goals.
[00:03:37] So I've used this question both in my personal and professional life to great success. And again wanted to say thank you to Dan Sullivan for sharing this question and making it, you know, freely available to all of if you're even more curious about how to use it and some of the follow-up questions, I would encourage you to get the book on Amazon. And [00:04:00] there's a lot of great free resources on Strategic Coach as well.
[00:04:03] I know that Dan publishes a book at least every quarter that talks about all of the methodologies and tools that he uses in his training program. I would love to hear the results of all of you asking this question to people whether that's in your personal or professional life, and I'm curious what kind of answers and results you get from asking this question, You can always share with me by texting or calling [00:04:30] nine one seven nine seven one three seven three seven. I hope this question proves is useful to use it has for me and as always thank you for sharing.
[00:00:04] Chad: Hey. Chad here. Coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. Today, I would like to mention a podcast that's coming to an end. I know like it seems like every podcast goes on and on forever, but this particular podcast is definitely binge worthy [00:00:30] and it tells the story of a start-up from start to finish.
[00:00:35] Over the course of five years and about 30 episodes.
[00:00:41]And the best part is that the podcast is about a podcasting company. So you might know the company that it's about I'll give you a hint. It was recently acquired by Spotify. To the tune of two hundred million dollars [00:01:00] and the company was started right here in Brooklyn, New York. the podcast I'm talking about is of course the Startup podcast by Gimlet Media and the host and founder of the company Alex blumberg does an incredible job over the course of. five years, seven seasons, more than 30 episodes.
[00:01:28] He shares not only his personal journey [00:01:30] but also the journey he goes on with his co-founder Matt Lieber. How he brings his wife into the company and you know how they go from a dingy office on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn all the way through to their exit getting acquired by Spotify.
[00:01:50] And the reason I'm mentioning this podcast is. Yes, it's a podcast about a podcasting company. So if that's a bit too meta for you [00:02:00] I would understand but the intimacy and the details that you get from Alex sharing his story and the story of the company. Is completely unique in. in any history or retelling of not only the founding of a company but the exit of a company.
[00:02:24] I can't think you know outside of books and maybe some longer, you [00:02:30] know, in-depth journalism that you might find in like the Atlantic or the New Yorker. I can't think of a story of a start-up so well told from start to finish in the fact that it's told by an excellent Storyteller Alex blumberg. And it's about a storytelling company.
[00:02:53] I think it's just it's too juicy of a concept to ignore in [00:03:00] so I think you know, who is this podcast for? I think it's for anyone that is. a Founder anyone that is thinking of starting a start-up anyone that has started a startup and maybe struggled and also anyone that's interested in How storytelling?
[00:03:19] And telling your own story can actually change the trajectory of your company. If Alex had not started the startup podcast. He would not have grown the company [00:03:30] as quickly and as well, I think as as he would have if he had not started the podcast.
[00:03:36]I think the trajectory of gimlet would have been completely different had Alex not started the startup podcast to Chronicle his own journey in the company's Journey as it was getting started and growing coming out with new shows and I think the mere fact that Alex decided to tell the story. Is a huge factor in its success [00:04:00] and so for me, it's a lesson in the power of Storytelling and how just showing up and documenting and sharing and being vulnerable and inviting people into your process can attract not only fans but an audience and even investors potential new hires.
[00:04:20]And and many more things through consistent and good storytelling. I've learned so many things from this podcast as far [00:04:30] as you know, the importance of getting your elevator pitch right to attracting the right kinds of co-founders or you know collaborators on projects and so much more. So you can find the podcast again with media.com or you can search on Spotify or your podcast catchers the episodes to look out for the ones that's a gimlet in the title. The start a podcast not only Chronicles gimlets story but many [00:05:00] many other stories Dating company the founder of American Apparel a startup bus hackathon tour and so many other startup stories. So if you want to just listen to the story of gimlet look for the episodes that have gimlet in the title, I think the entire catalog of shows in the startup feed are worth a listen. So I hope you check it out and I would love to hear your thoughts on the story of gimlet and and its eventual sale.
