Stuff I Learned Yesterday

I thought the New Kids were amazing. Girls liked the New Kids because they were cute, I liked the New Kids because they were cool. I heard someone once say that girls want to be with the New Kids, and guys want to be the New Kids. That was certainly true for me. I bought magazines of them and hung their pictures on my wall. I studied their wardrobe and tried to find clothes that looked like them....

Making the world a better place doesn’t just happen from stages in front of crowds of strangers. Whether it’s your family, co-workers, colleagues, or a room full of total strangers, you have an opportunity before you. That opportunity is one that allows you to communicate love and encouragement, truth and compassion, kindness and generosity. Look around you, ponder, and consider how you might be a...

I've realized that I get most frustrated with my kids when they are making mistakes that I made when I was their age. Sometimes it’s something involving their friends, other times it’s the way they spend their money, and sometimes it’s mistakes I see them making with their boyfriend or girlfriend. It could be any number of mistakes really. When I talk with my wife about it, I usually end up saying...

I think it’s important to make a distinction in believing the Bible is true, and that the Bible should be taken literally. What I mean is, it’s possible to believe that the Bible is inspired by God, written down under inspiration by humans, and therefore, true (or inerrant). It’s also possible to simultaneously believe that the Bible should not be taken literally. Or better said, it’s possible to...

Today is the Monday Mailbag! In today’s episode I share contributions from Geoff, Barb, Colby, Bradley, and Andrew. Did you know that mail delivery has been around since the 1500s? In 1505, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I established a postal system in the Empire, appointing Franz von Taxis to run it. This system, originally the Kaiserliche Reichspost, is often considered the first modern postal s...

I love escape rooms. It’s no surprise really. I love all sorts of puzzles. Solving various puzzle-types is one reason I love The Legend of Zelda franchise so much. Once I learned about escape rooms, I had to try one out. To me, they seemed like a real life example of a Zelda dungeon puzzle. I remember asking my family about doing an escape room and it went just about like I expected. My son, who a...

When I left in 2013, I had my next job already lined up. I started my own company specializing in editing and launching podcasts. Over the last decade that company, Pro Podcast Solutions, has helped launch several hundred podcasts and we’ve edited tens of thousands of podcast episodes. When I quit my job I had two clients, and now I serve over 150 clients. The path from two to 150 has not been str...

As parents, we want to make lasting memories with our kids. We want to have shared experiences that make the bonds between us stronger. We want to give our kids the Disney experience. In preparing to write this episode I messaged my kids separately and asked them to share with me their three favorite memories that involve us as a family. I told them at least one parent had to be involved in the me...

To share one’s faith story, or testimony as you prefer, is to share how you came to faith in Jesus, and share how God has been active in your life. In today’s episode I’ll be sharing my story of coming to faith and some of what I’ve seen God do in my life. You may have noticed that I used two different qualifiers in that last sentence. I’ll only be sharing “some” things with you today because ther...

Hitting the wall is an expression typically applied to athletes, or more specifically, runners. When a runner "hits the wall," they experience an intense and abrupt state of exhaustion, where the body essentially runs out of fuel. This typically occurs during long-distance events, like marathons, around the 18 to 20-mile mark. Runners describe it as an almost instantaneous shift from feeling stron...

When we feel a calling yearning within us, we should listen to what it is saying and ponder how we should respond. In my case, when I listened to the voices of all those around me, those voices all confirmed what my inner voice was telling me to do. We should also take immediate action before that excitement and vigor have a chance to subside. Making goals and setting timelines are great ways to l...

To the best of my knowledge, I won’t be passing from this earth into eternity any time soon, but none of us know when our last breath will come. As motivating as that might be to cause one to contemplate his legacy, it’s a different life event that has caused me to focus on it. That life event involves my kids. That is, last year was my daughter’s senior year of high school, and this year is my so...

