Daniel J. Lewis

Internet entrepreneur, award-winning podcaster, podcast consultant, keynote speaker

Taking a Sabbatical

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Taking a Sabbatical

I'm sure you never have a stressful day, week, month or year. Everything you touch turns to gold, right? Isn't that what it's like for all smart people on the Internet?

You know I'm joking! Podcasting, whether for business or hobby, can be stressful at times. And running a business, no matter its underlying passion, can also be stressful.

So I'm doing something radical.

I decided to take a kind of sabbatical. For the month of June, I'll be unavailable for consulting, interviews, answering questions, responding to feedback, or any other business. All requests will be automatically archived and may not receive any personalized responses. I will be available only to members of Podcasters' Society, and customer-support for my products will continue. If you need something from me, please contact me again after July 15.

I will continue to publish episodes of The Audacity to Podcast, possibly some thoughts on this blog, and maybe some other content.

This won't be a work-free sabbatical. During this time of reduced demands, I will focus on making Podcasters' Society even better, including new courses, resources, and other value exclusive to members of Podcasters' Society.

Being transparent with you, I'm nervous about this. But I think the timing is right. Plus, while I was already considering this, I heard several podcast episodes confirming this is the right thing for me to do right now.

I still have a lot of things going: several of my network's podcasts need your daily votes in the Podcast Awards, I'm preparing for Podcast Movement (as a speaker and a sponsor), The Audacity to Podcast was nominated for an Academy of Podcasters award, I'm re-opening Podcasters' Society on July 1.

Plus this very special announcement:

This is what I need to do, and I'm looking forward to it! I encourage you to consider how you might be able to take your own sabbatical this year.

When I sent this to my podcasting newsletter subscribers, I received wonderful cheers and encouragement. Even as I respond to consulting requests or halt business talks, everyone has been understanding and supportive!

Here's to focus, clarity, and renewed energy!

There Will Always Be Copycats, Especially If You Were First

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Idea Followers

The Internet has enabled great innovation. From their homes, many people have created highly valuable empires through an online platform.

But invention and innovation come with frustrations—especially if you were the first to implement an idea.

Charles Caleb Colton said, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” but it never feels like flattery when a competitor copies an idea. Yet, competition has created some of the greatest innovations in technology!

Think about where personal computing would be if Xerox and Apple hadn't raised the standard in the '80s.

In 2016, 76% of Americans own a smartphone—you probably have one within reach (if you're not reading this one your smartphone already). Thank the fierce competition between Google and Apple for how much that mobile power has matured over the years.

With the tools available to you, it's possible to create nearly any solution you can imagine. But be prepared for the copycats, the innovators, and those with similar ideas.

Yes, you can protect some ideas with patents.

When you see copycats, take the challenge to leave your status quo and innovate!

[clickToTweet tweet=”When you see copycats, take the challenge to leave your status quo and innovate!” quote=”When you see copycats, take the challenge to leave your status quo and innovate!”]

All my podcast subscriptions in 2014

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To celebrate this week's National Podcast Day, I'll take you inside my podcast app and show you every podcast I subscribe to and listen to regularly.

When Apple released iTunes 4.9 on June 28, 2005, I immediately started looking for these new things called podcasts. I quickly fell in love with the medium and ditched terrestrial talk radio in favor of the niche topics I could listen to in podcasts.

My podcasts subscriptions come and go, but I thought you'd like to see the list of podcasts I listen to as of September, 2014, in case you're looking for something new. Some of these podcasts have podfaded (no episode in six months), but I remain subscribed in hopes of new episodes someday.

Podcasting

Marriage

Business

Comedy

Technology and web design

TV/film