[00:05:29] And if you have any other podcasts that you'd like to recommend you can always reach me at 917.971.3737.
[00:05:39]thank you so much to everyone who has reached out and thank you for sharing.
Hey. Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. I've just come back from a Meetup. Yes, that kind of Meetup. It's not just for singles looking to find a date or sleazy [00:00:30] networkers trying to push their business on you. I have been a Meetup organizer and a Meetup attendee i think as long as I have been in New York City, so probably close to eight years now. And it didn't take long for me after having gone to my first couple of Meetups to want to organize my own.
[00:00:53] The meet up I went to tonight was the first Meetup organized by a woman named Jill [00:01:00] for visual thinking or visual thinkers. These are the people that you might have seen that different conferences or meetings or workshops who are visually capturing all of the ideas maybe on some easels or whiteboards and by the end they have this amazing visual representation of what's happened.
[00:01:25]This Meetup was fantastic because I've really wanted to work [00:01:30] on my own visualization of ideas. I'm very good at writing lists and and things like that, but when it comes to representing ideas visually in a in a fast handwritten manner, that's not something I'm actually really very comfortable doing it all.
[00:01:49] So where did I go to try and get better? I went to Meetup. Sure enough, I did some searching and found this Meetup group that had started and they had a [00:02:00] meet up this week. I show up there's five or six of us and we get right to practicing together different, you know, visual thinking practices.
[00:02:14] And so with just the time it takes to commute and then meet and then come back. [00:02:19] I've already begun a New Journey towards developing my my visual thinking.
[00:02:28]If you live in a big city like New York, [00:02:30] there's probably far too many meetups than you could ever go to but if you're in a smaller City, I'd encourage you to search as well. There's new meetups that are starting every single week, the best part is if you aren't finding one you can start one yourself. So I shared with you a meet-up that I discovered and went to this week but a meet-up that I've decided to organize is a New York City design thinking Meetup Where I'm [00:03:00] trying to build a community of like-minded design thinkers to come together share best practices learn together and then practice. It's far easier than you think and even free to start organizing your own events meet up does a fantastic job of promoting new meetups and once you've chosen the title of your Meetup and given it. A unique description meet up blasts it out to everyone that is interested in [00:03:30] everything that you've put in as your tags and keywords.
[00:03:33] And before you know, it sometimes even that same day you'll have people starting to sign up for the Meetup group and asking you. Hey, when's the first event?
[00:03:43]I love meet ups for two reasons one there in person. You really can't beat getting together and learning and practicing together. In the second thing is everyone is already [00:04:00] self-selecting into the topic or knowledge area that you're also interested in so you could get as specific as. 17th century French literature enthusiasts and you can have a book club around that or it could be a node js developers or it could be a tabletop Gamers and that's precisely one meet up that that I started [00:04:30] just two years ago and it has over a thousand members today.
[00:04:34]With meet up I feel like you have no excuse to not start building your own Community around whatever it is. You want to learn and get better at you don't even have to be an expert practitioner in whatever it is. If you start the group, it will attract those people to the group and you can have them be the ones that teach you and everyone else in the [00:05:00] Meetup. I cannot recommend meetups highly enough. The the digital platform is very easy to use when it comes to posting events connecting to calendars messaging your fellow members. And it's also really fantastic Discovery platform where if you've got a free night coming up next week and you want to try something new search on meetup.com, and I'm sure you'll find something that you can really dive [00:05:30] into.
[00:05:31] So I'm curious if anyone else is a meet-up organizer, I would love to connect with you or you know, what an interesting recent meet up that you've been to was. You can text me or leave a message at 917.971.3737 thanks for sharing.
