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?”
I am getting warmed up to start a new project. The project is about play. It is a podcast that celebrates all the ways that we play. It focuses on the science of play and the quest of learning. It is about enjoyment, it is about deep learning, and it is about gamified learning environments. I basically stopped recording VLOG videos at some point. I basically stopped writing on this blog to complete the hall bathroom I was updating, and I plan on outlining that process on this blog.
The first Fun Project
This is A quick recap video that I captured with my updated Podcasting studio and then posted directly to Linked In with Minimal edits. A “fun Project” is what I called the file. I give thanks to the people who are helping me grow and announce my new show, GAMELAYER. I say that it will launch on Halloween of 2025, but it might launch sooner, maybe even as soon as Spring Break 2025. I also share another side project I have started with my dad around building financial independence through Real Estate. This will start as a video podcast that develops into eLearning coursework. MUSIC: ANI KUNI Polo and Pan
I had just got off an introductory call with a guest on the new show I am piecing together and I was fired up. So I decided to record a VLOG post. The radio show is called GAMELAYER.
Fun Feels Good
I have had fun dipping back into my experience as a sound designer. I am feeling the creative process seeping back up like sap from my roots. It is really revving me up and by the end of the day wearing me out!
Developing the GAMELAYER Cover Art
I have created iterations of the cover art in the web-based design app canva.com and I’d like to share what I had downloaded of those here: [Click on the arrow on the right to scroll through the design iterations.]
What’s Next
I might just keep recording these short “Fun Project” videos where I dump out all the emotions and the thoughts I am having around putting together a Radio Show. They have been well received. I will keep posting them here as a means of tracking them. I am going to get busy making a Podcast now and I might be shownig less love to my VLOG newsletter here at Improvementdave.com, but I’ll be around.
Thanks for reading, I really appreciate your time and attention. Please reach out to me if you would like to be on my radio show. We all play and we all have a perspective to share. Leave a comment related to how you play. What do you play? Do you play music? Do you play games? Do you play with artmaking? How do you express yourself?
Love
Dave
“Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.
The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.”
Unless we live in a monastery, we all have busy lives, and it’s important to find time to do less.
1. Monastery or Mayhem? ~Finding Balance in the Game of Life
So, just to be clear, I do not work at a monastery, and I have chosen to generate offspring. So for me, it is crucial to build in time for doing less. It’s crucial to build activities into our schedule that don’t really have any purpose other than leisure, fun, relaxation, or recharging our batteries. Last month, I took some time off from work because my daughter wanted to ride the carousel. So I booked time into my schedule to do that, and we entered the game-layer.
2. Quest for Gas: The Pre-Game Adventure
We were riding the merry-go-round, but let me back up. I picked her up from school, and we were driving to the park that had a historic merry-go-round. I needed to stop and get gas. At the time, I had already started recording for this podcast. I was playing an audio text message game of chess with my friend Sarah. She had expressed anxiety about being on a podcast show, and when I asked her to record a message that says “play chess,” she ended up sending me a three-minute recording about how she was doing that day and slowly phased in the statement I was seeking. Naturally, I just texted her back, thanked her, and then created my own audio message, thus beginning our chess game podcast via text message audio recording.
3. The ICEE Expedition: Fueling Fun
As I was driving to get gas, I got out of the car and recorded a message back to Sarah. Then I went in with my daughter and bought her an ICEE, which is a very special treat in our world. I sent the audio message, not knowing that in two days my new iPhone would automatically delete it. We went to Faust Park, and I purchased three tickets each to ride the carousel repeatedly. I made videos of the carousel, and later my daughter commented on how we weren’t in the videos. I created videos about the firsthand experience because I was in the game layer; I was focused on the process and the environment more than the faces of the people around me.
4. Emotions on Replay: The Carousel Connection
What struck me the most about the experience of riding the carousel with my daughter was obviously the emotion on her face, but that was for my soul. I didn’t want a record of that to be posted on my blog or captured in my podcast. I did take a lot of pictures of her, and there is some video of her riding the carousel, but I’m not going to share that footage here, and that’s intentional.
5. Soundtrack of Play: The Symphony of Joy
The reason this moment struck me to my core is because I was creating time for fun. I was planning play into my schedule. What struck me the most about the experience was mostly the sound.
There was the canned music in the beginning, which was overpowered by the mechanical sounds of the ancient carousel lumbering across its hub. The second round on the carousel also had canned music, but it was a different song—maybe a better song. But the third round was the best. The operator fired up the old Orchestrion, a mechanical instrument slightly bigger than a piano that can synthesize an entire orchestra with reels, xylophone, real drums, real chimes, and even real trumpets.
(Now I wanted to call that a glockenspiel which does seem like a better name, but apparently a glockenspiel is just a xylophone with metal bars.)
This is the experience that I had come for—not spinning around on an old, ancient wooden horse—although I did enjoy that significantly. It was the machine—the small machine that didn’t dish out a synthesized audio recording from a hard drive. It played; it had analog motors with sticks that struck objects. It was a physical representation of the GAMELAYER.
