Leaning Toward Wisdom

Figuring it out. That’s the point of today’s show. Come to think of it…that’s the point of every episode. What are you most curious about? What would you most like to understand? Let’s scatter shoot and consider some things. We’ll see where it takes us. Here are just a few things we’ll talk about. My favorite shirts are made by Duluth Trading . Click Image...

  Finances are a big deal. The smaller your income, the bigger the deal. 😉 Let’s talk about a few important things: • The 3 steps to financial “know-how” = 1) know where you are, 2) know where you want to go and 3) figure out how to get there • The power of comparing ourselves against one another (it’s a negative power) • A heavy dose of commentary along the way (and...

  Matt D’Avella is a minimalist. He’s also a photographer and film maker. He directed the documentary, MINIMALISM featuring The Minimalists , described in Wikipedia as “The Minimalists are American authors, podcasters, filmmakers, and public speakers Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who promote a minimalist lifestyle.” My first exposure to this notion of mini...

Back in May I published a podcast episode entitled Spending Control: How’s That Working Out For You? A recent move required all kinds of seemingly extraneous spending. Okay, maybe not extraneous, but aggravatingly excessive from what I wanted. There’s moving, truck rentals, fuel, boxes, landscaping, appliances, window coverings, blah, blah, blah. Well, I’m currently embarking on...

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy Any fool can wish, but the wise plan. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” – Peter F. Drucker “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett Today&#8217...

Geoffrey (my dad) and me I wrote down the title of today’s episode on November 22, 2014 at 11:31pm. But that was then, this is now. It’s getting hot here in Dallas. About a week away from Thanksgiving in 2014. The beginning of the holiday season. Here in America the annual “holiday season” kicks off, literally on Thanksgiving week. Families will gather around big tables fil...

I’m going to take a few weeks off from LTW, but first…let’s talk about a few things, including podcasting, podcasting stats and the future (and the past). Thank you for giving me a chunk of your time and attention. Links: Ask The Podcast Coach (Dave Jackson) The Average Guy TV (Jim Collison) Earthworks ETHOS mic RodeCaster Pro 2 My other podcasts are GrowGreat.com and HotSpringsV...

Clayton M. Christensen died back in 2020. He was a 67-year-old Harvard Business School professor and management guru. He authored books, “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Clayton had leukemia. The title of today’s show was taken from a Wall Street Journal article about him. He was a man of faith, a Morman. While attending Oxford University, where he also p...

I’m biased. In favor of superior customer service. I’m fanatical about it. Always have been. I’ve spent my professional life operating retailing companies so delivering extraordinary customer experiences has been a top priority for me. And I know a secret – it’s not that hard once you make up your mind to deliver it. The problem is very few companies or professionals...

I cry every day. I laugh out loud every day. Until or unless we feel something…nothing changes. Feelings can drive our actions and behaviors. I’ve never known a person embark on growth or self-improvement until they first felt something that compelled a change. What are you trying to help people feel? What feelings do you hope you’re provoking others to have toward you? Please te...

PNC.com has these 10 recommendations in a post entitled, How To Stop Spending Money . Create a budget. Visualize what you’re saving for. Always shop with a list. Nix the brand names. Master meal prep. Consider cash for in-store shopping. Remove temptation. Hit “pause.” Think reusable. Keep at it! There are probably millions of lists like this. Some are just as profound as this on...

I’m blitzed with online articles about health, wellness, retirement, insurance and other things befitting an old guy. After all, I AM an old guy. Some days ago I saw an article that prompted today’s show. It was yet another article about retiring happy. A man working to prepare for his eventual retirement asked his financial planner for examples of people who were happy in retirement....

Will people mourn? Or throw a party? Will we have regrets about how we spent our time with others…when they’re gone? Stanley was my lifelong best friend. He died on Sunday May 12, 2013. It’ll be 10 years tomorrow. Ten years that I’ve been on the planet without him. I remember him fondly. If I had died first, I’m certain he’d be missing me, too. And I know he&#82...

1989. I was being courted by a business owner looking for new, fresh leadership. The business was located where Rhonda and I most wanted to be, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. The kids were in elementary school. Early elementary school. Life had been hectic for the previous 3 years. Situations had changed that were beyond our control – things that we didn’t feel were favorable for training an...

It’s a digital age and I fully embrace it. But I still need paper in my printer. Let’s ruminate on these and other urgent analog matters facing us in the digital age. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

  Jo Marsh is the dreamer and a scribbler character in Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women. Here’s an observation about her life in the book. “I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end.”   It means making a change. Improving. Doing something differently. Doing different thin...

Computers have a clock speed . The clock speed  measures the number of cycles your CPU executes per second, measured in GHz (gigahertz) . A “cycle” is technically a pulse synchronized by an internal oscillator, but for our purposes, they’re a basic unit that helps understand a CPU’s speed. The higher the clock speed, the faster the computer. There are other factors, but depending on yo...

There are about 9.84 BILLION search results for A.I. – which we mostly think stands for “artificial intelligence.” ChatGPT is the latest, greatest, coolest, trickest A.I. It is pretty spectacular. For mere mortals like me, I don’t know how A.I. improvement could even be measured, but I do know there’s a data gap that is a constraint. A.I. needs high-integrity data. I&...

It’s happened. The Yellow Studio is in a new iteration. Let’s catch up a little bit and talk about whatever version of your life you may be working on. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

“You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.” ―  John Irving,  The World According to Garp It’s time to say goodbye! Only to The Yellow Studio 2.0. It’s officially over. Done. Next week I’ll be getting The Yellow Studio 3.0 set up. Version 3.0 will be a transition studio that I hope will take me through the end of 2023. After that, I’m p...

The story may date back earlier than 1917. President Reagan made it famous because it was among his favorite jokes. That’s likely where I first heard it. A couple had twin boys who were six years old. Worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities – one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist – their parents took them to a psychiatrist. First, the psychiatrist treated th...

We’re closing in on saying goodbye to The Yellow Studio version 2.0. It’s where every podcast episode I’ve ever produced (other than a few field recordings) was recorded. But I’m looking forward to the next chapter, The Yellow Studio version 3.0. Lots of people want more money, but they don’t necessarily have any specific thing they want to do with it. They just think...

I leave a client’s office after a normal, but intense 2-hour conversation. These are common conversations for me. Twice, during the course of a few hours, the client grows visibly emotional. I love these moments because it means we’re speaking to issues of the heart. These are the things that really matter. As I walk to my car, leaving the client’s office building, I’m thin...

Let’s do some scatter-shooting today. Today’s show covers a few subjects: Our 45th wedding anniversary ( me and Rhonda, not me and you ) 😉 My hyper-local podcast, HotSpringsVillageInsideOut.com Spammers and scammers Personal pain Your ideal outcome / my ideal outcome – plan A may give way to plan M, O, or Z The Starfish Parable I’m an INFJ -Introvert, Intuitive, Feeler, Ju...

During the MLB playoff telecast of the NLCS between Philadelphia and San Diego, game 2, Fox analyst and Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz made an observation about failures. He remarked how nobody wants to be that guy who has a mishap or failure during a game… but if you allow it to pole vault you to success it can be a positive thing in your career . I’ve seen good athletic coaches app...