Hey. Chad here, coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. It will come as no surprise to many of you that I'm an avid podcast listener. I probably have subscribed to a hundred different podcasts and listened to many different ones over the years.
[00:00:27] I think it's a perfect medium [00:00:30] for learning. It's on demand. It's asynchronous. I can binge it. There's so many different ones. Across so many different subjects that have been invaluable to me and I would love to share them with you here and learn which ones have been most helpful to you as well.
[00:00:56] You can always text or leave a message at nine one [00:01:00] seven nine seven one three seven three seven let me know what podcasts are you listening to to get 1% better? The show I'd like to bring up today is Land of the Giants. It's produced by Vox, They have a number of great podcasts, but this one stood out to me. Both because of the reporting that Jason Delray the producer and host was able to do and the subject matter.
[00:01:29] It's all [00:01:30] about Amazon not just. About Jeff Bezos or technology behind what goes on inside of Amazon but a very interesting holistic picture that those two cities where houses have been built and left to people that invented Amazon the idea of Amazon Prime. And also third-party sellers that have [00:02:00] gotten onto the platform and maybe been pushed around a bit, bye-bye.
[00:02:04]big weight of of Amazon. I'm fascinated by not only Amazon's history, but its business model How it's continually innovating. an avid consumer on the platform both with Amazon Prime media and just the shopping in e-commerce experience and I love learning [00:02:30] all the behind-the-scenes and I think Jason does a really fantastic job.
[00:02:34]Of balancing, maybe the Amazon for good and the Amazon maybe not. So good. It's just eight episodes so you can probably listen to it the course of a week and it's capped at the end with an interview that Jason did with another one of my [00:03:00] favorite kind of thought leaders out there and content producers Scott Galloway.
[00:03:06]it's a really great discussion that ends the series.
Again, I would love to know what podcast series you've enjoyed that have taught you something maybe outside of your domain or taught you something about what you do that. Maybe you hadn't thought of before. Thank you so much for sharing all of your tips and tricks with me [00:03:30] over the past few days.
[00:03:31]You can continue to do so by just texting me or leaving me a message at 917.971.3737. Thanks for sharing.
=Hey. Chad here, coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. I mentioned technique yesterday that I wanted to elaborate a bit more on for those of you that might not be familiar with them. So in conjunction with. The time timer I use a technique called the Pomodoro Technique.
[00:00:29] And Pomodoro is tomato in Italian the name comes from the kitchen timers that are a tomato that you kind of that are split in the in half and you can you know time your eggs or whatever you have in the oven.
[00:00:49] It's a genius way of using a simple tool like the kitchen timer to be really really productive. I want to give a big shout-out to Francesco [00:01:00] Chirillo who is the originator of this technique. And again, it's going to be so simple. You won't think that it works, but I'm a huge believer in it and use it practically every single day as I'm working to get get everything done
[00:01:18] And it's just really three simple steps.
[00:01:21] The first thing is you write down the tasks that you would like to get accomplished. Not something as big as a project [00:01:30] not something may be as simple as just sending one quick email but something that could fill about a half an hour to maybe 90 minutes worth of time and I wouldn't list more than three things.
[00:01:46] Choose the one thing that you would be happiest accomplishing by the end of the day set your timer for 25 minutes and go.
[00:01:56] The reason that this technique is so effective for me [00:02:00] is that I have a singular focus and all I'm doing is working on that one task. Now things may distract you but because you know, you have this timer going you somehow give yourself the permission to delay and say wow. Yes. I got that phone call, but they can wait 22 minutes because I have 22 minutes left on this timer, and I'm going to get this thing done because I know that if I get it done I'll be really happy at the end of the day.
[00:02:28] So if you're trying to figure out which tasks you [00:02:30] should start first, I just try to imagine, "okay, which one would I be happiest having accomplished at the end of the day?"