6. Rainy Day Revelations: A Walk Back to Base
After we got off the merry-go-round, my daughter and I were outside walking back to the van in the rain. I noticed a different energy about her. She was commenting nonchalantly about the pavement and the grass. And she turned around and looked at the building that contained the massive artifact of play. She said something that, to a six-year-old, is a comedic masterpiece: something about those people getting to live in there—that must be so fun! I agreed with her even though I knew I wasn’t understanding that statement on the level she was.
7. Heart-to-Heart Co-op: Building Bonds Through Play
My daughter turned and told me that she loved me, and I told her I loved her too, because I do. She asked me to carry her, which is basically her way of asking for a hug. So I carried her through the rain back to the van, and we spoke openly and freely, and our hearts connected through our words. And in the tone of her voice, I could tell that I had made a difference. I had put her needs ahead of my needs; in that way, we became better friends—we became closer. I built trust with her; I made time for her, I created empty space so that she could play.
8. The Missing AudioQuest: ~ Will Sarah Save Our Game?
Oh, and the audio recordings that my phone deleted? I think Sarah has those—or at least she said she does! We’ll see if she makes the choice to share them back with me so that I can add them into our audio-chat-message cat phone tag game of chess radio show episode of GAMELAYER.
Thanks Perplexity
I would like to personally thank Perplexity.ai for helping me shape this up for readability without changing my message, writing style, nor tone.
“What’s the passcode? Carry me. Carry weary.” [What I mean to say is I want a hug from you daddy.]
Near the end of 2024, I developed an idea to create a blog post celebrating all the achievements from the year. I wanted to pause and recognize all the accomplishments I had achieved. As I reflected, I thought about things I had written or not written about throughout the year that I could highlight.
However, instead of actually writing the blog post, I paused and spent an enormous amount of time with my family, you can read about that and see the glorious pictures at the end of this post under Family Time Adventure.
Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?
Professional Growth
We recently had significant turnover at work, and an engagement expertise facilitator, Tanya Zion came in via AAIM HR group to help us navigate some big transitions. The sessions were insightful, blending professional and personal development with focus groups and facilitated sessions that resembled group therapy. One message that Zion emphasized repeatedly resonated with me:
It is important that you remember to pause and celebrate after a significant accomplishment.
Often, we’re so focused on fixing problems and completing tasks that we forget to celebrate how far we’ve come. That idea stuck with me throughout the year and inspired this blog post.
Reflection on an Eventful Year
I want to pause and recall some of the achievements I accomplished in 2024. If you get anything from this post it should be that No accomplishment is too small to celebrate. You don’t have to buy yourself a car or go to the islands on a boat. Stop, take a deep breath, and shout, “Yeah, I did that!”
It’s easy to dwell on missed goals or failures. It’s challenging to be proud of achievements and celebrate the wins. Completing the tile work in our bathroom was one of those wins. As I admired the finished product, my five-year-old daughter walked in and exclaimed, “Wow, it looks so good, Daddy. Are you proud?”
I responded, “Yes, honey. I’m proud. This was hard work. It wasn’t easy for me, but I did it anyway. I finished the job.”
More Thoughts
Reflecting on 2024 reminds me of the value of pausing to appreciate our progress. We often achieve things that would have been unimaginable to our past selves. It’s important to recognize and celebrate these moments—not just for ourselves but to inspire those around us.
A contact/ mentor of mine named, Caitlin Johnson, talks about making our goals into quests. Her mission is to explore gamifying not only business strategy but our personal/professional goals. This concept works perfectly with my ideas of using Novelty to Bend Time and to me extends into the concept of artmaking as a process of religious practice.
Here’s to celebrating 2024 and looking forward to new milestones in 2025! Thank you if you made it this far, take a moment to scroll down and view the absolute novelty of my last 2 weeks of 2024, and why I chose to write this post to open up 2025, and not close 2024.
Family Time Adventure
So, first things last. I want to share what I did instead of writing this blog post before 2025 started. I attended family gatherings for the holidays, played video games with my kids, tiled and grouted a bathroom, and took several impromptu vacations.
In retrospect, the novelty of those 2 weeks could have filled five months of a normal year. When my kids were meant to return to school, several snow days extended the joy of that time. The past three weeks alone have given me plenty to celebrate.
Cooking and Crafting
Creepy Tunnel
A random adventure I generated in the moment was a hike on the infamous Bootlegger’s Trail. We even found that creepy old-time brick tunnel that our pathologist neighbor Jim had warned us about!
Gravity Paintings
At one point my kids asked if we could make gravity paintings like Daddy does. I said Let’s do that and use the old ceramic tiles we found on Uncle Mark’s farm! #Novelty!
Art in the Woods
I kept seeing advertisements for a local light installation so I randomly invited friends of the family and we all went out. I took a lot of video of the Light Cycles show, and I will post that below the pictures!
Video of Art in the Woods
Here is some video of that show.
Train to Germantown!
