EP01: Welcome to the Grumo Podcast

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Hello, Hola, Kaixo, Bon jorno!

My name is Miguel Hernandez and this is the first episode of the Grumo Podcast.

Because it’s the first episode, I’ll tell you a bit about myself and my plans for this podcast.

Remember, if this gets too boring, you can always skip or press the 2X speed button on your player and I’ll sound much more articulate.

I’ll try to be as concise as possible without skipping too much detail because especially, if you don’t know me, I feel is important you get a good sense of who I am, why I am doing this podcast, and what should you expect from it.

Here we go, are you ready?

Let’s do it!

Who am I?

I was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1977 and moved to Canada in 1996.

Upon arriving, I enrolled in the mechanical design program at British Columbia Institute of Technology, graduated with honors and won their yearly mechanical design award for coming up with a unique design for a manually operated soda can crusher. (Wow, so exciting!)

[Can gets crushed]

Since then, I’ve held many different jobs, including door-to-door salesman, shipping/receiving boy, laser cutting machine operator, boat engine controls assembler, mechanical designer, industrial 3D animator, music video producer, camera operator, video post production systems administrator, web developer, animation studio owner, online teacher, and since 2010, devote wife pleaser.

[wife moans]

I failed many times trying to start a business. My first invention was a continuous variable transmission for bicycles which… didn’t work, I created a website where people could DJ two YouTube videos in one page called Ibizaah, I built a high definition stock video footage platform called Shotdesk, an app called WorryPad designed to cheer up sad people by pressing a “Cheer Up” button, a website to help people pass their driving exam in Spain, and even a variable speed portable homemade sex machine powered by a recycled sewing machine motor. Fate would have it, that after years trying to make money online, the first $20 bucks I ever made were selling a PDF with the instructions on how to build that portable pleasure inducing contraption (one day I’ll tell the whole story).

For now, let’s keep going…

My biggest fail was spending 1.5 years trying to build an online project management tool called Pointkit, and running out of money before getting even a chance to launch.

My first real break (sex machine aside ahem…) came after almost a decade tinkering with business ideas. In October, 2010, I created a spec animated demo video for a startup called Hipmunk. That video got tons of exposure and landed me as clients many top Silicon Valley startups and big corporations like Microsoft, Walmart and even a Hollywood star, Ashton Kutcher, for whom I produced a video to promote his foundation.

I christened the animation studio Grumo Media. “Grumo” after a little kitty we had and lost to some neighboring coyotes before it turned one. Grumo means “clump” in Spanish. It’s also what we call the little lumps you get when you mix flour with water. In Spanish slang, the word Grumo is sometimes used to refer to spunk, you know, human’s reproductive fluid. Nasty I know, but in a sense both definitions make sense.

Why so?

Because our videos are like clumps of condensed information that explain what a company or product does in 90 second or less. And our videos also behave as sperm or spunk because they are designed to spread a company’s message and brand in a way that perpetuates its existence. Ok, it’s a far fetched and somewhat disturbing idea but quite accurate nonetheless.

My other claim to fame, at least the stuff I’ve been also known most for, besides producing videos for Silicon Valley startups, is my success as an online teacher.

Soon after launching Grumo Media, I started creating online courses and publishing them on my own website and, at the time, on a new and fast growing online course marketplace called Udemy.com.

In less than a year, I became one of their top highest selling online teachers with only two courses.
Since then, I’ve published 8 more courses and generated over $500,000 in online course sales between Udemy and my own websites.

What am I passionate about?

And that’s the Cliff Notes of my professional career. On the personal side, I have spent thousands of hours devouring anything related to entrepreneurship, neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, quantum physics, robotics, virtual reality, manufacturing, world history and the lives of remarkable humans.

Who are those remarkable humans? think of people like Nikola Tesla, Richard Feynman, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, and many other impossibly smart, hard working and inspiring humans.

I also love to learn the how things are made. From a simple ballpoint pen to a high bypass turbofan.
Understanding the design and manufacturing process of products we use every day, fascinates me.

I love sciency videos. On YouTube, channels like VSauce, Veritasium, MinutePhysics, ASAPscience, PBS Space Time, SmarterEveryday, and CGP Grey. And on TV or Netflix shows like MythBusters, How Is Made, Cosmos, Dirty Jobs, and MegaStructures.

