In this episode, I got to chat with the fantastic Michael Gililland. He’s the co-founder of the Not Average Media. I met him via LinkedIn through a few mutual connections. We spoke a while back and it was such an awesome conversation that I decided to bring him on the podcast. He’s a down to earth individual that I really enjoyed talking with. Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. You can head over to his podcast site http://www.donotaverage.com to hear Michael speak to his amazing guests.
And you can reach him directly via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gililland/
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Junaid Ahmed 0:06
Welcome to a new episode of hacks and hobbies with your host. Junaid Ahmed.
We have Michael, you'll
Michael Gililland 0:21
see, I screwed up already. Michael Gilliland from not average podcast. Yeah You got it. I connected with Michael A while back I spoke with him and he told me hey we have a podcast going on, as well as like a Maiko take a listen and I've learned a lot of good things listening to the podcast you know help motivation help with understanding how other entrepreneurs are making it happen and
climbing the the proverbial life ladder because corporate letters not something you climb and the entrepreneur your world you are essentially climbing on your own back so so here is Michael Michael tell us a little bit about a little bit about how you got into starting the podcast and you know if this is not your hobby What else would you be doing
yeah yeah absolutely well thanks for having me tonight man and good to good to hear from you again. Man. I know it's been a while but usually so I'll kind of start I grew up in a pretty blue collar family. My dad was in the Air Force for about 20 years. Yeah, when I grew up, obviously I was moving around quite a bit. So I got used to meet new people and having to adjust to new cultures and everything and probably the one of the lessons that are really kind of been benefits for me currently right now. Yeah,
but you know, as I kind of progressed through life, my dad retired and 92 obviously we had to figure out okay, well what are the next steps Yeah, so we ended up in a a small place that really small place but a Hampton Roads Virginia
Junaid Ahmed 2:05
and that's actually where I consider myself I grew up in so if you asked me what I am actually a Virginian. Even though I currently live in Kentucky,
I went to school at a small school in the southwestern part of the state called Radford University. And my professional career was about over a decade, I think up where you are. And so I did a bit about five years in grocery five years and retail and, you know, I think like most people as they go through their professional career, you know, they, you know, you either like love the, the corporate ladder, or you try and do something a little bit different. So, you're always like, seeking something new so you can new challenges. Yeah, that definitely fit my description.
I constantly, you know, over the world, plus years I've been in other professional realm, I always try to seek out or what are the new challenges? What are the new opportunities who cannot learn from Yeah, yeah, I don't necessarily what we kind of say, fit into the box that into the nap for the trade, you know,
that kind of goes into our talk about the starting of the podcast. Yeah, actually, me and my co host, whose name is killer Slagle, we met the MBA program about seven years ago. This and, you know, we, you know, we kind of kept in touch, we always talk we always had phone conversations whenever he was in Northern Virginia would grab a beer, coffee and have these like, amazing conversations. Yeah, we're like, 75% of it was just stupid stuff. And then there was other 25% of just magic within these conversations. And yeah, they surrounded personal development fitness professional, we would we would sit in a Starbucks and just kind of scrutinize in terms of process flow and have discussions about that was super cool. And that was kind of the the seedlings that got it started. And yeah, well, until about maybe two years ago, we thought about this idea. Well, what if people could get some value out of this conversation?
Michael Gililland 4:07
That was the start of it. And then, you know, life happens, you know, I picked up and moved my family to Kentucky for professional opportunity. Yeah, I was a little bit closer to Kaler. So we had the proximity thing working out for us. Nice. We said, kind of, kind of Screw it. Let's, let's start the podcast. That's to it. And I was about January this year. We just completely went full throttle, got the RSS feed, got the website up at the test audio? Yeah, we started having some conversations laying out that audio. And, you know, before we actually did the official hard launch that we had somebody reached out to us who wanted to be interviewed on a podcast, don't no idea how she found us.