Somewhere in the middle of the winter break from school, we took a train ride to a local treasure: Hermann, Missouri. Hermann is a small town in rural Missouri that was built by German immigrants in 1837 who initiated grape growing for wine in the rolling MO hills, but more importantly here AMTRAK goes there. So we bought a round trip and exposed the kids to trains!
Thai Style for New Years!
We were really in the mood for the Thai version of Korean BBQ. In Thai, this is called MU-GRA-TA หมูกระทะ. We have an electric version that also simulates the infamous Chinese “HOT POT.”
In the pictures above there is a handsome devil who also happens to be bald. He is known as The Bobby. During this New Year’s Eve party, he mentioned a great meteor shower that would fly across the sky for days. That is important later when he decides to return to bed instead of going out in sub-zero temperatures to see the meteor shower covered by clouds.
4 Foot Porcelain Tile!
So, I haven’t said much about this on this blog, but it has taken over my FaceBook account. I have been laying tile in our hall bath. So, the hall bath started leaking. I tried to fix it and then it didn’t hold so I just ripped out the whole room and expanded the ceiling. The main highlight for me of the last few weeks of the year was completing all the tile and grout in that hall bathroom project, and preparing it for a glass door installation.
If you can’t tell from the pictures that was a pretty big project. I listened to the Case 63 podcast when prepping the floor. and then I listened to it again when laying the tile! It felt like I was a new person with a new task. Listen to the podcast if you don’t know why that is awesome!
Listen to Case 63!
OK, Yes Betty, you are right. AAAH, Thank you to the great Betty Dannewitz for recommending this amazing Podcast that I listened to back-to-back in 2 days on 2 separate occasions. (OK OK). …And.. Betty is my #1. (Apart from my family.)
Seriously that podcast is RAD.
New Years had passed but we still had a whole weekend before school and work started back up!
The Final Weekend
So do you recall Bobby the Bald, that handsome devil? We had plans to wake up at 2:30AM (much thanks to Bobby) to view a meteor shower, but it was cloudy when we woke up and our friends (Ahem Bobby) canceled on us. So, to celebrate completing the tile and grout work, we spontaneously got in the car at three in the morning to watch a meteor shower. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, instead of turning back, we drove across several states to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Planning as We Went
We had no plan and it was an amazing vacation. On the way, we booked a hotel and spent just a single day in the city.
Next, we went to the aquarium, petted stingrays, and saw sharks, sea turtles, and a fascinating creature I had never heard of: the stingray shark. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t a robot, but it looked impressively real.
And I also took some other pictures at the aquarium…
Who is Hungry?
This was technically not in Ohio, It was across the river in Newport, Kentucky. Right next door to the German Brewhause Hofbräuhaus! Perfect!
Ice Skating
Our hotel room in downtown Cincinnati overlooked Fountain Square, where there was an ice-skating rink.
Even though we were practically running on fumes from waking up at 2:30 a.m. Central Time, we went ice-skating. The ice was so rough it looked like a layer of fresh snow had fallen on it. Despite the poor conditions, it was the best ice-skating experience of my life.
Keep on Ramblin’
The next day, we woke up at 2:30 a.m. again and raced back to St. Louis, Missouri, to avoid a snowstorm. We didn’t avoid it, though, and drove for miles on snow-covered highways. That in itself was an adventure, but the Odyssey didn’t let us down!
We Need an Igloo in All of this Snow
When we got back the kids had snow days so we went sledding again and started on an igloo mad out of frozen water balloons.. That didn’t pan out like we had hoped.
However, Thanks so an idea from Kassy Laborie, we did manage to salvage some of the failed water ballon bricks into some lovely ice luminaries!
Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?
Thank You
Thanks for getting this far. That last point was again just how thankful I am to have such a warm and supportive family! The journey is always better when you travel with those you love! I do a word each year, and I started with thinking I would use Balance and then thought about Action, and then Balanced Action, but now I am thinking the way you find balanced action is via #NOVELTY … It is time travel after all. Novelty just might be the way forward on the quest for improvement. Be sure to check back in to see how it goes!
How I Broke the Seal on Podcasting Improvement Dave – David Kolmer
In 2023, I revived this blog, Improvement Dave, which I originally started in 2017 while earning my Master’s Degree in Educational Technology but had since abandoned. Why did I bring it back? The answer is simple: I attended a session by Betty Dannewitz at DEVLEARN 2023 on podcasting. Her session not only gave me the confidence to think about starting a podcast but also provided logical steps to follow. Her first piece of advice? “Just keep writing.” I thought, Well, that’s easy—I can just pick up where I left off with my blog from grad school.
I posted the above passage into Adobe Firefly AI and it gave me these images:
Keep On Writing
What I didn’t realize was how much this simple act of writing would impact my personal and professional growth, as well as my sense of identity and self-worth. From participating in daily push-up challenges (Push-Ups for St. Jude) to learning 3D modeling on Adobe in just two weeks (30-Day 3D Model Challenge), writing more turned out to be excellent advice.
