Do you really, truly know your destiny? I mean, do you actually know it or are you just guessing at it? Do you think you will be the next rockstar? Do you know that for sure or are you basing it on what people think or say about you?

A good book once told me:

There is something you need to understand. [Insert Subject] is an endless frontier. It is a frontier that no one has reached the end of or fully explored. You have taken one step into this endless frontier, and you are asking me how far you have gone?? Well, you’ve only taken one measly step!

I want you to realize something, you have taken one step into this endless frontier. And you are now one step further into this frontier than 99.9% of the human race. But don’t be satisfied with just one step. Don’t settle for just being above average. Never pitch your tent. Until you have explored the outer reaches of this endless frontier, never stop your pursuit of excellence!

-When God Writes Your Life Story by Eric & Leslie Ludy

Think about it. Many great people in this world did not know their true destiny until the end. Most of the time it was their little secret, kept hidden from the rest of the world.

So now I pose the question to you again, do you really know your TRUE destiny?

It is a week after all the hubbub around the Apple press conference. Things have now cooled down a tad. Now its time for me to interject my thoughts…

Here they are:

The iPad is nothing more than a glorified IPhone, only bigger.

Yes, you heard me. That is what I think of it. Now, before you start calling me out on twitter, let me say a couple things. (Yes I know about all the jokes, but I am not posting them here)

First off, Scobles’ 16 year old kid agrees with me! Secondly, Paul Colligan, the tech guru that he is, ran the numbers on the iPad which proved to be quite interesting. Third, a college friend of mine has 27 reasons against the iPad. And finally, my good friend Harrison Painter thinks that the iPad will soon be coming to a WalMart near you!

Oh, and I haven’t even launched into the jokes yet! (Don’t worry, I’ll be breaking them out at the end)

In all honesty, lets go back to my original quote. It does everything the IPhone does, why do we need another thing to lug around? And by lug, I do mean lug! Don’t worry though, you won’t be getting flatter abs or bigger biceps with this thing anytime soon.

I am not convinced. I was really looking forward to what would happen with IPhone’s exclusivity deal with AT&T. And I REALLY didn’t like the fact that to add insult to injury that Apple goes ahead and throws in 3G on AT&T.

Now that you’ve heard the bad, here is the good side.

What I did like about the iPad was the option to have a bigger screen to see more detail. The 3G option is pretty neat as well. I did look at Verizon’s netbooks when they first came out but realized I would max the bandwidth usage in an hour with that I do, so the iPad just might be the answer to that problem. If only it had an iBall camera though!

I could see this device finally making use of the RPG gaming apps in the app store. Now you can actually see detail on a larger screen and have more options than be squished between your two thumbs.

I also liked the fact that this takes us another step in the digital media distribution medium. Looking forward to the day when we no longer read inewspapers, as “neat” as they once used to be, and iwalk around with a little tablet thing with all the news we need at the touch of our finger. That and the podcast options too.

If I do get my hands on the iPad, it very well may be version 2 or 3.0.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

iDone.

The banner you see above and the logo used on my podcast are all the result of Podcast Designs. Becky, who does all of the design work, was referred to me by a fellow podcaster for getting a good logo done for my podcast. She blew me away with what she came back with, and I fell in love with it immediately. Not only does she do logo’s, but also ebook covers, website templates, and any other graphics work you need done.

Podcast Designs comes highly recommended by me, so be sure to tell her that I sent you when you need graphics done.

May 2010 be your most prosperous year yet!

-Taylor Marek

Note: This is one of those rare posts where I recommend someone I use on a regular basis for work they have done for me. I am not compensated in any way, other than good will, for recommending Podcast Designs, I am merely sharing a resource that I use and works well for me.

1. Our Industry is Maturing

Yes, I know this is kind of the obvious one, but it needs to be stated. We can reminisce back to the days podcasting was in its infancy, and how we loved those days and long for them to return, but podcasting is now a tad older then a toddler, if you want to take it in literal years. Remember when Podcast Pickle hit Time Magazine in 2006? We were making headway then. Remember when we hung out and chatted with fellow podcasters, content in our little world? Now the door is wide open. Remember when “social media” was nonexistent? We worked our butts off in the forums, blogs, podcasts, and elsewhere to have our voices heard.

Oh how times have changed. Our little baby is growing up. And as hard as it is, we need to switch gears now.

2. Stop Swearing

I’ve heard just about enough from others in our industry who think they can just swear and get away from it. I know the typical responses too, but with an audience comes a level of professionalism. This may be where my part of the hammer hits the hardest, but it needs to be said for both of our sakes.

I’ve listened to enough people older than me to know the typical story. As a teenager, things are always changing, and as such you are in the midst of many life choices. If you picked up swearing around this time, you probably had it beat pretty hard out of you in your twenties and thirty’s to know to keep your mouth shut. “Grow up” was a pretty typical phrase during this time. I’ve spoken at length with many of my friends and mentors in this space, and we have come to the same conclusion:

If you expect to be taken seriously as an industry, drop the profanity and inappropriate jokes!