But she did. And we said yes. And we interviewed her and she blew us away. It was about 10 other people who blew us away just as much. That's amazing. We were kind of off to the races at that point. That's so amazing. But yeah, weekend. Yeah. And we kind of tag it just real conversations with not average people. Yeah, more of our kind of format is really just sitting down and having a real conversation with real people. Because as much as you know, we like to have people listen to our insights. We're actually still learning ourselves too. So yeah, absolutely. As we get these great people on, you know, let's, let's have a conversation because I'm, I'm interested in what you do. Exactly. And kind of the birth and be not average audio experience podcast.
Junaid Ahmed 5:30
Nice. I still have yet to speak with Kohler or Kaler.
Get scalars Taylor with the K. Okay. It's just
telling that flows throws people off, right,
we always say that we had like, probably my last name is the hardest to pronounce. Hardest pronounced probably in the industry. podcasting. It'd be hilarious if you had
Michael Gililland 5:53
Kayla Gilliland, right?
Junaid Ahmed 5:57
Like
I don't know. That means my guess we have to get married.
Michael Gililland 6:05
I don't know how the question is, you know, who would take the last game?
Junaid Ahmed 6:09
You got it? Yeah? Well, his last name is Slagle so it's a little bit easier to
easier. Okay, whatever is easier for the kids. Right? Yeah,
Michael Gililland 6:20
that's so cool. You know, the one thing that you mentioned about how you met him in the MBA program that shows Okay, there's, you know, there's something going to happen, because through life, you meet several people that you meet them in different circles, circumstances, right. You'll be you'll meet people at school, but you so you met him through the MBA program. But you like when you start a new professional career, you meet so many new people, then it all comes down to, okay, who's going to jive with you, like who you're going to stay connected with the longest, and I've had those experiences where I've connected with somebody because I joined a program and I've been, you know, you keep in touch with those same people. And sometimes there's, you know, something there. But other times, you're just keeping in touch, just to keep in touch and to follow industry. And it's really cool that, you know, you're able to connect with him after the fact, after going to that professional journey. Like, hey, we talk so much about this one. We just do it. So I've traveled a lot. I mean, I grew up in I was born in Pakistan, as grew up in Saudi Arabia, made some friends there. I would like my entire school life was there. But then when I moved to the United States, sure. I had a few friends through college through community college, but I had a lot more family and I build those bonds with my family and my cousins. So there's two cousins or one, one cousin, that I'm always, you know, talking to sure, even thought about starting a podcast, actually, we started a podcast about six years ago was called still growing, it still bring those are coming up. And we're still thinking of ideas, because that's all we're doing. We're just talking about ideas, talk about what's happening in the industry. And it's just amazing. It's just funny that, you know, we just since we, and the other thing you mentioned, right, so he was up in Northern Virginia, but finally with he moved down. Alright, so who moved out? I mean, you moved out to Kentucky, so I did. I
moved from Northern Virginia, Kentucky about two years ago.
Okay. And he already lived down here, right?
He did. Yeah, for about a year Previous to that. He was just pharmaceutical sales. And Aaron okay. He lived in Virginia, but you can consider him he moved everywhere. I mean, okay. Going out. And sales calls globally and doing all that stuff. Okay. And decided to settle down a little bit into Kentucky. Yeah,
so since he settled down in Kentucky, it's easier for you to to, you know, work together on that project. Sure. And I'm trying to get in. I'm trying to get to that point as well. And I've connected with a lot of people here in Northern Virginia, through the LinkedIn local platform. And the first time that I attended, I was like, Dude, this is so cool. And then, you know, it started making connections with people who are hosting it. And, you know, I got to speak as well on at one that event, he just called me up like, Hey, you know, video, you want to talk about this, like, sure. I've been trying to get into video for so long. But what happened with my cousins is we started a podcast, but I was in Denver there in California, there's a two hour difference. I would have to be at the computer past midnight for them to have, you know, any time available. And oh, yeah. funny part is, we're also three of us are married. All three of us have kids currently, just like, all right, where do you find the time you got to make this time. And
so earlier this year, I was thinking I'm just going to do this. And just and then I found anchor FM, the pop up platform to be super easy. I could just do the recordings on my commute. And I can post them later that day. And the technology has come so far, I can do full on multi track editing on my iPhone or my iPad. So I have to be synthetic computer like I am right now.
