jasonRmoore

For a very amateur but curious home cook, the Cooking Channel could not come at a better time.  The Food Network has always been one of the few stations that gets heavy rotation in our home, but in recent years it has slipped into a MTV-esque shell of itself.  Cooking shows that challenged its audience fell to the wayside in similar fashion as music videos.

Enter The Food Network 2, officially named Cooking Channel.

Cooking Channel has launched with a promising lineup for home cooks who want to learn how to be better.  Back-stories and history laced with both local and international cooking fills the current lineup sheet.

Everyday Exotic features Chef/musician Roger Mooking out of Toronto.  Mooking is a prime example of what Cooking Channel appears to be pushing: young, edgy, and very knowledgeable.

Drink Up?  If you say so!  Very excited to see how Darryl Robinson pushes his art of hand-crafted cocktails.  The one negative hint that I see in the show description is the nickname referenced for the host as Dr. Mixology.  Ugh!

The two international entries in the initial lineup are Indian Food Made Easy and Chinese Food Made Easy.  Both of these have a ton of promise, but these types of shows have a tendency to fizzle due to the niche of their menu.  One of the issues with expanding on either Indian or Chinese food for many home cooks is the access to a large set of ingredients.  What most have access to will limit how far they can push either of these cuisines.

There is one show that seems to be better suited for the style of MTV, err The Food Network.  This is Unique Eats.  I’ll let their website describe what I see as a scary sign.

“(Unique Eats is) the first look and the last word in everything extreme in food today.”

Overall, Cooking Channel appears to be a welcome shift in instructional cooking for television.  Let’s hope they continue down the proper path and there is no need for TFN3.

The annual TED conference is happening right now in California.  Expect to see a lot of buzz around mind-blowing presentations and conversations from the some of the world’s finest thinkers.

The first TED talk that hit one of my chords was by Jamie Oliver (video below) on the effect that the world’s eating habits are not only having on current death tolls but also our children’s expected lifespan.

Jamie presents a simple pyramid diagram of where the effort is needing to come from, so our children learn the important food lessons that the vast majority of my generation were not taught properly.

Watch the video above.  I would love to hear your take on his message.

Is it realistic?

Are we ready?

Last year, I committed to joining Team Nash Stache to raise awareness and money for men’s health, in particular prostate cancer (and new this year – testicular cancer).  The program is called Movember.

Fast forward to the present, and Mary (my wife) and I are expecting our third child any day!

Since I won’t back out of my commitment to Team Nash Stache to help raise money, our baby is in danger of having her/his baby photos forever remembered with her father’s inability to grow a proper manly moustache.  This also puts my good standing (loosely used) with my wife as she is 100% appalled by the pencil marks on my face.

What does this mean to you? How can you help?  I made a deal with Mary that if I can raise my goal of $300, I would shave the moustache prior to Baby Moore #3’s delivery.

If you could help in any small way, you will forever be in good graces with my wife, Baby Moore #3, and men around the world – please donate here.

And for the sadistic bunch, if you are that committed to having this moustache remain – any single donation of $100 towards this cause will guarantee at least one picture shared with all of Baby Moore #3 and me still sporting the MO!

Contrary to how it looks, Seth and I did NOT meet in a photo booth at the county fair.

Seth Godin was in Nashville yesterday for the Country Radio Seminar to speak on how the radio industry has an opportunity to adopt the new world of marketing and thrive (not just survive) despite recent hardships.  As many of you know I am not in the radio business, but I was not going to let Seth come to Nashville without me in attendance!

Justin Davis (@jwd2a) and I show up at 7:30 am to get in line for tickets going on sale at 8.  Much to our surprise, we were still the only people in line by the time 8 o’clock rolled around.  What!!  This is Seth Godin, people!

Needless to say, it was an absolutely GREAT morning filled with surprises (lanyap – Pat) and unadulterated inspiration.

Justin and I took our seats around 8:30 for the 10:00 start to make sure we had good seats.  Reference the line mentioned earlier, and you know this wasn’t a problem.  Right at 9 o’clock is when the pleasant surprises started.  It starts with a one-song concert by an up-and-coming female artist from Texas completely rocking it out!  Who needs coffee?

Next up were presentations approximately 10 feet from us by John Rich (of Big & Rich, Musik Mafia) and Randy Owen (Alabama).  For those of you who know nothing of country music, I don’t think it’s too far of an over-statement to say that Randy Owen is similar to country music fans what Bono is to everyone else.  Next up was a short two-song concert by Phil Vasser.

Let me remind you again that we went into this room expecting to wait an hour and a half just to see Seth speak.  So let’s get to some brief notes on Seth.  I will preface this with saying that it is extremely difficult to boil down Seth’s message and keep any meaning.  He is masterful at spreading a message in a brief and direct manner.  If you haven’t read his books you really should no matter what position or field you are in.  His messages stretch your brain.

The two tidbits that stuck out the most from his presentation were:

• One way to grow your business in the new world of marketing is to follow this cycle:
  • Be remarkable –> Tell a story to your customers –> They spread the word –> Get permission (then repeat)
  • The key to this method is that you actually have to be remarkable before telling the story and getting word to spread.  Far too often, people/companies want to tell the story of what they intend to do not what they have done or are doing.  Your story won’t spread without substance.
• If you are in an industry that is struggling with the paradigm shift, you have a choice between the following two.  What do you think is best for you?
  • “Yesterday lasting a little longer; Tomorrow coming a little sooner”
  • “Yesterday” is what your industry was built on and is probably what they/you are hanging onto today.  “Tomorrow” is everything that your trade organization is fighting.

Is it risky to be the outlier and reach for “tomorrow” in your organization or industry? Probably.  But if you are no longer employed by your current employer if five years do you want the reason to be that you walked lock-step like you were “supposed to” then were laid off when the looming downturn came?  Or do you want your story to be that you did what you knew needed to be done; got fired; then continued your personal transformation and changed how you perform your old job with another company (maybe your own)?

In closing, I would like to thank the CRB for bringing Seth to Nashville.  His message is vital to the livelihood of your industry and it’s refreshing to see that someone there is embracing it.

Are you interested in the idea of podcasting for your business or personal endeavors?  Me, too!!

This coming weekend PodCamp Nashville will be help at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management.  #PCN09 is a free event based on the BarCamp model of user-generated content sessions.

So you’ve never recorded your own podcast and have no idea where to start?  Come with me to the following sessions that sound like they’re just right for us!  Some of these are about social media and not specifically podcasting.

From Prep to Post, The Podcasting Process by Justin Davis

A Slice of Cake: The Secret to Podcast Listener Loyalty by Dave Delaney

Your Site Sucks! by Kate O’Neil (not much about podcasting, but how can you pass this one up????)

How to Use A Chainsaw Without Cutting Off Your Leg by Bill Seaver

Podcasting and WordPress – Like Digital PB&J! by Mitch Canter (aka studionashvegas)

Outside of the sessions, PodCamp will be a great event to meet other people in your community.  And outside of networking and learning, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved!!!  Volunteers are needed for various levels of time and skill sets.  If you are interested in attending, presenting, or volunteering go sign up now!!

www.podcampnashville.com

Volunteer here!