Reflections with Poppy (Bonus episode)

Bonus EP Podcasting with Poppy

[: 00:00:00

[00:00:05] Where are you at? Girl? Come here. Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of ramble by the river. I'm here in the crab shed, along with my trustee canine, Ms. Poppy, she's adorable. So here's the deal Ram fam. It is Monday, November 22nd, 2021. I'm out of the studio because I am getting ready for poppy.

[: 00:00:31

[00:00:59] It's hard to [00:01:00] remember clearly what you were like a year ago, even though it feels like a blink of an eye. It was not very long ago. Uh, when I went to start planning my intro for the season finale, I want it to kind of re. Like recap what it is I was trying to do by creating the show and recap how far we've come and if we were able to accomplish any of those things and, you know, when it got right down to it, I had the things that I kind of remembered and that I've kind of used as signposts along this journey of these last 55 episodes.

[: 00:01:32

[00:01:53] The editing is choppy. It's pretty rough, but I love listening to it because it's just like me and him at [00:02:00] our most raw, you know, it was before the podcast was really a thing when we recorded that nobody knew ramble by the river was ever going to exist. So we were just two friends sitting in a crab shit.

[: 00:02:13

[00:02:33] And it just shows how far we've come, because it really is. Kind of a piece of shit production, but it's one that I will always cherish. So a lot's changed in a year. I feel like I'm the same person, but you know, it's, it's hard to know your perspective is funny like that. So I listen to the first episode and cringy as it was at times I came away from it being like, yeah, I feel like that was about what I thought, you know, it was a, it was that's where [00:03:00] we started.

[: 00:03:00

[00:03:24] There's Jeff. There's the Jeff that started this show. And I really benefited a lot from that episode because what I really did there was just. Exactly who I am exactly where I'm coming from, why I'm starting a podcast. What I think podcasting is where it's going to go all this stuff. Basically, I laid out my entire roadmap, the entire roadmap of ramble by the river of what it was to become.

[: 00:03:49

[00:04:07] I think comparison is one of the best tools we have for understanding meaning, because we can take one thing and look at it next to another thing, and you automatically have. You automatically get that color to it because it's, it's one thing versus another thing. Whereas when it's just something in isolation, you don't really know what it is.

[: 00:04:26

[00:04:49] And that's thinking back, that is what a lot of this was about. I started this because I felt a need within my soul to create something. And I did it, [00:05:00] did it accomplish what I wanted it to, I don't know. You'll have to be the judge of that. It's all about connection from the various. I wanted to connect with my listeners.

[: 00:05:09

[00:05:28] I hope that you guys are excited about it too. There's a lot of fun stuff coming up. We got great guests coming up for season two. We're already scheduled. Ned Bitner is coming back. Aldridge Smith, also known as move Smith, uh, educator coach, you know, high school quarterback, friend of mine all around hilarious, man.

[: 00:05:46

[00:06:07] I was shilling sunglasses. That's right. I did it ramble by the river, sold out, not for money, but just for free sunglasses. So I was, you know, minding my own business, scroll in the web. And I got a message from this company that said, We love what you're doing. We think you'd be a great fit as a brand ambassador, by the way, coincidentally, our name is ambassador sunglasses, shout out ambassador son.

[: 00:06:34

[00:06:51] I'm in. I'm not going to be buying. I'm not a hot lead, but I want to hear you out anyway. It wasn't magic [00:07:00] beans. It was sunglasses. And they're like, Hey, we really think you're going to sell us millions of pairs of sunglasses, because you're just fucking cool. You know, you're handsome. You got that blonde hair with those natural highlights and your eyes leave some to be desired.

[: 00:07:16

[00:07:37] Go to our website, pick out some sunglasses, put them in your cart, use this promo code. You're not gonna have to pay. So I did that and I did have to pay shipping and handling, which I was happy to do it wasn't expensive, but they let me buy five pairs of sunglasses for free. And it gave me a promo code and they actually showed up to my house.

