Episode 002 - May 3rd 2024

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Alright, we are back for another edition of Andy's Audio Journal.

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I thought the last one actually turned out pretty good for being mobile and walking and

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a lot of that good stuff.

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So it is Friday, April 3rd at 11, no sorry, 1.13pm and I decided to go out walking again

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just to kind of, it had been a couple weeks.

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My whole goal in this fitness journey was to try and walk, it's like a mile.

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So if I walk from my office down and around and back, it ends up being like a mile.

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And my goal was, so I'm at work three days a week.

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I'm there Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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And my goal originally was, okay I'm going to take a walk, I'm not going to record my

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audio journal every time I walk, but my goal was to walk every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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And I have so far failed at that.

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I did a subpar job trying to walk each one of those days.

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So I am trying to get back on that for several different reasons.

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So the reason I didn't do it this last week was because I was in the middle of, well a

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couple things.

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It was rainy a lot and so I didn't really feel like going out in the rain, which is

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fine.

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But I need to kind of figure out for myself and say, okay I am always going to do this

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at a specific time.

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The problem is if I try to do it during lunch, that doesn't always work because there's things

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that go on.

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Sometimes I'm meeting people for lunch, sometimes I'm eating and then getting back to work,

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sometimes I'm trying to do things on my own.

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And so it doesn't always work to just have it at noon.

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So one, two o'clock is kind of a good time for me because I've eaten, I've sat down a

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little bit, got back to work, and now it's time for me to give it a walk.

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That way I can get my energy back up.

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Because I get kind of tired just sitting in the building.

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But today was a nice day to do it.

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It's Friday, not a lot going on at work.

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So I decided to get out and do my walk.

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So here's a couple things that are on my reasons of wanting to do this.

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So I wanted to just get better health.

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Like I'm 44 and I'm not in the best health.

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It's not terrible.

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But it's not the best.

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And I wanted to just get in better health and do more walking.

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And then the other reason is because I am this summer going to go on a men's retreat

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with my friend Greg Neumeier and a bunch of other people from the church.

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So we are going to be going to the Tetons and it's going to be an awesome trip.

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So we're going to be there like a week and we're going to be walking, we're camping,

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we have like a base camp that we're going to be camping at.

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Actually two different base camps while we're there at the Tetons.

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But most importantly, so we have different base camps.

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So we're going out and doing different day hikes and things like that.

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I'm out of shape.

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And as you might be able to tell, even just walking now, I'm kind of breathy and I'm not

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even gone that long.

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We're just walking down the hill right now.

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But I am a little bit out of shape.

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And so I want to get into shape because I want to be able to do these hikes because

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it's going to be pretty intensive, right?

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Like we're staying at base camp and then going to be doing these hikes.

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The cool thing is there's one time we're going to be actually switching base camps and going

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to a different base camp.

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And so I'm going to be like, you have a couple different options on this base camp time.

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So you can either ride in the van, bus, whatever we have that we take out there and go drive

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to the next base camp.

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Or you can do a overnight hike.

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So you hike, camp, hike to the new base camp.

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And that is what I'm going to choose to do.

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And so actually, I'm actually going to be doing hammock camping.

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So I've done a couple.

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I've done one night before in the hammock and it turns out like I like hammock camping.

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It's fun, it's light, it's something if you've never slept in a hammock, like for a long,

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if you've never been in a hammock, first off you need to get yourself one because they

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are pretty fun to sit in.

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They're fun to be in and just relaxing, you know, swinging and kind of sitting between

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the trees.

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If you've never camped overnight in one, it's a completely different experience.

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You have to be laying on your back.

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So if you're a face sleeper, face down sleeper, which I am, it's a different experience.

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It's definitely different to what I am normally used to because I'm normally sleeping face

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down.

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So on the hammock, you're sleeping on your back and it's good, it's comfortable, but

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I'm going to try that.

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I know that my friend Jason is going to try the same thing.

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He's going to try to sleep in the hammock and see how that, well, he's done that before

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more than I have, but it's a comfortable thing.

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You need to get out and do it if you've never done it.

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So we're doing that, but here's some of the joys of walking in and doing it is people.

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I am walking and talking to myself.

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I don't want to look like I'm 100% crazy when there are people that go by, so I will stop

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talking a little bit.

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And honestly, it's funny.