Junaid Ahmed 10:38
No excuses that you have. No,
Michael Gililland 10:40
exactly right. I got no excuses. The only excuses Okay, I gotta put the kids to sleep. I gotta find some time for myself to actually do the edits. Like I have a few episodes in the pipeline that I need to edit and publish. Sure. But it's, it's, it's how things go. And, you know, that's life. And as I was talking to arrow
the other day, and he's like, you know, one thing that we don't talk about, or that I haven't heard talked about is, you know, being an entrepreneur while having a family while having the kids, you know, how do you, you know, do it right. So, do you have any take on that specific? Yeah,
Junaid Ahmed 11:27
I mean, I think I have a lot of things about it. But, you know, definitely, I think as an entrepreneur sacrifices a big word. So, you know, as we talked about funding, being killer kind of getting together, you and your cousin getting together type of thing, but it's a sacrifice for your family, to your wife, and as a sacrifice for your children. It is, and I get that, you know, and it's kind of one of those things, can you find the right person that kind of believes in your dreams? Yeah, they have to stick beside you do that through thick and thin.
And as you kind of figure out who that person is, you know, just keep the communication lines open. Yeah,
she's she, your wife may deal with some frustrations, like, my wife may deal with some frustrations. But, you know, you talk it through and you kind of figure out what are the next steps because, you know, there's connection and you got to collaborate together. It's the same things because I don't believe there's a big difference between your professional personal life there thought that there just isn't, I mean, whatever affects you, personally, is going to fetch you professionally. Oh, absolutely. So, I mean, why should we ever put up these walls, you know, and not be truthful with the people that we actually love and the people who want to connect with? Yeah, yeah.
Michael Gililland 12:40
So for me, it's, it's finding the right people, I think he said it earlier between me and Kaler. You know, I mean, professionally before I even met kid, I had about five years professional experience. And we talked about this all the time, it could have been super easy for us, and we saw a lot of people just reverting back to the average to really just kind of say, well, screw it. Yeah, you know, it's because that's kind of what's expected over there is just the average I could have just gone to that trap. And, and that's why I'm so happy in terms of, you know, I have a Karen wife who really wants to see me succeed and killer killer and I met at the right time. Yes, we have five years experience professional. And we were like, it's just, it's just not us. You know, and, yeah, you know, it's just kind of those stars, stars align a little bit, right, you know, wasn't wasn't planned to, you kind of be open to those new experiences and say, right, as you know, they, that guy I want to hang out with, you know, my wife seems like somebody who would care about my dream trips as much as I would sacrifice for her as well. Yeah, so it's big. I mean, you got to find your crew. I mean, that's right. In terms of days. So what the five people you're surrounded by with, I think, I think the content you surround yourself with is important to is very important. Yeah, you know, I mean, if you're kind of listening to the wrong people were listening to the wrong podcast, that just tells you to chill and do stuff, you know, and now you got to get out there and just move. Yeah, yeah,
that's so true. And, and that's some of the things that, you know, following Gary Vee. And following Tony Robbins. I it's, it's the same thing, right? When I met Tony Robbins and Gary Vee, they came to Virginia and I got to go, you know, attend this event.
Junaid Ahmed 14:19
It's awesome. I was,
Michael Gililland 14:20
I was so hyped. I was like, Holy smokes, this is so powerful. And Tony Robbins is out there talking for hours and hours and hours of like, Oh, my God, how is he able to do that? And then how are we able to just sit here? It's like, it's like a concert. Because you're getting up clapping. And you're screaming.
