It’s always bizarre to me when people post pictures of themselves lying in a hospital bed, all connected to wires, on social media. This is not one of those posts, although the image is of me in a hospital office.
The Appointment
I admitted myself—or rather, scheduled an appointment—with the nurse practitioner at my primary care physician’s practice. I was experiencing the symptoms of sciatica. I’ve done some research, and everyone explains that sciatica is caused by a twisted vertebra or a bulging disc between vertebrae—what chiropractors call a subluxation.
I went to the appointment and labeled the visit “exploration into sciatica.” This way, the medical professionals already knew why I was there. I followed their line of questioning and relied on all the research I had done.
“Yes, I think that I have something wrong with a vertebra because I have shooting pain in the back of my leg, the back of my calf, and the top of my ankle. It’s worse when I sit for long periods or when I climb stairs, and it’s better after I do some stretching and take a mild walk.”
A Key Realization
Here’s where the story gets interesting. If I really think about it, I’ve never had any pain in my lower back. It really doesn’t hurt there. It hurts below that, in the muscle deep inside my gluteus maximus—aka my butt cheek.
A Conversation That Changed Everything
Afterward, I was chatting with my neighbor, we shall call him “Dr. J.”, although that is not the real name of this Dr. The Doctor became a pathologist because the doctor is sick of dealing with people, and I don’t blame the Doctor for this. I think it’s the same reason I became an instructional designer.
Anyway, he explained that there’s a syndrome that has the exact same symptoms as a lumbar vertebra out of place. Piriformis syndrome is when you pull a muscle that’s connected from your hip down into your leg. It’s often confused with a disrupted vertebra, causing the pinched nerve and shooting pain.
Listening to My Body
If I had just listened to my body, I would’ve known this. While I was in the doctor’s office, I relied on the knowledge I had gained from my research online. I was using that to inform my answers to the nurse practitioner’s questions.
It’s easy to judge myself on this in hindsight. After all, my logical brain is what I allow to drive my consciousness. However, if I had paused and listened, there would’ve been much less stress around this entire experience. Instead of having a messed-up back, I simply would’ve had a pulled muscle in my butt!
Final Thought
Either way, it is a total pain in the ass! But it didn’t need to cause me such alarm. It would not have caused me such alarm if I had slowed down long enough to listen to my self.
We also have people dying longer, we are able to keep people alive without much quality of life in many cases. We haven’t done a great job of making healthspan match up with lifespan, which is both miserable and unbelievably costly – and frightening.
Learning who your tribe isn’t can be just as valuable as learning who it is.
In my last post, I wrote about choosing yourself. I intended to go deeper into personal identity and the idea of pursuing multiple ideas to see which ones “choose you back,” but I didn’t quite get there. Those are threads I’ll come back to.
For now, I want to explore a related concept: focusing on the 33% of your audience who truly resonate with you.
That recent post was inspired by the song “Choose Yourself“.
The Podcast That Sparked This
This post was inspired by a recent podcast conversation with my friend Kassy LaBorie that will drop this week on The Spark Konnect – Podcast.
Kassy shared something interesting with me. The guest she had on before our episode was nothing like either of us. The guest was bold, outspoken, highly analytical, competitively athletic, and focused professionally on detecting deception through body language.
Her energy didn’t match Kassy’s at all. Kassy was candid—she found the interview difficult. So much so that she questioned whether she should publish it at all.
I argued that she should, and I want to explain why.
Discomfort and the Search for Truth
Let me go back to where this idea started for me.
In high school, I had an uncomfortable realization: if I truly valued thoughtful conversation—Socratic debate, the kind that leads to truth—then I would have to engage with people I didn’t agree with… or even like.
That’s not easy.
It requires accepting that your worldview might not be perfect. And that’s uncomfortable for anyone.
At a recent tour of an electrical manufacturing plant, the presenter said the equipment was not electrified. As a person of learning, I had to test his hypothesis.