3. Focus

If we want to make the impact on the world that we know we can make, we need to stop distracting ourselves with “other things”. We need to hunker down and focus.

4. Monetization

This has always been brought up time and again. There are many ways to monetize, and if we expect to make a business out of this, we need to find our strategy and go with it. Enough floating around in the water waiting to see what will happen, it ain’t going to do you any good. Find the strategy that works, and go with it. I think Chris Brogan mentioned something along those lines as well when he said, “Podcasting isn’t exactly dead.”

5. Engage your tribe

Stop talking about yourself, this is not all about you. This is about your tribe. They found you and are listening to you because you provided them with something of value and earned their trust. No one cares about a self-centered person. Actually, they find it more entertaining to drop you like a bag of rocks and find someone else. Nurture their trust by sharing information with them, and talking to them. Find out their likes and dislikes, share stories. Build a tribe that way, and they will never want to leave.

Am I missing anything? Would love to hear your thoughts.

What I want to do is give you a FREE 30min consultation with me. I will be giving away one spot every week on Friday in conjunction with the “Follow Friday” meme brought about through Twitter. What will it be on? Social Media, New Media, Podcasting, Personal Finances, or Small Business/ Entrepreneurship. You choose the topic you want. I’ve been involved in Social Media/New Media for the past 3 years, and Personal Finances/Small Business for at least 8. I want to share with you the knowledge I know, and help you out. I want to see you succeed.

Now, the all important part. What do you need to do to win this? I need you to answer the following question below:

“How has the economy affected your life/business?”

If you answer it on twitter, use the hashtag #FFwk1. Otherwise you can leave a comment. You are allowed one blog comment entry and one twitter entry at maximum. At 8pm CST I will close the challenge. I will then group both the twitter and blog comments together and pick a tweet/comment at random. I will announce the winner over twitter, and will then contact them privately to setup a consultation time.

How much is this worth? I charge $200/hr for a private consultation. If I were you, I’d be banging down the door right now. How bad do you want it?

What would it be on you ask? It might be either New Media, Podcasting, or Young Entrepreneurship. I’m still debating on it, and would love to hear your thoughts on what you would most enjoy reading. I have a couple pretty good book titles for either, but I’ll keep those a secret until the book nears completion.

What would the format be? I’m thinking a how to book. Possibly bringing in some experts in the space that I choose and interview them to be included in the book.

But then again, its not up to me. Its up to what you want to read and what you would most enjoy. Tell me what you think, lets get a conversation going around this…

8-13-2009 Update: I will be writing a book for Young Entrepreneurs. Title is in the works and I am busy fleshing out the idea…

Lots of updates and changes to the site, and plenty stuffed into this episode.

First off, my start into the video realm came on May 19 with the launch of the TaylorMarek20 Vlog. Find the latest vlog/video of my making over at: http://www.youtube.com/taylormarek

This episode is a new twist, in that I have New Media instead of Finances for this episode. Take a listen and tell me what you think.

New Media: 13 Successful Blogging Tips.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/06/10/successful-blogging/ – Darren Rowse and his 5000th blog post! Well worth a read.

Business: Business Podcasting

Have you looked at integrating a podcast into your business? If not, you’re missing out.

Technology: Bing Pre-Iphone

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10261061-2.html – Google’s Schmidt dings Bing

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10261260-1.html – Five of my favorite things about the Palm Pre

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10260521-233.html – iPhone OS 3.0 revisited

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10260010-1.html – Details about Apple’s new iPhone 3G S

Lets continue the conversation, comment below or use these options:

• Toll Free Comment Line: 1-866-TMP-2860
• @taylormarek me on Twitter
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Taylor-Marek/784580234

Internet Business:

Jason Van Orden -Podcaster first and foremost, entrepreneur at heart. He was responsible for most of the promoting ideas I’ve implemented on this blog/podcast.

Podcasting:

Paul Colligan – Best mentor anyone could ask for. He knows this area well, and is an awesome friend to have. To me, his name is synonymous with podcasting.

Blogging:

Yaro Starak – One of the first blogs I ever followed when I first came into this realm in early 2006. Everything he writes is so simple, anyone can understand it.

Darren Rowse – When I first ran across ProBlogger, I thought of the name. I said, “I want to be a Pro-Blogger” and I’ve modeled much of what I do on the internet around that statement.

Social Media:

Leesa Barnes – Started out podcasting, made a book, then merged into the realm of social media. Best interviewer I’ve had, and LOVES speaking on New Media.

Those are my mentors, what about you?