[: 00:07:56

[00:08:16] They're not going to give them to you for free because you don't have a podcast. You know, you're not going to show them and make millions and millions of dollars for this company like me, but poppy get out of the trash, oh God, this is not a professional podcast. Jeff. You're a fucking loser poppy son of a bitch right in the middle of my pitch.

[: 00:08:39

[00:09:00] And yeah, I think they're a great company so far so good. So I don't know if you like sunglasses, but most people do. They protect your eyes from those harmful UV rays. Which we get here, even at the coast, despite living in a cloud, if you're into sunglasses, this is a great place to get some they're affordable.

[: 00:09:18

[00:09:35] They're so comfortable. I just didn't even realize they were still on my face. They really, really do a good job. How do you get a slice of this sweet sunglasses pie? And the answer is this ramble listeners can get a great deal, go to ambassador sun.com and pick out the sunglasses you like. They've got a bunch of different styles, men and women, different shades, different colors, and they're all really great ramble by the river.

[: 00:09:58

[00:10:14] So I think the cart comes first, so it should be no problem. You do that. You're going to get 50% off on a great pair of sunglasses and you'll probably be glad you did. I've been pretty happy with mine. That's it? That's my pitch for ambassador. I genuinely like this company. I hope you guys enjoy their products as well.

[: 00:10:29

[00:10:45] You'll get 50% off. So check them out and look forward to the season. Finale of ramble by the river. With special guests, Alex, Moses slash Mac by whatever name, you know her, she's a badass. So get [00:11:00] ready for a great episode. We're going to do a little rehashing of old episodes. We're going to talk about, what's been good about the show, what, what could be improved and overall, it's going to be a great episode.

[: 00:11:10

[00:11:25] Jeff Nesbitt: I could really use a shame to see everybody's spoken all the greenery, the match labor handed down to me, but I'm still, I'm still flying. I know I'm still, I'm still flying. Let's go.[00:12:00]

[: 00:12:29

[00:12:36] It's my time. So

[: 00:12:45

[00:13:13] And I know it seems weird that I'm talking something in old one, even though I'm in it at the present moment, it doesn't make any sense. Uh, so this is past Jeff talking to future listeners. Regardless. Thanks for being here, whatever timeframe that exists. And I, this is episode number two. It's going to be officially the second episode I released the first episode.

[: 00:13:40

[00:14:12] I know. I don't know exactly what it is. So I'm going to give podcasts a shot and see if that's what it is. But I feel a need in me to make stuff. I that's really, as simple as that podcasting to me is a new. Of long communication. Uh, boy, Jeff, did you go to college for that one? That was a rough sentence.

[: 00:14:39

[00:15:06] Because when you are listening to those corporate sources of information, it's you expect it to be a consensus view. You expect the figurehead being like the voice to represent the organization as a whole. Whereas in a podcast, people are just people and they're just talking. The way that they talk and they're saying what they really believe.

[: 00:15:31

[00:15:52] When you spend enough time locked into their brainwaves, you eventually start to be able to. And I think that's pretty [00:16:00] cool. So I think podcasting is just in a way it's a, it's a new way of getting to know somebody and I think that's awesome. And I want to be a part of it. I want people to get to know me and a lot of the time they don't because I spend a lot of time thinking.

[: 00:16:20

[00:16:44] I want to create a good product. I do consider this podcast to product and I, I think there a lot can go into making it something of value, but at the same time, I just needed to have a creative outlet. I really, it was killing me not [00:17:00] to have something that I got to make, you know, I wanted to make something and I'm, this is great.

[: 00:17:06

[00:17:33] So. A lot of you probably don't know this. I didn't know this, but there's a lot that goes into it. It's way more involved than I thought. I actually, uh, I think I was a little overconfident that it would just be easy because you know, every phone has a microphone on it. I didn't really consider any of the editing stuff.

[: 00:17:52

[00:17:59] So why [00:18:00] make a podcast? I, I, I hear you guys. You're saying I get it. You want to make something? You need creative expression. That's great. That's all well and good. But why a podcast, a podcast is this new thing that didn't exist 20 years ago. And now it's like the most highly consumed form of media on the plant.

