#1: The Prologue

Strangers In A Small World

Episode Notes

Background I am going to start with a quick background about myself: I am 30 years old. I am a son, a brother, a husband, and a friend. I enjoy music, books, sports, being outside in nature at the beach or on the mountains. I like being around positive people and I think of myself as a pretty optimistic person. I work as a Computer Engineer and have been working since graduating from college 8 years ago. My life is good and I know that I am extremely fortunate to be in the position that I am in. Recently I have been feeling like there has to be something more for me in this world, other than the repetitive 9-5 cycle. The idea of being stuck in a repetitive flow of normality has hit and it is frightening. I have followed the steps that were laid out to me as a child to reach the idea of "success". I followed the same process that many others have followed: I went to school and studied hard to get into a good college. Then, I went to college and studied hard to get a good job. Put in the time, put in the work, and success is yours. When typical Americans go to college, we are 18 years old, and are expected to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Although it may seem like that decision is set in stone, this is not, in fact, true. At 30, I am finally realizing that we have the freedom of choice every morning when we wake up and get out of bed. We have the choice to decide who we want to be and how we want to spend our most precious resource, time.

Why have I decided to spend the “most precious resource” creating this podcast? The idea of creating a podcast came to me in the middle of the night. Creating a podcast came to me after doing a writing exercise before bed. The writing exercise is to ask yourself: “If you had all the money in the world, any ability in the world, how would you spend your time?”. Your task in answering this question is to just start typing and see where it takes you. After I got past the “buy a private jet” or “buy a mega yacht”, the answers became more telling. A few of them were: spend more time with family and friends, travel the world and meet new people, solve difficult problems that can help people, become a master so I can learn how to help others reach their max potential. It was interesting to see that all of my answers involved other people. As humans, I think one of the most incredible advantages we have over other species is our ability to connect with one another through language. Now, this can be a bad thing. As we have seen throughout the history of humans, we have made some fairly significant mistakes. But I believe bringing people together, all people, could be one of our most powerful and positive ways to help each other grow. So that is a little bit about the genesis, but why this podcast now?

I have come up with a list of five reasons why I have decided to start this podcast. Understand that some of these are for selfish reasons but really, in the end, the hope is that by growing and making myself better, I can pass that knowledge on to someone else. I hope that someone in this world of ours gets something positive out of this podcast even if the positivity is as simple as entertainment.

Reasons for starting this podcast: To learn about people from all over the world. Humans are fascinating. From what drives each of us to what scares us. It can only be beneficial to learn more about typical people from all over the world. One of the main things that drives meaning for me is creating and building relationships. Through the development of this podcast, I will get to talk to many different people from all over the world and organically build a community of like-minded strangers. I have always had ideas and dreams of writing a book, or starting a blog to get my ideas out into the world. The idea of a podcast came to me excited me so i decided to take action and do it without fear of others opinions. To further develop my communication skills. I would say my communication skills could always be improved and this negatively affects my ~confidence. Starting this podcast will undoubtedly force me to become a more effective and confident communicator. Lastly, I want to do something with my time that is fun, new, and meaningful.

Why Strangers In A Small World? The name of the podcast is Strangers in a Small World. I chose this name because we use the label “strangers” to denote people we don't know. If we actually took the time to have conversations with strangers, we would discover how similar we truly are. We may be in different places around the world with different dreams and motivations, but in the end we are all human. Like the song says, it is a small world after all. What is this podcast going to sound like? The current format of the podcast is to have conversations with different people from all over the world. The goal is to show that we are all actually very similar, despite our geographical differences. I will go into the conversation knowing little-to-nothing about the person I will be talking to. So, the idea is we go into the conversation as strangers and will end up finding many connections. The conversations will inevitably vary in length. Each guest will be in control of their level of anonymity while on the podcast or they may wish to promote any current projects or causes they are passionate about. Thanks! Thank you for taking the time to read the genesis of Strangers in a Small World. If you are interested in listening, please subscribe to the podcast. And if you are interested in having a conversation with me please reach out on any of my social media platforms. Any and all comments or feedback is welcome and appreciated so please reach out!