Amazing, right? And then, so that's the week I started. I was like, I'm going to do a podcast every single day. And I was able to sustain that for like, two weeks. Sure. And then that have to travel. And then I still recording because I'm not publishing, but I'm still recording. And I'm still getting those listens. Sure. And it it kind of gives you a positive feedback. Like, all right, people are listening. I don't know who these people are. They haven't, you know, reached out to me or talk to me about what they like, but at least there's people listening to my content. So I should just keep doing it just for the sake of my sanity as well. Because for the past week, haven't been able to, like, sit down and do the edits and, and I've feeling this inner anxious, like, All right, we're going to do this. So I've been I've been trying to pull some all nighters and like our, I'm just going to sit here everybody's sleeping, that should be able to get this done. And then, of course, you know, I get a text like, oh, the baby's away. Can you get her to me to
Junaid Ahmed 15:42
share it? That's real life, man that has real
Michael Gililland 15:46
life. And then, like, you know, this, this has to be documented, because it's real, you know, a people all over the world are going through this. And, you know, the struggle that's, that's the struggle is essentially Sure. Yeah,
I mean, let's not try and put a happy face on anything, right? We, we live our life and filters now, whether it's on Instagram. Exactly. But, you know, I think that's doing a big disservice. And they look cool in the moment. And you may get it,
but you know, when these, you know, these coming up generation or even like, you know, people in their 40s, 45 who are trying to do something different. And yeah, and they realize they hit that first or second roadblock. Yeah, what do I do now, you know,
and if they don't have the connection, they don't have the, you know, the consistency or the kind of resiliency to kind of push that stuff. And that's real. I mean, I'd rather see that sort of content because I respond more to that. Because it is, it's because that's authentic stuff, right? That's and that's what
that's one of the things that resonated with me when Gary Vee said, you know, document the process. Yeah, because people, there's 7 billion people in this world. And there has to be other people that are going through this same process, the same problems, and, you know, where are you looking for guidance? And so, where would they look for guidance, and it's like, you know, I just have to document I mean, I, I don't know if I did a good job in documenting sure.
But, you know, I'm just reiterating what I learned. And, you know, about, you know, the different stages of be goes through all these different things fascinating for people. And there's so many parallels to it as well, like, with life.
And what's so much I mean, you you bring up a great point, because I sit here and talk about, you know, because we live in this content world, right? You're not you don't exist another source content, and then you don't feel comfortable releasing content that makes you a little bit vulnerable. Yes. You know, what if, what if you just started a mastermind where there was no intent to make content, right, but you have three or four people that are supporting you. Exactly, to get to that point. And you talk about that. I mean, yeah, you know, content is good. But I think sometimes we live in a world where kata kata kata content Well, if you don't believe it, or you don't really feel vulnerable, you're not doing something authentic, genuine. Don't waste your time. Like for me, because I don't want to watch that, you know, because I know you're not that I'd rather Yeah. Rather, like speak to you personally, speaking authentically, and figure out what are you going through. So I mean, get the three or four people that you like, truly enjoy, get on a phone call for 45 minutes, once a week, talk about your struggles, no good stuff that happened, I mean, and then kind of go from there. And then you build up that confidence put out that, you know, content as well. So, you know, it's baby steps.
Now. That's, that's, that's so true. And the internet is full of people talking about these smallest niches possible, right? The one the one thing I always come back to is ants. Canada is a YouTube channel, which 650,000 subscribers explain that, what is that I don't even know Canada is essentially a YouTube channel that talks about and farming My gosh. And like ants, you know, taking the food away that we try to get rid of from our house, you know,
what popped in my mind, it was, it was just a camera on and on and heal. And people
like think it is like somebody watched actually what it is, you know,
Junaid Ahmed 19:24
they've got these terrarium in their homes, these large terrarium and inside it is and hills and you know, ant colonies living in there. And he's got, you know, video. And he's talking about some, like, 650,000 people are watching this video on a daily basis, or on a weekly basis. And like, wow, this world is so diverse. This internet so diverse, that if somebody saying that I don't have anybody listening to my content, they are lying to themselves, you just have to go out there, you have to put the content out and get that information out there. And if you just want to be consumer and watch TV and complain about this stuff, well, you know, that's not going to work. With so much content whizzing around out there. There's only one storytelling platform that helps you keep calm and stay informed and inspired. Flipboard Flipboard curates the world story so you can be smarter in your work life and play, choose from thousands of topics to personalized Flipboard and get the latest stories from the best publishers delivered to you. 24 seven, when you see stories that you want to save or share, tap the plus button to add them to private or public collections. It's that simple. Use my millions of people every day. Flipboard is how people move themselves and the world forward. Get started now at Flipboard. com. That's flipboard.com.