Here are some of the podcasts I’m subscribed to: Walking Up by Sam Harris, The Tim Ferris Show, The Altucher Show, This Week In Startups, Mixergy, Art Of Charm, Hidden Brain, and Stuff You Should Know.

My favorite blog is WaitButWhy by Tim Urban. Probably the blog with the most in-depth, well researched, and fun to read posts anywhere. I used Feedly to keep track of over 100 other blogs and online publications. Blogs like Both Sides of The Table  by Mark Shuster, Derek Sivers blog, and Paul Graham’s come to mind among the ones I read most often.

On the health and fitness front, I’ve been an avid soccer player for over 3 decades and, if time permits, I play a 3 or 4 games a week.

I don’t like to cook or go grocery shopping so my diet is quite minimal. I mostly live of cookies, power bars, bananas, trail mix, and lately Soylent bottles – a bizarre tasting meal replacement juice engineered in Silicon Valley by the nerdiest minds you can imagine.

The only reason why I’m still alive is because my dear wife cooks tasty dinners for us regularly and because we live on top of a Chinese Restaurant that makes a fantastic ginger beef dish.

Adventure and travel wise, I’ve been to all continents except Africa and Antarctica. Biggest adventures so far have been a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu, running over the Wall Of China, a tour of the Amazon, 2 weeks exploring New Zealand’s North Island, 2 times walking el Camino de Santiago, 1 week filming the life of a billionaire in Dominican Republic,  and countless trips back to Spain to visit family and friends, eat like a pig, drink lots of wine and party like an animal.

Flying small airplanes is a passion across my family. My dad used to own a small Piper plane in Spain, my uncle still flies his own Cesna, and my brother makes a living as a professional flight instructor in Edmonton, Alberta. Although I never got around getting my own private license, I’ve thoroughly enjoy flying with them in a few occasions.

Other than that, the craziest things I’ve tried are free falling near Vancouver, bunjee jumping in Costa Rica, and paragliding over the coasts of Northern Spain where I was born.

The first thing people notice about me is how short and handsome I am. The former truer than the second I’m afraid. My strengths are my extreme systems oriented mind and bombastic on-camera personality, and soon, radio one as well, I guess.

My weaknesses are my inability to make quick decisions and my bad memory, I think I have many more but.. erm.. but I forgot which are they, hehe.

And now enough of me, and if you didn’t get enough, just type “Miguel” followed by “Grumo” on Google and you’ll get much more.

Why am I launching this podcast?

Now about this podcast. Why am I doing it and what should you expect from it?

Over the last two years I’ve become more and more addicted to listening to podcasts.

I love how they allow you to learn while keeping your hands free to do other things, like driving, walking, reproducing, or even washing the dishes. I used to hate driving, and luckily, my only weekly commute is from home to my soccer games. Being stuck in traffic was one of my main frustrations but, thanks to podcasts, it just means an opportunity learn more. My mind wonders and forgets about the shitty traffic and my commute transforms, from a source of frustration, into a source of inspiration.

That is unless I get cut off by a moron, in which case, all the inspiration goes out the window, literally.

From a pure business perspective, I’ve found podcasts to be one of the best, if not the best, marketing tool out there.

It’s a win-win proposition no matter how you look at it. The podcaster gets to create great content with relatively low effort, and both the host and the interviewees benefit from being exposed to each other’s audiences.

A podcast has to be the cheapest, most scalable, most rewarding way to grow an audience out there.

A podcast gives you the perfect excuse and platform to connect with incredibly smart and successful people.

Creating original content on a regular basis is fundamental for the success of any content marketing strategy. Well guess what? when you interview experts, they are the ones creating the content. All you have to do is ask the right questions.

A podcast helps you increase your credibility and authority on a field just by simple association with your guests. Think about it, if you are able to land a famous and influential guest, your name and brand becomes immediately associated to the his or hers.

Shep Gordon, one of the most successful talent managers of his generation was a master at exploiting the power of celebrity association. He knew putting an up-and-coming singer next to legends like John Lennon and Jimmy Hendrix in the same picture was all he needed for the world to start taking seriously his protégé.
He called it “fame by association”.

Podcasts are the new on-demand radio. Convenient, free, with fewer or no ads.

Podcasts are also pretty easy to monetize. So not only you get the great content, the authority, the connections with influencers, but also they can be monetized directly via sponsors.

