Introduction

Rob is driving this show, but it seems like someone should have told him that before the show actually started. James celebrated his son’s fourth birthday, as well as the fifteenth anniversary of WordPress, by giving his son a video game and immediately hogging it. He tries to make it sound like his son wanted him to take all the turns, but we know the truth, James just wanted to play the old school video games. Kevin bemoans the week of meetings and product discussions that he and James both just came out of. They both seem to have needed the three day weekend. I’m not sure it made this podcast any better, but you can’t win them all. Rob talks about taking time out of his work schedule for family and plugs a family-friendly hotel/waterpark in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He had to ultimately get permission from one of his employees to allow himself to go on vacation. I was going to make fun of that, but once I typed it all out, it seems a bit sad.

The Show

This week, the hosts discuss ways of keeping yourself mentally and physically fit. Kevin kicks things off by talking about how playing basketball is therapeutic for him. When he’s playing he can just turn off his brain and play by instinct. If you’ve ever seen him play, you’d definitely assume his brain is turned off. Let’s just say that there’s a reason Kevin’s favourite song is I Wish. Surprisingly, Rob doesn’t bring up fly fishing or movies. He kind of misses riding a motorcycle because he could focus on the ride, but his fear of a gruesome death keeps him from riding these days. If you have anxiety issues, you may think you’re having a heart attack. Rob says that when he has panic attacks, he has a checklist that reminds him that he isn’t actually dying. So, I guess do that? James relates that he doesn’t feel a lot of stress consciously, but that his body has been creating and healing ulcers for years. He also got a really cool irregular heartbeat, but no, he doesn’t feel stress at all. Meditation comes up again as a great way to maintain balance and mindfulness, although it doesn’t seem to have reminded James about all those ulcers. Physical activity is also mentioned as a necessity to handling what is ultimately an extremely stressful occupation. Although, I don’t think anyone on this podcast is going to be running any marathons anytime soon.

Recommendations

If you like to garden, Kevin recommends using a drip irrigation system to water your plants. This allows you to water at the roots, which can cut down on the amount of moisture and fungi. Oh, yeah, and Kevin says that God doesn’t know how to water plants. I don’t know if there’s a specific law on the books that deals with blasphemy against God’s gardening abilities, but I will say that several major religions feel that God’s got a pretty green thumb. James recommends a book dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and founders stay sane by Sherry Walling called The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You. He’s suggested this one before, and it should be reiterated that Sherry is actually qualified to give good advice on the topic of mental health and stability. If you’re still reading this, you should probably just stop and read Sherry’s book instead. I promise you’ll get more out of it. Can you smell what Rob is cookin’?!? If you live in Cleveland you probably can, because Rob loves fish. You may have guessed that from his several dozen mentions of fly fishing, but I just wanted to confirm. In what sounds like a very sketchy multi-level marketing scheme, Rob wants you to buy your fish from vitalchoice.com. Yes, he knows that it sounds like a site your aunt buys stock in because some guy on her favourite news channel told her to, but he claims it’s a place to buy fish online. Specifically, Rob wants you to eat Salmon.

Introduction

Welcome back to the AIB show notes! I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. If you get that reference, you’re doing better than James, who isn’t what I’d call a “Potterhead.” As you have probably guessed already, Jeremy is missing again this week. It turns out that Thanos is a comic book character created for Marvel Comics, so what he does in the Infinity War was just for pretend. I guess those rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated. This episode is all about un-business, the things that the hosts do to relax.

The Show

Since this is an episode about hobbies, you can bet that Kevin talks about his hobby-horse, woodworking. James has recently discovered his own hobbies of close-up magic and card collecting. Rob and James go down a very weird rabbit trail of David Blaine conspiracy theories. Well, just one theory, really, the one that says Mr. Blaine has been possessed by a Satan. Apparently his wizardry is such that Rob feels the only possible explanation is demonic possession. When he’s not pivoting, Rob loves to fly fish. He suggests that fly fishing is so multi-faceted that you’ll enjoy it even if you don’t like murdering fish. Do you like making things? You can tie flies. Do you like drinking while operating a boat? You can drink and float down a river. Do you like to be out in nature? Where do you think they fish? Kevin tries not to get teary-eyed while discussing his new hobby of gardening, and Rob tries to help him explain why growing vegetables that are probably going to be chucked anyway is so meaningful. Perhaps in order to connect with Rob and Kevin on a natural level, James makes up a story about growing up in the country. Of course he insists that it’s completely true, but, like Kevin and Rob, I have my doubts. Finally, Kevin and Rob try to decide which Harry Potter wizard house James belongs to. Rob is pretty insistent that James would be Ravenclaw, while Kevin maintains that he would be Gryffindor. This is the kind of hard-hitting journalism and discussion that I’ve come to expect from this show.