Feeling inspired, I reached out to Betty as both a fan and a student to let her know how much she had motivated me. She responded with kindness and even became an ally and friend. Emboldened, I pitched her a complex concept for a show exploring how the musical Hamilton relates to Learning and Development. To my disappointment, she politely declined, saying she didn’t want to open that particular can of worms.
I am a Blackstar Just Come With Me We Were Born Upside-Down I’m a Blackstar
A Hero Must Fail
At first, this rejection stung. I felt vulnerable and as though I had failed. However, after some reflection, I realized that the only person truly letting me down was me.
So, I returned to writing, regrouped, and started building a sound studio as I added an office to my home. (Building My Sound Booth). I used my undergrad knowledge of stage lighting to hang lights in my office and began vlogging alongside blogging, creating videos of myself speaking.
I kept finding ways to improve and grow. I strengthened the Improvement Dave brand I had created back in 2017 into a visual brand and a creative identity.
Eventually, the tables turned. Betty invited me to appear on her show, If You Ask Betty. For some, this might just be another item on their calendar, but for me, it was a milestone. I had reached a point where I could feel proud of my progress. Everyone’s path is unique, and while I sometimes take my accomplishments for granted, others view them as remarkable or even unattainable. The effort I had invested in developing my writing voice, building my brand, and learning new skills paid off. I was on the show. I prepared extensively, and from my perspective, it went pretty well.
This blog post celebrates that achievement and curates the content that came from this experience.
Highlights
The Teaser I Was Featured In (My favorite artifact): LinkedIn Post
The Podcast Episode: “I’m Just Ken” (Or use player below.)
Bonus Content
When Betty shared her favorite part of “Barbie” (2023) Film, I just couldn’t resist making a cartoon of it. (NSFW)
This video is not for children if you can not tell by the cover image.
Conclusion
So, I did it—I got on the show, and it all happened so quickly. I gave it 100%, even if some people may have been aggravated by my takes on social equity and gender as a social construct. I’ve moved past that now. No matter what you do, about 30% of people will dislike it, 30% will love it, and 30% won’t even know it happened. The key is to keep moving forward. Either way, I got a new friend out of the deal so it’s a win.
Next, I’m focusing on getting out there more, taking more chances, worrying less, and finding a way to launch my own podcast.
I am working on a thread on my blog focusing on things I can celebrate this year. This post, Why You Should Present at a Conference started as a celebration of the fact that I had an opportunity to speak at a conference and I revised it to be framed around reasons why we should all present at conferences.
Inspired to Be Myself
I recently was inspired (again) by Kassy Laborie. This time she was speaking on a podcast (called Business Breakdown by Al Dea Listen Here: https://lnkd.in/eAckUwmf) about her background in learning in development and how she reached a point where her reputation preceded her. While she shared her background I kept thinking, I have been there, that happened to me at work as a trainer or yes, that was me. Now I am not as far along on my path as I am ready to leave my independent contractor work to reinvent myself as a Keynote speaker but maybe I never will, maybe that is not my journey. I bring all of this up because of a personal story that Kassy shared in this interview. She was rocking her pressed red pants with her matching red kicks and as she put it, “I mean, I looked good!”. Someone approached her and stated, “Ah, we do not wear red pants at this company.”
Kassy reflected on how this made her feel small. How it felt like she was not seen for who she is. It made her feel like she didn’t belong. It made her feel like she was not in the right place. She had a choice. She could start wearing black pants and conform to the dominating overbearing culture she found herself in, or she could move on and find a space that was a better fit. Luckily for her (and for the rest of us I reckon) she chose the latter to move on. To keep on ramblin’ to keep on keepin’ on.
She done good, she even made Woody Guthrie smile…
Reminder of the Inspiration
This morning when I got into the office it was a normal work-in-the-office day. I had already had 2 cups of regular coffee at home and I was going to brew a whole pot of decaf to drink throughout the day. I ran into a colleague Erika Teneyck who was wearing RED PANTS, and it took me right back to Kassy’s story on the podcast. This illustrates how we as humans resonate with stories, but more on that later. I said Erika you are wearing RED PANTS and I am wearing my BLUE PANTS, can we take a picture!? Luckily there was another creative coworker (Michael Bollenbach, MA, MFA ) in the work kitchen who holds a Master of Fine Arts AND a Master of Arts to take the picture. He begrudgingly murmured that he did not want to take our picture but I insisted. While Mike took the picture he commented on how he had a previous role where they insisted every employee had to wear black pants.
I had Blue Pants and my Work Buddy had on RED PANTS!
So, more about Erika. When I started in my current role, we had a Holiday Party at a local brewery you might have heard of called Budweiser. It was a fun evening, but I was a bit anxious because I had not met anyone in person yet. I had just started at the company in 2021 and we were still remote. It was the time when many companies were still transitioning back into office from the COVID-19 pandemic. (We even had a mask decorating contest and I won for the ugliest mask, although in retrospect they shared it should have been most bizarre or creative.)