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He was mowing and he stopped when I walked by, so I really didn't want to be talking

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to myself then.

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So it was hammock camping, right?

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So I'm actually, you know what I'm going to do?

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I'm going to put my ear pods in.

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So even though I'm not listening to anything, it looks like I'm at least talking on the

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cell phone.

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And that way it doesn't look like I'm 100% crazy when I'm doing this because I have my

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ear pods in now.

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Anyways, so we're going to be doing this trip to the Tetons and it's going to be a lot of

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fun to be able to do this.

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And we've got a lot of downtime, not downtime, but like a lot of time to just spend with

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God.

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That's the goal is to spend the time with God and just kind of get out into nature.

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Nature is one of the best places to find God and to see God's beauty and just to revel

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in his glory.

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So I'm really looking forward to that.

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That's going to be coming up here this summer.

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I'm a little bit disappointed.

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I wanted to originally go with my son Micah on that trip, but he's actually planning on

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going on two different other trips this summer and he's got to work and make money and stuff

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like that.

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So he can't go with us to that trip.

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I'm a little bit disappointed because I would have loved to have him on the trip with me.

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For one, he's a better nature guy than I am and he can survive better in the nature than

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I can.

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So that's one of the reasons why I wanted him to come with me and spend time.

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I just really wanted to spend time with him while I was doing this retreat.

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So that's what's been kind of on my mind lately.

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I need to kind of get prepared for that, get in a little bit better shape.

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And again, I know that me walking on the sidewalk for a mile outside in Goshen, Indiana is not

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going to really do the same things as it will when I'm actually hiking in the wilderness

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and getting those things.

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So I actually need to start improving my walking and walking more actually.

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So we'll see how that goes.

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You guys can keep me accountable for that.

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Let me know in the comments what you think.

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But the other thing that's been on my mind lately is just trying to produce more content

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for the podcast that I'm doing.

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So I'm doing Dudes and Dads podcast, I'm doing podcast answers.

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And this is a podcast, but it's my audio journal.

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So it's different.

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It's not really a show.

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It's just an audio journal where I'm talking and working things out as I'm walking around

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and getting to this process, my thoughts out there.

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And if you want to listen, you want to listen.

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So that's a different kind of podcast.

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But so I do, if you've not heard, probably, but if you've been friends with me for any

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length of time, you know that I do Dudes and Dads podcast.

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And that one is with my friend Joel.

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We have the podcast, we talk, our whole goal with that podcast is to build community with

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other men through meaningful conversations and storytelling.

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So our goal with that one is to, we first and foremost, our parents, and we want to

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be able to better parent our kids and be a better parent and spouse.

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So that's kind of where the podcast starts on that one.

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But we interview people that have great stories.

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And we've had some really, really great opportunities lately to branch out and do different things.

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So we were recently setting up a booth at the Father's Matter Forum.

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It's a forum that, again, is talking about fathers and how they matter and encouraging

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people to get involved in their kids' lives.

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And so we were able to, they had a bunch of different booths set up there, nonprofits

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that were just kind of helping people get involved in their community and involved in

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children's lives, not necessarily just their own, but everybody.

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So we were able to actually set up a booth there for the Dudes and Dads podcast.

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And so that was really cool because we got more exposure to the people in the community.

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They got to see us, people that didn't know that we have a podcast and were able to find

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us and figure out what we were doing.

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And so that was a lot of fun to set up.

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And then recently, the other thing that we're starting to do is I'm trying to build, just

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build a better community in there with people who are our community that support us.

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So we have a pretty decent sized Facebook community.

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So we have a Facebook page where people can just kind of follow the show and where we

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put out our stuff.

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But then we have a community there where people can chat and talk and just become part of

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our community.

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And so there's that.

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There's also a Patreon.

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So again, doing podcasting costs money.

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Monthly, we have monthly costs with the software and the hardware.

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Well, not the hardware, but the software that we use.

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And so we have Patreon supporters that help us cover some of those costs.

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And so to give back to them, one of the things that I'm going to start doing is a back channel,

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a back channel audio.

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So essentially what this will be is a Zoom meeting.

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And this is all thanks to Ecamm.

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So I'm a huge Ecamm proponent.

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Ecamm is a software that we use to live stream our shows.

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So we record live as we record our podcasts so that people can join us and people can

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comment and stuff as we're recording and kind of be part of the show as we're recording.