Here is the link: http://podcastinsiders.com/2009/02/24/on-the-end-of-the-podcast-peer-awards/

Sun, Dec 28, 2008

Dear Podango Customers (Podcasters and Station Directors),

We at Podango believe that you, our customers, are our most valuable
asset. Given this belief, we have always done our best to be honest
and forthright in our dealings with you. The current uncertainties of
the financial market has affected many of us in this nation. As of
this morning, Podango is no longer immune to it’s effects. Our ability
to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in
question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be
negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you
to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin
moving to another hosting provider.  On Monday we will have a more
definitive direction. As of today, the last day to move or secure your
data is December 31st, 2008. RSS feeds will need to be redirected by this
date as well. It is our hope that the events of the next few days will
allow us to continue providing you a service based upon a subscription
fee. Again, we will know more on Monday and you will be notified of
any changes to the above plan as soon as we are made aware of them.

Again I personally apologize for this notice of caution. We truly
appreciate your business.

Doug

Douglas G. Smith
President – Podango

And just like that, another AWESOME service ends. Doug and company, good luck in your future ventures, you will be missed. You had an awesome service unlike any other. Let me be the first to say I would be more than glad to pay for your service if I had to. You cut my podcast production in half, plus the automation you had built into it outdid ANY other companies product. If you could somehow find a way to make “Show Builder Lite” into an individual product and have it run on the podcasters server, rather then have a big huge server for all the files, I would jump right on it. Hear me on this, I would PAY for your service, it is that awesome!
Posts from a couple well known bloggers/podcasters:

http://www.paulcolligan.com/2008/12/27/about-podangos-demise-and-the-smart-podcasters-response/

http://mwgblog.com/archives/2008/12/26/podango-bankruptcy-looming/

http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/008489.html

This is the second post I have had to write regarding a service I use closing down, the first one being Radio Tail Ripple. Thoughts? Any parting wishes you want to make if you used Podango? Comments are open.

What was the number one question you had when you started podcasting?

I am planning on writing an ebook based on that question. Something that not only you can use to look back on to remember, but also to share with others so that they don’t have to search for the answer. Feel free to comment below, otherwise I have posted the question into the following forums below…

Podcast Pickle Forums: http://www.podcastpickle.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52163

Podcast Alley Forums: http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145198

I am looking forward to the new possibilities this can bring to the table. What are your thoughts on this?

In today’s episode you will learn about how credit cards can eat you alive for Finances. For Business, will you pick a sales staff or invest in advertising, and for Technology, I give an update on the Google/Viacom lawsuit and how Dell was caught red-handed.

The articles used in today’s show can be found at:
http://askfsb.blogs.fsb.cnn.com/2008/05/23/taking-your-web-design-firm-to-the-next-level/
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208400312
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208400410

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas about anything mentioned during the show, or to give your two-cents on a topic, call our toll-free line at 1-866-TMP-2860.

Hello,

We’ve decided to end our free statistics service, RadioTail Ripple. It’s
been a pleasure having you on our system and working with so many fine
podcasters.

As of the end of this month, we’ll stop generating statistics for your
podcast. We will continue to forward the redirects to your media files
for the foreseeable future.

I’ve used RadioTail Ripple on my own podcast (www.venturevoice.com), so
I’d like to assure you that we’ll do everything possible to make this
easy for you.

Your listeners will not notice any change because we will continue to
forward the old Ripple redirects to your podcast.

We recommend you consider looking into using another metrics service
such as FeedBurner, PodTrac or Libsyn.

(All the) Best,

Greg

Wow. Just like that, gone is another podcast statistics service. I actually enjoyed Ripple over many others because of the total downloads button you can watch. Also, redirecting it through Ripple is very easy compared to some other stat tracking services.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, Greg. I shall miss the excellent service you and your team developed.

Looking to purchase “Podcasting for Profit” by Leesa Barnes?

Ship Date is Sept. 30, but you can pre-order the book here: http://www.podcastingforprofitbook.com/

Why am I mentioning this book? Because I am in the book! I was interviewed by Leesa Barnes a while back to be included in the book, and I gave her many good ideas that she put into it. Just recently on her blog, she listed the “Podcasting for Profit Rock Stars” in order of appearance in her book. You can find me in “Chapter 9 – Building Your Expert Status” of Podcasting for Profit. I am PFP rock star #75.

You can find the entire list here: http://virtualeventsuccess.com/2007/09/the-podcasting-for-profit-rock-stars/

TechNewsGadget is the podcast dedicated to bringing you the latest in Tech News and Product Reviews.
http://technewsgadget.mevio.com

I want this to be a good “best of” episode and not one that sounds scattered. Any tips and or help would be greatly appreciated.

My podcast is one of the only IPhone compatible podcasts right now. All you have to do is dial a number and you will hear my latest episode streamed right over the phone.

Don’t believe me? Dial 1-831-480-3979 and take a listen, then you can leave your comment by dialing 1-866-TMP-2860.

You can now find it here: http://taylormarek.com/premium/podcast-coming-up

You can now find it here: http://taylormarek.com/premium/business-podcasting-expo-2007

You can now find it here: http://taylormarek.com/premium/podcast-peer-awards-nomination