Facebook Edge Rank
This week, Erik Fisher shares some amazing insight that is sure to please those of you who manage Facebook fan pages. A few episodes back, we talked about how Facebook had changed their algorithm in such a way that content from fan pages are ranked with the lowest priority when it comes to what displays in the news feed of your fans. Have a listen to this episode to learn how to make your content a top story on Facebook.

iTunes’ New & Noteworthy Section
Ken Jones called in to ask if I had some insight into how iTunes mangages their New & Noteworthy section. One thing that I forgot to mention in the episode is that I am not aware of any way to go back and see any archives of which shows were featured previously in the New & Noteworthy section. For those who are interested in learning more about iTunes ratings and ranking, please check out the blog post that I did at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/itunesratings.

How To Celebrate Your 100th Episode
Melitsa called in to say that she’s getting close to her 100th podcast episode and would love some thoughts on what she could do to celebrate this occasion. I shared a couple of my own thoughts in the episode. I know that many of you, in the Podcast Answer Man / gspn.tv community have many shows which have reached the 100th episode milestone. Please share any additional thoughts that you have on ways to celebrate in the comments section below.

What Camcorder Do I Recommend?
Fr. Jim Tucker called in to ask my opinion on which camcorder he should look into. I shared that my own experience with the “VIDEO” side of things is a bit limited. I did share that I am extremely happy with my Canon Vixia HF G10. I used this camera to record THIS INTERVIEW.

What To Do When You Get Bored!
John called in and shared that after 197 episodes where he’s interviewed experts in his niche field, he’s starting to get a little bored with his show format. In the episode, I share some of my thoughts about things he could consider. I also share my thoughts on his concept of doing a live call in show.

Moving RSS From Libsyn to WordPress:
Chris called in to say that he is currently using Feedburner for his podcast. This Feedburner account is currently pulling from his Libsyn rss feed. He wanted to know how he can change it so that his Feedburner account will pull from his WordPress rss feed instead. He also wanted to know if it is possible to only send the podcast episodes and not all the blog post entries out to Feedburner.

Blue Host Affiliate Signup
Special thanks to the folks behind http://88888ee.com (Explicit Language Warning!) for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the Special Chronicles Podcast from Daniel Smrokowski. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Learn how to take advantage of Facebook’s Edge Rank to make your Fan Page content achieve Top Story Status -> PodcastAnswerMan.com/247

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) February 2, 2012

In this episode of Successful Life Mindset, Cliff and Tracy share about the following:

- Napoleon Hill
- Think & Grow Rich
- The best definition of success is this: “Success is the knowledge with which to get whatever you want from life without violating the rights of others and by helping others to acquire it.”
- Success in the higher brackets of achievements is something that can be had only by taking others along with you.
- A negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure.
- Your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control.
- Your only real limitation is the one you accept and set up in your own mind.
- Remember always, you are where you are and what you are because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Successful Life Mindset:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Cliff and I share about the following:

- K I S S I N G
- Orlando trip
- What’s been on our tv lately
- Not enough reading
- 22 hours
- Best Mistake Ever
- Quickbooks Online for Personal Finances
- Next Week’s show

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

In this episode Sarah and Stephanie talk about the following:

- Random thought from Sarah
- Stephanie talks about prep for Colorado trip
- Sarah’s weekend trip with Andy
- Snow days…Are we going to have one?!?!?!
- Go through a lot and Grow through a lot
- We Be CRAZY
- Sarah’s realization about herself
- Steph has too many and Sarah has none
- Are we going to make it through adolescence?
- Feedback
- Professor Alan – letting others serve us
- Caryl – Our themes for the year
- Stephanie – Ideas for paper hoarders, and it goes with Steph’s theme for the year

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

The World Needs You To Be A Leader! 
Since December 2006, I’ve personally helped hundreds of individuals launch successful podcasts through my one-on-one consulting and coaching.  I have found one common thread among all podcasters who have achieved great success.  They each understood their role, as a leader and they each took that role seriously.

Being a leader is not about holding a certain “position” in an organization.  Having a degree from an institution does not make you a leader!

Leadership is more about how you have chosen to live your life.  Leadership is more about how you think, how you act, how you talk, the tone in your voice, etc.  Leadership means that you understand that you are influencing someone and that you don’t take that responsibility lightly.

One of the reasons that I love working with podcasters so much is due to the fact that they are influencing someone every single time they produce a podcast episode.  The world needs great leaders!  I believe that podcasters who take their leadership position seriously can make a positive difference in the lives of others.

The world needs you and your message!  They need you to be a leader!

Many people ask me how to grow the audience of their podcast.  I believe that one of the best things you can do is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!  To take yourself seriously!  To consider yourself to be a professional!  

If someone were to ask, “Why should I listen to your podcast?” you should be able to immediately give a thirty second response, with confidence, as to why they should never miss an episode.  I add more subscribers to all my shows by this one method alone!  It’s why I try to accept as many invitations as possible to be a guest on other podcasts.

Are you willing to invest in your future success?
Are you willing to be the greatest leader you can be?
Are you wiling to commit to your personal and professional growth?

If so, please consider The Podcast Mastermind…
 
 
What Is A Mastermind?
The concept of the mastermind group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in his book, “Think and Grow Rich.”

In the video below, Hill defines the mastermind by saying that “A group that consists of two or more people, who work in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

Please watch this video, and then I’ll highlight a few key points below.

Key points from the video above:

• The mastermind is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life.

 

• The mastermind is the principle through which you can accomplish more, in one year, than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime, if you relied entirely on your own efforts for success.

 

• When you form a true mastermind alliance with others, and work with them in a spirit of perfect harmony, you can draw freely upon the spiritual forces within you in carrying out your plans and desires.

 

• The mastermind principle can give you absolute protection against failure, provided always that your purpose, in using this principle, is beneficial to all whom you influence.

 

• Control your mental attitude and make yourself friendly and agreeable with everyone whom you are closely associated if you expect friendly cooperation in return.

 

• A negative mental attitude can bring you nothing but failure.

 

• Remember always, you are where you are and what you are because of your mental attitude in which you relate yourself to other people.

 

• Your mental attitude is the one and the only thing over which you have complete control.

 

• Success in the higher brackets of achievement is something that can be had only by taking others along with you.

 

• The best definition of success is this: “Success is the knowledge with which to get whatever you want from life without violating the rights of others and by helping others to acquire it.”

 

• Your only real limitation is the one you accept and set up in your own mind.

One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Proverbs 15:22 that says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Nearly every great achievement that I’ve made personally and professionally can be tied to the reality of the mastermind principle at work in my life.

Napoleon Hill said that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Everything, including your personal success, has a price that must be paid. He suggested that if you want to move forward on a path toward success, he suggested that you do three things:

1) Decide definitely where you wish to be and what you wish to be doing during the next three years.

2) Decide how much money you desire to be making and what you are going to do to earn it.

3) Involve yourself in a mastermind group.

I’ll be the first to tell you that you that you can do all of the above without any financial cost to you whatsoever. However, if you are a podcaster and you want to take your personal and professional life to a level you never dreamed possible, I encourage you to consider joining The Podcast Mastermind.
 
 
Description And Benefits of The Podcast Mastermind

Key Benefit #1 – The Mastermind Group:
The initial goal of The Podcast Mastermind is to grow to 100 podcasters, where each member has committed to being a part of a smaller mastermind group of no more than ten individuals. Each mastermind group will have two 90 minute meetings per month.

Within these mastermind groups, each individual is invested in the personal and professional growth of every member within the group!

The greatest benefits of The Podcast Mastermind include the synergy created by the accountability that comes from working on your goals in collaboration with others, the ability to use the experience and knowledge of others in your mastermind group and the invaluable feedback and support of other podcasters.

What Does This Mean To You?

- Dramatic improvements in both your personal and your professional life.

- You will have more focus and greater confidence in yourself and your abilities.

- You will have more clarity about what to do next.

- You’ll have the momentum and energy that you need to sustain you through those rough spots.

- You will experience less false starts and spend less time learning through trial and error.

- You will have a deeper understanding of how you are perceived by others.

- You will sharpen your leadership and communication skills.

- You will be giving and receiving support in a warm and friendly environment.

- You are going to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

Key Benefit #2 – The Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars
There will be a minimum of one Podcast Mastermind Success Seminar each month. These seminars will be led by hand-picked experts who are going to share with you top tips and information that you will need to ensure your personal, professional, and podcasting success.

These seminars will be held via GoToWebinar or a telephone conference calling service depending on the guest expert and content being delivered.

Unlike the two monthly mastermind group calls, you are NOT REQUIRED to attend these Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars as they are presented live. Each of these seminars will be recorded in high quality audio for the teleseminars or in HD video for the webinar sessions.

The entire catalog of the Podcast Mastermind Success Seminars, including all Podcast Answer Man digital training products, are available as a global benefit to all members of the Podcast Mastermind.

Key Benefit #3 – The Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal

The most important function of the exclusive Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal is its ability to allow members to stay in touch with other members of their mastermind group between the two monthly scheduled meetings.

One of the dangers of not staying in constant contact with other podcasters is that you may find something that works for you and stick with it. This may sound great. However, this approach will ultimately cause you to fall behind the curve and miss out on amazing opportunities to grow your brand and improve your productivity and effectiveness.

Every Podcast Mastermind member will post and describe a minimum of one valuable resource that they have found each month. These resources can be anything such as a web or mobile application, a WordPress plugin, an online service, a piece of specialized software, a book, etc.

The Podcast Mastermind Online Member Portal will also be the place where members will access all the recorded content mentioned in Key Benefit #2.

Key Benefit #4 – Amazing Promotion of Your Online Efforts to Others!
Over the years, I’ve developed a rather significant and extremely loyal online community around the shows that I produce. As I get to know each individual of The Podcast Mastermind more closely, I will come to understand their goals, hopes and dreams.

There is no doubt that as I create content for my various shows, I’ll be looking for natural ways to promote the online efforts of those within The Podcast Mastermind.

Also, as I have continued interactions with others through my one-on-one consulting/coaching and other various business pursuits, I know that I’ll be confronted with those “divine appointments” where I will be able to make a connection to folks that would have never happened had I not been so closely connected to those within The Podcast Mastermind.

The best part about this is that every member of The Podcast Mastermind is also a podcaster. This means that each and every member comes with an online community of people that they influence as well. I am sure that you can understand how the close connections and synergy with the other members of The Podcast Mastermind can take the promotion of your online efforts to a whole new level.

The Podcast Mastermind Is An Exclusive Organization!
Not everyone who applies for membership in The Podcast Mastermind is accepted. We are looking for very specific characteristics in those whom we consider for membership. Please look over the list below to see if you exhibit the main qualities we are looking for.

- You are a success-minded individual with a positive mental attitude! If you consistently see the glass half empty, you need not apply.

- You are a highly motivated individual. You have dreams and a determination to see those dreams become reality.

- You have a desire to gain more focus and clarity in your life and/or your brand.

- You have a willingness to commit several hours per month to your own personal and professional self improvement.

- You have a commitment to your own personal success as well as the success of every individual in your mastermind group (up to 9 other people within your group).

- You are unwilling to settle for an “ordinary” life. You are eager to pursue a life that fulfills you on new levels.

- You are passionate about your life and the work you do.

- You acknowledge that you have fears about the uncertainty of the future, but you are committed to moving forward, in spite of your fears, to progress through the plans you have set out to achieve your goals.

