Loser Decisions

A couple of years ago, I was at a bit of a crossroads as to how I was going to do my business activities. At the time I had a pretty good gig editing and producing a podcast hosted by Ben Greenfield, name in the realm of health, fitness, spirituality, biohacking, etc. Truth be told the gig paid enough for me to travel to Vietnam to live with Sana, not to mention being able to work in Vietnam without missing a beat. I literally couldn’t do my work anywhere in the world so long as I have a decent Internet connection. So when I make these statements that I’m making in this email, understand that it is in the context of self-evaluation and reflection, not being critical of any person or the decisions that they might make.

Ben Greenfield sent me a Voxer message in May 2020 saying there were a few discrepancies in my narration of his gigantic book titled Boundless. I am not a scientist, nor a doctor, I am a musician who makes podcasts and I gave it my level best to handle the $64 words that were quite common place in the book. However, some of my errors in pronunciation irritated the listeners of the audiobook to the point that some changes needed to be made. We discussed the best way to go about doing this. I could record these singular words, and then insert them into the recording that I had done about six months prior. It didn’t take me longer than 10 seconds to conclude that that was not the best way to do it to say the least. It would sound sloppy, really unprofessional. That it does not reflect the standards of someone like Ben Greenfield nor myself would be an understatement.

So I suggested that I simply re-record the entire book, which was actually a really good idea because there were a number of changes to the transcript to the manuscript after I had finished narrating the book. So it was necessary on more than one level. The issue came to the cost. You can imagine the cost of paying a audiobook narrator for a book that is 600 pages in length is very costly. I suggested that rather than giving me a bunch of money again, that I get a nominal fee (about 1/5 of the full cost), and then Ben Greenfield would promote my services on his show. He was very enthusiastic about this idea, and the fruits of his promotion of my services in August 2020 are still bearing fruit to this day. I picked up a few clients from that promotion, and word has gotten out that this is something that I do at a level that is above average. To the point that this is my main source of income.

So I think about what my life would look like if I was just content with having that one gig, and never stretching myself to go for something beyond. In some ways I would look like a genius. I have a job doing something let’s face it is enviable to the vast majority of the population. Not only that, but I make enough money to support myself, my wife, my child, albeit at a modest means at best.

So I’m glad that I made that decision, and chose to go beyond what was comfortable for me. The fact is that I still have that same gig, and have excellent to the point that I am now a trusted advisor of sorts on the goings-on of the show. So when I was approached about producing another of Ben’s bucks, this one narrated by him, the competition was a no brainer. Simply promote my services on your show again, it’s a nice barter, gift economy type arrangement where everyone really comes out ahead.

This time I waxed bold, and asked if I could actually make an appearance on his show to promote the business. Ben’s a good sport, and he readily agreed to it. We recorded the segment last week, and it went live on his show today. If you want to listen to him and me chewing the fat for a couple of minutes talking podcasting, I have just the segment uploaded onto my onto the JNS media website. You can listen to it below.