[: 00:18:23

[00:18:47] I feel like I'm at a time in my life when. Um, I'm coming of age as a man. Like I know I'm 32 years old, so I'm not exactly young, but I am young still I'm right in [00:19:00] that sweet spot where I am now financially established, um, socially established. I'm married. I have my kids, I have a house, like things are set and I can actually.

[: 00:19:12

[00:19:41] I'm a strong believer in personal autonomy in choices. I'm sorry. That was clunky. I'm a strong believer in having personal agency, like making choices that have an impact on your own life and not just being a backseat, [00:20:00] passenger to institutions and other people who control your choices, which is also. I, I personally believe that it's all up to the individual.

[: 00:20:16

[00:20:42] And I think, I just think one of my roles could be a to create something, hopefully something good, but let's not get carried away. It's a terrifying thing to express myself artistically and it has [00:21:00] been forever. I've always loved art. I've always loved music. I'm very, very. Connected to those things, but I, the idea of trying to create it myself just opens me up to this whole new level of vulnerability that I am not comfortable with.

[: 00:21:16

[00:21:35] It's a really, it it's facilitated. It facilitates easy flow. So the thoughts a lot of time can just come out of yet. And at the same time, it's, it's its own creation. It's its own artistic expression that will kind of fulfill your need. And it, at least it has been for me. I have been recording. Random, you know, [00:22:00] short podcasts with friends and family, just to get my feet wet since December, since around Christmas, I think right around Christmas was my first recording.

[: 00:22:09

[00:22:31] There's still, I still have a long way to go was I'm sure if anyone actually hears this, there will be comments telling me such, but I don't care. I love it. Um, so far I'm just. Really happy that I did something

[: 00:22:50

[00:23:11] There are certain health implications that my job has that I don't love. And there are just some things that I don't think are permanent for me, but, you know, I don't know. I'm just letting the chips fall as they may. And even if podcasting is a major flop for me and I don't love it, or it doesn't love me.

[: 00:23:36

[00:24:00] I'm trying to create a song for my daughter's birthday, a special song for Amelia, and it's been a blast. I have written lyrics and put it to a beat. It's I dunno, it's still a rough draft form, but I think it's pretty good. I've played it for the kids and my wife and they both laughed. It's it's hilarious to us because it's, you know, me, um, your very typical white middle-class dad.

[: 00:24:34

[00:24:59] These thoughts [00:25:00] that are bouncing around my head, some of them are going to be more condensed and organized and presented in more of a presentation form. Others will be more stream of consciousness, just random bouncing around thoughts. And the reason that is, is because part of what this podcast is for me is this is a holding, holding place for my ideas and my thoughts.

[: 00:25:23

[00:25:50] Audio books, obviously. That'd be funny if somebody tried to read braille with their ears, um, I don't know why I said that [00:26:00] that's dumb anyway. The point is I don't want to be alone all the time because a lot of the things, a lot of, a lot of what I believe just gets lost. And I then when it comes time to have a conversation with somebody suddenly, I feel like they don't understand me at all.

[: 00:26:19

[00:26:45] You don't even have the same operating principles. You're not even coming from the same place. You're not even what you have assumed to be true as a prerequisite to the conversation is not the same as what they have assumed to be [00:27:00] true, which is a pretty new phenomenon phenomenon. It's very new it's because of the internet.

[: 00:27:10

[00:27:41] I mean, obviously you're going to have personality differences because people are different and those are, those are resolvable most of the time, but you're never going to have that issue of like, oh my God, this where you come up against like, ah, this person believes crazy shit. This person is a [00:28:00] lunatic, unless they actually were alone.

[: 00:28:02

[00:28:26] Right. So now. You might stop by Walgreens or, you know, Chili's, uh, you know, five guys burgers and fries, whatever, and you start having a conversation with somebody who looks like you sounds like you must be sorta like you. Then they start talking about some shit that you do not relate to whatsoever. And you realize, okay, uh, we're not the same.