- You have a willingness to operate outside of your comfort zone when the need arises.

- You have the ability to graciously receive help, advice, criticism ,support and encouragement.

- You have the ability to graciously give help, advice, criticism, support and encouragement.

- You are willing to be held accountable to the goals you set for yourself.

- You are an active listener who seeks to first understand the real issue before offering advice.

- You take responsibility for your own success, and you refuse to place blame elsewhere for any failures you encounter.

- You are willing to invest time, money, emotion, willpower and energy into taking better care of yourself and creating the life you want.

- You are willing to give as much as you receive from the Podcast Mastermind Group.

- While circumstances may change, you have a very good idea of what you wish to be doing during the next three years.

- You are willing to make a make a minimum of a one-year commitment to The Podcast Mastermind should your application be accepted.

- You are willing to commit to the required attendance of the two 90-minute monthly mastermind group calls.

Are You Ready For The Podcast Mastermind?
If you struggle with several of the statements above, you may not yet be ready for The Podcast Mastermind. There are many people who are not yet ready to pursue success in their lives.

Prior to September 2007, I was not willing to take myself seriously. It sounds crazy, but I was actually afraid that I might succeed! While it was so easy for others to see the potential within me, I struggled to understand my value and my need to become the leader that I was designed to be.

Just like Henry Ford, my wife was among the first of ten individuals within my first personal mastermind. Through their encouragement, I overcame my fear of both failure and success and left my career in insurance behind. If you have not heard my full story, I encourage you to watch the entire video found at the bottom of my ABOUT PAGE.

When I took the bold step to leave my career in insurance and pursue my calling in life, did I find immediate success? Absolutely not! I failed hard and failed often. In 2008, my first year in business for myself, I had experienced more all-consuming fear, anxiety and doubt than I’d ever experienced in my life, combined, up until that point.

I recently released THIS PODCAST EPISODE where I shared, publicly to the whole world for the first time ever, the most scathing, negative and critical piece of feedback that I had ever received in all my podcasting history. If you LISTEN TO IT, you’ll hear that it is only due to the mastermind concept that I made it through those challenging times and pushed through to where I am today.

Are you ready for The Podcast Mastermind?
The ability to apply for charter membership to The Podcast Mastermind is currently available by invitation only. More details about the application process will be posted when we are ready to expand the group beyond the charter members.

If you have been one of my one-on-one consulting clients, Podcasting A to Z students, or a long-time member of the Podcast Answer Man community and you feel that you should be on the Charter Member Invitee List, please email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Details about The Podcast Mastermind are included in Podcast Answer Man episode 246. Link-> PodcastAnswerMan.com/mastermind

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 27, 2012

In this episode of Life, Love and The Movies, Cliff and Tracy discuss the fact that even the most successful people will often struggle with fear of the unknown.

Cliff also shares the most scathing, negative, email that he’s ever received. The purpose of this was to explain how, in the midst of fear and doubt, he was able to get through this by leaning into the advice and counsel of success minded individuals.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I share the following:
- Fire at the middle school.
- Current Cruise Update
- Stephanie leaves town in two weeks.
- Cliff’s 2012 Goals.

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

How Do I Get Rid of This Hiss Sound?
Tom called in and told us that he had a hiss sound when he talks into his microphone. While I didn’t have enough information to diagnose his problem, I did share how I typically go about troubleshooting such issues. The key is going through, step by step, to rule out problems within each item within the equipment setup.

Help! I have PDF documents in my iTunes Feed!
Kirk called in and said that he’s got an issue where iTunes is pulling in a PDF document that was linked to in the show notes of a recent podcast episode, but the .mp3 file would not come through. In the episode, I share how he can go about fixing this issue.

Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past?
I am so happy to bring in my great friend, Erik J. Fisher, as our official gspn.tv Social Media Correspondent. This week, Erik brings us up to speed on an issue where Facebook fan pages are not getting as much exposure in the news feed as personal profile “subscriptions.” I encourage you to check out the full article that we discussed by clicking here.

Podcast Mastermind Group
I briefly mentioned that the Podcast Mastermind Group that I have been planning for the past few months is about to launch this weekend. If you would like become one of the charter members, please email me today at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Where Are They Now Interview
Jason Cabassi does a television show fan podcast called The Waking Dead Cast. The Waking Dead television show is based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, written by Robert Kirkman.

The following description is from the show’s about page: “AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead.”

Jason and his co-host Karen were huge fans of the television series and they had already been enjoying lengthy conversations about the tv show before deciding to podcast about it.

In the early part of our interview, you hear that Jason actually launched his fan podcast several months before the television show actually started. As a result, he thought that he would have the first fan podcast devoted to the show. Jason was shocked, however, to learn that there were already two other Walking Dead podcasts that had already launched before him. I think this is valuable information because, as you hear later in the interview, the fact the he was not the first to market did not keep him from experiencing a tremendous amount of success in getting the actors on to his show, doing something that he’s not able to share due to a non-disclosure agreement, and the potential of actually being on the show in the next season.

I hope that this is a source of inspiration for those of you who became discouraged to learn that there were already a number of podcasts devoted to the niche topic that you wanted to focus on with your podcast. I was about the fifth or sixth LOST podcast out there and that single show led to my currently full-time career in podcasting. So don’t worry about the others in your niche field. Create your unique show and get your voice out there!

An interesting note about Jason is that he is a technical writer by day and he used to work for Apple. He actually wrote the owners manual for the first ever iPod and the iPhone. It was when Apple decided to incorporate podcasting into iTunes that he was first introduced to the world of Podcasting. At first, he was very skeptical of the idea of listening to content created by random people without professional broadcast training. However, it did not take him long at all to find a few shows that were created around topics for which he was passionate about to quickly turn him into a fan of audio podcasts.

I hope that you find the conversation with Jason inspiring to you in your own podcasting journey and that you’ll be able to use that inspiration to take your own show to the next level.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind http://88888ee.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to the How To Be Happy Podcast from Jared & Emily Akers. If you take some time to check out their podcast, please let them know that you heard about them from The Podcast Answer Man.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Are Facebook Fan Pages A Thing of The Past? Details on this & so much more on episode 245 of Podcast Answer Man! podcastanswerman.com/245

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 19, 2012

I am so delighted to have Wayne Jacobsen join us once again here on Encouraging Others Through Christ. This time around, Wayne shares some thoughts around a message that he sent me in an email a few weeks ago.

Here’s what he had written to me…

This has been one of the greatest joys of my journey, God setting me free from any concern about my financial income and that happened 15 years ago when we had nothing and God just kept providing for us. We got our kids through college without any savings for it, because I had been in “ministry” and never made enough to do it. But since we have found him faithful in the Matthew 6 kind of way, “Stop planning and fretting, just follow me.” Receive what he gives, charge for what he asks us to charge for, give away whatever he asks us to give away, save what he asks us to save.” It’s amazing how much clarity I have about these things and how much peace that has left me in these many years…. But I know there isn’t a prepackaged formula, but a place he “wins” us into, which also means there were plenty of scary times for my puritan-work-ethic-farming background!

Of course, I can’t pass up this opportunity to plug Wayne’s book, “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church.” Those who have been following my journey know just how much of an impact that this story had on my journey.

Here are some important links that I think you should know about:
- God Journey Podcast – Website | Podcast
- LifeStream Blog – Website | Podcast
- The Jesus Lens – Website
- So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore – Amazon
- He Loves Me – Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection – Amazon

Thanks For Subscribing To Encouraging Others Through Christ:

In this episode, Sarah and Stephanie talk about the following:

- Meagan’s home early from school
- We share some of our vices
- Being present with our kids
- Disciplining kids
- Steph’s a puzzle….And so is Sarah
- Feedback calls from Kristina, Carol, and Karen

Special thanks to Sarah for taking the show notes for this weeks episode. So much better than last week’s one sentence Stephanie came up with.

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

I am excited to share a message from my good friend, David H. Foster, from his Renegade’s Guide To God podcast.

In this episode of the Encourage Others Through Christ podcast, I have taken the most recent podcast from my good friend, David H. Foster, and edited it down to be included here for you.

There are a few “thoughts” that I have jotted down that I hope will stick with you after having listened to this powerful message.

- All truth is God’s truth!
- God wants us to think our own thoughts.
- We are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
- The world needs you to be a big thinker.
- Jesus wants you to live a big life.
- Our mind is not only in bondage to our fears and doubts, but also in bondage by our limiting beliefs about life.

I love what David shared at the end. We are called to think “redemptively,” to think in terms of “reconciliation” and to think “restorationally.”

Thanks For Subscribing To Encouraging Others Through Christ:

In this episode of Life, Love and The Movies, Tracy and I discuss the following:
- Our attitude determines our altitude.
- Do we own things or do they own us?
- Is peace determined by what is going on in your life?
- Core Beliefs – AKA Our Roots!
- Book – The Story of You

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I discussed the following:
- Cliff’s trip to the hospital.
- Check out the blog post at http://gspn.tv/hospital2012
- Stephanie’s New Journal
- Check out most recent epodes of http://EncouragingOthersThroughChrist.com
- Book – So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore – Wayne Jacobsen
- Stephanie’s 2012 Goals

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

In this episode, Sarah and Stephanie talk about a little bit of everything, from country cooking, to parenting and marriage.

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

Building Community From From The Hospital
I started this episode off by sharing that I spent this past weekend in the hospital. I mentioned that if you wanted to know why I was in the hospital, you could read all about it in my blog post found at http://gspn.tv/hospital2012.

I made the decision to share this in Podcast Answer Man because I felt that the blog post linked above provides some great insight into how I’ve naturally connected with my audience over the years. If nothing else, you can pull up the post to see what LiveFyre looks like when there are over 200 comments.

I’m happy to announce that I feel healthier than I have ever felt before and I’m ready to achieve all the goals that I’ve set for myself here in 2012!

New Chat Leads To Streaming On The iPad
I recently received an email from Ning, the creators of the platform that I use for my gspn.tv online community and that I will be using for my new Podcast Mastermind Group.

In the email, they announced that they had completely rewritten their chat system so that it is now based upon Java and HTML5. Basically, this means that the chat functionality will now work on iOS and other mobile devices.

This news prompted me to move my Live Streaming Page over to my online community site. While doing some testing, I noticed that Ustream was prompting me to try out their new web based broadcaster. I decided to give it try and you can find out what happened by watching this video.

Skype Audio Quality
Tommy called in to ask if there were any differences in audio quality from Skype to Skype calls and Skype to regular telephone calls. In the episode, I provide the answer to this question.

Podcast Mastermind Group
I briefly mentioned that the Podcast Mastermind Group that I have been planning for the past few months is about to launch within the next ten days. There will be a special incentive for the first 50 people who become members of this exclusive group. If you would like become one of the first 50 members, please email me today at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Where Are They Now Interview
Connie Williams and Sheila Tidwell are the hosts of an amazing podcast called Connie And Sheila Talk. I absolutely love Connie and Sheila. They were my very first client who hired me for a full one day, on site, consulting job, something I hope to do a great deal more of in 2012 and beyond.

You can find their show at http://ConnieAndSheilaTalk.com. As mentioned in our conversation, the show has a Real Estate focus, and while I have zero interest in real estate investing, I’ve listened to over 50 of their 84 episodes that are currently online. I have found so much of the success principles that they have shared in their podcast to be transferable to my own business pursuits. I am consistently inspired by the stories they share, the books they talk about, and the guests that they have interview.