[00:02:39] Once the timer goes off and you haven't finished the task. That's okay because you will continue that task in the next in the next Pomodoro with that's what I call the little time segment. But you're not going to start working on it immediately, but you're going to take a five-minute break and I [00:03:00] take sometimes, you know between a five to ten minute break stand up go and get some water eat a little snack.
[00:03:08] I think it's really important to to get up. Maybe do a little stretching and move a little bit before you sit back down and do the next Sprint. This isn't the time to like tab over into Facebook or Twitter or check your email if you're working on something else because you're gonna you know, go down that [00:03:30] rabbit hole. I use it as a time to just take a break stand up walk around and come back.
[00:03:37] If you did finish the previous task, then just choose the next the next item on the list and again set the timer for 25 minutes and go. Once you've done anywhere between three or four Pomodoro's I like to take a longer break, so I half an hour break or an hour long break and [00:04:00] that's when maybe you can listen to some podcasts brush up on the latest YouTube videos that maybe you've missed and and get distracted but. What you will have done is accomplished two to four most important things for that for that given day. And if you do this, you know first thing when you get in I have found that you can actually [00:04:30] accomplish more in four to six of these, you know, 25 minutes stretches then oftentimes I would get done and then the entire day.
[00:04:40] I would highly recommend just Googling the Pomodoro Technique. There's lots of free PDFs and guides and visuals that explain the technique you can use the timer on your phone and computer. That's all you need. You make your list of tasks that you want to do. You set the [00:05:00] timer for 25 minutes and then at the end of the 25 minutes set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and take a break.
[00:05:07] And be sure that when you've gotten, you know, three to four five or six of these little work sprints completed take a longer break reward yourself before sitting down to do the next one's and know that you're getting the most important things done.
[00:05:24] So I hope that little productivity hack was helpful to [00:05:30] you. I've been using it for years and it's probably the. The productivity hack that I return to most often in my day-to-day.
[00:05:43] I'm curious what other sorts of productivity hacks you might have. So text me or leave a voice message at 917.971.3737
[00:05:57]I can't wait to hear what you all [00:06:00] share and I just wanted to give a huge shout out and thank you to everyone that has commented, interacted, texted me. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hey. Chad here, coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% Better podcast. One of the things that's been immensely helpful to me when it comes to staying focused and getting a lot of things done in a short amount of time is a tool called the Time Timer. This [00:00:30] isn't something that I discovered on my own. A friend of mine, Carson, if you're listening, shout out to you!
[00:00:38] The time timer is a physical timer. I know this sounds super simple, but trust me. It's really cool. It's a physical timer. It's a plastic timer with a white background and minutes numbered from zero all the way to. To 55 or 60 but going [00:01:00] backwards. So when you turn the timer a red wedge tells you how much time has been set on the timer. So if you set the timer to you know where six o'clock is to the 30, then that tells you you have 30 minutes and there's a red semicircle that slowly gets smaller and smaller over time.
[00:01:26] And the genius part of this timer is that [00:01:30] with just a really quick a glance and maybe not even having to look at it, you can just see it in your peripheral vision. You can see time slowly ticking away and it's just that little bit of oomph that I need to keep me on task.
[00:01:48] And so I use this in combination with the Pomodoro Technique, which is a technique where you set a timer for 25 minutes and you work on a singular [00:02:00] task and it's kind of you don't pick up your pen so to speak or stop typing until the 25 minutes is up. And then you take a short 5 maybe 10 minute break and you sit right back down and do another one.
[00:02:16]this timer in combination with this Pomodoro Technique means that the first thing I do when I sit down at my desk is I set the timer for 25 minutes and I jump in right to the first task of the day. You know, I open up the computer [00:02:30] set the timer and I'm off to the races so that could be something like recording this podcast clearing my inbox sending those emails that I need to at the beginning of the day. And I'm able to do three four five of these in a row first thing and the timers invaluable
[00:02:50] And so for me, I have this pavlovian response to this.
