Category: writing

Do We Change?

Not bad for a first date

The Fail

When Uber first started offering rides through a mobile phone app, a lot of people thought it was a massive change. You’d hear things like, “Why would you want to get a taxi through an app from someone you don’t even know?” or “I just don’t think it’s safe to get a ride with Uber.”

Fast-forward to 2026, and I have a great-aunt who still won’t ride in an Uber. That’s totally her decision, even if it’s one I don’t entirely understand.

It’s true that Uber disrupted the market. It’s also true that the company has changed how the industry operates, including how drivers are compensated. At least, that’s what I’ve heard from the Uber drivers I’ve chatted with over the past couple of years.

But here’s where things get interesting.

I’m catching an early flight today to attend an ATD learning conference. Last night, something happened for the first time: I tried to schedule an Uber, and the app told me there were no drivers available for my selected time.

How does that happen?

There weren’t just no drivers available to pick me up. Apparently, there weren’t any available to schedule a future ride, either. This has never happened to me before. Is it a sign of a larger trend? I have no idea. It’s one personal experience, not a market analysis. But it got me thinking.

So, what did I do?

I opened Lyft, Uber’s competitor. I’d never used the app before, but within minutes, I was logged in and had a ride booked. Well, almost. I’d accidentally scheduled it for 5 p.m. instead of 5 a.m. Fortunately, changing the time was easy.

And you know what? I actually liked the interface better. The questions made more sense to me, and the whole process felt faster and smoother.

Not bad for a first date.

Here’s the point.

When Uber entered the market, people were skeptical. Some were alarmed by the idea. Others eventually embraced it as the next big thing. Then it became normal. Somewhere along the way, people stopped saying, “I’m going to call a taxi,” and started saying, “I’m going to get an Uber.”

That’s some serious brand recognition. You can’t buy your way into that kind of cultural relevance.

Things Have Changed Over Time

And there’s another piece to this story: how drivers get paid. Uber has changed its approach over the years. In 2022, it tested a new pay system in 24 U.S. cities that let drivers see a trip’s expected pay and destination before accepting it. The system also adjusted pay to encourage drivers to accept shorter trips. Today, Uber uses a variable service fee, meaning the difference between what a passenger pays and what a driver earns can change from trip to trip.

Uber says this flexibility helps balance affordable rides for customers with earnings opportunities for drivers. But from a driver’s perspective, the question remains pretty simple: Is the money worth the time, fuel, vehicle expenses, and effort? When drivers have other platforms to choose from, that calculation matters. <Cite refs=

But brand recognition isn’t a force field.

You can have a household name, a familiar app, and millions of people who instinctively think of you first. But if your business decisions leave your drivers unhappy, those drivers might stop logging in. And if there aren’t enough drivers available, customers might start looking elsewhere.

That’s when the competition you’ve spent years overshadowing starts looking pretty appealing.

So, do we change?

Maybe the better question is: What actually changes, and what stays the same?

Before Uber, we had competing taxi companies. Customers chose among them based on availability, price, and service. Companies that met people’s needs had an opportunity to thrive. Those that didn’t risked losing business.

Now we have Uber and Lyft.

The technology is different. The apps are different. The branding is different. But the underlying dynamics of competition haven’t changed all that much.

People still want a reliable ride. Drivers still want a fair deal. And customers still want a service that works when they need it.

The little supercomputers we carry around in our pockets haven’t changed human nature. They’ve just given us a new way to act on it.

And sometimes, all it takes is one frustrating experience to remind us that we have options.

#ImprovementDave

What are your thoughts?

Work Cited

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/exclusiveuber-revamps-driver-pay-algorithm-in-large-us-pilot-to-attract-drivers-2772968

Why Be Better?

Improvement is good.
Improvement with intention serving a greater purpose is GOLDEN.

A Contradiction Walks Into a Brand

There is a dichotomy that I want to talk about.

The concept of improvement is my brand, but in the same way that businesses should not always be trying to grow, people should not constantly be trying to improve.

This may sound counterintuitive coming from a man whose brand is to CHOSE TO IMPROVE; you might think that matches Lowe’s: never stop improving. However, there is a contradiction here…

Running at 80%—On Purpose

Think about the 80% capacity principle: businesses should not be run at 100% all the time. The most successful businesses are run at around 80% capacity because then you have 20% left for overflow, training, cleaning out the garbage, and repainting the walls.

