The Joe Cardamone Episode
Joe Cardamone is a man who wears many hats. Like his Twitter profile states, he’s an actor, writer, husband and father. Along with being a co-founder of the award winning TwelveSteed productions. And writer of his blog at Origami Lunchbox. And one of the founders of Pints & Prose. The guy is a busy man. I love talking to busy people like Joe. How does he fit it all in? What inspires him to create and juggle all these projects? And how can I poach some of his productivity tips for my own benefit? 🙂 Some people are busy for “busy’s sake”. Joe is busy with priorities and we could all emulate that a little more.
Also, Joe’s a comic book and Star Wars fan, so we hit it off right away. Except he picks DC over Marvel. I can look past this little sin since Joe’s got a lot going on and is probably a little sleep deprived. Joe was a great guest and we continue to converse about the topics we touched on during this episode. We’re both geeks like that. As Mindsoak continues it’s path, I’m certain we’ll hear from Joe again.
So, without further ado, Joe Cardamone.
As for the video “Unconventional Love” we talked so much, here you go:
Unconventional Love from Twelvesteed Productions on Vimeo.
A lonely man tries to find love and his pursuit is slightly unconventional.
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The Manny Cartoon Episode
Manuel Aguilera (a.k.a. Manny Cartoon) is a man I’ve known forever, but have never formally met. He’s a comic book and sequential story fan, like myself, but also posesses something I don’t, artistic talent. We’ve been talking about doing a project together for nearly a decade (my fault, not his. Ha..”his”…get it Manny?).
While we’ve had many conversations over the years I never learned about Manny as a person. Why he became an artist? When he knew he wanted to pursue art as a profession? What does he consider his failures and successes.
Manny was one of the first people I thought of when I was thinking about starting Mindsoak. Now that I heard his story, I love the man even more. His history is as rich and unique as his art and you can tell by listening to him he loves living his life and creating on a daily basis.
If you want to learn more about Manny, check out his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. To support Manny’s work you can always buy a t-shirt too! 🙂
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The Jeanne Kolker Episode
I met Jeanne Kolker when I was the ripe old age of 19 as we both attended Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa. She was a communications major. I was going in to computer science. In the last twentyish years we both pivoted out of the fields we were pursuing in college and now we both spend our days providing therapy in private practice. And we both love it.
During our conversation we explore how Jeanne transitioned from working at a newspaper – in a world which was losing interest in newspapers – to teaching yoga, creating a therapy private practice at Insight Counseling & Wellness and incorporating yoga and wellness in to her therapy sessions.
Jeanne is one of the most genuine and kind human beings I’ve ever met and it was a pleasure to catch up with her and learn more about her journey over the years.
You can follow Jeanne and all things related to Insight Counseling & Wellness by following her Twitter handle @InsightMadison.
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The Igor Holas Episode
Today’s podcast is with Igor Holas from Mentegram. Mentegram is a wonderful program which has been developed by Igor, his cofounder Milan Steskal and their team, which assists therapists and clients in tracking progress in therapy.
Mentegram describes their service this way:
“We believe in a future where the work of psychotherapists is complemented, and improved by technological innovation. Innovators like Edison, da Vinci, Bell and many others are responsible for the world that we know. A world that is better. We want to bring innovation into studying and understanding human behavior, experiences, and well being. Let us move towards a future, where clients’ progress is measured well, compared to others, and used to tailor the therapy to the client’s more relevant and important needs.”
Yeah…pretty cool stuff. Full disclosure, I use Mentegram in my private practice. I love it. I pay for it. It’s been great. That’s why I needed to sit down with Igor and hear how Mentegram came to be. I sat down with Igor to discuss the motivation behind creating Mentegram, his story of arriving in the United States as a college student and we also meander in to the topic territory of productivity. Make sure to check out Mentegram and to learn more about Igor follow him on Twitter @igorholas.
*There are a couple times in the podcast where the audio got a little fuzzy. Sorry about that. It’s not too bad, but it’s there. Blame me…
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The Elysia Regina Episode
I was excited to sit down and have a conversation with Elysia Regina recently. Elysia has created her own clothing line company, Inspire Thread Company. I love the goal of Inspire Thread Company which is simply; “Every shirt in the Inspire Line is inspired after a young person doing something extraordinary. Inspire Thread Company aims to inspire young people to step outside of what society deems is this generation’s potential, and to reach for their dreams.” Elysia and her designers have come up with a number of great looking shirts over her first year. Once I saw this shirt I had to have it. Oh yeah, and she did all this between her 18th and 19th year of being alive. Impressive.
Elysia has recently finished writing her 7th novel (she wrote her first when she was 12) and is diving in to the publishing world head first. You can read some her writing on her blog and at her short story site plotbrownies.com. In the episode we talk about how she began her writing career and get in to a little nitty gritty regarding her writing methods and how she keeps her productivity up.
Elysia is also a Boston Celtics and New England Patriots fan…so you know she’s a good person. 🙂
You can follow Elysia at any of the websites listed above or on Twitter.
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Launch Day
And here we go…
Today is the day I launch the Mindsoak podcast to the world. I’m both excited and a little nervous. If you’ve ever thrown out anything creative in to the world (you have, trust me) you know it’s a little intimidating to say “Go!” In my case, to hit the big blue button which reads “Publish”.
I came up with the name Mindsoak a long, long time ago. It just hit me one day as a funny idea of our minds being able to soak and relax. Like a foot soak, but for your brain. I guess it works the other way too. I guess another goal I have for the podcast is that the listeners can soak up inspiring stories and new ideas from the guests I bring on. I know I am soaking up everything I can from them so far.
With any kind of show like this, I do know that it’s going to take time to develop and grow in to what it eventually becomes. I might have set out for one set of goals, only to realize, midstream, that there are better goals to go after. I know the first episode 20 will be far better than episode 1. It damn well better be.
And that’s not to say the guests will be better…this is all on me. The questions I ask, the way I conduct the flow of the discussion and even the way I record the introductions and mix the audio…that’s all on me. And I’m kinda really liking it.
Like the front page suggests, this is the Mindsoak Project. It’s an experiment. I love conversation with fascinating people. I love podcasting. I love having a project. But it is just that. A project. So I know I will fail, get better, fail and get better some more.
And that’s what excites me.
This update page will be used just for that…updates. Pretty unedited, quickly written updates on the site and the podcast. I purposefully did not call it a Blog, because you will get enough of ideas in the episodes. But from time to time I will need to update anyone who is interested (Hi Mom!) about all things related to Mindsoak.
So without further ado….I hope you enjoy.
P.S. If you think you’re interesting (you are) and think you’re story would make for a kick ass podcast, hit me up and let’s chat about it.