[00:02:58] That's the sound that the [00:03:00] timer makes when it goes off in that just tells me hey good job, you sat down done the 25 minutes of work and can move on.
[00:03:12] If you just search Amazon or Google for time timer, you'll find about a dozen different versions. My personal favorite is the MOD m-o-d time timer. It's just I think a cute design comes in a couple different colors and [00:03:30] it's a little bit more maybe versatile and durable then some of the plastic ones they also have like an 18 inch time timer. If you're maybe facilitating a meeting or an r in a large group, they also have a digital app that you can use as a timer as well.
[00:03:53]I'm sure that you all have so many other physical tools [00:04:00] and. You know things that help you get better every single day and I would love to hear what that is for you.
[00:04:08]I've been so encouraged by the community that's come here and responded everywhere I have posted you texted left messages. I want to continue to build this community of all of us getting one percent better together.
[00:04:23] So again, text me 917.971.3737 and thank you [00:04:30] for sharing.
[00:00:04] Chad: Hey Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on the 1% better podcast. If any of you have seen my work space or maybe my my closet at home, you know that I'm a real [00:00:20] stickler for like cards. Books any kind of like physical materials and tools when it comes to learning or training facilitation Etc.
[00:00:32] And I wanted to give a shout out to a really cool deck of cards that I just got this week [00:00:40] from a neighbor. It turns out but his name is Matthias. Jakob senoir. Jacobsson. I hope I'm saying that right Matthias he. He's from the think clearly.com and that's think clearly without any vowels. So it's th in K C [00:01:00] LR L why he's a really cool thinker.
[00:01:06] But even more than that, he's a visual thinker which is one of my favorite kinds of thinkers for all of you Visual facilitators and expert doodlers. I am quite envious. So that might be something that [00:01:20] I'm going to turn my attention to when it comes to getting one percent better. But Matthias had just come out with these deck of cards one is called question cards, and the other is called strategy cards and.
[00:01:35] Not only when I'm working with clients, but also if I'm interviewing someone on a [00:01:40] podcast or you know, even just discussing things with friends being able to ask the right question is invaluable. My my favorite or my favorite way to get into questions actually is just saying, you know, I'm curious and [00:02:00] signaling to the other person that you're curious helps them open up and be a little bit.
[00:02:04] More vulnerable maybe with what they're sharing with you and it just signals are than that you're generally interested in understanding what they want to know, but I think having a range of questions in your toolbox is invaluable when it comes to [00:02:20] just connecting deeper with friends or you know, helping clients understand what their their challenges are and how they might overcome them.
[00:02:27] So I'm just gonna unbox these cards right here on the podcast. So I'm looking at the question cards. And Matthias says it's deck of cards each with one powerful question or prompt [00:02:40] we can use these cards to get clarity for ourselves and others. So if we open up the pack here, there's a couple of cards on how to use them.
[00:02:51] And so he's talking about why questions and reflection is important for us. It's a structured way of [00:03:00] processing our experiences. I can say that journaling the reflection process of journaling is is invaluable. And then he says okay here's how to reflect. He gives a process for pulling out your pen and notebook and then [00:03:20] drawing a card and then by writing or drawing without pausing.
[00:03:26] Respond to the prompt. It's important not to judge. What comes out.
Matias also gives us a way to reflect as a group and how we might do this as a group and share everything in the group as I'm it's [00:03:40] about the size of a normal deck of cards. I don't know how many cars that maybe about 50 cards and it looks like it's broken into one two, three four sections section one is Beginnings section 2 is feelings.
[00:03:55] Section 3 is insights in section 4 is [00:04:00] actions. I think that's a really interesting way to break up. Not only the Reflection process but to be able to capture the feelings. That are brought up by those Reflections the insights from those feelings. And then I think most importantly what actions you might take.
[00:04:19] So I'm [00:04:20] just going to read maybe one or two cards from each of these to give you a sense of. Of what's included? So in the beginnings section, he says draw a timeline of what has already happened. This is interesting reflecting on maybe a project that you've done in capture. Everything that's happened [00:04:40] to date.