I consider Connie And Sheila Talk to be among one of my favorite Self Help/Business Management podcasts in the iTunes directory. Their show is a perfect example of taking a particular niche topic and bringing a fresh and relaxed approach to the content at hand. Their show is never overly technical, but has just the best balance of transparency, authenticity, and personal touch that makes you feel comfortable listening to their show.

I would say that by listening to only three consecutive episodes of their podcast, you could not help but come to know, like, and trust Connie and Sheila. They are simply fabulous! I hope that you find a great deal of value and inspiration from our recorded conversation and that it will help you apply a few things to take your own podcasting journey to the next level.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind DarthPickle.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Albert Hathazi from TheLocalMethod.com. Albert has created a weekly podcast devoted to helping local businesses become market leaders within their community. If you take some time to check out his podcast, please let him know that you heard about him from The Podcast Answer Man.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. Please take a look at my consulting/coaching options.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Podcast Answer Man Episode 244 is now online. Live Streaming With Chat to iPad and other mobile devices! PodcastAnswerMan.com/244

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 12, 2012

Click Here For The Latest – Update #7 – Final Update

Update #1
January 7, 2012 2:40 PM – So here I am. I am sitting in my office/studio and I am packing up my briefcase with all my tech gear for what could be a few hours, days, or potentially weeks at my local hospital.

I don’t mean to alarm anyone by my first post here, but on Thursday morning, I had experienced a twitch/spasm in my left eye. I’ve had these in the past and they were typically due to stress or going extended periods of time without having enough sleep. The thing is, however, that I have been getting plenty of sleep lately and haven’t been experiencing much stress due to the successful steps of adding so much more margin to my life.

By the end of the day, Thursday, the eye spasms continued and I assumed that perhaps I was experiencing some subconscious stress or fear about sharing a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT about the future of the content here at gspn.tv. If you haven’t yet heard about that, you can read and hear all about that by clicking here.

I wasn’t too worried. I was a bit surprised, but the feedback from the announcement has been 100% positive so far. Sure, some folks have expressed a bit of sadness that some shows were no longer going to be produced, but everyone had shared that they understood the reasons that I had shared and I’d say that well over 99% have shared that they were extremely optimistic about what this means for the content that will continue as we move forward.

I also figured that if my left eye spasms were somehow tied to that stress, that they would go away over night.

However, Friday morning, I woke up and began to work on the various items that I had laid out for myself on my to do list.

I am going to insert here that I forgot to tell you that I had an issue where I slept on my left arm the wrong way. I had a bit of pain in my shoulder when I moved my left arm around. I also figured this would go away.

Back to Friday.. I was sitting here working and I noticed that I started to feel a little bit of “numbness/tingling” from the tips of my fingers up through my arm, in through my shoulder and into the area right behind my left side of my chest cage. It was more like a “sensation.” This didn’t bother me much at all. I thought maybe I had a pinched nerve.

About 11am on Friday, January 6th, I noticed that the left side of my check and lips started to have a numbness sensation as well. Almost as though I was just at the end of having novocaine from a dental visit wearing off. Though, it was very much limited precisely to the left side of my mouth and face.

These were the only symptoms that I had experienced and I was having no problem thinking clearly. In fact, I spent most of the day working on things like my new consulting page on my business website. I didn’t have any issues with dropping facial features, no slurred speech, no headaches, no problem with balance, and no problem writing or understanding human speech.

I didn’t tell Stephanie about this until it had been going on for several hours. Though, I will share that I had experienced other symptoms of things before this and the eye spasms on Thursday. In a future update, I will share more about what I had experienced and why I never shared it with ANYONE.

I had asked Stephanie to simply keep an eye on my through the day yesterday and I promised if I thought it was getting any worse, I would immediately agree to go to the hospital. It never got worse and so I never went to the hospital.

This morning, I woke up feeling no worse that I did yesterday. In fact, I feel just fine. Though I can still tell that there is the “VERY SLIGHTEST SENSATION” on just the left side of my body. It don’t know if I would call it numbness or tingling, but just something that doesn’t feel like it should and it is exactly ONLY ON THE LEFT SIDE of my body.

This afternoon, I reached out to my friend Robert Johnson. I think I knew that I needed someone to tell me to go to the hospital to get checked out. Something that I did not want to do.

Again, in a later post, I will share why I didn’t want to go to the hospital and how those reasons fly right in the face of what I say I believe about God’s provision and the amazing insights that I had recently gained about what I believe God has prepared for me on the journey again.

So… In spite of the fears that I will tell you about in future updates, I am on my way to the hospital to get checked out. I’m praying that it is nothing serious. I will share that I do have fears right now. And I do ask that you will please keep me in your prayers.

I will be very much monitoring and responding to comments left on this post throughout this ordeal. I imagine that this one blog post will end up having well over 1,000 comments before all is said and done. Rather than create new blog posts with updates. I will add further updates below. At the top of the post, I will clearly indicate which post is the latest.

I know that as I share this, those of you in the community would want to know what is happening. I am so thankful for each and every one of you.

I’m off to the hospital now. Just got to get my MacBook Air.

I wonder if I can get Stephanie to stop at Chipotle on our way. – LOL

You see, the last time I came to the Emergency room, I was admitted to the hospital and was forced to stay for nine days. This was when I had my gallbladder and appendix removed. During that stay, they didn’t allow me to eat food for six or seven days straight.

After we had Chipotle, I asked Stephanie if she wanted to stop any place else. There is no doubt that I wanted to do anything and everything to avoid the inevitable, ending up here at the ER. I was able talk her into stopping at Starbucks to get her a Chai Tea Latte with Sugar Free Vanilla with Non Fat Milk and no water.

Unfortunately, that only delayed us another ten to fifteen minutes.

Oh wait… I forgot to mention. Before we pulled into Chipotle, I noticed that the van had ticking noise. The oil level was obviously a bit too low. It has a known issue where it spits oil out on one of the spark plugs. So after Chipotle, and before Starbucks, I did stop at a gas station and purchased two quarts of oil, which I then put into the engine.

So, back to my story… After Starbucks, I drove us here to the Emergency Room. I signed myself in, told them my symptoms and they gave me a wristband.

So far, I’ve been taken back to have an EKG ran and now I am sitting here, in the waiting room, for them to have me come back and see a doctor.

That’s it for now.

Depending on where I end up later tonight, I will share with you the reasons why I’ve taken so long to get checked out. Though I’ll quickly share with you the other symptoms that I’d been experiencing since late October, 2011. I don’t know for sure, but I believe they are unrelated to the numbness on one side of my face symptoms that started yesterday morning.

Some of you know, from listening to my various podcasters, that I had another upper respiratory/sinus infection back in October, just before my trip to the West Coast.

Ever since that time, i had been experiencing a pain in my chest area. It was especially bad if I had been working all day, leaning forward, and then stood up. The feeling was as though the bones in my chest area were bruised badly. I thought it was a part of the infection and that it would go away after the antibiotics did their thing.

However, even a few weeks after all my sinus symptoms and such went away, I still had this “bruised chest” feeling. When I started working out at the gym again, on a daily basis, that pain went away. That is unless I had experienced any issue with either gas or heartburn. If I had either of those two things, that bruise feeling in my chest was back.

I had heard so many stories of friends who had gone to the ER with chest pain and were sent home after being told that it was little more than gas. I figured that my bruised chest feeling must be something like that since I had no other symptoms.

The fact is, I’ve needed to get an overall checkup for EVERYTHING for quite some time. But I’ve simply been putting it off for way too long.

Why? Why have I waited for so long? That, I will share in a future update, later this evening.

In the ER, They ran an EKG, took a chest x-ray, did some blood work, and performed a CAT Scan. The great news is that it is confirmed that I did not have a stroke and all my results from all my tests came back normal.

The doctor made the decision to keep me over night to monitor my heart and to run two more sets of blood work six hours apart from each other.

I can tell you right now that your prayers are working. In the ER, I had one nurse draw my blood and got it on the first stick of the needle. Another nurse had to put an IV needle in my hand and got that in on the first stick of the needle. And the nurse who just left, after taking my blood again, also got it on the first stick of the needle.

I believe I only have to have my blood drawn one more time in the morning around 6am. Please pray that the nurse in the morning with also be able to get what she needs with a single stick of the needle and that I’ll do as well then as I have this evening. Also, please join me in praying that all the results turn out well and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my heart at all.

I promised you all that I would share with you the details of why I didn’t come to the hospital earlier than I did. Well, I am happy to tell you that I took some time, here in my hospital room, to record episode 512 of Pursuing A Balanced Life. You can listen to this episode by clicking the PLAY BUTTON at the top of this post. It has all the details.

Thank you all so much!

So all my results from my blood work and second EKG came in and I have a clean bill of health on my heart. It is 100% confirmed that I did not have a stroke, no heart attack, and my heart is in really good condition.

This still does not explain the numbness on the left side of my body that I had experienced. By the way, that numbing sensation has gone away and I no longer feel any side effects. It is as if it had never happened. However, the doctor here does want me to stay here and have a consult with a neurologist. There is a good chance that this could happen later this afternoon or early evening. If they decide to order an MRI, I may have to stay her an another night. I’m just hoping if that is the case, they will not need to take any more blood.

I did get my blood work results and I learned that my LDL Cholesterol levels are a bit high. They should be under 100 and mine are currently at 140. I’m going to see if I can’t do some good research and take this into consideration with some dietary changes and see if I change my diet and keep my daily workouts up, if I can’t get that level brought down without medications.

I guess I will be going to Egg White Omelets from now on. I’ll miss my yokes. Here’s the deal. I am at the point where I am willing to do whatever it takes to be healthy. I’m just so thankful that so far, things have all check out fine.

I did ask if I could possibly get checked out and do the neurologist stuff as an outpatient. However, they said that if I stay here, I will get to see one today and if they order an MRI, I’ll get it tomorrow. If I were to do it as outpatient, it would be a few weeks before I get the consult.

So I am just sitting here. Waiting. Thanking God that so far nothing serious has been uncovered. Feeling good that my heart is in good shape.

I’ll post more as I know more. Thank you all again for all your prayers!

I still have the IV access thing that they put in while I was in the ER. He mentioned that they will use this to put some sort of dye into my blood for the MRI. As long as this IV doesn’t need to be pulled out and redone, I should be able to handle that pretty well.

If the results of my MRI tomorrow are okay I should be free to go home and would need no further followups. I’m praying for clear results from that MRI and that nothing is wrong.

One thing is for sure, I’ve exceeded my $3,000 deductible. Because of my family history and due the fact that I’m 38 years old, I may go ahead and have everything else all checked out through this year. Things like colon and all that fun stuff. However, I think I’ve had as much fun as I want to have here with the medical folks this weekend.

I am simply praying that I can get clean bill of health tomorrow and that I can go home tomorrow and that I don’t have to cancel any of my consulting clients on Tuesday.

I want to send out a special thank you to my friend Mark Mason, from MasonWorld.com, for sending me flowers with the Get Well balloon (Shown in the image above). That was a cool surprise.

My mom, dad, and my brother stopped by to see me this afternoon. It was cool to see them.

I’m excited that Stephanie and the kids are going to come and see me this evening. I’m also excited that they will be bringing some Chipotle. The food here at the Hospital is simply not that great!