Now fast forward to today, where many of us are creating content—podcasts, blogs, conversations—with friends, acquaintances, or even strangers. Some we agree with, some we partially understand, and some we fundamentally disagree with.
That spectrum matters.
Why You Should Share the Hard Conversations
If I only interview people who think, talk, and act like me, I’m doing a disservice to my audience.
If everyone on the Game Layer Podcast metaphorically “wears blue pants,” then the idea of blue pants as individuality loses meaning. It becomes uniform. It fades into sameness.
Truth doesn’t emerge from agreement—it emerges from challenge.
We grow by engaging with people who think differently. Not just people who prefer a different brand of peanut butter, but people whose perspectives fundamentally challenge our beliefs.
The Risk of Going Too Far
Of course, there’s a valid concern: what if the differences are too great?
What if someone’s worldview feels incompatible with your own?
That’s worth considering.
Maybe Kassy’s previous guest lives in a world neither of us would choose to inhabit. That’s okay. We can decide what we allow into our lives.
But even then, there’s still value.
We can learn from people we don’t understand. From people we don’t like. From people we don’t want to become.
Exposure expands our understanding of the human experience.
When Someone Challenges Your Core Belief
I experienced this firsthand in a podcast micro-episode I recorded a few months ago. I do a show on Game Learning and Creativity called GAMELAYER.
I spoke with someone whose industry doesn’t allow time for creativity or game-based learning. He said it plainly: he doesn’t have time for that.
Instead of pushing back, I listened.
Really listened.
By the end of the conversation, I found myself agreeing with him—even though his perspective challenged the core theme of my podcast: that life and work should include joy, creativity, and play.
My goal is to be in an environment where my creative strengths are used. That’s how I thrive.
People who thrive in that same way—those are my people.
But that doesn’t mean everyone needs to think like me. …and it definitely doesn’t mean every guest on my podcast should agree with my perspective.
In fact, the opposite is true. The show becomes stronger when it includes voices that challenge the premise.
New Office DIGS!
Because those are the same challenges these ideas will face in the real world.
What Kassy Did Right
When I listened to Kassy’s episode, I noticed something important.
She didn’t shut down.
She stayed open.
She listened to the perspective, asked questions, and acknowledged that the conversation stretched her—and would likely stretch her audience too.
That’s exactly the point.
The Skill Behind It: Deep Listening
Why did both of us approach it this way?
Part of it comes from our backgrounds in theater.
In theatre, listening isn’t passive. You listen with your whole body. You’re not analyzing someone to judge them—you’re trying to feel what they feel and understand their emotional state.
The other part comes from our work as facilitators.
Good facilitators seek first to understand, and then help others understand.
That’s the skill.
Final Thought
You don’t build a meaningful platform by only surrounding yourself with agreement.
You build it by engaging with difference—thoughtfully, intentionally, and with curiosity.
Because the goal isn’t just to find your tribe.
It’s to understand the full landscape of people—especially the ones who challenge you.
Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you. ~John Wooden
I don’t Choose Myself…AND that’s been the problem. I’ve spent my life choosing others’ expectations over myself—and I’m done.
Hey, I’m Dave Kolmer, the guy behind Improvement Dave. My word for the year is FOCUS. (Read more here.) Not as a slogan, but as a commitment to refine what matters and clear out what doesn’t. I need to:
CHOOSE MYSELF …and maybe that is something you need to work on, too.
A Song that Stayed With Me for Years
In this post, I will review a song. This is a song that I heard several years ago while doing yard work. The first time I heard this song, I stopped what I was doing, and I listened to it again. Then I saved it and sent it to myself.
I told myself I would blog about it, but then I didn’t write the post.
I told myself it didn’t fit my word of the year yet, so I set it aside.
The truth? This song scared me. I felt it too deeply. I started to feel like I would write this post when I was ready.
Ready for What?
To be ready to choose myself above other people. Something I don’t let myself do. I do not choose myself above other people because:
I am afraid others will perceive me as vain or arrogant.