[00:04:41] So looking in the feelings sections. I might ask myself. What doubts do I have? So looking at the timeline and seeing well, maybe we've slipped on a couple of these dates. Maybe a doubt is that I don't know that we're going to be able to get it done on time. And that scares [00:05:00] me. So in the inside section, there's a question that says what is truly important to me and list those priorities in order.
[00:05:11] So if I'm afraid that these dates are going to be slipping this question can really help me understand. Okay. Well if we have to make some compromises what am I [00:05:20] willing to compromise on and what am I not? and I think this last one for actions is. This ties into the last episode on Walden perfectly.
[00:05:32] The last one in the actions section says who will I ask to hold me accountable. I think that's a [00:05:40] really perfect and emergent reflection process of me. Just drawing cards at random from this question stack so Matthias, I wanted to say thank you for this question deck. I can't wait to use it. Not only here as I'm making the 1% better podcast, but [00:06:00] again also like maybe with client work and having fun discussions with with friends or colleagues.
[00:06:07] So I'm going to put this deck away and open up the strategy deck. So I found through the questions deck beforehand, but I haven't opened this one up. So the strategy deck is a deck of cards to help you make strategy more simple and clear using visuals. All right, that sounds [00:06:20] cool. Each card has a drawing organize the cards on the table to show a strategy and so we'll see.
[00:06:28] Let's see what these look like.
[00:06:34] So again, there's kind of some how to use cards like what is a strategy. And [00:06:40] then on the on the backs of the cards. There's a bunch of words. So I'm just going to take one. This one says content contract file proposal writing reading paperwork and documenting and [00:07:00] then on the other side, there's a there's like a little icon of three pieces of paper in the top one has some writing on it.
[00:07:06] So it's like an icon for a document that you might see So I think what he's asking us to do is so he says strategies the art and practice of getting from here to there and he's asking us to select images to [00:07:20] answer these questions. So, where are we now? Where do we want to go? What's standing in the way? What choices do we have? And what choices are we making?
[00:07:34] And I love his drawing style. It's really what drew me to think clearly and Matthias [00:07:40] his work in the first place. Very simple kind of pen drawings. I think the way he draws people is is is very cute and unique. It's not just like the star the star person with a circle head. And I mean there's there's a guy parachuting.
[00:07:59] There's a guy running. [00:08:00] There's a guy holding a 50-pound kettlebell over his head other things like a balance. Here's a really fun just scribbly hairball. It's interesting because. On The Backs, he's kind of giving key words of what it might represent. So the the crazy scribble hairball is [00:08:20] chaos complexity unpredictable Evolution mess and pattern so I'm really fascinated by how how we might be able to like storyboard a strategy using these visuals.
[00:08:40] [00:08:40] I think when I'm facilitating meetings or work with clients. Getting out of the chairs getting away from the Whiteboard actually can be really helpful in a tool. Like these cards is really fascinating. You know, there's the kind. Joke of Consultants [00:09:00] or in design thinkers using like a thousand Post-its in there stuck, you know everywhere from the Whiteboard to the table to to the door, but these cards are really interesting prompt that I'd be fascinated to see how how the conversation how the meeting goes a little bit differently.
[00:09:19] Just [00:09:20] working in a different way. I think if there's a theme to my work it's trying to find new ways of working to unlock Collective creativity and I'm really excited to use these cards. So I'll put a link in the show notes to think clearly and these cars from Matthias again. Shout out to you been listening to Matthias is podcast, which she [00:09:40] records from the streets of Brooklyn and New York.
[00:09:42]And I think if you're looking for a new tool to think and do work a little bit differently that these questions strategy cards could be a great fit. So that's this episode of one percent better again. Text me if you got any questions recommendations, or just where you [00:10:00] are in your journey to getting one percent better.