Some of the top podcasts like Entrepreneur On Fire, Mixergy and Art Of Charm rack in tens of thousands of dollars in sponsorships every month.

It’s not wonder that over the last couple years, everyone-and-their-mother has joined the podcast craze and launched their own one. Like most new enterprises, most of them fail but success cases don’t stop coming.

On a recent episode of his podcast, Waking Up, acclaimed author and neuroscientist Sam Harris said that a single of his episodes gets more exposure in 24 hours than some of his best selling books get in one year!

So this is why I decided to do a podcast. Also because I like to learn and try new things all the time and because I’m not afraid for them to fail. I’m well aware that most likely this podcast will be a disaster that only me and my dog will listen to. I don’t have a dog and I hate to listen to my own voice, which means my audience may be reduced to artificial intelligence powered virtual listeners? A bunch of zeros and ones listening by a bunch of zeros and ones. We may be closer to that scenario than most think.

What should you expect to learn with this podcast?

Finally, let’s talk about what should you expect to get by subscribing to the Grumo Podcast.

I plan for the Grumo Podcast to be an extension of my brain, but an extension to which you can tune in and listen to.

Picture this. If you could connect my brain to a radio station, this podcast is what you would hear.

So yes, that means right now you are listening to my brain. As you can hear, my thoughts also have a weird Spanish accent. But I also can think in Spanish – Mira qué bien hablo español! aunque parezca mentira soy una máquina de follar y mi pene mide cuarenta y tres centímetros, aproximadamente.

And if you spoke Spanish, you’d also notice that I have a weird Canadian-Spanish accent. That’s what living 20 years in Canada will do to a Spanish brain, I guess.

As you can see, I mean, hear, I find almost impossible to take myself too seriously. That’s maybe one of the reasons why I’ve tried as hard as possible to be my own boss and stay away from the corporate world for so many years.

In this Podcast you can expect to hear a lot more of what you’ve already heard so far. More nonsensical humor, and more about everything that fascinates me from the fields of entrepreneurship, science, technology, sociology and the inextricable wonders of the human mind.

In a Seinfeld kind of way, I resist to corner myself into a specific topic, even though I know, by keeping my options open, I’m breaking one of the sacred rules of marketing, which insists that, the key to success is choosing a niche and dominating it.

If you are into any of the aforementioned topics, I think you’ll find this podcast amusing, educational and perhaps, even inspirational.

I know this still may sound too generic, so for the sake of concreteness, here are some more specific questions I’d like to explore with this podcast:

• What are the keys to learning faster? teaching better? becoming a better story teller?
• What is the most effective way to increase one’s confidence?
• How does one become better at asking questions?
• What are the most effective ways to improve your memory?
• What is the best way to deal with adversity?
• How to get out of an awkward situation unscathed?
• How is artificial intelligence going to affect humanity once it reaches the technological singularity?
• What will be the implications of extending life 50, 100 or more years?

And much more, including my top takeaways from books I’ve read, bizarre and enlightening stories and anecdotes from my past, and tons and tons of recommendations for books, blogs, shows, and other podcasts to further quench your thirst for knowledge.

Many other podcasts have answered similar questions, so realistically, the main thing that will make this podcast different is my unique approach to finding answers to these topics, either through my own research or via any experts I can cajole into sharing their insights with us.

Think about it, you can trek Machu Picchu 10 times, the path would be the same, but the experience would be different each time. And a big part of the uniqueness of the experience would be based on who comes along for the ride, on who you share that trip with.

I’ve only done Machu Picchu once, but I’ve done el Camino de Santiago twice. Each time was a completely amazing and unforgettable experience, precisely because of the different people that we met along the way.

In this podcasting adventure, I’ll be your guide. We’ll explore together well known paths, but also new and exciting ones. And, even if you are familiar with some of them, this time around it will be different because you’ll be sharing this experience with someone different. That someone is me of course, your humble and passionate host – Miguelito Hernandez, also known as The Grumo Man, or just Migs.

Will you join me on this new and exciting adventure?

I hope you do.

See you on the next episode!

[Outro]

And okay, that’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe to it, rate it and share it with your friends. But hey, if you are driving now, please wait until you get home to rate it cause I need you to be alive to next episode. Thanks for listening, my name is Miguel Hernandez, and this was the Grumo Podcast.

[Sound effects and toilet flushing at the end]

Ahh, that felt so good!