Michael Gililland 20:57
I'm not gonna listen to your content.
Exactly. You're not because you're, you know, complaining.
And then you mentioned about, you know, you get in a phone call and talk to people who are going through similar struggles. And that's very powerful. Because essentially you're, you're kind of getting feedback or you're getting the sense that other people are going to the same thing that you're going through. Sure. And that's why they have those, those Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, conference in the why they work so well is because people going through the same stuff, they come here, they share the information, they feel better, because now you know, they've got it off their chest if God never gotten it out in the world, and you get feedback and, you know, people are, you know, supportive in that manner. So, yeah, and, and I think human beings in general are, you know, we love to collaborate in that sense. Sure. Yeah.
And just think about like, you know, I think and we mean your LinkedIn junkies so we've seen it in terms of the you know, you get the message where buy my stuff like I'm sorry to hear you again you know, type of thing Why should I buy your stuff and I think the same thing like let's be honest we're on a business we're all trying to sell some we are but you know what, I think what we suck at what we don't teach people is first You know, there's the awareness side where you people know who you are and what you sell and then there's complete that circle with the trust Yeah, for us completely like
Junaid Ahmed 22:26
yeah, it is so gone
Michael Gililland 22:28
is I'm glad you mentioned LinkedIn local because we are the Louisville and Lexington Kentucky host as well to down here nice what we change with that is it's a little bit different because you know for that networking it's beyond just giving you your business card yes we actually want to cultivate a conversation where I get to know that Junaid you have three kids and you have a wife, you know. And yeah, you did travel a lot, you know. And then Wow. And then I always come back. What is it again? You sell Oh, well. I don't need your services. But I know somebody who may examine me. Let me give you that referral thing. Because I trust given that referral back on the outside. Right. Because, you know, there's there's a human being behind here. Yeah, I mean, we do business with humans, man, not with products or services, LinkedIn, local. And Mike, what podcasting? Can do podcasting can do that. Yeah, if done correctly, right. Because, yeah, people will find out who you are. I mean, we live in a social media world where you're exactly your Instagram page. And your LinkedIn page is more important than your resume. It is people will find you. Yeah. And then they'll say, Wow, okay, this is what you do.