[00:10:02] That's 917.971.3737.
[00:00:02] Chad: Hey Chad here on the 1% better podcast coming to you over the digital Airwaves. I want to give a shout out and thank you to a team a product a service that has been very [00:00:20] instrumental for me in. Not only committing to be one percent better, but actually holding me accountable to becoming one percent better.
[00:00:29] I would not be coming to you on this podcast if it were not for them. And so I'm giving this shout out to Walden or if you go to [00:00:40] Hello Walden.com, h-e-l-l-o. Wa lden. It's a really great service where you sign up and they will help you stay and get organized to launch your next big thing.
[00:00:55] So, of course for me this podcast was kind of my [00:01:00] next big thing and I've been working with Madeline the founder and the team at Walden for several months now and they've been instrumental in helping keep me on track to becoming one percent better. Every day the way it works is they match you with a coach and like unlimited [00:01:20] text access to this coach that can help you set your goals figure out the Milestones that you need to achieve to reach those goals, and then they'll check in with you.
[00:01:34] So you can do a call with them to kind of get to know one another and then share your [00:01:40] goals and then that call Wreckers, you know, like on a monthly or quarterly basis, and but the coolest part is like the texting in the chatting because essentially at the same time every day, I get a message. From Walden reminding me like hey Chad.
[00:01:59] We're looking [00:02:00] forward to hearing from you tomorrow on the 1% better podcast and it's just like this. reminder that hey, you know, I've got listeners and people that are expecting to hear from me and it's like really just a kick in the ass to to get things done.
[00:02:18] I [00:02:20] cannot tell you how invaluable that accountability has been to me. Again. It's the reason that I'm sitting here now recording this episode is really the follow-up from the team at Walden and they can help you come up with ideas. If you're not quite [00:02:40] sure which project. That you should work on right now or the help you kind of manage tasks across the different projects and there's some really cool kind of tracking features that will help.
[00:02:53] You know, if you're meeting your Milestones to dick to get to your goal. And again, if you've got [00:03:00] a if you've got a project that has been a side project maybe for a little too long and you want to make it. A main project. I cannot recommend this service enough. I think they have a free trial going right now.
[00:03:16] And for what you get, it's [00:03:20] super super valuable you get unlimited messaging you get the project plans you get, you know, the the coaching calls for those of you that are like. Super busy or have lots of projects, you know, they have a plan where you can get like I [00:03:40] think up to four calls with your coach the coaches that they have signed up our Bar None, you know, I'm I'm lucky enough to be connected to and working with the founder Madeline, but they've got.
[00:03:55] Coaches from the startup world that have been founders of [00:04:00] really successful companies. They've got lots of creatives they can help you with things like podcasting others that you know where Ted speakers that can help you craft your public speeches and so many more. I think when I started there was just maybe one coach now.
[00:04:18] I think there's almost a [00:04:20] dozen. So again, I just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Madeline. I would not be doing this without you and hey, they have a 7-Day free trial.
[00:04:31] I would encourage each of you to check them out and see if they might be the key to helping you unlock getting one percent better every [00:04:40] day.
[00:00:02] Chad: Hey there, Chad coming to you over the digital airwaves on this podcast one percent better. Thanks for joining me on the first quote unquote real episode where I really just wanted to give credit to James clear. The author blogger [00:00:20] that really crystallized this idea of one percent better for me. So if you just search one percent better.
[00:00:27] James Clear, you'll find his blog as well as some diagrams that really just made this hit home for me. And I think I've read a couple of James's other books [00:00:40] and it didn't really click for me until this idea of personal productivity and personal development. Kind of merged with what I'm doing in business in this idea of continuous Improvement and lean Lean Startup [00:01:00] where those two ideas just kind of collided for me in this diagram, which I'll put in the show notes and I was like, well, of course if we're helping clients achieve these breakthrough results through continuous Improvement in all ways.