Brown Sugar, White Sugar, and a Metaphor That Almost Works

Personal development bleeds over into professional development, and trying to separate the two is sort of like separating brown sugar after it has been mixed with white sugar.

The metaphor is incredibly strong, but…

Well, you get the point.

Thailand, Take Two

Last year, I had the joy of revisiting Thailand, where I cut my teeth in the education world.

I was a theater student. I made it over to Thailand to teach English as a second language and ended up discovering that the world of education was better than the world of theater for me—or at least it was then.

Hot Water, Cold Water, No Metrics

The point is, I found myself in the same old hot spring—the one just east of downtown Lampang.

Water so hot, you can boil chicken eggs in 17 minutes

Chae Son is a small village in Lampang Province. It has a natural hot spring that comes up from the Earth next to a waterfall and a river that comes from God-knows-where. For some reason, the water is incredibly cold, so you might say it comes from melting ice somewhere up on the mountain.

Or at least that’s what I like to think.

A short hike up a mountain to see a glorious waterfall pays dividends of lived experience.

I was sitting in the hot spring, and for the first time in maybe a year or two, I found an absolute sense of peace—of calm. I found the teachings of the Buddhist meditation masters of the area in action.

In that moment, I realized.

I like Thailand.

I like how they have a lower set of expectations. I like how there is actually a balance between doing things and not doing things there.

Thailand has an additional option on the table that we lack in the United States of America: the option of non-doing, or inaction.

[I checked, I don’t have a picture of the private bath house where I had this realization, I chose inaction in that moment, but I have other pictures that are most definately more interesting to look at and have a higher compoositon value, like this one of the place wehre the hot spring meets the cold river:]

Growth, Growth, Growth—Until Something Bursts

I instantly thought of my time working in corporate America for Macy’s, Lowe’s, and horrific insurance companies that I will not name here.

The weekly meetings about year-over-year growth:

This year we raised this metric, and that’s what you’ve gotta do. Raise all the metrics, all the time.

Always growing, like a cancerous cyst.

The International-School Math Is Not Mathing

In that moment in the hot spring, I realized that I want to move back to Thailand.

Financially, it’s a terrible idea.

I would have to send my kids to an international school, which would cost somewhere between $2,000 and $4,000 a month because they don’t speak Thai. I would most likely go back to teaching English, barely making enough money to cover my own children’s tuition at an international school.

Of course, there’s a possibility that they could attend the school where I teach, and then there would be a discount.

But then I would work at the school where my children go.

That’s something I don’t wanna’ do.

I took this picture on the way from dropping my kids off at school.

So Where Does This Leave Me? Me?

Stranded somewhere in the middle of the United States, working a job that makes a lot of money, spending enormous amounts on taxes, insurance premiums, and—don’t forget—medical expenses.

Paying off expensive cars with reasonable interest rates.

Paying off two mortgages with interest.

Living comfortably, with my parents close by to help watch the kids.

Perhaps watching my wife silently suffer through living in an alien land where continuous growth and cancerous expansion are seen as holy attributes.

The full episode advertized in the above Insagram reel drops Friday September 4th 2026 on GAMELAYER.fm

Disney World and the Parenting Rulebook That Does Not Exist

What is the other option?

To go against the grain in the United States, I suppose. To live in this land where I make enormous amounts of money—compared to Thailand, at least—and find ways not to spend it.

Is that life?

Is that the life that’s best for my children?

To say, “No, we can’t go to Disney World”?

To say, “Yes, I’d like to take you to Europe, but only Mommy and Daddy can go”?

This is why parenting always gets messy. There’s no rulebook. There’s no guidebook. And yet, somehow, we find a way to do what we think is best for our children.

The Grass Is Greener Until You Miss the Guardrails

I know that someday I will find myself in Thailand again, and I will long for the rigor and structure of the United States.

The safety that comes from having safety standards and laws that are followed and enforced by an effective police force.

But for now, all I can do is look around, find what’s good, and embrace it.

Maybe Better Is Not More

Maybe I can even take a little bit of wisdom from my time on the mountain.

I can realize that where I am is my home—and that there is always the ability to retreat into my own mind and embrace the comfort of inaction.

To find peace.