Junaid Ahmed 23:34
And what what I ran into this video, 5149
Michael Gililland 23:42
Gary Vee, right? give out 51% and take only 49. As soon as you change. That ratio is going to it's going to drop, you know, you're not going to get that same reciprocity. I was like, Wow, that is an S like, this is so amazing. I mean, I know never thought of it that way. And this guy, I mean, I don't know how. I mean, he is a genius from like, a totally different level. He's like street units, right? There's geniuses in school and and this guy just because he's done it right. He's walked the path and now he's telling you how to do it. Sure. Or Well, he he says, you know, don't listen to what I say to as what I do. You know,
and definitely, I think, I don't know if you've ever felt this but when you have conversations with like minded people like I'm having with you. Yeah, gosh, I get a lot of energy it is right and you're clicking on you know, for like six hours after this I'll probably be like going to do a big workout and then coming back get some more work done doing all that stuff, you know, but yeah, you know, people want that sort of enthusiasm and energy but then they surround themselves negative Yeah, all the time. You know, whether that's social media or TV or radio will cut that out I'd rather talk with you generate and watch Yeah,
exactly. Because it's dreams you are and whether that the so I love watching TV as well. Right? But But I focus on like comedy like only only focus on stuff that makes me laugh or, you know, it's funny, I'll sell them watch like dramas because anytime there's suspense, and there's drama it's just trains that energy because essentially you're dealing with us people's negativity against other people like say, you know, it's just drains you out. Yeah,
and I could add another element to that because this sort of Yeah, grind and hustle culture right? Like always work always work always. We're always working I could tell from you Yeah, you're kind of a person like I am work this is always going up here. Oh yeah. I was at ideas I was like I gotta get going. Gotta get going. Yeah, when you when you sit down and you just have a comedy it's okay to shut it down for a little bit it Is it really okay and kind of x and figure out the next steps and spend time with your family it's okay you can still have someone like exactly have a personal life to do it's okay
yeah. And that that comes to again Gary Vee. He says, you know, in my 20s people or how having parties but I was just working he's just working. It's like, I should have gone to Vegas and you know, relax a little bit too. And so you know, that that again, validates that, you know, sure you got stuff going up up in your head, but you you do need to take a break, you need to relax because and you got to have that cycle you can't beat up here all the freaking time, right? Because it can't be day all the time. Go Go talk to people in Alaska where there's day six months so six months a year, they're not happy, right? You can't You can't stay up there you got to come down. And that's why we see these cycles in in our life. We see cycles throughout nature. There's day and there's night every single day that should you know, snap and tell us Okay, you got to have the ups the downs and you gotta reflect and I was talking to another guy it's like, you know, days are for creating a nicer for reflecting. Yes, you know, so, if you're not doing that reflection and creation balance, then you know, you're gonna you're gonna feel that you're going to crash
Oh, yeah. 100% man. And you know, Keller and I talked a lot about sort of our philosophy, I guess you can kind of call it the not average philosophy. But yeah, we've been working on this for about five years, and just throwing What are they called drone stuff on the wall and seeing what, yes, but, you know, we came up with this whole idea of self awareness, purpose and vitality. You know,
first he, he kind of know who you are, yeah, you know, why you're doing it? And do you have kind of help and fitness to keep up? You know, yeah, you know, I think you hit it on the head with the self awareness part, you know, you have to reflect, you know, who are you type of person, you know, and you got to have to figure that out as their steps to figure all this part out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that's a journey, man. I mean, you're never gonna, it's always going to change, right? You know, don't have to be constant, you know, but the more you kind of changes the only constant, right? Hundred percent. Yeah, because I think you got to know that if I asked myself 10 years ago, what I would be doing right now. Yeah, he said, You're a liar, because I'm a completely different person. Absolutely. And I always feel weird kind of talking about my past, not that I'm afraid to be. It's just, it's not who I am anymore. Yeah, so I don't think it's really relevant. But some people might connect with it. So sometimes I do share that story. Sure. And, you know,
focus on the next month, 10 months, you know, that you're actually going to be able to content and start that out. Yeah,
having that history of making decisions and being in coming to our eye when you where you are today, right? Because if you hadn't gone that route at all, maybe it'd be a totally different place. So it's those things that we do in our life that help us become the person who we are it and, and, and funny thing is that that is somewhere where AI, is that right? You know, artificial intelligence is at that point, it doesn't have that experience that the human experience, right, so we grow up and we learn through our peers, we learn through our parents we learn through this mentorship and when they say, you know, AI and machine learning go hand in hand so without machine learning you cannot have the artificial intelligence so you have to teach it
yeah and it's it's it's
crazy how people are now realizing there's a tacos listening to is actually Joe Rogan talking to Ilan Musk, and they were talking about, you know, where they are going to be in the next few years. And it's like, yeah, it's, there are huge AI networks right now in work that we are feeding information to Google, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, we're teaching the system what we like, and we don't like what we don't like. And so when they talk about these algorithms, those are the AI brains that are buying from us. Right, right,
man, hundred percent. I have to say, this is the best like beekeeping podcasts have ever been. We haven't talked about these at all.