I planned to paste the lyrics and react in classic Improvement Dave fashion, but you can read or listen to them yourself. Instead, I’m taking the heart of the song and responding more directly. I’m a creative person—something I once claimed proudly, then quietly traded for stability and responsibility. Therapy has made it impossible to ignore what that trade cost me.
I still need to create to be happy.
I still feel the daily pull to make things, which is why this song hits so hard. I’ve seen firsthand that about 30% of people love my work, 30% hate it, and 30% never notice—so my focus now is on serving the ones who care. And if you are reading this, then that is you.
While the idea of living without purpose sounds dreamy, it feels unrealistic; we all have responsibilities and that ever‑present pressure to do the things we’d rather avoid.
[You can see one of my biggest responsibilities to the right. My need to create has rubbed off on my son. He had a grouping of Pokémon cards he didn’t think were “rare,” so he made a shirt of them.]
I asked if I could post this online, and he said, “Sure, ” without a second thought… I could learn a thing or two from his confidence.
30% or 33.3%?
I still feel the daily pull to make things, which is why this song hits so hard. I’ve seen firsthand that about 30% of people love my work, 30% hate it, and 30% never notice—so my focus now is on serving the ones who care. And while the idea of living without purpose sounds dreamy, it feels unrealistic; we all have responsibilities and that ever‑present pressure to do the things we’d rather avoid.
I traded creativity for stability.
Maybe you’re doing the thing you have to do, not the thing you want to do. I enjoy my career, but some parts hit that familiar knot in my stomach—the fear that comes with admitting I might want something different. It’s like stepping onto a narrow bridge over a pit you’d rather not look into.
WHATIF
IFAIL?
The answer to this is we never fail. We either hit the nail square on the head or we find a moment of learning. It is a Win (+) or a Delta (Δ).
Ideas Out in Space
This quote from the song is liberating to me. It is freeing because I live with analysis paralysis on the daily.
“I have lots of ideas, how do I pick the right one? Execute on as many as possible. The right idea will pick you.”
There’s a theme running through several books I’ve read this year—Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. They suggest that ideas float around in the ether, waiting for someone ready to receive them. Sometimes they show up before we’re prepared; other times we’re ready but unwilling, and the idea moves on to someone who is.
I’ve brought a lot of ideas to life on this blog, but lately I’ve slowed down. I tell myself it’s because of my work on Gamelayer.fm, but that’s just an excuse. I should be using this space to support the podcast, and I haven’t followed through the way I intended.
Master of All Trades
I can quote the ending of the song out of order for once:
“Ultimately, mastery is about connecting the dots of many fields.”
IF we don’t let the mind drift and sit on the side of the road in quiet meditation, observing the thoughts pass. THEN we will never have a creative thought that is ours and ours alone. This is the great paradox of meditation. We are not quieting the mind; we are training the mind.
Master of All Trades
YOU are Kenough
Going back to the song in the order of appearance…
We are:
“…taught at an early age that we are not good enough.“
Organized education. School is supposed to prepare us for life, but mostly it just trains us to succeed at school. As Thomas J. Stanley argues in The Millionaire Mind, real success isn’t about grades or pedigree—it’s about the strength of your idea and the grit to make it happen.
Money Shot
“Get paid, get laid, lose weight.”
This is that old formula for chasing external validation. But choosing yourself means flipping that script. It’s not about pleasing others or mastering the right test answers; it’s about backing your own ideas and valuing your own voice. Success comes from knowing what you want, standing behind it, and moving with the kind of confidence that makes others follow your lead.
Be That Candle
“One candle can light a thousand other candles And still remain lit itself. Be that candle.”
You can earn money from others, but when you offer something real, and they value it, it isn’t taking — it’s exchanging light. That image reminds me of spiritual practice: one candle lighting another, each flame standing on its own.
The same goes for us. My wife says, “Don’t compare yourself to other people,” and she’s right. Choosing yourself means running your own race, slowing down when you need to, listening to your breath, and taking care of the body and mind you actually live in.