I appreciate all your prayers. Please keep them coming for the results of tomorrows MRI.

Thank you so much!

The MRI took about 30 minutes in total and was actually quite relaxing. They had given me the option of the type of music I wanted to listen to and I chose classical. As the machine was making all it’s noises, I simply spent the 30 minutes in prayer, talking with God. In my conversation, I thought of my totally awesome wife, Stephanie and just how thankful I am to have her in my life. Sharing life with her is one my greatest joys. I then spent some time thinking about Meagan, Matthew, and McKenna and just how blessed I am to have these three amazing children.

Oh, by the way, I wanted to share that Stephanie and the kids came by and had dinner with me last night here in my room. It was the highlight of my day. A day or two spent in the hospital can really help you gain a good deal of perspective on life and offer a reminder of just how blessed we are.

Before my MRI had ended, while I was still talking with God, my thoughts went toward my good friend, Barry Morgan, who is currently being treated for a very advanced case of pancreatic cancer. I am trying to keep up with Barry’s journey through his God Is Bigger Than Cancer Facebook Page. I know that that many of you are joining me in praying that my MRI results come back 100% perfect and that I’ll be able to head home with a clean bill of health. Thank you for that.

Regardless of the outcome of my results, I hope that many of you will consider sending some prayers for Barry and his lovely wife, Lynne as they are going through something fear scarier that what I have been going through.

I am hoping that my next update will be full of great news, and possibly even be posted from home. We’ll see.

Honestly, with as much prayer that has been offered on my behalf the past two days, I had got to the point where I had expected nothing less. I am so delighted and enthusiastic that I could dance. I wont! But I could! :)

There was “one thing,” however, that the doctor pointed out. She said that they had noticed that I had a “nasal polyp” on my left side, and that there “may have been” one on my other side. She asked me if I had an issue with frequent sinus infections.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! For the past ten or more years of my life (could even be 20), I’ve had between two and five sinus infections each and every single year.

The doctor told me that it sounds like allergies could cause that polyp to flare up which could easily lead to those sinus infections. This could explain how the cigarette smoke at the Podcamp Cincinnati pre-party set off my allergies, which may have caused this polyp to flare up, which may have led to that sinus infection, which led to an upper respiratory infection back in late October.

She asked me if I’ve ever seen an ENT about this. I told her that I never knew that I had it. She said that if these sinus infections have been so bad, they could go in and remove this polyp and it might greatly reduce the number of sinus infections that I have in the future.

If this is true, and this visit to the hospital does nothing more than uncover this, and I get it treated, this would have been worth all the time and trouble spent here this weekend.

The thing is that I also talked with the other neurologist the other day and he explained that I may be able to recover from the “Ulnar Neuropahty” that I had been experiencing in my pinky finger and the left side of my ring finger on my left hand. Turns out that this might simply be from the fact that I have a habit of sleeping on my side or leaning too much onto my elbow while I work throughout the day. I do both every day.

I’ve also uncovered that eating my two egg omelet every day of the week could be leading to this reported high level of LDL Cholesterol. Regardless, I am going to do something about my Cholesterol, without medication.

I feel as though I have a new lease on life. I was already back to my daily routine of physical activity by going to the gym four days a week. This only energizes my efforts in that area and to reaffirm my commitment to healthy eating.

I can’t tell you all how much I am thankful for your prayers.

For all I know, I may have had a heart attack and major stroke and have been completely healed. Though I am more inclined to believe that I had slept on my side with my arm behind my head in such a way that I had a very severe pinched nerve. I believe that the “fears of the unknown” and a great deal of anxiety added to the symptoms that I had experienced.

As I shared in this 512th episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life, I am so thankful that God has broken me free from those fears! I am so thankful that I got all this stuff check out. I am ready to move forward on the journey that is set before me and I am eager to see what all will transpire in 2012!

Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!

Well my friends, with a great deal of thought and prayer going into this, that I have made the decision to end the Full Time Mom podcast. This final episode will certainly explain to you all the details behind my decsion.

The good news is that I’m not going very far. In fact, you can be assured that absolutely 100% of anything and everything I would have shared in any potential future episodes of the Full Time Mom podcast will be included in either the Family From The Heart podcast that I do with my husband at or in the Authentic Life Radio podcast that I do with my best friend, Sarah Rader.

I hope that if you are not already subscribed these two shows, that you will consider doing so.

I LOVE YOU FROM THE ENTIRE OF MY HEART!

Stephanie

Well my friends, with a great deal of thought and prayer going into this, we have made the decision to end the Business Tech Weekly podcast after 109 episodes. This show was started on September 8th, 2009. During this final episode, Andy and I share how we met and what led to the creation of this show.

We also shared how Andy and I have benefited tremendously from knowing each other. As you will hear in the show, Andy and I will be working on some projects together in the future. It’s just that both of us lost all passion for discussion technology tools for small to medium sized businesses about forty or so episodes ago.

If you want to fully understand the reason behind the decision to end this, and several gspn.tv shows, I hope that you will consider listening to episode 243 of Podcast Answer Man. You can find that episode at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243.

If you would like to continue to follow my ongoing business growth journey, I encourage you to check out both my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast at http://PursuingABalancedLife.com and my Podcast Answer Man podcast at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com.

If you would like to continue to follow Andy’s ongoing business growth journey, I encourage you to follow him on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/AndyTraub, on his blog at http://AndyTraub.com, and on his podcast network at http://TakePermission.com.

There is no question that this final episode was AMAZINGLY GREAT! I personally feel that this is because we both knew that this was the right decision for each of us personally and overall, it was the right decision for the future health of the content and community of gspn.tv.

We hope you enjoy this final episode. It really is hard to say goodbye to yesterday!

Call Us Today: Do you have a question about a technology that could help you in your business? Do you have a comment you want to share? Call our voice mail listener feedback hotline. It’s available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

Thanks For Subscribing To The Business Tech Weekly:

In this episode of Life, Love, And The Movies, Tracy and I discuss the following:
- Are we doing things to keep busy or to help us achieve our goals?
- Indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity.
- Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.
- Nothing is forever.
- Not every opportunity is something you should follow.
- Mission Statements & Core Values.
- And so much more!!!

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I discuss the following:
- The MAJOR Announcement about gspn.tv content – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243
- Stephanie’s Accident
- MAD Bucks
- Cruise Update
- Mardel December 2011 Report – 496 Orders totaling $18,465 in sales.
- Stephanie’s Identity Crisis

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

Well my friends, with a great deal of thought and prayer going into this, we have made the decision to end the Social Media Serenity podcast after 119 episodes. This show was started on July 17th, 2009 and we have certainly covered a great deal of the changing landscape within Social Media these two and a half years.

If you want to fully understand the reason behind the decision to end this, and several gspn.tv shows, I hope that you will consider listening to episode 243 of Podcast Answer Man. You can find that episode at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/243.

I am excited to share that from this point forward, we will continue to cover social media news, updates, and experiences in the Podcast Answer Man podcast and Erik will join me on a weekly basis as my Social Media Correspondent.

In this final episode of Social Media Serenity, Erik and I discussed the following:
- You can now follow The President on Instagram.
- http://web.stagram.com/n/barackobama
- Google+ will censor profile pictures – http://goo.gl/kosRz
- Facebook Timeline Doesn’t Show in Internet Explorer 7
- Google+ Gets Face Recognition, Deeper Gmail Integration http://goo.gl/q6AgD
- The 50 Funniest Tweets Of 2011 http://ow.ly/8bvn1

Call in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Subscribe To The Social Media Serenity Podcast:

In this episode, Sarah and Stephanie talk about the excitement of the new year. The continued journey Stephanie is on of letting God tell her who she is. They also share stories about why they are both wearing silly bands on their right wrist.

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

Producing Less For The Purpose of Greater Production
During the open of last week’s episode of Podcast Answer Man, I hinted that I was considering the thought of producing less shows moving forward. As I share in this episode, the reason is that I want to maximize the value of any of the work that I do, including the various podcasts that I might produce.

So many people have come to me, as a podcast consultant/coach, who are wanting to launch three to five podcasts before the end of their first year in podcasting, without understanding what all goes into the production of a single show. I believe that podcasts are most effective and valuable when they serve a niche audience and when that audience is served extremely well. Leo Laporte echoed this key area of success in the interview I did with him back in November.

To effectively super serve a niche community, I believe that you should be willing to devote a great deal of time, energy, and attention to making every aspect of your production and community environments as valuable and as high a quality as possible. I’ve come to the point where I understand that with all the shows that I currently produce (approximately five to ten a week on average right now), I am producing a lot of really good content. However, I personally feel that, on average, I only produce about two GREAT episodes each week. I’ve determined that this is simply not acceptable when I consider the hopes, dreams, and goals that I have for the future of my podcast network at gspn.tv.

The following are some of the big changes that I’ve decided to make moving forward. I share more details about each of these decisions in this episode.

- I will be ending the Balanced Living Weekly podcast after 83 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 27th, 2009 with Fr. Roderick Vonhogen as my co-host. I will continue to share my pursuit of a balanced life in the Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast.

- My wife, Stephanie, will be Ending the Full Time Mom podcast after 184 episodes (final episode pending). She launched this show on July 14th, 2007. I’m excited to announce that Stephanie will continue to share everything that she would have shared in this podcast in both the Authentic Life Radio and Family From The Heart podcasts.

- I will be ending the Business Tech Weekly podcast after 109 episodes (final episode pending). This show was started on September 8th, 2009 with Andy Traub as my co-host. Andy will continue share his business pursuits on his own Take Permission podcast network. From this point forward, I will bring all of my business technology and business growth experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast and in my Pursuing A Balanced Life podcast.

- I have ended the Social Media Serenity podcast after 119 episodes. This show was started on July 17th, 2009 with Erik J. Fisher as my co-host. From this point forward, I will bring all social media news, updates, and experiences here into the Podcast Answer Man podcast. Beginning next week, I plan to have Erik become my Social Media correspondent for Podcast Answer Man. The thought is that we will try to include a ten minute social media segment each week.

- I am officially ending the Help I Got A Mac podcast after 180 episodes (final episode pending). I had started this podcast when I purchased my first Apple computer, as a means of sharing my experience on this new computing platform. The show was officially re-launched on October 14th, 2007 when Chris Beiting agreed to be co-host the show with me.

- I have ended the Almost Daily Devotional Podcast after 166 episodes. I had launched this podcast back on March 3rd, 2008 with the idea that I would produce three to five 10 minute episodes each week. There were a few times that I had achieved this goal. However, for the most part, the show’s production schedule had been pretty hit or miss throughout the years. I will continue to produce the content that I would have included in the Almost Daily Devotional in my Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast.

- After 124 episodes, I made the decision to re-brand the About The Church podcast. This was only the third podcast that I had ever created for our network and it was launched on April, 23rd, 2006, just four months after I started podcasting. Moving forward, the content for this show will be continue to be produced and on a more consistent basis. The show will known as the Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast.

Am I Leaving The Network Model Behind? NO WAY!
If there is any fear about making so many changes all at once, it is that folks may think that I am abandoning the gspn.tv network/community. This could not be further from the fact!

All of these decisions have been made in order that I can spend less time making good content and MORE TIME making GREAT content. As mentioned above, you can see that I have a plan for the content that would have been provided in each of the shows that are ending, with the exception of Help I Got A Mac, to be included in other existing shows.