[00:01:17] Build measuring and learning from [00:01:20] running different experiments inside of the business. Well, why can't we do it in our personal lives? So whether that's training for particular athletic pursuit or even just developing our minds as we're learning new skills and in learning, [00:01:40] you know Gathering as much knowledge as we can and.
[00:01:47] I've always struggled with citing really big hairy audacious goals, but often times they can seem really far out into the future [00:02:00] and people like James clear and others like James all teacher another person that inspired me with this idea of continuous improvement in incrementalism even over, you know vast leaps into the
[00:02:20] unknown . So what I'm trying to do on this podcast is bring all of the different people that I have learned from focus it here to share it with you and the hope is that both by me going out and sourcing all of. Interesting information and ways that we can [00:02:40] grow both professionally and personally, but that's helping me get 1% better every day.
[00:02:46] But I also want to share that with you and my friends colleagues maybe even strangers across the globe again as we're committing to one another to get 1% better every day. And I want to be really clear [00:03:00] that. This is this is by no means just my show. I'm really interested in what you The Listener both are learning and want to learn and how you're also going on this journey of one getting one percent better every day.
[00:03:19] And I have a [00:03:20] friend that has committed to doing a drawing every single day. In order to improve his drawing skills both can professionally as an architect and designer but as well as personally, you know doing things like sketching an illustration of [00:03:40] different characters, maybe for like a graphic novel that he wants to create.
[00:03:45] So by no means is this just a show for myself. I really want to foster a community of people that are. Committed to getting one percent every day. So I just wanted to say [00:04:00] thank you for coming along this. Thank you for coming along this journey with me and I'm going to keep the call-to-action pretty simple.
[00:04:10] You can actually just text me at 917.971.3737 comes right to my phone and I would [00:04:20] just love to hear from you like what you're doing to get 1% better every day. So again thanks to James clear for inspiring me to create this and so I would encourage you to not only check out that blog post, but he's gotten several different books one called Atomic [00:04:40] habits.
[00:04:40] And out how to how to build habits and a cool little notebook as well as so many blog posts and articles about how to get the one one percent better everyday, but also many other kind of personal productivity tips [00:05:00] tricks and hacks. So that is the very first episode of one percent better every day and I'll see you tomorrow.
[00:00:00]Chad: Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital Airwaves on this podcast one percent better. You might be wondering why one percent better. It was not that long ago that I came across [00:00:20] a visual just a chart with time on the x-axis and results on the y-axis. And the idea is really just demonstrating the power of tiny incremental gains.
[00:00:37] And if you get 1% better [00:00:40] every day for 365 days at the end of the year. You'll be almost 38 times better than where you started and you know, for those of you who know about compound interest and and you know, working with [00:01:00] exponential growth in that way. This shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but I think for me it's comforting to know that if we.
[00:01:11] Just focused on getting a little bit better every single day did that's actually easier and more achievable
[00:01:20] than if we try to go 10x in just one day or in one week or even in in one month or one quarter. And this is really just kind of a hack for myself I know oftentimes we think progress should be linear like okay.
[00:01:39] Well, I'm [00:01:40] I'm getting better and better and better, you know at this particular skill or. To achieve this but it's actually a very very slow start like that curve at the beginning of that charts very flat and it takes actually quite some time for it to start going up. But if we [00:02:00] just show up every single day then you know in the latter half of that chart its kind of explosive growth and so really my aim here is just to sit in this chair.
[00:02:13] And share with you what I'm doing to get 1% better every day. And so you [00:02:20] can expect things like new books that I'm reading pieces of media that I'm discovering maybe online courses also, you know skills and techniques that I'm picking up going to different meetups or workshops. Cool Tools that I've discovered hat tip to Kevin Kelley and his Cool Tools [00:02:40] blog and podcast and potentially even interviewing others to learn from them as well.
[00:02:47] So I'm going to be experimenting with the format here. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I hope to see you on the next one.