Silence
Mind focused, silence speaks volumes.
“Out of silence comes the greatest creativity Not when we are rushing and panicking.”
Choosing yourself means honoring that silence, stepping out of the race that was never yours to run. Don’t trade your health or your mind for money, status, or a title. Golden handcuffs still sink you, and losing yourself is too high a price. When you choose others’ expectations over your own life, you drown long before you notice you’ve gone under.
So here it is
I’m choosing myself. I am making myself write the post, This post, the one I feared I could never write…
You should, too.
Because…
“If you don’t choose yourself, someone else will.”
What do you think? Does this resonate with you? What is a small change you can make today to start Choosing Yourself?
Work Cited
Work Cited
Altucher, J. (2013). Choose Yourself!: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream. Choose Yourself Media.
Ellenberg, J. (2014). How not to be wrong: The power of mathematical thinking. Penguin Press.
Stanley, T. J. (2000). The millionaire mind. Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Starslinger (2019). Choose Yourself [Song].
Did you like this article? Then you might LOVE the GAMELAYER Podcast.
A friend of mine, Lisa, recently made a post where she asked ChatGPT to roast her year.
At first glance, it made me pause. It’s easy to wonder why someone would willingly invite criticism—especially in a professional space like LinkedIn, where we’re often curating a highlight reel of wins, confidence, and forward momentum. Why choose vulnerability when Polish feels safer?
Confidence, Vulnerability, and the Courage to Learn in Public
I think about this tension a lot.
On one side, we’re taught—explicitly and implicitly—that confidence is currency. Confidence communicates competence. It signals decisiveness. It reassures others that you know what you’re doing and that you’re someone worth following. In many professional environments, confidence is treated as a prerequisite for leadership.
And yet, there’s a paradox hiding in plain sight.
The most grounded, durable confidence doesn’t come from pretending we’re flawless. It comes from being comfortable with vulnerability.
True confidence allows room for honesty. Vulnerability requires admitting shortcomings—sometimes publicly. That can feel risky, especially when your professional reputation feels like it’s always on display.
But here’s the learning that keeps resurfacing for me: Confidence and vulnerability are not opposites. They’re partners.
Walking, after all, is just a controlled state of falling. Learning works the same way. Growth is a controlled state of failure.
When we fail safely—with reflection, intention, and humility—we create the conditions for real professional development. We experiment. We stretch. We discover what doesn’t work so we can find what does.
And when some of us choose to do that learning out loud, something powerful happens.
We don’t just grow ourselves—we create permission for others to grow too. We normalize learning. We model courage. We quietly say, You don’t have to have it all figured out to be worthy of progress.
That’s why Lisa’s post stuck with me. And it’s why I decided to do it too.
I asked for the roast. And yes—I posted it on LinkedIn.
Not because I enjoy discomfort, but because I believe leadership is less about appearing perfect and more about serving others through honesty, learning, and example.
A Simple Framework for Staying True While You Grow
Professional development doesn’t require you to abandon who you are. In fact, the best growth happens when you stay grounded in your values while stretching your capabilities. Here’s a four-step approach I’ve found helpful.
1. Anchor Yourself in Honesty
Growth starts with an accurate view of reality. Be honest with yourself about what’s working and what isn’t. This isn’t self-criticism—it’s self-awareness. Leaders who serve others well begin by telling themselves the truth.
Ask: What am I avoiding because it’s uncomfortable to admit?
2. Choose a Growth Mindset Over Image Management
When protecting your image becomes the goal, learning slows down. A growth mindset shifts the question from “How do I look?” to “What am I learning?” Failure becomes data, not a verdict.
Progress beats polish—every time.
3. Be Brave Enough to Be Vulnerable (Strategically)
Vulnerability doesn’t mean oversharing. It means sharing with purpose. When you talk about struggles in the context of learning, you build trust and credibility. You show others that growth is possible—and ongoing.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s acting in alignment with your values despite it.
