About Craig

On occasion, I’ve been asked for some summarizing statement for myself. The best I’ve come up with so far, is to say that the journey of my whole life is summarized by three words, Discovery. Reflection. Efficacy.

Podcasting

My podcasting journey started when I was finding myself in really great conversations… and then I wanted to share them. And then things escalated quickly…

I’ve now helped thousands of people learn to create podcasts through coaching and community, been on dozens of podcasts as a guest, and I’ve published more than 1,500 episodes for my own shows including more than 350 conversations (at last count.)

Current work — If you want to see a somewhat up-to-date listing of what I’ve done in the podcasting space, see my Podchaser creator page.

There are also a large number of posts over on my blog, tagged Podcasting covering both my appearances, conversations I’ve published and various other bits related to being a podcaster.

How it all began — The short version of this story is: I’m simply curious. I try things. I make mistakes. I ask questions.

My podcasting journey began with the Movers Mindset project, which grew from conversations I started having as part of my personal journey rediscovering movement. Started in 2015, at first it was just a web site that shared others’ writing. But as I travelled, I kept finding myself in cool conversations until one day someone said, “you should have recorded that. I’d listen to that podcast.” Excited, but with no clue how much work it would be, I kicked off the Movers Mindset podcast at the start of 2017. For the first dozen episodes I did far too much of the work myself, until I wised up and started finding a few incredible people to share my new passion.

By this point I was devouring anything I could about interviewing. I smashed through thousands of podcast episodes in the process of wondering, “how does everyone else do it?” Podcasts, books, online courses… Everywhere I turned I found something new to work on in my own journey.

In the fall of 2018 I had about 30 interviews published on the podcast. I was getting comfortable travelling by plane, train and automobile, being invited into people’s lives to capture the Movers Mindset interviews. I was invited to the North American Art of Retreat, a Parkour leadership retreat, in the Cascade mountains outside of Seattle. There I did a series of interviews with the event’s presenters and organizers, and handed those recordings off for Art of Retreat to create their own podcast.

And then things escalated — When 2019 rolled around, on a whim, I jumped into an Akimbo course called The Podcast Fellowship. I wanted to search for unknown-unknowns, to rethink everything I had done so far, and much about the Movers Mindset podcast changed in this period. To my surprise, I was invited back to be part of a small group of alumni who assist the coaches for the 4th, (and then the 5th, and 6th… 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 🙂 running of the course. It’s mind-bogglingly inspiring and energizing to hang out daily with hundreds of people who share your passion. I even tried to summarize the fun of it in The Journey.

Meanwhile, the Movers Mindset episode numbers kept climbing and I’ve been branching out to interview more challenging guests; challenging for me as I’m forced to converse and discuss topics I know less and less about, but which none the less intrigue me endlessly. In the fall of 2019, this time with help from some of the Movers Mindset team, I was invited back to Art of Retreat. There, we did a second series of interviews for Art of Retreat’s podcast.

And then I branched out. Creating more shows for myself, as well as being a guest on others’.

Writing

Preparation—getting everything just so, the right desk, the right software and computer, the right room, the right beverage, the right time, the right mindset—is just a form of hiding. Sometimes it’s only a few moments, sometimes it’s days, but I always seem to hide before actually writing.

I definitely do not enjoy the hiding. I enjoy the writing. But I truly love the reading and thinking parts that the labor of insanity requires. But some people are not only good at the writing, they absolutely love the craft of writing itself.

While you or I may respond with a counter-argument, Tolkien went home and wrote 148 lines of heroic couplet […]

~ Brenton Dickieson from, The Effect of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mythopoeia

Right. So, Tolkien I am not, and will never be. And yet I continue to write because I am still learning… still trying to listen:

I used to think I wrote because there was something I wanted to say. Then I thought, “I will continue to write because I have not yet said what I wanted to say”; but I know now I continue to write because I have not yet heard what I have been listening to.

~ Mary Rueflé from, Madness, Rack, and Honey

These days I write in several places which are linked to on my current projects page. I’ve also written a bunch of blog posts tagged On Writing which might—since you’ve read this far—interest you.

Contact

I can’t reply to everything, but…