Die Hard is a Christmas Movie. PERIOD
OK, so my point. Let’s get to the point. My point is that Erika was at the party and she made me feel welcome. She talked to me even though I was the new guy with a very weird mask. She welcomed me even though I told her that owning a boat was a bad financial decision and I perceived it as a liability, not an asset. Then later she wore red pants and reminded me of Kassie’s strong lesson.
Broadcast my Inspiration
Now, it is worth mentioning that, Erika has her bachelor’s AND master’s in Art History and has used that to enter into the space of organizing and curating data analytics where I work. That is something worth celebrating in and of itself. 🥳
It also touches on a topic that I am toying around with for the Podcast I am crafting. How creatives, or people who are perceived as creatives, can work their way into a situation of being gainfully employed. Or in other words discussions on how creatively minded people can generate income through as opposed to despite their inventive tendencies. I am in the storming stage. I have not ironed out the details nor fleshed out the concept. I am taking my time to settle on a topic that I feel confident I will want to speak about from the heart for years to come to an audience that resonates with my true self.
“Treat every small victory like you just won the Superbowl.” -Lewis Howes
Last month I presented for the first time at a conference. I presented at the Learn Conference that was held by my local ATD chapter in St. Louis, MO. I wrote this a week after presenting but it has taken me a month to process this and get this post to where I want it to be. I have narrowed this down to three main points:
Attend the Conference for free
Slightly Heightened Status
You Connect more to ideas and people
Why Present at Conferences?
What I Learned
I have recently developed an itch to present and wondered about how that would feel. I was anxious before the conference. During the conference, I was surprisingly relaxed and after the conference, I was relieved to be on the other side of it. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. It is not the presenting that wore me out though, it was the standing, the waiting, the meeting new people, and holding professional conversations to the best of my ability. Now that I have the first one in the bag and am relatively unscathed, I want to share my experience and the benefits I see around presenting at conferences.
Attend for Free
Let’s talk about the low-hanging fruit first. The main payment for speaking at a conference is that you get to attend that conference for free. I never really thought much about this because my company paid for any conference I attended (which I should add is a limited number per year.) Maybe this says something about how much I am willing to pay for my own personal and professional development. I prefer to take the perspective that I am a frugal person. There are plenty of ways for me to improve on my own. Be it, online, the library, the Libby app, linked in learning, (and let’s be honest, the largest LMS in the world, YouTube.)
The benefit is not necessarily that you can attend for free but that you can afford to attend more conferences. So, I don’t pay for the conferences I go to, but my company only sends me to so many per year because there is a budget. I can stretch that budget further if the entrance ticket and part of the food board are already paid for.
There is a hidden benefit I just learned about too. I applied to speak at Training Magazine’s Training Conference & Expo in Orlando in February 2025. I was not accepted but put on standby. Now I thought this meant rejected but after some conversations in my professional network I learned that “Standby is Good.” Not only do you still have a shot at presenting at the conference, but you get into the show at a discounted rate.
OK, so free stuff, that’s nice.
Slightly Heightened Status
I should start here by saying that I do NOT perceive myself as a person who is motivated by status. In fact I see people who crave status as the opposite of those who peruse quality of work or seek out the truth. So, I am not naturally motivated by status.
My friend Jazmin Webster (President Elect of ATD STL) let me keep the sign!
One thing I suppose I never really noticed or thought about was that people who present at conferences are sort of the bread and butter of the event. They are creating a draw for people to attend. I have to admit I always understood this on a logical level. However, after being a presenter at a conference I had a different perspective on the value presenters add. People walked up and thanked me for my efforts and there was a buzz in just that. Sure, an unnecessary boost to my ego, but also a healthy development of my sense of self-worth and overall confidence.
In the same way, I feel like I held myself up in a different way while at the conference. There must have been something different about the way I was moving through the space. I am going to make this point by picking on a new professional connection I have. Two years ago, I walked up to the Keynote Speaker at the same event, after she gave her message and said, “Hey, I really liked what you said.” She politely smiled and thanked me and then slightly turned away from me. It wasn’t her; it was me. I was approaching her, probably standing too close, and didn’t add anything to the conversation other than I liked her. Sort of creepy, weird, awkward, yes, and maybe verging on stalker.
Who was this mystery woman you ask? Well, Justine Froelker is a speaker and therapist who has made a name for herself both locally and nationally as a training facilitator, speaker, and author. Well, she also presented this year at the same event, and when I saw her I remembered that awkward time I went to compliment her and then found I had nothing to say. I walked up to her while she was quietly enjoying a salad alone at the vendor table ATD had provided her to market her services. I smiled and said hello and introduced myself. She asked if I was a presenter and then we started a real conversation about our lives. That’s my whole point. It’s not that I approached her and had something to say, it’s that she could smell it on me. I held myself like a presenter and somehow, she just knew. (I promise I didn’t say, Hey I’m Dave I’m a presenter.) You could argue that I have grown a lot in my personal and professional development simply by rebooting this Blog and pouring my soul into it, and you would be right. I would argue that more than that my identity was altered because I had been selected to present.