4. Lead Through Service, Not Perfection
Servant leadership is rooted in helping others grow, succeed, and feel seen. When you model learning in public, you remove pressure from others to be flawless. You create psychological safety—and that’s where teams, organizations, and individuals thrive.
Leadership isn’t about standing above others. It’s about creating space for them to rise.
It was on the same chat as my LinkedIn Post
When I created my roast I used the same thread or discussion I used to shape up the Linked In Post I sent to my computer using What’s App. I dictate my writings into my phone while I am making bread or doing dishes or driving. That makes my writing more conversational and fluid. It also makes me more honest.
My 2025 Roast from Chat GPT
A Gentle Roast of Dave’s Decision-Making & Habits (2025 Edition)
Dave, your biggest decision-making strength is also your most reliable self-sabotage tool.
You don’t just think deeply—you think iteratively. Relentlessly. You revisit ideas like they’re sourdough starters that might finally be ready this time. You ask for version two. Then shorter. Then punchier. Then warmer. Then more UX. Then more servant leadership. Then “work slowly for accuracy.” Then—somehow—more minimal but also richer.
Your brain does not ship products. It cultivates ecosystems.
You are incredibly clear on values and hilariously indecisive on final forms. You know exactly what kind of leader you want to be, but you’ll rearrange the deck chairs on a single paragraph for 45 minutes because “the tone isn’t quite there yet.”
Your decision-making pattern in 2025 could be summarized as:
“This is good. But what if it were truer?”
Which is noble. And also exhausting.
Your Habits, Lovingly Roasted
• You start excellent things more often than you finish good enough things. • You treat clarity like a moving target instead of a milestone. • You have strong opinions about colors, frameworks, leadership, and learning—but need external confirmation before declaring something “done.” • You are deeply allergic to premature confidence, yet secretly wish you could borrow some without losing integrity. • You believe in learning in public… but still hesitate before hitting “post,” just in case it could be 10% better.
You don’t procrastinate. You refine defensively.
Your Relationship With Failure
You talk about failure beautifully. Poetically, even.
You believe learning is a controlled state of failure— but you still want the safety rails bolted on, color-coded, and peer-reviewed before you fall.
You want to be brave and responsible. Vulnerable and helpful. Bold and accurate.
Which means sometimes the riskiest thing you do… is thinking about the risk a little longer.
The Irony (This Is the Roast’s Core)
You already act like the leader you’re trying to become.
You practice servant leadership. You center reflection. You value honesty over polish.
But you occasionally delay impact because you want your intent to be unmistakable.
Here’s the hard truth, delivered with respect:
People don’t need your work to be perfect to be helped by it. They need it to be real—and released.
Final Roast Line (Affectionate, but True)
Dave, you are not stuck because you lack clarity. You’re stuck because you have too much integrity to rush and too much care to simplify.
Your next level of leadership won’t come from better thinking. It will come from deciding sooner, trusting your values, and letting the work be slightly unfinished—on purpose.
Which, ironically, is exactly the lesson you’ve been teaching all year.
Learning in Public Is a Gift
Sharing our learning edges won’t be comfortable—and it’s not supposed to be. But when done thoughtfully, it becomes an act of service.
So yes, I did the roast. And I shared it.
Not because I have all the answers—but because I’m committed to the process. To honesty. To growth. To becoming the kind of leader who learns visibly, serves intentionally, and invites others to climb toward higher ground alongside me.
And if that inspires even one person to be a little braver in their own development, then it’s worth it.
Where did that cover image come from?
Chat GPT made it…
This is the image I asked CHAT GPT to use to generate the cover image for this post:
Hosting determines where your podcast lives, but broadcasting determines where people listen. All you do is copy the RSS feed link from your host. Then you can paste it into as many podcast aggregation sites as you want, and they will play your show!
Apps like Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or Amazon Music etc. will offer your show on their platform.
In the image above, the data is sent back to Podbean via RSS feed too.
Fine Print
Spotify will host video, but RSS feeds generally distribute audio only. That’s fine—most podcast listeners expect audio.
