My first blog post…thanks Jim!

Where did my idea for “Let’s Meet For a Beer” podcast/blog come from?

As is normally the case when I have a random idea that most people would ignore – I called my friend and mentor Jim Button.  I explained that I was planning to interview “happy” people to see what made them tick.  Maybe I would write a book about it someday – or maybe I would just learn enough so that I could be one of the “happy” people.  I asked him if I could interview him (assuming we would book another coffee meeting for another day) and he agreed to the interview…starting now!

So we sat in the coffee shop and I asked him 100 questions about himself – he gave me his opinions, thought processes, business and life philosophies, told me about music that he liked, books he’s read, apps he enjoyed.  He told me that doing a blog was probably a better idea than a book – it’s easier to find your style by writing a blog apparently.  So I thought about it and decided to start a blog – interview people and summarize the advice that they gave me.

The problem with strictly doing a blog though is that I would probably lose most of what the person was really saying by the time I wrote it down.  Recording the conversations made more sense because then I could go back and hear their answers whenever I wanted to.  Well – if I’m going to record the conversation why not share that conversation?  If I find it interesting there has to be at least one other person in the world that would agree.  So I have to do a podcast and a blog.

So in May of 2018 I bought all of the gear to do my own podcast!  Guess who the first person I asked to be on my podcast was?  Jim Button – of course!

Me – “Hey Jim – I’m doing a podcast”.

Jim – “Cool – what’s it called?”

Me – “Let’s Meet For a Beer.”

Jim – “Wow – really original name Mark.  How many podcasts have you done?”

Me – “None.  Want to be on my podcast?”

Jim – “Sure.  Next Week?”

After I recorded my first conversation it took me a long time to learn how to actually put a podcast together, get an editor, line-up more people that would agree to “do my podcast” that didn’t really exist yet, and deal with the fact that I was scared shittless that people will think I’m silly for thinking I can do a podcast.

So now I have 10 podcast interviews recorded and ready to go.  I am confident that the caliber of guests cannot improve – so far I have been lucky to sit down with a lot of amazing people.  I am just as confident that I will continue to improve.  So if you here me stuttering and rambling on (kind of like this post) please be patient – I can only get better at being a question-asker! (Yes – question-asker is a word)

The podcasts will be released every Tuesday – starting April 9, 2019 with my conversation with Jim Button.  And as usual, Jim added a twist to the interview to keep me on my toes – I hope you enjoy!