Or I can write a blog post about how improvement is good—but not at the cost of mental well-being or peace.

“Practice inaction, occupy yourself with doing nothing.”…
“Rushing into action, you fail.
…Trying to grasp things, you lose them.”
~LAO TZU

David Kolmer is a learning experience designer, gamification strategist, writer, and podcast host who helps organizations turn training into engaging, behavior-changing experiences. With over a decade of experience in corporate learning and leadership development, he designs practical, human-centered programs that blend play, technology, and business outcomes to drive real performance. ビッド・コルマーは、学習体験デザイナー、ゲーミフィケーション・ストラテジスト、ライター、そしてポッドキャストのホストとして、組織が研修を、参加者の心をつかみ行動変容を促す体験へと昇華させる支援を行っています。企業内学習およびリーダーシップ開発の分野で10年以上にわたる経験を持つ彼は、「遊び」「テクノロジー」「ビジネス成果」を融合させた実践的かつ人間中心のプログラムを設計し、組織の真のパフォーマンス向上を牽引しています。
David Kolmer

Walking Out Before the Sunrise

Hey, It’s me, Dave. You may not have heard from me in a while. I promised I would have a Year of FOCUS, and then I fell off the map. Where did I go? Well, I have been working on my podcast, but also… I think the Muse left town for a while. and that’s OK. that is how the Muse do.

Charged

I have been making recordings on GAMELAYER RADIO, as I mentioned above, and the last two have included creative writing. Here is a player with the episode that has been published:

I think that put a bug under me a bit… but then I got a nudge from a thought leader named David Kelly because I commented on one of his posts. Then he shared that he started a thing called Amplify. I read his opening statement, and it resonated so well that the article below just fell off my fingers. So now, I want to share both of them.

Learning is Still Learning

Now more than ever, we are flooded with too much information and too many buzzwords. But it is still the same game. If you find a way to really help someone do something better—if you find them a solution worth sharing—then you are in the game. I really like the concept of curating content that is high on value and low on noise.

Is this a Fork in the Road?

Just yesterday, I had a meeting with the VP of Member Engagement of the company I work for, and we were discussing my career path. Sales? Nope. Marketing? Warmer… Creating videos at live events for the marketing and conferences team? Now… that could work!

Wait… but do I still get to keep my Learning and Development hat? Will I ever have time to wear it? It feels like our industry is built on shifting sands, and AI is shaking things up. It is the MP3/Napster phase of learning—the democratization of the learning industry; And yet, just as having a sword doesn’t make you a warrior, having a shiny new automatic content-creation tool doesn’t make you a seasoned learning artifact designer.

But Does Learning and Development Love Me Back?

I love working in Learning and Development, and I dare say I’ve been doing it long enough that I know what I’m doing. A master’s degree doesn’t hurt, but the time in the trenches is where the real value comes from. The hours spent standing on stage with a live group of learners. That is the secret sauce. A new tool or an LLM cannot replace that.

We can beat that drum all we want, but the fact of the matter is that the deck space on our boat is shrinking. Organizations are cutting their learning teams because we have traditionally been the first to go. We are the amphibians of the workforce—the indicator species. When the frogs die, you know your water has gone bad.

Where Do We Go From Here?

So what is the solution? Are you looking at me? Are you still reading? The answer is in the AGILE. The solution is in being nimble. Or to be fatalist… adapt or die.

If I can still add value (and draw a paycheck) by traveling to conferences and generating high-quality video content organized by secretive learning objects and edited against a learning goal… then that’s what I will do. Work begets work, and action brings good fortune. The only ones in Learning and Development who will be thrown out with the bathwater are those who latch on to what the learning industry was. Those of us who survive will embrace the new sunrise. My plan is to be walking out in the cold dew before it arrives.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

~Pablo Picasso

headshot of David Kolmer.
David Kolmer is a learning experience designer, gamification strategist, writer, and podcast host who helps organizations turn training into engaging, behavior-changing experiences. With over a decade of experience in corporate learning and leadership development, he designs practical, human-centered programs that blend play, technology, and business outcomes to drive real performance. ビッド・コルマーは、学習体験デザイナー、ゲーミフィケーション・ストラテジスト、ライター、そしてポッドキャストのホストとして、組織が研修を、参加者の心をつかみ行動変容を促す体験へと昇華させる支援を行っています。企業内学習およびリーダーシップ開発の分野で10年以上にわたる経験を持つ彼は、「遊び」「テクノロジー」「ビジネス成果」を融合させた実践的かつ人間中心のプログラムを設計し、組織の真のパフォーマンス向上を牽引しています。

Your Brain Is Curating Your World

Synchronized Synchronicity (Or Maybe Just Paying Attention)
Today is Cinco de Mayo:
A holiday many United States of Americans treat like Mexico’s Independence Day.