Junaid Ahmed 30:47
Well,
Michael Gililland 30:49
so that's why I call it packs and hobbies, right,
because it's, it's a new hobby that I got into last year. I was just doing biking, biking, so I did like 1500 miles of biking.
So I'm introduced. I'm talking about these hobbies and these life hags in this podcast. So it goes with bees. And as human beings, our interests change, just like you said, you know, if somebody told you where you're going to be 10 years from now, and you'd like that, you crazy. Yeah, right. So just like that our hobbies change, because our interests change. And, you know, the things we like, change over time. And I figured, you know, just like, you got to have that downtime, and do the reflection and hobbies help you during that you do that reflection, because you might be building something would would, you know, but your mind is somewhere else solving different problems.
Junaid Ahmed 31:49
Yes,
Michael Gililland 31:50
there was a, there was a TED talk or basically small
excerpt from his Ted TED Talk, talking about boredom. Like, we are so afraid of being bored. And because we're afraid of being bored, we're not able to let our mind think and contemplate and reflect because we go from one thing to the other, like, okay, Attention, attention, Attention, attention, like our attention is dropping. And it's because of this, you know,
because we don't want to be bored. So she said, You know, it's okay to be bored. Sometimes teachers, that's when your brain goes into full speed and solves problems for you. Yeah,
just, it's just a different problem that the 21st century kids have to deal with, right? Yes. What, what the heck did you do in 1800s? Yeah, there's no TV, there's no radio, all you have was books, right? And then just time to yourself, figure it out. So yeah, I think we're definitely missing out in terms of being super reflective, I think that's really important to growth is Yeah, because, I mean, part of partially, you know, my mind why starting a podcast who is because I wasn't I wasn't a talker was I was one of those guys and high school and college at the got up for a presentation. And I thought I was going to die, you know, because you put yourself in, that's put yourself and you got to be super vulnerable, and hang out in my, in my goodness, type of thing. You know, and, you know, for me feeling uncomfortable as part of the growth thing. Yeah, the podcast at initially made me feel uncomfortable in my show a little bit, actually, you know, do stuff because I big goals over the next 510 years, you know, and this is just all part of the process, you know, yeah, you know, podcast can be a little bit more than just the podcast, it can be. Yeah, personal development tool for you for the few seconds
now, it's so true. And and now you're doing a daily we released three times a week. Okay. We, I mean, mostly, we're just interview format currently right now, but we do we do a lot of the one on one stuff. We got a ton in the queue right now, that would just haven't really judges because we get bogged down with the interviews. Yeah. Yeah. So now we're at least Whitehead, we bashed quite a few that were good for the rest of the year. We just miss ended it and release it type of thing. So it's not actually getting the content out on paper. Yeah.
How can you adjust the content to you know, get your your message out to more people? Yeah, exactly. stage where I'm with our podcast. And yeah, hopefully in the New Year start season to a different format as well.
Junaid Ahmed 34:26
Nice. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you talked about how we haven't talked about bees on the beat podcast.
Michael Gililland 34:36
And so it's a, it's a beekeeping and then, you know, other hobbies did that I got into. And then I almost got to a point where I'm talking enough to myself that I'm, like, you know, all see other people's struggles, and I'm, what are their life hacks. And since life is a combination of hobbies, and, and living life and personal and professional, I figured, you know, might as well you know, get some more and it's it, you could say that it's, it's sort of, like my own personal development he could see through the podcast. So it's funny, and, you know, I've learned, you know, I've joined several communities, I joined the anchor community, all the podcasters are hanging out here, you know, there are other talking about their podcast, and, you know, they're helping other people figure out what equipment but settings and, you know, helping other people figure out, you know, how to do the podcast good. And, you know, what kind of setup
there's a lot of noise in my audio, you know, what do I do? Or what software using, you know, I'm trying to talk to three people, you know, how, how can I record and so, there's a lot of good stuff. And I got to talk to a couple of people on there as well, in fact, to have one and we're going to be talking about parenting because, oh, cool. Three of us. You know, we're all parents, and his name is Graham. He's been podcasting for eight plus years.