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And also that's how we bring our guests on.

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So if you've not checked it out, Ecamm is amazing.

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Podcastanswers.com/ecamm.

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But they recently introduced this Zoom integration, which is really cool because essentially there's

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a Zoom client in Ecamm and it allows you to have Zoom meetings and first broadcast into

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it, your Ecamm production, which I could have done that before easily.

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But then you can bring people back from Ecamm into, or from Zoom into Ecamm.

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And so what I decided I'd do is I decided I would start a back channel, meaning that

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our supporters could join this Zoom room.

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And during our live recordings, people can listen, they can see us and whatever.

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But I'm going to start the Zoom room a little bit before we start recording, which will

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allow people to get just a little bit behind the scenes access.

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They can see us before we go live.

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They're kind of in the room with us, kind of like a live studio audience, right?

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But then they're also able to talk amongst themselves so they can chat and stuff as we're

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going on, both text and talking.

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And the way I have it set up is I can hear the audio as we're recording, so I can hear

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them talk if I want to.

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And then I can really bring them up.

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I can promote them.

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If they have something that they want to say, they can be part of their show.

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Because they're a patron and they support us, I'm fine with bringing them on.

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So if they want to start their video, I can easily just throw that into a scene in Ecamm

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and bring them on.

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So I'm starting this back channel thing.

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We're going to see how it goes.

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This next weekend is the first time I'm going to use that.

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We're going to just see how it comes up and if anyone shows up, who knows?

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I'm going to try to push it hard as a way to connect and connect with other people,

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but also get something special because you get to be behind the scenes a little bit and

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you get to then you get to also have the potential of being around the show.

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Then my other podcast, Podcast Answers, is kind of, I started that show because I like

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doing podcasting and I wanted to help people consult, you know, consult with people about

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how to start a podcast.

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Like I had several people come to me and say, "Hey Andy, how do I start a podcast?

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How do I start a podcast?"

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And I'd sit down and I'd talk to them and 99% of the time nothing happened.

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They didn't do anything.

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They liked the idea of starting a podcast, but they didn't do it.

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So I got a little bit, I started the podcast as a way to answer people's questions and

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build up credibility.

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So that way it's not just my friends and people that I know through church that want to start

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a podcast.

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I can help them, but I'm building my credibility in the podcasting space, if you will.

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And I'm able to say, "Okay, here's what I'm doing.

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I'm podcasting and I've been podcasting since 2007."

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And I was just pretty close to the beginning of podcasting.

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And so I started that podcast just to answer people's questions in a way that I can send

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people to.

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If they just have quick questions, I can send them the episode and say, "Hey, here's what

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you need to do."

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But also build up credibility as far as somebody who is knowledgeable in the space of podcasting.

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And so this has really been taking off for me.

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I started this year off with somebody that I know wanting me, wanting to start a podcast

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and wanted me to edit it for him.

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Like they would record it and that's fine, but they wanted me to edit it.

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And so I did that and it's been an amazing thing.

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And then I had somebody else that I know want to start a podcast.

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So I walked them through that and helped them build up their equipment.

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And then I'm editing their show also.

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And then just recently I've been able to put my name out there and do consulting for Ecamm

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also.

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So I'm a big proponent of Ecamm.

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I'm a moderator in the channel on both YouTube and Facebook and Discord on Ecamm.

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And so I wanted to do that.

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So I've started actually consulting and doing paid consulting gigs for that, which has been

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kind of cool.

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It's been cool to see that go about.

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So that's really what's going on with me right now.

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I'm just kind of excited about those little things.

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And I'm really excited about the Zoom integration with Ecamm because it's going to allow me

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to do other things.

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And yeah, so honestly, if you're listening to this, I'm pitching myself too right now

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because I can.

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But if you want to start a podcast, you can definitely do that.

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I would be happy to consult with you.

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Podcastanswers.com/contact.

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Look at you.

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Get a hold of me.

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I also do like production, video production work.

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So if you have an event that you want live streamed, I would be more than happy to live

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stream your event and get you out there in front of other people.

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So yeah, I love live streaming and video production and media production.

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So again, Podcastanswers.com/contact will get you in touch with me.

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So I'm actually back at work now.

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So I'm going to shut the recording off.

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But hope to see you next time in this audio journey.