Moving forward, there will be a renewed passion and drastic increase in the quality of all of the following main gspn.tv shows as the result of these changes.

- Podcast Answer Man – PodcastAnswerMan.com
- Family From The Heart – FamilyFromTheHeart.com
- Authentic Life Radio – AuthenticLifeRadio.com
- Life, Love, And The Movies – LifeLoveAndTheMovies.com
- Pursuing A Balanced Life – PursuingABalancedLife.com
- Encouraging Others Through Christ – EncouragingOthersThroughChrist.com

Podcast Series or Seasons
Those who have come to enjoy the entertainment podcasts that we produce for gspn.tv can rest assured that we will continue to produce shows like the Hunger Games Fan Podcast, Doctor Who Fan Podcast, Twilight Saga Fan Podcast and the gspn.tv Lost Fan Podcast.

In this episode, I share some thoughts that I’ve have recently related to how I may approach any new podcast launches with a end for the podcast in mind, a podcast series, or with the idea of only producing a certain number of episodes at a time, as a podcast seasons.

Bringing A Final Close To Premium Member Only Site
One year ago, I made the decision to give all the content, that we produce, away free of charge. Previously, we had partial premium model for many of our podcasts known as Plus Membership. As a result, I have been managing two separate websites for all the gspn.tv content since 2008. While we were using this partial premium content model, I would publish all free episodes of all our podcast to our gspn.tv main site while I would post every episode of every podcast on our gspn.tv Plus Member Access Site. This means that since January 2008, every single episode we published, which was about seven to fifteen episodes a week, had to be published to two separate websites.

Effective here in January, 2012, I will no longer be publishing content to the Plus Member Only site. I will leave that site active as an online archive. This old site will contain all of the content that had been produced from December 2005 through the end of 2011. Every episode of every show that we have produced since January of 2011 can be found at http://gspn.tv.

Later today, I will record a short special episode that will be put into every single podcast feed on that Plus Member site explaining what is going on and that those who were subscribe to the “Plus Member Feeds” will want to go and subscribe to the main gspn.tv feeds found on our site or in iTunes. I will point people to http://gspn.tv/shows as a resource to easily find the subscription links they are looking for.

Bottom Line – Making A Dent In The World
The bottom line is that I want to create Entertaining, Educational, Encouraging, and Inspirational content that makes a difference in people’s lives. I want to spend LESS time producing “good” content and I want to spend MORE TIME producing GREAT, can’t live without, content that helps to make positive change in the lives of those who listen.

I believe that I have been called, by God, to be a force of positive change in the world! I believe spending time creating the my own great content, that matters most, and helping thousands of people (other podcasters), around the world, take their shows to the next level, is how I will achieve this calling moving forward.

I hope to make an official announcement, to my Podcast Answer Man Mailing List, about the Podcaster’s Master Mind Group that I’ve been working on for the past two months. Stay turned for more details.

Blue Host Affiliate Signups
Special thanks to the folks behind RoundTablePodcast.com and ArizonaFootballLeague.com for using my Blue Host affiliate link this past week to create their hosting account. As you know, I earn a commission each time someone clicks through my link to sign up with Blue Host. So thank you!

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Adam Baker of ManVsDebt.com. Adam’s Man Vs Debt podcast reached the top ten spot in iTunes in the Investing category. This put him right up next to Dave Ramsey and other big time mainstream traditional media guys. I share more thoughts on this in the episode. Congratulations Adam!

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Check out PodcastAnswerMan.com/243 to learn why six shows have been canceled on the gspn.tv network.

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) January 6, 2012

Have you ever wondered how much toilette paper it would take to clog up the commode on cruise ship? In this video, you will learn that it takes A LOT!

Recently, I was browsing some photos and videos were stored on a very old external hard drive. This video is from July 17th, 2005. I had won a cruise for two as the reward for selling a “boat load” of insurance the year before.

Unfortunately, McKenna was only three months old at the time and the company’s guidelines would not allow for children to be brought on these incentive cruises. I was so delighted, however, that my best friend, Robert Johnson, was able to join me. I had completely forgot that we recorded this video.

Robert and I had so much fun on that cruise. In fact, the very first video project that I ever produced was done with footage from our time in the Bahamas. The resolution is quite low. But if you are interested, check it out below:

I just spent the last 45 minutes watching this video. I didn’t intend to spend that 45 minutes watching how coke is bottled, but when I put it on full screen and bumped it up to 1080P resolution, I simply got sucked in. Here’s the video…

As I sit here, I’m asking myself what am I taking away from watching this. A few things struck me. There really is no limit on how large a company can become if you have dreams, goals, and plans and robots are AMAZING and I’m so happy that Matthew enjoys playing with the Lego Mindstorm as much as he does.

Overall, I’m glad I watched it. It’s inspiring to see things that “work.”

So thankful that content like this is available on YouTube and can be shared in blogs like this. If you end up watching it, I’d love to read your comments in the comments section below.

Here it is, Saturday, December 31st, 2011. It’s the final day of the year and I had decided I that I was going to take it pretty easy until the kids go back to school this coming Tuesday.

When I came down to my studio, a little after 11am today, the only thing I had planned to do was to sit down and answer as many of the 50 or so emails that are sitting in my email inbox. However, before I started on that task, I decided that I would grab my prayer journal and my pen to quickly write to God, thanking Him for how He worked in 2011, “The Year of Providence.”

I sit here at 3pm and I’ve not responded to a single email. Instead, I spent well over two and a half hours writing eighteen pages of content from my heart as I thought about 2011, The Year of Providence.

About half way through, I realized that I would want to share these thoughts with the gspn.tv community. I wish I had the time to actually go through and type each of these words into actual text so that you could simply read them from this blog post. However, I simply don’t have the time to do that at this point. Instead, I took the time necessary to take a photo of each of the eighteen pages with my iPhone, crop them, and turn them into a pdf document that you can download and read if you so desire.

One thing is for sure, for those of you who have been a part of this community for at least a year, you have certainly witnessed all that God has done to bless this Year of Providence. I hope that, if you read this, that you will be just as inspired as I am by all that God had done on our behalf within a single year. It truly is AMAZING!

If you would like to read this entry from my prayer journal, please right-click here to download the pdf document.

How has God provided for you in 2011? What are some of your goals and dreams for 2012? Feel free to leave any comments in the comments section below.

Want to share this this with others? Consider retweeting the following Twitter status update:

Over 2.5hrs spent recalling just how much this truly has been The Year of Providence. Details here: gspn.tv/confirmed

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) December 31, 2011

In this episode of the Hunger Games Fan Podcast, Stephanie and I share our reactions to the 4th and 5th chapter of the third book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay.

We would like to invite you to “Join The Community” in the discussion group that we have set up for The Hunger Games which you can find listed at http://gspncommunity.com/groups.

Please be sure to tell someone you know about http://HungerGamesPodcast.com

Thanks For Subscribing To The Hunger Games Fan Podcast:

In this episode of Life, Love, and The Movies, Cliff and Tracy discuss the following:
- Tracy’s idea for a new show.
- Find a way to make living from the things that drive you.
- Super 8 Movie
- We Bought A Zoo
- 20 seconds of insane courage.
- The Book Restored by Tracy
- Steve Jobs Biography
- The Help – Don’t be afraid to stand out.
- The harder I work, the luckier I get!
- And so much more!

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Cliff and Stephanie discuss the following
- Stephanie making progress on creating order in the house.
- Nothing like a clean studio.
- Christmas Eve was pretty nice.
- Christmas Day was AMAZING!
- An email from Emma
- We Bought A Zoo movie reactions
- A Christmas Snow movie reactions
- A Care Package from Tracy Trost
- Super 8 Movie reactions

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

In this episode of Social Media Serenity, Erik and Cliff discuss the following:
- Chris Brogan’s post “Depression is an Offline Event – http://goo.gl/vcwqp
- Buffer App now has an iPhone App
- Bufferapp integrates with SocialBro – http://goo.gl/zoFBl
- http://SocialBro.com
- http://TheTwitCleaner.com
- http://manageflitter.com
- Charlie Sheen Tweets Phone Number to 5 Million http://goo.gl/aUmgB
- Gowalla purchased by Facebook http://goo.gl/nJgGb
- Your New Facebook Status: 63,206 Characters or Less http://on.mash.to/vGQ37z
- Where Are Your Twitter Followers? http://TweepsMap.com

Call in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Subscribe To The Social Media Serenity Podcast:

Less Shows Moving Forward?
One of the thing that puzzles me is the number of people who seem to want to follow in my footsteps of creating a large number of podcasts. Since I started podcasting in December of 2005, I have launched at least 24 of my very own podcasts. At one point, I was producing an average of 15 to 17 podcast episodes every single week.

In this episode, I mention, for the firs time in public, that I’ve been thinking about drastically decreasing the number of shows that I am actively producing. Just this past week, I’ve updated my gspn.tv show description page to show that I am currently only actively producing ten shows at this time. Even with this reduction, I’m still producing a minimum of six shows each and every week.

I recently ended the Almost Daily Devotional podcast after 166 episodes. I decided that the content of that podcast should fit perfectly into another show that I had been producing called the “About The Church” podcast. Since I in the mood to make changes, I made the decision that I would go ahead an rebrand the About The Church podcast so that it would become the “Encouraging Others Through Christ” podcast from this point forward.

This is a perfect example of how I took two shows and combined them into one single show. The same content will continue to be produced, but in a single show instead of two. In 2012, I’ll be evaluating all the shows that I am actively producing to see if there is a way that I might be able to do something similar to reduce the number of shows so that I may focus more time and energy on making each show the best it can be.

Mission Statements and Core Values
I did a significant edit on opening of this episode before I uploaded it to the servers. I did leave enough of the original content to let you know that I have been inspired to take some time to develop a mission statement and to write down what my core values are, both for my business, and my personal life. I did this for gspn.tv several years ago and it helped me tremendously. However, I never got around to doing it for my consulting/coaching business. I was reminded of just how important this is while I was listening to where my good friend, Dan Miller, was being interviewed on episode 10 of Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership Podcast.

Facebook Thumbnail Previews
Special thanks to Bill who called in and left some feedback to explain where Facebook looks for the images it chooses for the Facebook Thumbnail previews on shared links. This is extremely valuable information to those of us who hope our community will share our content with their friends on Facebook.

Feedburner Stats?
Daniel from the Special Chronicles podcast called in to ask about how might best track his podcast downloads since the new version of feedburner seems to show a slightly different number than the old version. In my response, I mention Podtrac.com.

Blue Host Hosting
I quickly mentioned that I have an affiliate relationship with Blue Host Hosting. I’ve had a relationship with Blue Host for several years and have hundreds of clients who are hosting their WordPress powered podcast on their hosting platform. If you want to read my full thoughts on podcast hosting, I encourage you to check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting.

Random Plug of The Week
This week’s random plug of the week goes out to Tommy G. Kendrick from ActorsTalkPodcast.com. Tommy has done an amazing job on launching a great looking website and an AMAZING SOUNDING first episode. If you know anyone who is an actor, director, or otherwise involved in this industry, please consider telling them about Tommy’s new show.

Getting Your Podcast Into GetGlue
Wayne called in to ask if it was still possible to get a podcast listed in the Get Glue social network. This is a social network that was designed to allow you to share what music you are listening to or what movies or tv shows you were watching. However, some folks found out that you could also share what podcasts you were listening to.