You End Up Connecting More
Connecting more dots
Connecting with more people
I have saved the best part about presenting at a conference for last. This was a selfish choice, I should have led with my best point, and the one that would benefit you the most. As I have written previously:
So, I share that to simply point out that I am not afraid to break my own rules.
However, if you are still reading now you will learn about the best part of presenting at a conference. Having gotten up and presented in front of a crowd at the conference was a hit. It jazzed me up and gave me a strong buzz. I was in good spirits and overall, just in a great mood. This landed me in the growth mindset and when I attended other sessions, I was more vulnerable, more open, and more engaged.
For example, when I attended the amazing session on Gamifying business strategy by Caitlin Johnson from Bold-Bird Consulting. I spoke up in the session and shared personal information that I might not have shared if I was only an attendee. In addition, I spoke with Caitlin after the day was over at the networking event hosted for presenters and we think that we might be able to collaborate at some point.
The reason this all sparked up was because what I shared about myself was a missing piece in her process. I am an explorer in her language, and the exploration factor is her weakest link and what she is leaning into now for personal growth. I am not saying I don’t learn anything at conferences I don’t present at. I do learn at those conferences. I think the difference is the baseline mindset. Will I continue to get more out of conferences even if I don’t present at them? Maybe. Or perhaps sometimes I will and sometimes I won’t. I don’t know. What I do know is that I am still relatively new to all this conference going considering my age. Why didn’t I go to these sooner? Why not quote the Talking Heads here and share:
When I attended my first national conference in 2023 it was also my first time in Vegas. It made such am impact on me it revived this VLOG and got me on a new path. I had a breakthrough when I wrote this:
As I said, it was my first time in Vegas, and I was good, I didn’t gamble, I didn’t get sleazy and I only drank alcohol that was free (#Principles)! DevLearn was a force of nature and the whole week can easily be summarized as over-stimulation. Cognitive overload doesn’t begin to describe what happened to me that week. I will share that I didn’t hold back either. I walked all the way from the southern tip of New Vegas up through the desert to New Vegas to see the Zappos building and the Neon Sign Museum, and I would like to curate a post just on that experience. …Yet, in all of that frenzied madness, I attended a session by Renee Boydo. I entered that training room and a calm came over me.
I met Boydo the night before at an impromptu dinner I saw on the conference app., she confided in me that she was terrified because she was presenting for the first time and she asked everyone at that table to go so she wouldn’t have to present to an empty room. The next day, I went, she was calm she was collected, and she stated referencing her work as a leader, “My thing is that I just keep saying ‘It will be alright. It will work out.’” She presented a smartphone app she developed with a third party to train school bus drivers. In the class she shared that she had never presented before, she was terrified, but then came her light that “it was going to be alright.”
Conclusion
I didn’t know it then, but Mrs. Boydo planted a seed during that session. She lit a light in me. I saw that she was throwing herself into unbridled improvement. She was forcing herself out of her comfort zone in the name of learning and in the name of sharing her insights with her community at large. I didn’t want to admit it, but I wanted to do that too. I wanted to be like her. Now, I am writing this so I can share it with her and tell her my version of the story, so I can thank her for that.
Then later I attended a session by this lady named Betty Danowitz on Podcasting. Well, that whole thing is definitely for another post. Long story short, I started listening to her podcast and then started chatting with her, and I ended up as a guest on the show. Then Betty and her friends who are now my friends pushed me to present at a conference. It was ✨Kassy LaBorie who said, you need to apply to speak at conferences, so I did. I am forever grateful to Kassy. Now there is no turning back.
Hey, this is Dave. I am an Instructional Designer and learning experience advocate. I would like to discuss ways we as learning professionals can help learners on their journey. How Teachers, Corporate Training Facilitators, or Instructional Designers can “Get Out of the Way” of learners on their journey. This is not a new idea, but it is an important one.
Main Points
Use tools that help you stay in the learning game.
Write content that helps the reader improve on their own.
Sell your idea, don’t force it, Sell it!
Make the training about the real world, not academia or your world view
Serve the Reader
One way we can create instructional content that resonates with learners is to write better. Write simple statements that offer solutions and ideas that will help our learners. It sounds obvious when you say it, but somehow it helps to be reminded. In this article, I would like to pinpoint this concept, explore its meaning, and connect it to educational artifacts.
Expedited Audio Learning Tool
Here is an accidental win I had. Have you ever done a free trial of an app on your phone? Then you liked the app so much that you just never canceled it? It’s not something anyone would be proud of. I’ve had it happen at least once. OK, it was once because I do not spend money. It was the Headway app. This is not a paid advertisement for the Headway app… …but it should be!
My favorite app, I mean Blankest is good but Headway is BOSS!
I love the Headway app. It condenses books to their essence and then reads that summary to you, it also provides you a text summary. In this way, you can listen to 4 or 5 books while you say, mow the lawn. (Which is normally what I do while using the app.) I have
Listened to condensed versions of books I have never heard of
listened to condensed versions of books I have already read twice
discovered books I want to read and then went out and read or listened to them.