I never get tired of hearing the sound of the MGB GT starting up, and I thought it might be appropriate to record this final episode of the season in the very object that this season has been about. So I hope you don't mind the sounds of my car. I thought we'd take it for a little drive today. Every time I get in this car, it's a satisfying and joyful feeling. I can't help but get a smile on my fa...

Where does one begin rewiring a car? For me, the answer wasn’t as hard as it may seem. That decision had been made months before. You see, during the research and education phase of this process, I’d done a lot of work to figure out what wiring harness would be the best fit for my car. Because the MGB and MGB GT were made nearly unchanged for almost 20 years, getting parts for them is still quite...

On February 17, 1986 I turned 10 years old. Four days later Nintendo released a game that would become my favorite game franchise of all time. Released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, The Legend of Zelda captivated me like no video game, including any Mario game, had ever done before. The problem for me was, I owned a SEGA Master System, not a Nintendo. Fortunately, my friends down t...

For as long as I can remember, I’ve admired the way my dad has the ability to create with his hands. Some of my earliest memories involve interacting with his creations. My dad was a carpet layer, and a good one at that. He drove a full-size fan, and it only had seating of the two front captain’s chairs. The rear cargo area of the van was completely covered in carpet that dad installed himself. On...

Walking home from school discussing the flagpole moment that would live in infamy, Ralphie, Flick and Schwartz relived the triple dog dare moment as Randy toddled behind them. And then, they heard the laugh of Scut Farkus. Scut and his toad henchman, Grover Dill, yelled at, intimidated, and twisted the arms of the boys until the boys ran away, screaming for their lives. I’m sure most, if not all o...

A curious boy once asked a wise owl how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. The owl opted to conduct an experiment to determine the number. One…Two…Three…crunch! Three, the owl declared. In the longer version of this famous commercial, the cow, fox, and turtle all confessed they’d never been able to make it to the center without biting it, and clearly the owl ha...

I could feel the wind jostling my hair. It wasn’t the kind of wind that knocks you back, but it was there letting me know that at that height, there was nothing to obstruct it. Behind me I heard the words of my friends Charles and James cheering me on. When I took the first step that would eventually lead me to this place, my heart was full of courage and confidence. The obstacle seemed small, the...

When I was 5 years old my parents bought me a Mighty Tonka Off Road Adventure Buggy. The Tonka Adventure buggy looked something like a Ford Bronco of the era. It was about 14 inches long and about 8 inches high with large wheels. It was great for playing in the dirt, and turned my backyard into an off road race track. I’d stand behind the Tonka, lean down and put my hands on top of it, and push it...

Tucked away at The Factory at Franklin sitting at the table farthest from the door, there I sat listening to Cliff talk about goals and limiting beliefs. After teaching on these topics for a while he instructed us to turn to a blank page in our workbook and number it 1 through 25 down the left hand side of the page. He then gave us 10 or 15 minutes to fill out all 25 places with things that we wan...

In March of this year I brought back Stuff I Learned yesterday after being on hiatus for over 4 years. I had a burning desire to share the story arc that comprised all of last season. For some of you that listened to the original run of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, several of the stories shared last season were familiar because I’d shared them in some capacity on previous episodes of SILY. I shared...

When I first had the idea for what would eventually become last season’s episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, it wasn’t so I could share the story on SILY. What is now collectively known as “The Dream” season of Stuff I Learned Yesterday started as a yearning to share my story from the stage. In the fall of 2018 I attended a conference called Free the Dream which you’ll hear more about starting...

As I mentioned last week, I just started my ninth year as a full-time entrepreneur. I also said that it wasn’t my dream until it was my dream. We’ve spent this entire season looking at my dreams. We started when I was in high school and visited several dreams along the way. So how about you? What’s your dream? I’m serious I want to know. Not sure? Hit the pause button and give it some thought. If...

Eight weeks have passed since we started this season. The name of that first episode was called Birth of a Dream. That dream was to one day be an animator for Warner Brothers. I then killed that dream and then had no dream for the next few years. Then, after working at the bookstore long enough to see all the opportunities, I dreamed of becoming a buyer within that company. A few years later, I ac...