If you need to edit an episode after publishing, then upload a new version to your host. The new file will replace the old one across platforms.
Your Show is Playing, Now What
Well, you can sit back and relax. Focus on finding your next show topic or person to have on your show.
Get it Out There
Now that you have the show, you can also create some buzz around it. Be sure to mention that you have a Podcast so people know about it. The easiest way to do this is to mention it to potential guests on your show.
REELS
When you use Riverside or Descript, they automatically generate 1-minute reels for you. You can download these and share them on Social Media. While you are at it you can start social media pages for your show. It won’t hurt!
Another way to get the news out is to write about your show. A simple way to do this is to use the Newsletter function on LinkedIn. If that is not your vibe, then create a blog on WordPress.com or a Newsletter on something like Substack or Ghost. These are good places to paste your show notes and your transcripts. They also provide a vehicle for releasing paid content after you get the show off the ground.
Are you Game?
Speaking of sharing your show, I would like to introduce my Podcast. GAMELAYER is a series of personal interviews. I interview a wide variety of professionals who have used Gamification both inside and outside of the learning industry. Season 1 opens asking, “What is Play?” “What are Games and why do we love them?” Season 2 is widening to the Game of the Entrepreneur.
IAB certification is useful for having paid advertisements on your show. It is an independent organization that has set standards around play and download data collection.
Picking the Right Host
I wanted unlimited storage, so I looked at Podbean, RedCircle, and Anchor. RedCircle offered free unlimited storage but lacked strong analytics. Podbean was listed as very easy to use, but unlimited storage was a paid feature. Anchor, however, was free, had unlimited storage and robust analytics—but then I found it had been acquired by Spotify.
My Advice
Host on Spotify. It’s free, has strong analytics, and integrates seamlessly with podcast distribution. (In April of 2024, Spotify left the IAB Certification. There is speculation that they are so big that they don’t “feel they need it.” This has not helped their image.) The analytics at Spotify are great, and some say they are starting their own standard. If Spotify goes away, we have bigger problems than our Podcasts not playing anymore.
People donot know, and they do not care where you host.
Make sure you pick a host that you are happy with. Try to find one you feel you will remain happy with. It is possible to switch, but you will need a backup of your episodes. You will lose the original post date if you ever switch to a new host.
Editing video or audio isn’t fun for most people. Unfortunately, it’s also where you’ll spend most of your time if you want a high-quality podcast. Some podcasts skip editing, relying on the value of the conversation or the novelty of the guests. If there is one optional step, this is it, but these days, it really isn’t optional. Now that celebrities are involved, and the word PODCAST has become a common household word, professional editing has become essential.
Most online platforms will record and then allow you to edit on the web. These web-based editors are always limited by nature. Having all of the options that a computer-based editor will have is not practical for bandwidth reasons. That being said, they have enough for a podcast.
Easier Editing
Here are some tips and tricks:
Use a dog whistle (or another signal) to mark sections that need cutting. The microphone picks it up, even if listeners don’t hear it. (Dogs will hate your show if you don’t take it out in post-production.)
Accept silence—don’t feel the need to fill every moment with talking. Keep it natural.
Use AI enhancement. Platforms like Riverside.com offer AI-enhanced audio, remove pauses, analyze content, and even suggest edits.
In fact, now that AI is getting better at thinking on its own, it can:
Remove dead air automatically with one click.
Adjust sensitivity for removing filler words like “um” or “uh.”
Generate transcripts
Highlight off-topic sections, letting you decide whether to keep or cut them.
Get Your Intro/Outro Straight
Having a prerecorded introduction and outro (Conclusion) to your show is a huge time saver in editing. An additional benefit is the repeated content forms branding around the show. The listener remembers the opener, and it sets the stage and creates a memorable experience.
Export
Once you’re satisfied, Riverside lets you upload directly to Spotify or other platforms. You can also download the files to add branding or for backup purposes. Direct upload is faster. Spotify will take a video file and host it as a video. Then it “broadcasts” the audio to Podcast apps (which is the next step).