Cinco de Mayo and Perception

Cinco de Mayo. or, what it really is “5th of March.”

It marks a single battle in 1862, but here in the U.S., it’s been repackaged into something else entirely: a reason to drink.
I’m not drinking right now —
And I’m not sure I ever want to again.

What Is Synchronicity?

This post is about synchronicity. At times in my life, I perceived this phenomenon in an overzealous or spiritual way. I like the idea of mysterious forces working behind the scenes, and I’m sure that plays a big part in our experience. But I don’t want to delve too deep into that side of this here—not because I don’t believe it, but because I don’t want to waste energy trying to prove something that isn’t provable.

My point here is that we all live in the same universe, and that universe is connected to itself. As much as we would like to perceive ourselves as individual participants in the ecosystem, the truth is that through our surroundings, we are all connected to each other.

A Series of Events

What got me thinking about this was a series of events that happened to me over the past month. Actually, all of it happened in the last week.

Let me start by just saying my family loves to go to Babler State Park, just southwest of St. Louis city in Missouri. We go there at least a few times a year.

Leaning Into Community

I’ve gotten fully involved in my local chapter of ATD. (That is the Association of Talent Development in St. Louis.) The local chapter has been very supportive of my trying to grow as a professional into being a better instructional designer and training facilitator. The relationship has grown to the point where I’m now serving on the board as the Director of Educational Technology. Being on the board means that I know a lot more about what’s going on and what’s being offered by the chapter.

ALT="Wide Angle of ATD members standing under tree at Babler State Park."

So when something came up about networking in nature, I raised my hand right away and said I’m there, whatever you need me to do. I think there were some discussions about what parks we all liked in the area, so I probably mentioned that I like Castlewood, Babler, and Creve Coeur Park. So this event ended up happening in Babler.

Back to Babler

As we were preparing for the event, I was talking with Sarah Garner, who is organizing the whole thing, and I was joking with her. I said, I’m going on a field trip next week—guess where it is? It’s at Babler. She responded with a 😆.

So I went to that event last week at Babler, and our meeting spot was right next to the pavilion that our family always goes to.

Geocaching Enters the Picture

Then, a couple of days later, I was recording a podcast with Dave Smiderle – from Burlington, Ontario, Canada; and since this is GameLayer, we were talking about games and learning. Out of the blue, Dave brought up geocaching. Where you use GPS to find specific coordinates on a map. Someone leaves you a treasure, you fill out the log, put in a new treasure, and then continue on your hike.

Geocaching, a man looking for a hide in a wooden cavity
Two people finding a geocache in the forest. Shallow depth of field with sharp focus on woman.

I mentioned to Dave S. that I’ve heard about geocaching from some art friends in college who loved the adventure of the whole thing.

That episode is dropping soon, and you can hear more about it there.

The Moment of Synchronicity

Just yesterday, I received a text message on an app called ClassDojo from my child’s teacher. She shared that we will be traveling to Babler State Park and partaking in a geocaching activity. Now, in my inner self, I sensed the synchronicity of everything that was happening in my life. In the podcast with Dave, I expressed a deep interest in getting into geocaching, and I meant it. And it feels to me like my sincere interest is what caused the activity at the field trip I’ll be at next Thursday to be geocaching.

ALT="Picture of a young girl exploring the hollow inside a tree."

A Rational Counterpoint

One could easily argue that I’m making this all up, and I think that is a perfectly rational stance. Here’s why: now I’ve been talking about geocaching more, and a colleague at work named Karen said, “Oh, geocaching—I used to do that with my kids.” Now I’m learning more about the process from her. I’m not arguing that there’s some underground magic happening behind the scenes.

It’s coming up more because I’m thinking about it and talking about it more. …right?

So What’s the Point?

So, what’s my point in all of this, you ask?