The topics are wide ranging. I have relistened to the 7 Habits by Stephen Covey. I learned about the Japanese Aesthetic of silence and somber inaction. I have trained my subconscious mind to generate creative solutions. I have gotten better at not arguing with my family. You tell the app what your interests are. Then it amazes you with content you never knew existed. It also reminds you of content you love.
Nobody Cares About You
The most useful book that I listened to on Headway is called:
This book falls into the category of: This is a book I like so much. I went out and read the original book.
I love the message of this short book:
Write clear and concise messages that help other people.
It really doesn’t get any better than that. People don’t care about you, they care about themselves. People like to read about interesting or novel things that will help them. Even if you write a story about yourself, you should not stroke your ego. Don’t make the book all about how you are the most amazing human ever in the history of the world. The focus is on the reader, how can you help them? After all humility is sexy. People want to be with other people who are humble.
Summary of the book, that I wrote on my iPhone while mowing the lawn.
As I mentioned I use this app while mowing the lawn. (OK, I took breaks from driving the riding lawnmower while I took these notes. I did not write these while I was mowing.)
This book will teach you how to write better
Delivery is critical, be proactive in finding ways to help others.
Always write in casual copy.
Never write in technical explanation. *Unless designing technical documentation or technical training.
People care about themselves. people do not care about you. So write for them. Write things that help them.
People respond to what is: new, novel, or helpful.
Use the AIDA sales Model:
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
[End of the summary I wrote on my iPhone.]
So, we have a novice writer (yours truly). He is writing about being a better writer. He is also using a sales model to identify how to be a better educator. I want to drill down on the warning above about the tone of the writing. We should use casual copy to describe ideas to compose writing that is easy to read. Learning content should be straightforward. It should be easy to follow. It should use common words and not use complex language that the average person would not know.
This is because the reader (learner) will waste effort on figuring out what you mean. They will focus on looking up words or not really understanding instead of focusing on the message itself. In the Learning World, we discuss this using the phase, “Cognitive Load” but you already knew that… or you should have.
Definition of the A.I.D.A. sales model
Here is a definition of the AIDA sales model provided by Gemini AI from Google.com
The AIDA model is a marketing framework that describes the four stages a consumer goes through before making a purchase:
The acronym AIDA was developed by American businessman Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 and has been in use ever since. Businesses can use the AIDA model to create effective sales pitches that resonate with prospects and turn them into customers by understanding and addressing each stage. For example, a salon might use the AIDA model to promote an opening by running a PR campaign before launch, offering free consultations, and hosting exclusive launch events.
[End of Gemini AI Summary from Google.com]
Oh, wow. Look at that AI writes really long sentences too. Now I don’t feel as bad!
Wait, is This Sales? Am I on the Wrong Vlog?
How can Learning and Development professionals apply this model to our work? After all, this is a sales model of all things. I would like to lean on my memory of writings by Daniel Pink here. I am evoking his book “To Sell Is Human.” This book was suggested to me long ago by a colleague. They saw that I just didn’t get it. I was being naive and idealistic in my approach to work.
I was acting as if it was all about me. Yet, counterintuitively I was being aloof. Self-deprecating humor is very useful when you are a corporate training facilitator, but it can go too far. I was not speaking well of myself all the time. I was chronically breaking myself down with self-deprecating humor. This wasn’t just humility, I started to believe it. I hypnotized myself into thinking that I wasn’t good enough.
It’s not about me, it never is. It is about us, working together for a better way. We have to sell ourselves to the people around us all the time. We have to sell the ideas we write about in our learning artifacts. Sales is good, it is healthy. It isn’t inherently sleezy, as long as you are being honest. So, let me rewrite this summary with an L&D bend:
A.I.D.A. Learning Model
The AIDA Learning Model is not a real thing. I just made it up because this is my blog, and it just fits. A sales pitch is a perfect metaphor for well-written learning content.
It needs to be short and concise.
It needs to grab our attention.
It needs to tell us why we should care.
It needs to get us fired up to make a change.
If our learning content is not engaging learners in an experience. Then it is not a learning experience. Learners should feel encouraged to explore and think for themselves. Otherwise it might as well be compliance training on an LMS with a multiple-choice exam. That’s not learning, that is covering your legal ass-ets.
Another Short Book on Writing Better
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the other book I would like to mention here is also short. Writing better is about being concise. I already had a lot of classroom experience. I worked as a training facilitator at a call center in Bridgeton, MO. This experience was in front of audiences and classrooms. I didn’t have a lot of feedback (or feedback I was open to accepting) on my writing.
At one point, I had written an especially terrible email. One of the seasoned trainers handed me a small gray book. I will call him “Jim Simpson”, which is his real name. On the front, it said, ~~~ “The Little Gray Book” ~~~ Q. Wallace. I started reading it. It instantly pulled me in. It gave me ideas I implemented right away to improve the clarity of my writing. I can not recommend it enough to someone who wants to write better.
