Breaking News: Podcast Pending – Title Undecided

Its been an interesting past few weeks, both at work and at home. At work it seems that with the year turning down toward the bottom half (aka end) of the year, everyone is coming to a rediculously unexpected realization of what they originally agreed to do and what they are no where near half done with. Its been one of those weeks this week where a manager of your manager speaks to her manager and finds out that her subordinate (your manager) and you may be on track to miss the boat on the things you’ve agreed to. All in all the english language provides one word that simplifies the whole explanation…hectic as hell.

Amidst all the professional chaos has been another swift kick in the balls (a metaphor, in reality my man junk is fine), a good friend from college has proven that it truly is possible to, whilst holding down a fortune 500 career, create and launch a freelance web development firm. Something myself, and this blog, have been discussing for years. But that’s not even the end of it, following my mostly jealous inquiry regarding the freelance firm, where I more less pose the questions “where the heck did this come from?” he provides a comforting laugh and offers me a spot with his upcoming podcasting site livefire.tv. He’s given me something I’ve always wanted, a slot in his weekly/monthly podcasting business complete with a clean slate and total creative control. It’s like I’ve died and landed my dream opportunity. Until reality sinks in of course.

I’ve now come to realize that aspiring to host a podcast and actually doing it are two GLOBALLY different things. I was given freedom of topic (for the most part) freedom of cast, and freedom of style and all I can think about is “don’t you screw this up you slacking bastard”. I’ve quickly gone from excited to mostly nervous overnight. In the end I realize that the whole product will only be what I make it and I’ll have plenty of time to learn the riggers of podcast hosting before I’m expected to produce a winner, but still, its one of this instances where you’re offered your chance and once you decide to take it, the thing you once wanted more than anything becomes the thing you fear most.

To sum it up, I think this post’s title speaks for itself but if anyone is having trouble figuring it out, I’m still undecided on a title for my podcast. In terms of a topic I am thinking I can provide a techy/geeky vibe to otherwise straightforward, results driven productivity concepts…consider it a geek’s rendition of This Week in Getting Things Done. To be 100% I couldn’t elaborate any more even if I wanted to, I’ve literally disclosed all I have so far on the topic.

Carrying around a great podcast title and/or a better topic or overall show idea? I’d love to hear from you. Either leave a comment or navagate back to the original site iVaughn.com and click on “Contact” and drop me a line there.

In any case, as always, thanks for reading and….have a good one.

-Vaughn

New Year, New Philosophy, New Ambitions

New Year, New Philosophy, New Ambitions

So I’ve been reading a whole lot recently on the topic of New Years Resolutions. Self-help tips on how take what you always say you’r going to do and make this the year that you actually do it. I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking. Thinking about how perfectly I fit into that stereotype. How consistently I spent sleepless nights pondering what I need to do to improve my life and how I plan to go about doing so. How continually dissatisfied I am with myself from a number of different angles and how comedically I vowe each and every year to do something about it. Well my reader (I use the singular tense because I literally know theres only one of you, sup Dave?) this year, in the beginning, is like any other year. Filled with promise, resolution, goals, and a determination to reach those goals. The true question is, where will I be at this time next year? Blogging about how happy I am that I got my life in shape, or simply reaffirming this all to steady pattern?

So where will I begin? Well, no place better to start than right here. My Website, My Blog, and the internet in general. In 2009 I plan to finally make something out of the iVaughn.com Freelance Web Development FIrm. This means a better separation between Vaughn Johnson the person and iVaughn.com the business. This will mean Business Cards, Proposal Templates, Email Newsletters, and much added dedication toward obtaining a taste of the Freelance Lifestyle. I plan to blog and tweet more, but I also plan to change the ways in which I do both. Gone are the days of (after this one of course) where I blog about person feelings, ambitions, and/or stories. From this point forward this blog will be about the Internet as an Industry, and the Web as a Platform. I can assure you that in the near future this blog will not resemble its old self. And mind you if it remains the same, you can know I am not following up the resolutions described above.

The next step is taken at a more personal level. At the end of 2010 the guitar should no longer be a foreign instrument, but instead a hobby that shall travel with me everywhere. I’ve spent the past three years determined to learn how to play, but this year I have three past years of disappointment to motivate me. And lastly, I resolve to achieve a level of fitness I can be proud of. Drop the pounds, tone the muscles, and finally not be ashamed of how I look.

All of these things and more are my goals, my new ambitions, my new philosophy, for my new year.

The New iVaughn.com Newsletter!

This coming summer, iVaughn.com will begin developing and distributing Email Marketing campaigns on a monthly to semi-monthly basis. As technology is undoubtedly the future of business and one of the few areas poised to pull us from this nasty recession, I figure there’s no better than right now to attempt to monetize the technology that we all know and love. In an attempt to both educate readers as well as expand business opportunities, the iVaughn.com Newsletter will be both about people as well as tech.

MailChimp Introduction Video

The service I will be using was developed by a very clever company called MailChimp. MailChimp.com has developed a web based email marketing tool with a wide range of appropriate pricing options, including a free option for those like myself who are just starting out and manage a relatively small mailing  list. The service includes a wide variety of other outstanding features as well including a great selection of design templates and some of the most intuitive reporting tools in the industry. If you’ve ever worked with another email marketing tool before and have found it counterintuitive and tough to navigate, MailChimp may be just what you’ve been waiting for.
For more information regarding the service itself and/or the iVaughn.com Newsletter feel free to sign up for the newsletter at any time by visiting the iVaughn.com contact page or visit the MailChimp website.