My point here is that if you seek something out and set your intention on something, then that thing will find you. Half because you’re looking for it, and half just because you notice it more. It might be a bit of a stretch to argue that the universe is going to rearrange itself around your intentions and desires, but after a while, it really does sort of feel like that.

Bringing It Back to Beer

Let me tie it back into drinking—or not drinking alcohol—Or drinking NA—for Cinco de Mayo. While I was at Babler State Park for the ATD networking-in-nature event, I looked in the cooler and saw my favorite non-alcoholic (NA) beer. It is Athletic. It’s a beer that’s brewed to be nonalcoholic. They are NOT trying to reproduce some other famous beers without the alcohol.

This results in an incredibly delicious beer-like beverage, which just happens to not have alcohol in it. If I hadn’t made the conscious decision over the last couple of years to cut alcohol out of my life, I wouldn’t have known about this beer, and it wouldn’t have been a noticable.

alt="Picture of Athletic beer at Babler State Park"

But because I have done that, and because I’ve grown very fond of Athletic brand beer, I brought it up and asked Sarah if she brought that. She said, “I’m an advocate!”

I called out, “Me too!” over the picnic table, and several people looked at us, getting excited about some beer that doesn’t even have alcohol in it. Now, these people are probably concerned about my mental well-being, and that’s fair from their vantage point.

The Pattern Behind It All

The fact of the matter remains: if you start to pursue a certain thought, object, or culture, then those thoughts, those objects, and that culture will start to seek you out as well. Why is that? Because the entire universe really is a single item. It is all connected, and the flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a wind that in turn leads to a series of events that topple a mountain.

An Invitation

If you’ve made it this far, then I implore you: the next time something seems to find you, let yourself believe that magic is real. Just trust for a minute that the universe itself is consciously providing you with what you desire. Give it a shot—not because it is an entirely provable thought process, but because it enriches your experiences and provides meaning beyond language. And from my perspective, enriching experiences are all that matter.

Final Thought

It very well may not be the case that the universe is out to conspire for or against you. …But I know one thing to be true: human perception is always colored by our previous experience, and when things don’t make sense, the human mind fills in the gaps without us even knowing. Our perception of the world is provably inaccurate. Also, the human mind is an infinitely creative machine, and it feeds on what you give it. So be mindful of what you’re feeding it, because it literally shapes your perception of the world around you. And in turn, your perception recreates the world you live in.

Closing Quote

ALT="Quote from Rick Rubin"

Talent is the ability to let ideas
manifest themselves through you.

~ Rick Ruben

When You Stop Listening to Your Self

Not That Kind of Hospital Post

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.

Ken Dychtwald

David Kolmer writes for Improvementdave.com.

David Kolmer also hosts and produces at podcast at GAMELAYER

Finding Your Tribe by Embracing Differences

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.

I’ve written about Kassy before—she wears red pants as a bold expression of her personality. (I’ve also written about occasionally wearing blue pants myself.) These small choices act as signals of identity.

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.

So how can both be true?

Here it is:

118 |No time for Creativity |
Mike Mowad

Understanding Your “People”

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

https://www.instagram.com/gamelayer.fm/

Why Focus is My Word of the Year

Every year, I pick a word. The first one was at the end of 2022; I picked “honesty” retroactively. Because I wasn’t really being honest with myself about my personal and professional development. As I continue using these words, I’m realizing that both of those forms of development help each other. It’s a symbiotic relationship. When I develop myself professionally, my personal life benefits and vice versa.

Previous Years Words

You can review previous posts that I created in January to read up on my path. Others were “Consistency“, “Integrated“, and last year was “Novelty“. This year I will FOCUS.

I’ve got to the point where I realize that I’m not choosing these words. It’s not really accurate to say that these words choose me, either. Seeing as they’re just a verbal representation of ideas. It’s more like the ideas have found me, and I’m allowing them to shape me. (If you can subscribe to the ideas of Elizabeth Gilbert and Rick Rubin, that ideas exist separately from the humans that find them.)

Why Focus after Novelty?