Our Recommendations

Do you want to get into woodworking? Yeah, me neither, but if you DID want to risk cutting off useful appendages just to make Christmas gifts that family members are probably going throw away, Kevin has a recommendation; buy a jigsaw. For less than $50 at most home improvement stores, you get a saw that can make most of the cuts you need for small-scale projects. Jigsaws are also handheld tools, and so they take up very little space in your garage or other workspace. If you’re a playing card nut like James, you might like his recommendation, playingcarddecks.com. Specifically, he likes their Pip Box Subscription, which is a fancy way of saying Deck of the Month club. Every month a curated number of playing card decks will be sent to your door. Talk about convenience! I’m just kidding, that sounds awful. I can’t wait till we hit the cultural backlash against subscription services. You can get a subscription service for literally anything you consume. It’s a bit ridiculous. I’ve saved the best recommendation for last. AIB’s very own Rob Alderman has offered to take our five listeners fly fishing. All you have to do is make your way to South Eastern Tennessee and reach out to him. Of course, this recommendation would be a lot better if Rob were willing to pay your travel expenses. Now that I think about it, Rob may just be a lonely fly fisher. Maybe this is just a sad man’s cry for friends.

Infinity War spoilers! Turn back if you haven’t seen the movie yet. I have some bad news. It would seem that our normal show notes writer was in the half of the galaxy who turned to dust. Yup. Thanos done un-made ‘em. As the search for a new writer gets under way, let me catch you up on this week’s podcast.

Major talking points:

• Building a brand starts with product
• GoDaddy as a case-study of bad brand management
• Actually interacting with your customers can help you learn what they need and want
• Being a part of your customer’s culture can be as important as what you are selling

Recommendations:

• Jeremy recommends payroll solution gusto.com
• James recommends the bacon bowl, especially if you want to eat a lot of cheese and other meat.
• Rob suggests a really interesting game called blackbox.
• Kevin suggests taking advantage of telemedicine, the ability to interact with a doctor via video chat.

Introduction

Jeremy just keeps breaking records by being present for a miraculous third show in a row. It’s almost like he wants to do this podcast thing! Speaking of Jeremy, he takes a turn in the driver’s seat and is at least able to manage avoiding talking about balls. He also promises to have the podcast done in under thirty minutes, but I don’t think he keeps that promise. We should probably mention the fact that Jeremy has a board of directors. Not his company, but him personally. A personal board of directors. He goes to them when he needs to make big life decisions and gets their input; it’s unclear whether or not these board members get veto power or if they own stock in Jeremy™. According to Jeremy, this group helps him keep his life on track. I only need one seat on my board of directors, and it’s filled by the big man upstairs.

The Show

Today’s show is all about mentoring and being mentored. The hosts assert that both being mentored and mentoring others is an important part of the entrepreneurial journey, forcing you to both grow and teach at the same time. Jeremy states that it’s best to have a specific time and place for mentoring to happen properly. Like his own version of Tuesdays with Morrie, Rob tells a story™ about travelling around with an old man through Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Like the Mitch Albom of the healthcare industry, Rob learned from his mentor, even though he was radically different than himself. Rob continues by throwing shade at the entire Baby Boomer generation for not mentoring people because they had a very “I got mine” attitude. Generation X, he contends, is full of loving, caring people who want nothing more than to pass along what they’ve learned. Way to be, Rob. I still love you, mom. Kevin’s fairly quiet on the topic, but when Jeremy asks him about his mentoring experiences, he explains that his PhD advisor is probably his closest experience. You went to college, we get it already, you don’t have to keep bringing it up. Sheesh. How do you know if Kevin was working on a PhD? Don’t worry, he’ll tell you James laments that he is getting older and doesn’t have much of a mentor or mentee relationship in his life. In the end, he suggests that listeners learn from his mistake and become very intentional about creating those types of relationships. To butcher the words of Sir Paul, “In the end, the mentoring you make is equal to the mentoring you make,” or something like that.

Recommendations

If you’re in the market for some swag, Jeremy has just the place to check: egrandstand.com. What started as a brewery-focused glassware company has expanded to become a great source for apparel and other marketing crap as well. Do you like watching...your users as they click their way through your website? Apparently Kevin does. His recommendation this week is for a service called Fullstory, which allows you to anonymously record and view user sessions on your site. Generally speaking, this is used for marketing purposes to make your site more usable, friendly, and profitable, but Kevin relates a story about using it for troubleshooting a specific bug. Sounds a bit too big brother for my liking. If you would like to get an MBA, but you don’t have the time, money, or drive to do a traditional college program, have no fear! James’ recommendation can help you out, CNBC’s The Profit is a show about entrepreneur and businessman Marcus Lemonis trying to save failing businesses. James likes the show because Marcus shows that the same business principles of having the right people, product, and process apply to any type of business. I think that if you watch enough episodes, you get a printable PDF that you can hang on your wall like a college degree. If you did get an MBA, you probably have a lot of student debt, so Rob’s recommendation may be able to help you out. He has been using an app called Every Dollar, which helps you save by planning in spending every dollar you bring in, rather than leaving it hanging in the aether. Spending into savings is intentional, rather than seeing what you have left over. If you need to find extra places to spend said dollars, feel free to send some my way.