All aspects of our experience can help us better serve our learners. We better serve our learners and create learning content that truly connects with them. This happens when we give the best solution to potential problems. We should avoid just collecting cold facts or professing problems.
There is nothing wrong with using AI or ChatGPT and citing them accordingly. We should hesitate to send only what a search from these tools told us. These tools do not always write in the most straightforward tone. Nor do they always give the insider information we can get from partnering with an SME. If we share “real company culture” or “how they do it on the floor,” then we are helping the learners.
The learners will be more engaged. The more focused this solution is on their environment or job role the better this works. The more specific you can be on: what the solution IS the better the results. Share best practices. Explain how it works best. Provide tricks with “the system login”. Describe how it fails etc. The better the results. [This was the end of the post.]
When I started the blog I was getting my Master’s Degree in Instructional Design. It was from a smaller local liberal arts college. The college had a strong online program with a foundation in technology. Fontbonne is not the greatest college in the world. In a few years, it will sadly close its doors. I believe that is a sign of our Post-Covid 19 world. It is not an indicator of the quality of education the University provided. Still, it gave me a great education and I am forever grateful. Thank you Fontbonne U. for showing me how magical online learning can be when done correctly, and getting me started on this beautiful journey.
The 100th Post
The thought came on a whim. It was a boring day at work that was infinitely brightened by a call from a friend. A conference call with people who did what I did but on the next level. They had been trainers, they had been designers but now they had died and moved on to bigger things. Traveling the world to speak at conferences, starting their own business, becoming keynote speakers.
The keynote speaker bit really caught my attention. So when Kassy said you need a strong speaker reel to be a real speaker, I had an idea. A potion of an idea. A crazy Dave of the theater idea. The sort of idea you get from listening to WEEN rock out your whole life.
Influence of Ween on Dave
If you don’t know WEEN they are the strangest band you never heard of. Unbridled creativity and a sense of power that no other band seems to wield… and some drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. They have said themselves in interviews that most of their best songs were conceived just before recording. These songs were written and recorded in under an hour’s time. I believe that. It is easy to believe. It has always inspired me. The speed of production and creative freedom, not the drugs.
The thing about WEEN, is you were never sure what you were gonna get. Each album was its in a genre, not to mention a new universe.
Then in 2016, they got the band back together. In 2023 came to St. Louis while my brother was visiting from Japan… So we went. They were better than ever, it was amazing. What had changed was they had a new crowd in the audience. Before it was the art crowd. The weirdos from every town. Now it was remnants of the stinky neo-hippy crowd. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care They still sang out harder than anyone I have seen rock out.
So What?
OK, Yes. That was way too much back story on Ween. I hope you check them out if you don’t know about them. Fast forward, to the 100th post of Improvement Dave, in 2024! It somehow channeled some of that energy that WEEN brings to the table without even trying. There was some coffee involved, but not very much. When people read the post and watch the video, the next comment tends to be around partying or drugs. (Why I thought of WEEN! 😂) I should just take in stride.
It was a very liberating post to create. People have said they review the video to reduce stress. Besides who am I trying to impress at this point? I have a successful and fulfilling career. I have a loving wife and two beautiful children who completely love me. (Well, they are still young) I am building my real estate empire!… and Yet, I was stone-cold-sober when I recorded iSPEAK. The excitement of making the post revved me up. I got Punch-drunk on the muse.
Here is the point, the video landed me a speaking gig at a local conference!
iSPEAK
The post was written much later than the video. The video carries the post, and somehow people have already calling me the iSPEAK guy. It is OK, I like it. The whole project is true to my brand. Do something bold, do it for free, do not over-rehearsed, be brutally honest, and don’t take yourself too seriously.
This was a fun post, but the post is just the beginning. I am developing learning sessions about how to be a better designer. To be a champion for the learner. I have a working title of “Get Out of The Way!” a command to educators to make room for the learner in the learning event. To make it about the learner and their experience. If we do not make room for their journey, deep learning does not happen. The whole damn thing is in vain.
My first speak will be in St. Louis at the ATD St. Louis LEARN Conference:
I tell myself I am excited about it. If I am being honest, I am terrified. I have anxiety from not building out the presentation completely. I also haven’t rehearsed as much as I should by now. The problem is, I will do just fine.
What’s Next?
I started writing this post less than thirty minutes ago and now I am going to publish it. I still need to find a cover image. This was a simple message to recognize that my promise to myself in 2023 was to be consistent. I have been consistent. Now I am working on being more integrated, to tie all of my selves together. I aim to be a more whole person. In many ways I see that working.
Moving forward, I hope to keep the creative spark alive. I want to do what WEEN did later in their career. Don’t record a song 20 minutes after you thought about. Get the idea and then build on it, develop it, cite sources, generate illustrative examples, and tell relevant examples. In the next post, which I have been working several weeks on, I hope to do just that. To have fun with it, but do better at delivering a message the reader can walk away with. To give the reader something they can use… Like a gift. A gift for Improvement.
Improvement Dave 