[: 00:28:58

[00:29:18] This is called conflict resolution and it's. Time-consuming and hard. So I think what has happened is that people are not putting in that time anymore because there's too much baggage, too much ground to cover you. Can't just rehash every belief you have and how you got it. I don't know. It's just crazy.

[: 00:29:44

[00:30:08] When they on an issue, they don't, a lot of people don't take the time to think about what they really believe. They just pick a person who they think is really smart. And then they just say they believe whatever they said, they believe, and that's dangerous as fuck. And I do not do that. If I can help it, I do it.

[: 00:30:29

[00:30:59] People [00:31:00] in places of power are always going to be open to corruption. They're all. And we know this. So not only, well, first of all, we can, we can hold them accountable as we should. And we have been trying to, but we also could have a little more grace extend a little more grace to people who fail when they're in positions of authority, people need leaders.

[: 00:31:33

[00:31:55] Yeah. Oh, where was I going with that podcasts? So [00:32:00] if you are a person who has formulated their ideas and has prints. Or, I mean, or if you're just a person who is hilarious and people will listen to for entertainment only, it's okay to get a podcast going because then people have a place to go to find out about you to know what you believe.

[: 00:32:18

[00:32:44] And then, um, I'm nervous that I'm going to accidentally endorse it somehow, or I'll offend them by not endorsing it or something like that. I don't know what people believe and I don't want to be a social chameleon. I don't want to just alter. [00:33:00] Who I am to accommodate people because I just don't, it's not a way to live.

[: 00:33:07

[00:33:28] I want people to know me because I think I'm actually okay. Part of this is just being okay with myself. I want to be okay with myself and I want you to be okay with yourself because you're okay too. I mean, yeah, you fuck up and you do some shitty things sometimes. And you say things to people that are not nice and on purpose, just, you know, make your point.

[: 00:33:56

[00:34:20] But then we kind of resolve that with the internet and communication. And then now all of a sudden these political lines have been drawn and they seem almost like bigger barriers than the geography. I don't care what your political views are. We're here together. We happen to be humans on this little rock at the same time.

[: 00:34:42

[00:35:13] We improve by iteration. We cannot stay stagnant. And so that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to be a man of the new millennium. This is Jeff 2000. Remember that guys, the new millennium, everything was the new millennium 20 years ago. It's the, it's the gum of the millennium. Damn, that was lame. I could have made that way.

[: 00:35:39

[00:36:05] So if I'm, if I say dumb things, sometimes. You think it's offensive, which you probably won't. I try really hard not to be offensive, but I am honest. So when things are true, I will say them, even if they might be offensive, which kind of makes me uncomfortable just saying that, because I don't want the Twitter mobs to come after me.

[: 00:36:24

[00:36:47] Cause that will happen. And if it does I'll apologize, but I will not apologize because I offended somebody with. An unpleasant truth. [00:37:00] Unless, I mean, even then I would, I'm, I'm easy to apologize. I don't have an ego that's blocking that. Um, it's sometimes it's okay. Just to be sorry that you hurt somebody, even if what you said was true.

[: 00:37:12

[00:37:30] You're going to find out who I really am. And I think it's going to be great. I want to get to know you too. So, you know, hit me up on Twitter. Hit me up on Instagram. Go give me a five-star review on apple podcasts. I just got on apple podcasts today and it's a major milestone for me. So yeah, if you have it in you, if you've got the time, leave a review and.

[: 00:37:54

[00:38:14] So, yeah, you're my art. Thank you for being here. I can't believe you're listening to me. It's, it's a really good feeling. And I want, I want you to get something out of it. I want to provide value. So I'm, I'm really gonna try to do that. I'm gonna try to give you something that's entertaining. I'm gonna try to give you something that maybe will add something to your life.

[: 00:38:33

[00:38:53] Oh, well, I'll have to check out an encyclopedia or something. I don't know, man. These jokes suck. [00:39:00] Oh God. Oh man. Okay. So what's the podcast for. I think for me, it is, well, like I already said, it's, it's a place to explain myself. It's a place where I can. I feel like in this life, I don't, I haven't for the last few years, felt comfortable stating what I believe, because I don't have time to explain why I believe it.