While I do have several of my gspn.tv shows listed in the Get Glue directory, I am not responsible for getting them submitted. It was my friend, Geoff Gentry, who added these shows. I’ve reached out to Geoff and he told me that he would be willing to explain if this is still possible in the comments section below. Please check the comments section for that update.

Listed On Stitcher Radio
I briefly mention that you can now find Podcast Answer Man and many other gspn.tv shows in Stitcher Radio. I hope to get around to inviting the folks from Stitcher onto an upcoming episode of Podcast Answer Man to learn a little more about this company and what all they have in the works.

In the episode, I share that I have a few reservations about the service, as it stands today. However, I am excited about anyone who is making way in the realm of getting podcasting built into car radios of the future!

You can download the Stitcher App at http://stitcher.com/gspn. If you sign up, please do use promo code “GSPN” to let them know that you heard about them from me.

Where Are They Now?
In this week’s Where Are They Now interview, I talk with Scott Iardella from StealthBody.com. Scott had produced twenty episodes of the “Smart Fitness Coach” podcast and things were going pretty well until he got hit with a Cease and Desist Notice from the legal department of a company that stated he was infringing upon their trademark. In our conversation, you’ll hear how Scott dealt with this shocking blow.

It is my hope that Scott’s story does not do anything to add to the excuses of those of you who have not yet launched your show. In sharing my own personal trademark issue from a few years back, I hope that you come away from this episode understanding that in both cases, Scott and I did not allow this to knock us out of the race. In fact, we are both extremely thankful that things turned out the way that they did.

I think it’s also important to note that out of well over one thousand podcasters that I personally know, I am only aware of three that have ran into such a trademark issue and actually received a cease and desist letter from a lawyer. Scott and I are two of those three.

I also hope that our conversation provides other valuable insights for you to apply to your own podcasting journey as well.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

Podcasters, check this out! Producing less shows? Facebook Like Button Info – Get Glue – Stitcher – Trademark Issues – podcastanswerman.com/242

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) December 30, 2011

In this episode of Life, Love, and The Movies Tracy and I talk about the following:
- What are we doing to make a positive difference in the world?
- The do it now conversation!
- Doing it “now” can take nine months to plan.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I share why there still has not been a cruise update published and how we have come to the decision to start back at “Square One.” The good news is that the itinerary for the 2013 cruising year should already be available for Disney Cruise Lines and we should be able to get all the needed information put together within the next few weeks. Feel free to keep and eye on the page at http://gspn.tv/cruise for more information.

The rest of the episode is “interesting.”

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

In this episode of Social Media Serenity, Erik and I discuss the following:
- An update on the response to Embedded Tweets.
- An update on the response to Livefyre Comments.
- A few Google+ Pet Peeves.
- Facebook’s Hidden Inbox.
- Twitter Brand Pages.
- Initial thoughts on the new TweetDeck.
- Facebook Timeline available to everyone.
- Why Andy is unfriending 75% of those on his Facebook account.
Here are the links to the article that Andy mentioned in his call.
1) http://gspn.tv/tfd
2) http://gspn.tv/adb
3) http://gspn.tv/imd

Call in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Subscribe To The Social Media Serenity Podcast:

In this episode of Business Tech Weekly, Cliff and Andy discuss the following:
- Why Cliff cancelled his MyFax.com account.
- Scratchpad.txt
- Layers App – http://gspn.tv/wkz
- Inpaint App – http://gspn.tv/4il
- Skitch for iPad – http://gspn.tv/3sh
- iPen – http://gspn.tv/csm
- Kindle App updated for PDFs

Call Us Today: Do you have a question about a technology that could help you in your business? Do you have a comment you want to share? Call our voice mail listener feedback hotline. It’s available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

Thanks For Subscribing To The Business Tech Weekly:

In this episode, Sarah and Stephanie share about what they will be up to this Christmas. Stephanie shares a little about Meagan’s recent Adventures in Middle School and more singing.

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

Not A Fan of FeedValidator.org
Gordon called to say that when he ran his rss feed through FeedValidator.org, he found that it was reporting errors with his rss feed. He wanted to know if I had any thoughts on what might be causing some of these issues.

In response to Gordon, I pretty much shared that I am not much of a fan of this feed validation service as it’s really not that relevant to whether or not your rss feed is configured properly to produce your podcast. In fact, a quick look at the validation report for my Podcast Answer Man rss feed will show you that I also have plenty of “recommendations.” The only thing that matters is whether or not your feed is “valid” and whether or not it is delivering your content to your subscribers.

More Than One Podcast With Libsyn?
Michael called in to say that he heard me, in the past, mention that it is possible to use a single Libsyn account to host the .mp3 files for multiple shows and was wondering if I was wondering how that works. I do my best to quickly answer this question in the epsisode.

Blue Host Hosting
This week, I quickly mentioned that I have an affiliate relationship with Blue Host Hosting. I’ve had a relationship with Blue Host for several years now and have hundreds of clients who are hosting their WordPress powered podcast on their hosting platform. If you want to read my full thoughts on podcast hosting, I encourage you to check out http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/hosting.

Should you invest in an iPad?
Mark called in to ask me how I am using my iPad in my business. He seemed like he was looking for me to convince him that it was worth pulling the trigger on his purchase. However, I’m not sure that he was expecting the answer that I gave in this episode.

In response to Mark, I did mention the iSoundByte app which is the app that acts as a remote to control the desktop version of SoundByte.

I also mentioned the Sound Byte app, which is made by the same company but, unlike the “iSoundByte” app, this app is designed to actually store the sound clips on the iPad and is connected to the desktop version of the app. I’m not a fan of this stand alone app as there is a “nearly one second” delay between the time you tap on the button to play a sound clip and when the sound clip actually starts playing.

Where Are They Now?
In this week’s Where Are They Now interview, I talk with Todd Clift from MoonstoneCellars.com. In 2001, Todd was downloading audio recordings on radio shows before podcasting came about. By the time he needed to do a long commute to work, podcasting was available and he started to subscribe to his favorite shows. He tried Satellite radio first, but decided to go all in with audio podcasting and hasn’t listened to anything else, while driving his truck, since.

Todd decided that podcasting would be be good for his business, a winery! And he created the podcast, Wine Word of the Day. Early in our conversation, Todd decided to purchase the WineWordofTheDay.com domain which is is simply forwarding to his podcast category on his business website.

Todd was so excited about his existing show, he was already thinking about creating additional shows. I had suggested that if the intended target audience is the same for the other shows, that he might consider combining all that content into a single show, producing it more consistently, rather than fragmenting his audience. If you listen to his December 23rd episode, you’ll see that he actually took this advice to heart.

One of the most exciting things that I feel came out in this interview was that Todd had a mission/purpose for his podcast when he decided to launch it. He wanted to use his podcast to build a deeper relationship with his customers so that it would help foster greater customer retention.

About a week after we recorded this interview, I got an email from Todd saying…

Thanks again for offering up so much advice during the interview! It was like getting a free consulting service. And I just wanted you to know that I am using all of your recommendations!

It is my hope that our conversation will be of as much value to you as it was to Todd. If you have any thoughts or reactions to this episode, please do leave a comment in the comments section below.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

Back in episode 121, I shared some pretty shocking information related to my journey of faith and where I stand on my relationship with “the church.”

In that episode, I had shared just how much of an impact the book “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church,” by Wayne Jacobsen, had on me.

In this episode, I am delighted to share a conversation that I had with Wayne Jacobsen. We covered a variety of topics that I hope will inspire others to move further down the path of living loved by our Father.

Here are some important links that I think you should know about:
- God Journey Podcast – Website | Podcast
- LifeStream Blog – Website | Podcast
- The Jesus Lens – Website
- So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore – Amazon
- He Loves Me – Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection – Amazon

Thanks For Subscribing To Encouraging Others Through Christ:

Unfortunately, I never never read the Hobbit & Lord of The Rings when I was little. However, I did watch the Lord of The Rings movies as they came out and fell in love with them. Stephanie purchased the entire LOTR movie collection with extended scenes for me one year for Christmas.

I simply can’t wait for the Hobbit to come out. Just looking at this trailer, I can already tell it’s going to be amazing!

In this episode of the Hunger Games Fan Podcast, Stephanie and I share our reactions to the 3rd chapter of the third book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Mocking Jay. We also talk about our reactions to the newest movie trailer released this week.

We would like to invite you to “Join The Community” in the discussion group that we have set up for The Hunger Games which you can find listed at http://gspncommunity.com/groups.

Please be sure to tell someone you know about http://HungerGamesPodcast.com

Thanks For Subscribing To The Hunger Games Fan Podcast:

The About The Church podcast was launched in January 2006 as the third podcast produced here at the Generally Speaking Production Network. In this episode, I share the reasons why, after 125 episodes, I’ve decided to re-brand the show.

From this point forward, this podcast will be known as the Encouraging Others Through Christ or EOTC podcast. This “brand” has been around and a part of my life going all the way back to 1995.

If you were already subscribed to the “About The Church” podcast, you shouldn’t need to do anything, the new EOTC podcast episodes will be delivered to you as if nothing significant has changed. If you have not yet subscribed to the show, please do so by using the links provided below.

Please tell others about this show and send them to EncouragingOthersThroughChrist.com.

Thanks For Subscribing To Encouraging Others Through Christ:

Writing these show notes and posting this final episode of the Almost Daily Devotional to the website is somewhat bittersweet. I’ve made the decision that it is time to finally retire this podcast.

In the episode, I share the full story of why I am ending the Almost Daily Devotional podcast. The good news is that content that would have been the future episodes of this show will still be produced. It’s just that I’ve decided that instead of producing these as Almost Daily Devotional podcast episodes, I will include them in the newly branded Encouraging Others Through Christ podcast.

I hope that everyone who was subscribed to the Almost Daily Devotional will click here to subscribe to the EOTC Podcast!

In this week’s episode of Business Tech Weekly, I’m flying solo as Andy is on a business trip in Nashville. It will become immediately evident why Audible may never be a good fit as a sponsor for gspn.tv.

I share the various reasons why I much prefer buying and reading a book on my Kindle as opposed to listening to a book read to me in audio form.

Call Us Today: Do you have a question about a technology that could help you in your business? Do you have a comment you want to share? Call our voice mail listener feedback hotline. It’s available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

Thanks For Subscribing To The Business Tech Weekly:

In this episode of Life, Love and The Movies, Tracy and Cliff discuss:
- We often experience the things we focus on.
- The year of Even Bigger Dreams.
- The thumb in the eye principle.
- Don’t criticize others.
- Learning to be content.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

Thank You For Subscribing To The Life, Love & The Movies Podcast:

In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I discuss the following:
- Celebrating Six Years of Podcasting.
- New morning routine with workouts.
- Wayne Jacobsen interview coming to About The Church podcast next week.
- The Year of Umbridge.
- The Year of Even Bigger Dreams.
- Early Christmas present.
- Cruise update coming this weekend.
- Cliff’s upcoming Orlando business trip.
- Sherlock Homes movie review.
- Hugo movie review.

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

Thanks For Subscribing To Family From The Heart:

In this episode, Stephanie and Sarah talk about being humbled by the plan of God, the importance of acceptance over understanding, only ONE of them is going to Colorado, plus more Christmas singing.

