Wayfinders

Startups that pay in love are a blank
canvas that comes to life through us.

By nature, parents want to provide the means for children to go beyond their potential. Family requires immeasurable resources, but the love from our kids unlocks more hours in the day. The added productivity comes from seeing the best of ourselves in someone we care so much about. Purpose is renewed and the heart we put into our creative work can make our presence as parents even more interesting.

Summon Stories

Children grow up fast, so we stay in the moment. Everyone tells us to cherish the simple joys of life, but it may be worth getting a little extra creative. One way to enhance your family’s ability to relive memorable moments, is by using multimedia marketing skills to summon family stories.

Every moment is special. As creation becomes second nature, handpicked memories can be stitched together to revisit interactively, any time, with or without you.

Most of us have an endless collection of photos and video on our smartphone, but scrolling around on a digital device doesn’t translate into something a group can enjoy together. It’s easy for good things to get lost in so much noise and spoken storytelling is always merry too, but why not paint more stories with a few added brushes?

Quiet relics like photo slideshows, something printed that sits beautifully on the shelf, a mix of audio recordings, art on the wall, or a cinematic feature film that highlights your adventures. You’re the creator with endless ways to create.

We all do a form of this, because family is our favorite, but the time required is real. A rigid cadence is not required, since any day is a good day to ship this type of of art. In the early days of photos and video, it was only birthdays and Christmas — now everyday is a holiday. No need to rush, but keep producing new surprises. Everyone will love the end result and as more come together, the growing playlist becomes a sequence of stories that follow kids growing up. With our constant collection of content, a good story is always ready to tell, but at a minimum, why not share an annual gift with your kids, partner, and other loved ones?

Along the way, attentive and controlled organization will make a growing collection of relics easier to craft. This takes an ongoing commitment, but file management is easy and helps bring life to life with shared memories.

Your future self will then thank you for an effort to organize this heartfelt content. Share in public if you want, but that can alter the art if it becomes a show. Do it for yourself and your favorite people first. Organize what will be a massive library offline, then, if you want play with the transitory channels of social media, that’s a personal choice.

No matter who resists whatever it may be, time compiling legacy projects will rarely feel wasted. It’s using our real skills to commemorate those we love. Scanned memories may give us content without capturing it in the future. For now, it’s up to us to trap time for personal storytelling.

Compensation is not money, but this does enhance your content creation skills for other areas in life. Technology also makes editing content more productive, but this is not your average task. This is the type of sincere storytelling you enjoy spending time with.

As kids grow up, these projects will have the lowest view counts, but always be your very favorite. Looking ahead, it’s crazy to imagine being a child right now, then receiving such a gift from my parents someday!

You’ve Got Mail

Consider setting up an email for your little one. This inbox can be used as a communication channel to write to your child as they grow up. Whether you start writing before they are born or later in their life, imagine what a gift this inbox will be in the future! This email address can be shared with family and used for online accounts if you want, but at a minimum, this curates a personalized time machine full of thoughtful updates.

Extra Shot

What’s your favorite parenting tip? Share it as a comment or hit me up!

Along with sentimental content, your kids will appreciate an email address that can be used after childhood. First and last name with your preferred email provider should stand the test of time. This is also a good chance to register a URL using their first and last name. This can connect to their email or support a personal website someday.

Avoid Routine

“Time flies” and “they grow up so fast” is accurate, but avoiding routine may slow down time.

The freedom to be spontaneous is a privilege and everyone will define such flexibility differently, but a proven path to explore such a reality is entrepreneurship. Boundless hard work, dedication, and resiliency are what this lifestyle takes, but suffering provides a stronger sense of purpose.

As this purpose is layered in later stages of life, experiential wisdom can be channeled into more treasured time doing things that make us happy. While hardship is part of the deal, children make their parents happy. Perhaps a reward for parents who lead by example, is the opportunity to share everything with those who matter most.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Inverse Charisma

Jack Chimbetete learned to make others feel charismatic as a young leader in Zimbabwe. After this film maker experienced the Mandela Washington Fellowship, he forged a new path by moving to Iowa. We chat about growing up in Africa, producing content for TV, the African Live Network, tips for migration, and how to sequence storytelling to enhance any adventure.

After a euphoric break, Jack and Ben talk about what’s easy to do, but hard to maintain. They discuss being optimistic, while staying realistic and finish with ideas to help anyone build a network when you’re new to town.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS

https://jacksshackint.com

https://africalivenetwork.tv

https://onevoicedsm.org

https://cultureall.org

Roasted Reflections Break: Career Nirvana

http://Inverse-Charisma.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

EP37 – Power of Purpose 🎙️ Dwana Bradley

EP63 – Trapping Time 🎙️ Chris Lo

EP67 – Kups From Kenya 🎙️ Laban Njuguna

https://MandelaWashingtonFellowship.org

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

https://BenMcDougal.com/show-up

https://BenMcDougal.com/echos

Tiësto 🪩 New York City

https://BrianTracy.com

YDNTP on YouTube

http://BENBOT.ai

By Ben McDougal, ago

Trapping Time

Chris Lo is a film maker who captures mesmerizing magic. He’s the camera guy in the pit, behind the DJ, and flying drones at your favorite concerts. Ben and Chris are both Time Trappers who have collaborated in the nightclub and on the golf course, so we had to record this relic. We talk about videography, leveraging A/V equipment, organizing mountains of media, and how to effectively collaborate with artists.

After another reading from the Roasted Reflections library, we hear a crazy story and jam on how full-time creatives can sequence paid gigs with portfolio-building efforts that maintain a runway to stay creative. Let’s get loud.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS

Situasian Films on YouTube

https://instagram.com/the_situasian01

http://Trapping-Time.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

https://BenMcDougal.com/content-creation-videography

Reading Break from Roasted Reflections: Uncharted

YDNTP on YouTube

http://BENBOT.ai

By Ben McDougal, ago

Rhymes with Odd

The Uno reverse card is played! After Ryan Snaadt brought Ben into his studio for EP. 022 of The Rhymes with Odd Podcast, these content creators reconnect to share video-flavored marketing insight. Learn how to disconnect time and money by leveraging a fleet of products with digital depth, in creative ways that meet your audience where they’re at. We also chat about producing a podcast, as Ryan talks through how to plan, record, edit, and distribute this heartfelt form of content creation. We close with encouragement on accelerate others to activate invaluable know, like, and trust factors.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS

https://RyanSnaadt.com

https://SnaadtMedia.com

https://SoloVideoPro.com

http://Rhymes-with-Odd.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

EP. 022 of The Rhymes with Odd Podcast

http://YouDontNeedThisKeynote.com

http://BENBOT.ai

By Ben McDougal, ago

Flight Control

Cody Retlich is an alumni of the Techstars Iowa Accelerator (see Cody on-stage at #TSDemoDay in 2022) and this is the first of a new In The Wild category. Recorded after the launch of 1MC in Madison and Milwaukee, Cody and his Wisconsin-based team at DroneAdair, help drone pilots manage their business.

This leader knows what’s up when it comes to drone technology. Strap on your seat belt, as Ben and Cody elevate a conversation around content creation, exploring new industries, and activating beta testers as an entrepreneur. After the break, we fly by emerging drone technologies that will captivate your imagination and talk tactics as we all tell stories with photos and video.

BONUS CONTENT: Cody has also launched Legacy Liftoff, which is another cool podcast dedicated to drone technology and the pilots who create art from the air. Enjoy!

Enjoy this Episode
YDNTP on APPLE PODCASTS
YDNTP on SPOTIFY

By Ben McDougal, ago