Junaid Ahmed 36:12
And I was like, Wow, dude, yeah,
Michael Gililland 36:14
how'd you get into it? And he's like, well, growing up, I didn't know too much about my parents, or my, you know, my, my dad was always working and, you know, didn't know too much about my grandparents, you know, where they come from, and, you know, the, the lineage and the history. So, I figured when my firstborn, my first son was born, I'll do a podcast so I can start talking about stuff and he can, you know, go back and like, Oh, this is my dad, he, you know, talked to all these people he think he'd last year he did a parenting podcast. Now, this guy is a beast mode since he is a coach, a personal coach as well. He talks to a lot of people and he's creating like, four and a half hours of content every day. She's like, wow,
Junaid Ahmed 37:01
that's insane. It's like the works for him.
That's intended to
Michael Gililland 37:04
work for him because he's able to you know, that's that's his main job talking to people. So when he's talking to people, he's recording those conversations and then he's putting them out there in the specific area like Wow, that's pretty amazing. And so that's one of the reasons I start talking to people and you know, bringing those parallels into beekeeping as well like and you know how a queen bee and you know we talked about leadership and you got to be you know, they're talking got to talk about servant leadership and that's something new coming on right like no, a queen bee is essentially a servant leader because even though queen bee lives for two to five years the worker bees are the ones that are feeding the queen bee who only live for six weeks it's so amazing like these bees are going to be gone for six weeks but the Queen dependent on these little guys to bring in the food to tend to tend to the exit she's laid to tend to the larva right so so we see those parallels and leadership and you say so it's pretty pretty amazing
and it's a hell of a metaphor or analogy whatever you call it was never an English major I don't
know hundred percent with that one Junaid man I'm yeah. It's about building up your community. Right. Get her and I talk a lot about like we have we've had different paths professionally where it was a I was grocery retail and then small business and he didn't aeronautics sales and marketing well, but but you don't you come together and we talk about these things, it was almost the exact same issues around it is it didn't matter what industry you're actually in and building it that way. And, you know, we like to think we're so different, right? So not different, so many, like similarities that we can actually point to, if we open up the communication lines. Exactly. Just have some real discussions with real people. Yeah, it's, it's very, it's very amazing. And you got to take the ups and the downs, because if you don't, it's a flat line and you're dead. You got it,
how much, much more time you have. But you know, when, when I'm talking to, you know, talking to people like minded people, we could just go on for hours, because there's so much so much good stuff, we can learn from each other, that we learn from each other. And I really liked your idea of, you know, having a mastermind group conference call and just talk, okay, you know, this is what I'm going through, you know, how did you solve this problem? And there's actually a business model around it. There's, there's a CEO, there's this group of professionals who are the CEOs get to together and they talk about stuff
Junaid Ahmed 40:02
like, Wow,
Michael Gililland 40:04
that's pretty cool show you pay a monthly subscription fee to be part of this, you know, this meaning conferences and whatnot, but
that you would pay it because it would we probably get some great stuff out of it. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're actually on the role of trying to start up something like that to, you know, bigger. Nice that to me, I just like to like to connect with, like you said, People like you need, you know, and building your community out that way. Yeah, yeah. interesting way. But, you know, let's, let's get a little bit honest. Let's be a little tech and like how we reach out to people. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But you need to have a hell of a podcast, man. Yeah, absolutely. It was great talking to you. It's Let's do this again. And obviously we got to get you in our podcast
get that scheduled up and then you know, whatever you have time available. Yeah, again,
back to you tonight, sir.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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Junaid Ahmed has been a user experience designer for over 15 years. As a UX professional, he uses the user-centered design philosophy to come up with solutions. Trust the system, it works!
“People say that we only live once, but I believe in living every day!”
Junaid has been interviewing people from all walks of life on his podcast Hacks and Hobbies.