Thanks For Subscribing To Authentic Life Radio:

Celebrating Six Years of Podcasting!
It was December 16th, 2005 when I published my very first audio podcast to the web. Little did I know that this event would radically transform my life. I started off this week’s episode of Podcast Answer Man with my thoughts from six years of creating audio content for the web and building a community and business around it.

Random Highlight
I wanted to send my congratulations to Jenn Swanson on the launch of her new podcast at CommunicationDiva.com. If you listen to her first episode, you’ll learn that just a few short months ago, she didn’t even know what blogging was all about, let alone the world of podcasting. To see her online presence today should inspire anyone who’s been stuck with the paralysis by analysis.

You Simply MUST Listen To Episode 116 of Social Media Serenity
As I mentioned in this episode, I spent great deal of time talking with my co-host, Erik J. Fisher, about the LiveFyre commenting system and the amazing opportunities that Twitter’s new embedded tweets now offers to those of us who produce content for the web.

I highly suggest that everyone listen to episode 116 of Social Media Serenity. It is almost as if you have the benefit of a whole additional episode of Podcast Answer Man this week.

Static Home Page or Dynamic List of Recent Posts?
Tim called to ask what the benefits and drawbacks of having a static home page are compared to having the home page of your site simply list the most recent posts that you have made to your site. In the episode, I gave some thoughts on this subject and shared why I almost always have the most recent posts listed as my home page on PodcastAnswerMan.com.

Interview With Greg Willits
In this week’s “Where Are They Now?” interview, I talk with Greg Willits. If first learned about Greg, and his wife Jennifer Willits back in 2005 when I started listening to their Rosary Army Podcast, which happened to be the word’s first Catholic organization to the podcasting platform.

One of the most interesting things about my relationship with Greg and Jennifer, and the content they produced, is that I am not Catholic. By listening to my conversation with Greg, you will learn why I fell in love with the content they produced and how it was a major source of inspiration for the Family From The Heart podcast.

In August of 2008, after three years of podcasting, Greg and Jennifer were offered a full-time position as radio show hosts for The Catholic Channel on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Today, you can still hear Greg and Jennifer every Monday through Friday from 1pm to 4pm Eastern Time on their The Catholics Next Door radio show.

One of the reasons I wanted to have Greg on the show was to highlight how starting with a single podcast, building a large community, mixed with a lot of time, energy, and intentionality can lead to some pretty darn amazing opportunities.

It helps to step out of the box and get creative with other media channels as well. That’s exactly what Greg and Jennifer, in conjunction with SQPN, did with their “That Catholic Show.” Have a look at the following embedded video and you will quickly understand how this project brought them an even greater level of exposure.

Recently, Greg and Jennifer teamed up with fellow Catholic podcasters, and friends, Mac Barron and Katherine Barron to create a pilot for a television sitcom for Catholic TV. The sitcom is called Mass Confusion. I’m embedding the pilot episode below.

During my conversation with Greg, he hinted at the new project that he is working on at NewEvangelizers.com. I’m excited to see what he’s got in store for this new media adventure.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

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In this episode of Social Media Serenity, Erik and I spend a few moments talking about the layout of the new, New Twitter.

As we were discussing the newly enabled Embeddable Tweets option, it occurred to us that there could potentially be a major benefit to embedding a tweet at the bottom of each of our posts that would make it super easy for our community to retweet a pre-written message right from our site.

We also spent a great deal of time discussing why I have decided to stop using the Disqus commenting system and why I am now using the LiveFyre commenting system. During the episode, I created a sample blog post and you can even hear the excitement that resulted from playing around with it.

Call in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

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Please consider ReTweeting the following update to share this episode…

The benefit of Embedded Tweets to bloggers and podcasters. Learn more here –> gspn.tv/sms116

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) December 20, 2011

To understand this post, you’ll need to listen to episode 116 of Social Media Serenity.

This is a test only for the Social Media Serenity Podcast. We are doing this live at gspn.tv/live

— Cliff Ravenscraft (@GSPN) December 15, 2011

In this episode of the About The Church Podcast, I am delighted to share a recorded phone conversation that I recently had with my good friend, David H. Foster from DavidFoster.tv.

I wish I had time to sit down and take notes about all the things we talked about in this conversation so that it would convince you to click play and listen. However, I’m going to just ask you to trust me when I tell you that this was an amazing conversation and that you’ll be glad you listened if you do click the play button!

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In this episode of Business Tech Weekly, Cliff and Andy discuss the following:
- More thoughts on QR Codes.
- Should people make use of free online tools?
- Tweaks Cliff made inspired by last week’s episode.
- Google Hangouts and Google Plus In General.

Call Us Today: Do you have a question about a technology that could help you in your business? Do you have a comment you want to share? Call our voice mail listener feedback hotline. It’s available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

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In this episode of Life, Love and The Movies, Cliff and Tracy discuss the the importance of breaking free from our comfort zones, the difference in those who do or do not allow the word “fear” into their vocabulary, and so much more.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

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Please Spread The Word!
This week, I started the episode off by talking about my good friends Barry and Lynne Morgan, from SimpleGoodLifeNetwork.com. Many of you may recall that I interviewed Barry and Lynne back in episode 208 of Podcast Answer Man.

Barry emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know that he has been diagnosed with an advanced stage of pancreatic cancer and had asked me if I would please pray for himself and Lynne as well during this time. This week, Barry had asked if I would be willing to have a call with him to discuss a few decisions he needed to make and we had that call on Tuesday of this week.

I was so inspired by Barry’s courage and faith in the midst of what he is going through and I became very excited to learn about how he plans to share his faith and his journey in a brand new podcast that he and Lynne are launching at http://GodIsBiggerThanCancer.com.

I want to personally ask that everyone go and subscribe to their podcast, give it a five star rating, and leave a review for them in iTunes by CLICKING HERE. I would also like to ask you to follow them on TWITTER and like them on FACEBOOK. And if you know anyone who has been touched by cancer, would you please tell them to check out Barry & Lynne’s podcast.

As I am writing this, I know at the first episode is not yet online. However, I know that Barry and Lynne have set aside everything else and will be focusing on three things. Those three things are prayer, seeking wise counsel and searching through information on various treatment options, and sharing everything they learn and their experience in this podcast as means of being a Faith, Hope and Healing resource for those afflicted with the deadliest forms of cancer and their families and loved ones.

Please do help me spread the word!

Posts Per Category Plugin
Did you ever wish you could set the number of posts that are included in the rss feed for each category independently? Up till now, you only had the option of a general setting that controlled the number of posts that are included in the RSS feeds of your site overall.

However, my great friend Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com has created a FREE PLUGIN that allows you manually choose how many posts for each category independently.

In this episode, Pat joins me to explain why and how this Posts Per Category Plugin came about. Pat all mentioned the WP Smush.it Plugin and the site web-sniffer.net.

What If You Can’t Talk?
Nick called in to ask for advice of what to do if your voice is giving out on you and you have a weekly show that must go on. I shared a few options that came to mind off the top of my head. Do you have some additional thoughts? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

Getting Audio From My Computer Speakers?
Tony called in to ask if there was an easy way to listen to music from his computer speakers on hi iMac outside of manually unplugging the cord from the speaker jack of the iMac each and every time he’s not using his mixer and wants to listen to iTunes, Pandora, or when watching a YouTube video.

I shared how I handle this on my own setup. Is there a configuration tool that he can download to force his computer to ignore that the speaker jack has a cable plugged into it? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

What If I Make Mistakes And Lose Listeners?
Cassius Morris, from The Creatures of The Net podcast, called in to share that he’s made some mistakes that have cost him some listeners. He’s share that he has learned a lot from these mistakes, yet he notices that he’s not getting very much feedback.

In the episode, I share some thoughts on what to focus on in a situation like this and some thoughts on how to handle the feedback situation. Do you have some thoughts to add? If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

How Can I Change My RSS Feed From One Website To Another?
Marshall called in to ask if there was an easy way to redirect his feed from one website over to the rss feed of another website. In the episode, I share that there is no “easy” way to do this, however, if you do have full control of that feed there is “a” way to do it. I simply recommend that he check out my iTunes Redirect Video Blog Post. I also shared that if he does not have full control over that old rss feed, then he should listen to episode 200 of Podcast Answer Man where I talk about what to do when your feed is held hostage.

Keep An Eye On Wooden Boat Dan – Dan Mattson
In this episode, I include an interview that I did with Dan Mattson from HookedOnWoodenBoats.com. For anyone who argues that it simply isn’t possible to launch a successful business around a passion about something as unique as wooden boats, then I suggest that you follow Dan’s story over the next five years and watch how he pulls off the impossible.

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

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In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I discussed the following:
- Why our children are home today.
- New time slot for recording our show.
- Stephanie and Sarah’s Captivating Retreat.
- Early thoughts on an Authentic Life Retreat.
- Preparing Your Son For Every Man’s Battle Book.
- Ruthless Trust Book.
- What McKenna wants to be when she grows up.
- Mardel’s pre-by Courageous – http://mardel.com/courageous
- Cliff’s Christmas gift.
- Not closed to the idea of homeschooling in the future.

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

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In this episode, Sarah and Stephanie talk about the importance of being confident. They share about a little Christmas shopping. And, they even SING!!!!

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In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I share the following:
- Our review of the musical “Wicked.”
- Anita loves her fitbit
- Eric’a email about living debt free!
- Karen’s thoughts on buying the house.
- Nancy’s question about the lemonade stand.
- Katie’s Trek Desk recommendation.
- Kim’s feedback about Stephanie’s value to the network.

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

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In this episode of Life Love And The Movies, Cliff and Tracy discuss the following:
- Focusing on the Good instead of the bad.
- How can I appreciate the good if I never experience the bad?
- The Buck Stops Here – Taking ownership!
- I will seek wisdom.
- I am a person of action. – Make decisions!
- I have a decided heart. – I know where I am supposed to be.
- Today I will choose to be happy!
- I will greet the day with a forgiving spirit.
- I will forgive others and I will forgive myself.
- I will persist without exception – I will find a way when there is no way.
- We have been discussing “The Travelers Gift” by Andy Andrews.

Please give us a call on our voicemail feedback hotline at 859-795-4067 or feel free to email Tracy at Podcast@TrostMovingPictures.com.

See Tracy’s most recent movie, FOR FREE! – http://gspn.tv/freepreview

Please take a moment to leave feedback in the comments section below or by calling in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

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In this episode of Business Tech Weekly, Andy and I discuss the following:
- Andy has read another book from the Hunger Games Trilogy.
- Andy’s Skype/Google Voice setup.
- The Inbox Zero debate.
- Steve Jobs Documentary – http://gspn.tv/onelastthing
- Seth Godin Interview – http://gspn.tv/ifu
- The love of the Kindle Touch 3G.
- Send to Kindle Chrome Extention
- E-Myth Revisted Review

Call Us Today: Do you have a question about a technology that could help you in your business? Do you have a comment you want to share? Call our voice mail listener feedback hotline. It’s available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week by calling 859-795-4067.

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The Canon HF G10 Camera
This week, I started the episode off by talking about how and why I have been dabbling with video more and more lately. Those who know me, know that I am a strong believer that there is more power in audio podcasting than there is in video podcasting. However, I believe that there is so much you can do to compliment the audio content that you produce by randomly creating video content as well.