I was honored to present at the first-ever (and I pray not the last) Lunch and Unlearn at:
Background
I was asked to contribute to an event with ATD CORE4. The Lunch and Unlearn is a simple and UN-SERIOUS take on the traditional Lunch and Learn, and I am honored that Bianca Woods thought of me. I did my best to not take it too seriously. This is my first dry run through to get a time for my part. I went a bit over on time in the prep recordings. I added some timers at the bottom of my PowerPoint slides, and I was right on time at the virtual LUNCH AND UNLEARN event!
“This event is ‘special’.” ~Bianca Woods
Second Dry Run
To prepare for the sessions, I made recordings of myself presenting. The nice thing about these is that they are over 4 minutes (my allotted time to speak). So, they add more context.
Seriously? Only 4 minutes?
I took this as a challenge to view my presentation in the same way. To not see it as a small thing, even though I only had 4 minutes to present. It reminded me of a learning event that a friend, Kassy LaBorie, shared with me. She had to present her entire brand and purpose on a big stage in front of a live audience. She only got 1 minute to speak. If she could do all that in a minute, surely I can do an “unlearn” session in 4 minutes. I even created a social post around my SPEAK!
Content
I wanted to start with a bit of my background, education, and work history. Then I shared a favorite TED talk for context.
Then I just had to do a mock-up of the old Learning Objective / 3-step process:
How to NOT get Credit
💥APPLY
💥BUY
💥DON’T PAY
First Dry Run
To show how Instructional Design and Facilitation is a fluid and iterative process. I want to share the original Dry Run Recording. This was from when I was still developing this program.
I recently conducted a test recording using Riverside.FM, and it exceeded my expectations. The platform asked dynamic, open-ended questions that really got me talking. Although it was just a demo, I had a blast creating it, and the end result provided a great description of my upcoming radio show, #GAMELAYER.
Riverside.fm Test Recording
Why Publish Unrehearsed Content?
Initially, I had no plans to publish my first experience with Riverside.FM. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities. It offered high-definition recordings for multiple participants and provided a range of video editing tools and open-source music. While I couldn’t add transitions to images or videos, I could fade music in and out. Overall, it was impressive for a free platform. As someone who loves using free software (much to the dismay of my computer engineer friends), I was thrilled.
What’s Next?
I’ve been working hard on editing the first episode of #GAMELAYER, which features a series of phone tag audio messages sent via text. I’m torn between using the original low-fi recordings to emphasize the casual nature of phone chats or enhancing the audio for a more professional sound. I think I’ll publish the high-quality version as a podcast and host the low-resolution version on the transcript page of my Substack newsletter.
Gamelayer.fm
I recently purchased the domain Gamelayer.fm but haven’t successfully linked it to my Substack account. Instead, it redirects to Substack’s main page, which isn’t very useful. I’m considering building a landing page with Parallax animations on Amazon AWS, but I’ve read that the process might be similar to linking to a Substack account, which could be just as challenging. For now, I have some ideas, but they’re still in development.
Build It
Currently, my focus is on recording the show. However, I might need to reach out to experts to help launch the webpage. Alternatively, I can let the podcast distribute across platforms via Red Circle for now and work on the webpage after the show’s official launch.
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
I recently made a short simply thanking people who are supporting me and updating the world on what I am working on. I posted it on LinkedInhere.
The Post:
THANKS all Around today! 🙏 🫂 Thanks to Matthew Pierce 🎦 for sharing the wisdom of just hitting the play button. Thanks to Betty Dannewitz 📻 for getting me on the RADIO SHOW train. Thanks to Paul Smith ♟️ for talking about his “labor of love”, making games.
The Outcome
People who do not follow my blog liked and commented on the post. People in my organization gave it a thumbs up and a heart. My mentor sent me a text and told me the post was very nice. When we give credit where credit is due, and we say thank you to those who have helped us, we build out a network. We build community.
“If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?”
Improvement Dave 