[: 00:39:27

[00:39:56] They find the wrong information and they're easily affected by [00:40:00] it. I have worked my ass off to be a wise consumer of information. I definitely am not perfect, but it's, it's much better than people who, you know, just read whatever comes into their Twitter feed and believe it, which I know none of you do that because come on, who does that?

[: 00:40:21

[00:40:47] And I have to be like, ah, honestly, I'm not going to worry about that part. I'm not gonna go out and find the audience I'm gonna, you know, I'll, I'll have a social media page and I'll do my very best to create good content, but I'm not, [00:41:00] I, the marketing has to have. Organically or the, you know, word of mouth people.

[: 00:41:04

[00:41:24] And if it, if you think it's worth your time, Pass it on. Um, and it's for me, it's it's because I need something as a vehicle to continue my positive growth trends in my life. The last five years, my life has improved draft. I found the love of my life. My family is awesome. Like I'm not taking any of the credit for that.

[: 00:41:45

[00:42:08] And, you know, we could do a lot more talk about soulmates and I'm sure we will, because I find that very interesting. But, uh, um, as much as I believe soulmates are a thing, that woman is my soulmate. She understands me. She takes very good care of me and in the ways that she does and I take good care of her, it's a great relationship.

[: 00:42:30

[00:42:49] The key to being happy is to find that resistance, find that thing that you want to push against. You remember when you were a little boy, maybe 13, 14 years old. [00:43:00] And you're like, you're just starting to get those real hard nighttime boners. And you got to like lean into the bed post, or it's not even like a sexual thing.

[: 00:43:10

[00:43:26] I don't remember. I started panicking about talking about boners on a podcast, and then all of a sudden I, uh, forgot the joke. Well, oh, well, I'll come back to it. Um, I actually got totally distracted. Fuck. I lost my train of thought completely well. Oh well, oh yeah. I was talking about what, what I'm bringing to this podcast.

[: 00:43:50

[00:44:12] I want to listen to them. I want to talk. I want to just, you know, throw out crazy ideas and see what, how they react. I really think this is just going to be a fucking blast. If, imagine if I can get good guests, people who are really like big in their field and know what they're talking about. I can't even imagine how much fun that would be.

[: 00:44:32

[00:44:59] I [00:45:00] guess I am recording video for this one, but I haven't even started a YouTube page yet. It's. I feel like this weird mix of panic and excitement, and it goes back and forth between dread and, um, euphoria. I really, I just needed this. I needed something new. I'm a really curious person by nature. I like to dig into concepts and talk about stuff, and this is a great place to do that.

[: 00:45:27

[00:45:52] Uh, as far as like an area of study on its own, it's been around forever. But the actual, like [00:46:00] to get a degree in neuroscience 20 years ago was not even really a thing. I don't think. I studied it while I was there just getting my psychology degree and I really loved neuroscience, but I was ready to be done with school.

[: 00:46:13

[00:46:37] But by the end I had really kind of started having problems and I was out of money. I needed to get a real job and it was time to be done instead of continuing on and finishing a neuroscience degree. I just went with the psychology degree cause I had most of the credits. And it actually ended up great, but it didn't finish off my thirst for knowledge and I [00:47:00] still love to learn.

[: 00:47:01

[00:47:22] Almost laid down a framework of reality, like as if this okay. So I'll take a conspiracy theory and say, okay, if this were true, how could we fit it in? How would it have happened? And it's fun. Sometimes you find like, oh my God, I've really, I do believe this one. This one is true. Holy shit. You know, Epstein didn't kill himself.

[: 00:47:47

[00:48:04] I don't believe that at all. I'm hesitant to even say which ones I don't believe at all because I I'm pretty open person. And I, I believe that we get fooled a lot. So there's a chance that even those are true. And I don't know, basically, I don't know. I think life is a continuous exercise in trying to find shit out.

[: 00:48:22

[00:48:45] So please come on back. Alright.[00:49:00]

[: 00:49:49

[00:50:30] Um,

[: 00:50:47

[00:51:33] um, three[00:52:00] .