In the episode, I shared that the video interview that I did with Leo Laporte was recording using my Canon HFG10 camera. Click play and look at the amazing quality that you can get with this camera.

iTunes 10.5.1 Fixes .mp3 Artwork Preview
In episode 233, I had shared the reason why the desktop icons of .mp3 files were not displaying the artwork after they were successfully tagged with an image file. I am happy to announce that the latest update to iTunes finally resolves this issue for us.

Audio Levels
Mark called to ask what process I go to to make sure that my audio levels are consistent throughout my show and he also wondered how I decide “how hot” to make my audio when getting ready to do export the file.

Mark also asked how I go about getting consistent audio levels between caller to caller when the audio levels of all the audio feedback that comes in are at different volume levels. I share the answer to all Mark’s questions in the episode.

What is Apple Core Media?
Dave called in to say that he has upgraded to a Libsyn account that offers “advanced stats.” He wants to know what the Apple Core Media stands for. I share the answer to this question in the podcast episode.

Is The Roland R-05 Discontinued?
Mark P called in to ask if the Roland R-05 has been discontinued. He said he was able to pick one up for only $100 and wondered if it were a sign that they were no longer being produced. I answer this in the episode, but I’ll go ahead and state it here. The Roland R-05 is still in production and I still love this recorder!

What if a story I linked to goes Away?
Dan Mattson called to say that a publication did a story about him and his podcast recently. He linked to that story in his show notes. However, he wanted to know if there was another way to get a copy of that story just in case the publisher ever decided to remove it from their public website.

Get Amazing Stuff for only $5
My good friend, Dr. Soram Khalsa, told me about http://fiverr.com. Check it out some time. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get for only five bucks!

PODCAST CONSULTING: I’m available for one on one podcast consulting and coaching. Whether you want someone to get everything set up for you or you just need a little help along the way, I’d love to work with you. I’m able to demonstrate using screen sharing technology during our call which makes it just like I was there sitting next to you at the computer. If you are interested, email me at Cliff@PodcastAnswerMan.com.

PODCAST VIDEO TUTORIALS: I also have a growing list of video tutorials that I have created based up on the the top things my clients have hired me to help them with. See the full list of tutorials by clicking here.

Subscribe To The Podcast Answer Man Podcast:

A Video Blog Style Update:
Every now and then, I like to sit and think about all the wonderful things I have experienced on my journey in pursuing the work that I love and feel called to. If I were to talk about all the blessings that have come my way in 2011, the video below would be at least eight hours long. Instead of sharing everything, I figured I’d hit record on the video camera and simply start sharing the things that come to mind in under 20 minutes. The video below is the result of this recording session.

Things mentioned in this video blog post:
- Episode 483 of Pursuing A Balanced Life – http://gspn.tv/pabl483
- Episode where I declared my focus on The Year of Providence – http://gspn.tv/pabl485
- Podcasting A to Z – http://PodcastingAtoZ.com
- Podcaster’s Mastermind Group – Details Coming Soon!
- The launch of a new podcast – http://GeekologyToday.com
- Why I Do What I Do – http://PodcastAnswerMan.com/why

Is a video blog update like this something that interests you? If you enjoy this kind of video blog update, please let me know in the comments section below.

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In this episode of Social Media Serenity, Erik and I share the responses that had come in where I had asked the question “What Do You Like About Google+?” on Google Plus.

Also, we answered Chris’ question about what the difference is between GMail and Google Apps. And we finished off the episode with Doug’s feedback related to Facebook’s layout changes.

Call in your feedback on our voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067. Or use your voice memo application on your iPhone to record feedback or questions. Simply email it to feedback@gspn.tv.

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In this episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life, I share what has been going on, in my mind, as it related to what I had read up to that point in the book “E-Myth Revisited.” I think it is important to point out that, a few days after recording this, I had finished the book. The final chapters of the book had an incredible amount of insightful content when it comes to structuring the organization of your business. I came away enjoying this book a great deal more, though I don’t agree with such statements, made by the author, that the only real reason to start a business is to ultimately sell it.

I also shared how thankful I am for the awesome advisers that I have in my life. I’m surrounded by a great number of amazingly successful people and I know that a great deal of my success and motivation is directly tied to my relationship with these amazing people.

I shared quite a bit more in this episode as well. However, I recorded it several days ago and I am having a difficult time remembering some of the other topics I brought up. I hope you enjoy!

After you get a chance to listen, feel free to leave a comment here on this post! You can provide audio feedback for the podcast by calling the voice mail feedback line directly at 859-795-4067. You can also email an audio file to feedback@gspn.tv.

Don’t forget to tweet about your pursuit of a balanced life, joining us in the #PABL campaign.

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In this episode of Family From The Heart, Stephanie and I share an overview of how our Thanksgiving holiday went this year. I got to talking about some books that I’m reading right now like “All Is Grace” and “Jesus+Nothing=Everything.” Both of these books can be found at http://www.mardel.com/gspn in the section at the bottom of the page that says “Recently Mentioned Products.

Special thanks to the folks at Mardel.com! Please shop with them when looking for Christian books, music, dvds, and more. PLEASE BE SURE TO ENTER PROMO CODE “gspn” in the shopping cart so that they will see that you came to their site as a result of their sponsorship with us! You will receive an additional 10% off your entire order when you use our promo code!

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In this episode of Authentic Life Radio, Stephanie and Sarah discuss the following:
- Stephanie and Sarah are planning to go to the Captivating Conference.
- Feeling noticed and knowing that God knows what we need.
- The importance of “when” rather than “if.”
- The musical “Wicked.”
- How worms speak to Sarah.
- Sarah’s rather health issues.
- Life is so good but it is also hard!
- Kids with hormones.
- A Meagan story.
- It’s okay for our kids to come to us to talk about sex.
- Thoughts on the Karen Kingsbury books.

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I just received permission, from Erica Sigurdsson, to share the following email with you. This email is one of many examples that I receive in my email inbox each day that reminds me of “Why We Do What We Do” here at gspn.tv.

Before you read the email, let me explain what led to this email. As many of you know, podcasting is our full-time career. During the end of 2007, Stephanie and I agreed that we were being called for me to leave my career in insurance to focus more time and energy on the content and community of gspn.tv. We felt led to create content that is entertaining, educational, encouraging, and inspirational.

At http://gspn.tv/plus, we give folks the opportunity to become a “gspn.tv Community Plus Member.” These are the folks who voluntarily contribute, financially, to support the efforts of creating the content that we create and the building the community that we are building.

Many folks, like Erica, contribute on a monthly basis. In the event that I am notified, by PayPal, that a monthly contribution subscription has been canceled, I send a pre-written message to the Plus Member to see if this was something that they had decided to do or if it was something that was done without their knowledge do to a change in banking information within their PayPal account.

I had sent this pre-written message to Erica, and the following is the email that she sent back to me.

Would you believe that we have received over 100 emails with nearly this same exact message? That folks are living DEBT FREE today as the result of Stephanie and I sharing our journey? I thank God each day for giving us the ability to do something that is having a positive impact in people’s lives.

Erica, Congratulations to you and your fiancé! I am so excited that you will be starting off your new life together without the chains of debt wrapped around your necks.

Live Loved! Live Free!

In this episode of Pursuing A Balanced Life, I answer the question that was asked by @hbgreg on Twitter where he wrote “When is urgent not important?”

I do a bit of rehashing some of what I shared in episode 509 about the time management lessons I learned from chapter 3 of Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership Book.

It seems that a lot of people are struggling with the idea of discerning the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks. Personally, I think the struggle is more between discerning the tasks that are “important and urgent” (Quadrant 1) v/s the tasks that are “not important and urgent” (Quadrant 3).

I don’t have all the answers to this figured out, but I have spent the past full week organizing my day around the concepts that I learned from chapter three fo EntreLeadership. I can tell you that, without a doubt, it has had a profound positive impact on the amount of IMPORTANT WORK that I completed in the past seven days.

By the way, in this episode, I shared how I took five days to respond to my single most important client as a result of his email not making it to the top of my to do list during those five days.

Here’s what I wrote to him…..

Why it has taken so long, (Read this section only if interested – Otherwise Skip To Next Section)
I’m so sorry for taking five days to respond to your email. I’d like to give credit to Dave Ramsey, as I’ve been reading EntreLeadership and in chapter three, he discussed time management.

I must admit that I’ve been hard at work at taking a deep look at the tasks that I do and then categorize them into four quadrants.

Quadrant 1 – Important and Urgent
Quadrant 2 – Important and Not Urgent
Quadrant 3 – Not Important and Urgent
Quadrant 4 – Not Important and Not Urgent

I’ve been spending about 15 minutes each day trying to organize my day’s to do list based up on these categories, trying to fit in as many Q1 and Q2 tasks as possible and then I prioritize my list based upon how Dave shared in the rest of that chapter.

Having well over 100 emails that had built up from my West Coast trip, “manage email” has hovered around an A5 to A7 task.

Previously, I’d try to capture the ever elusive email “Inbox Zero” and would have responded to your email within a few short hours.

There is a part of me that is excited that I’m just getting to this email today, as the tasks that I’ve worked on these past five days have been EPIC on the scale of importance, especially the ones that were “Important But Not Urgent.”

However, when I come to an email like this, there is a part of me that wanders if there isn’t a way to do this to were some folks get priority treatment when it comes to responding to an email.

I’m working on it.

The email then continued on to respond to the URGENT request for help that he wrote to me about five days earlier. A request for assistance that I was then, at the time of responding to the email, four days too late to fulfill.

Want to know how this client responded? The following email response came in, this morning, after I had finished recording this episode. He wrote back and said….

Thanks for your note here. Hey I understand totally about prioritizing your time. As you become more and more successful that will increase as an absolute necessity.

… I have removed portion of email pertaining to the topic we were discussing …

I so appreciate your willingness to add your expertise to my ongoing work here.

There you go my friends. You see, this client, my single most important client wrote back and said that it was no problem that I did not fulfill his request to be available for his urgent request. Instead of being angry or let down, he reinforced my decision to “Do The Work That Counts” by saying that as I become more and more successful, the need to do this will increase as an absolute necessity.

In the episode, I quoted Peter Shallard’s post where wrote, “Shun the urgent. Allow it to sort itself. Notice how pointless email has a way of making itself irrelevant over time. Notice how those you’re supposed to be delegating to will take initiative on their own. If you’re a leader, support your team by leading a business built on doing the important stuff, not the urgent stuff. Ignore the urgent. Do work that counts.”

In this episode, I mention the following people on Twitter:
@hbgreg
@areynoldsre
@HandGPodcast
@CtlAltDeliver
@AlliWait
@TheRamenNoodle
@TinkHanson
@JGazMom
@AnsleyRDGroup

After you get a chance to listen, feel free to leave a comment here on this post! You can provide audio feedback for the podcast by calling the voice mail feedback line directly at 859-795-4067. You can also email an audio file to feedback@gspn.tv.

Don’t forget to tweet about your pursuit of a balanced life, joining us in the #PABL campaign.

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In this episode, Stephanie and I give our review of the movie, Breaking Dawn Part 1.

We encourage you to check out our podcast devoted to “The Hunger Games.” You can check out that podcast at http://HungerGamesPodcast.com

Stay subscribed to this podcast feed or be sure to get on our gspn.tv mailing list to be notified of our programming updates. You can join the mailing list at http://gspn.tv/mailinglist.

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