Last year, I spent time remaining mostly sober and seeking out novelty. Novelty is about saying yes to experiences, seeking out new opportunities, and doing as much as you can. Then those experiences leave impressions or memories on your mental timeline. This, in turn, expands your perception of time. Since time is a construct of the mind anyway, our perception of it is all that matters. Broadening our experiences in the name of making our lives feel longer may be the closest thing we will ever get to time travel.🧘

I: spoke at conferences, pretended I started my own conference, started a podcast, recorded live podcasts, continued certifications in Game Learning, and developed a card game about my industry… …all while spending time with my family, updating a rental propery and learning how to play Pokémon Go.

Screenshot

You can read my post from 2025 if you want to learn about novelty.

I have noticed my “words of the year” tend to expand and then contract. Go out, try new things, and then reel it back in. Like an ebb and flow, like an inhale in an exhale. Like contrasting values to create a physical form on a two-dimensional surface.

Novelty was about expanding, saying yes to new things, whereas Focus is about contracting. I selected focus, and then the word opportunity came to me; something about that didn’t feel right. Having a year of novelty and then a year of seeking out opportunity. Somehow it seemed to distort the balance like a double yin and not enough yang.

Focus

I need more focus. I need to focus more on what really matters. Spending time with my kids while they are still young and still need me. I need to focus on opportunities that provide a return. In this way, it’s all connected anyway, but this is a better way to frame it.

Was it not enough that my wife shared, “You need to focus, David.”

My mom also said, “You are always running somewhere lately. You are always in a hurry.”

That’s not like me. That’s not how I naturally am. The year of Novelty turned me into a scattered runner. Trying to do more novel things, and I need to round that off. This morning I had a realization after an early set of yoga with some black coffee. I had a good feeling, and it came to me as a visual… I tried to recreate it with Adobe Firefly, and it isn’t half bad…

A yellow raft floats in a dark oily water filled with sharks and squid. It floats effortlessly below the clear blue sky with puffy white clouds.

This morning, I had a realization. This place I am visualizing has a certain mental buoyancy. You effortlessly float above all the sludge. All the worry, all the dread, all the ignorance, and all the drunkenness. Like a small raft floating over an ocean of beasts, poison, and misdirection. Not hydroplaning over the ocean, and not sinking either. Between the layer of dark oily liquids and the thick air, hovering, balanced.

Focus = Relaxed + Aware

I was listening to the first episode of 10% happier, the podcast by Dan Harris. He had his master instructor, Joseph Goldstein, on the show. They were talking about a new book. They’re writing where they’re using. Dr. Goldstein‘s catch phrases on how to be better at meditating… things like “When you are sitting, realize you are sitting.” Or “Just try again, just keep trying.” Or “Mara, I see you.” Mara here being the embodiment or physical representation of ignorance or temptation.

The part of the discussion that really stood out to me was absolutely fundamental. The idea of being both relaxed and aware. That really is the goal of meditation, isn’t it? It’s the goal of all religions. If you’re too relaxed to get all spaced out. If you’re too aware, you start to get too deep and start worrying about things. Things that don’t matter or that you can’t control. It is obvious, and it is easier said than done.

This Must Be the Path!

I wanted to find a single word that represented both of these things: being relaxed and aware. I’m not 100% certain that when I went back to the word, focus, I hit the mark. I do feel it fits the bill. I really don’t feel like I’m forcing a square peg into a round hole. Feels more like I loosely inserted a round peg into a square hole. It fits, but there’s some empty space around it. It doesn’t wiggle, there’s still room for improvement, and if you’ve read any of my stuff you kind of know that that’s my thang.

I SEE YOU MARA!

ID = Improvement dave A year of focus. a Yellow raft floats above a sea filled with giant squid shooting out vision blocking ink.

Can I Handel the Truth from Chat GPT?

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:

It relates to this video…

QUOTE

CASTIN’ PODS – Step 4: Broadcast

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!

Write About Your Show

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.

Check it out! www.GAMELAYER.fm

Now it’s Your Turn

Go build your Podcast!

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CASTIN’ PODS – Step 3: Hosting

You want to select the host with the most. Hosting is a very important decision, but for the most part, it’s a backend function.

I had three perks that I was focused on when I was searching for a host:

  1. Free to use
  2. Unlimited storage
  3. IAB certification, (Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab)

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.

How to Host

  1. Go to https://creators.spotify.com/
  2. Set up a free “Creators” account with an email
  3. Enter basic show information
  4. Click the upload file button

Bottom line

People do not 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.

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