Calvin Higgins: Yeah Hahaha And welcome back to Choice Man episode 50. Guys, it's been a long time coming. Sam, good afternoon. We have made it. Have we made it though? Kind of. Yeah. We're at least recording episode 50. Guys, it's taken us way too long to get here. I apologize for that to some extent. mean, some of that is due to me. not being, ⁓ not always available to record due to some personal faults of sleeping past my alarm. ⁓ It's not great. That's definitely, that's definitely, that's a fault on my part. Sam's been very patient with me. I mean, he's, you know, he's definitely missed a much lower amount of times than I have, but you know, it's great. And also we both had things to do and that's all right. But we're on a good pace here. This is our third episode that we recorded the same day. But, this episode is big time. Sam, do you know why this episode is big time? Sam, what are the three things that we're doing today? Oh, well. I mean. It's episode 50, so you gotta bring in favorite moments. You gotta bring in just, I mean, things you like. New announcements, actually, there's that. There's some big announcements. Whoa. Huge announcements. Whoa, we got announcements. Huge announcements. I guess it's only one announcement. Do we have multiple? I don't think we have multiple. there's one, yeah. Yeah, so we're gonna be celebrating today. We're be recounting our favorite moments so far and covering a big announcement for Choice Men. This is perfect for all the listeners, man. Stay tuned, it's gonna be a wild ride. It should be pretty fast, but it's gonna be a wild ride. You know us, we've got to our anchoring Bible verse. So James, chapter 1, verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. So, the beginning part of this episode, we really want to ⁓ share our thankfulness to the Lord in front of our listeners for what He's blessed us with. ⁓ If you looked at our listeners per episode or our followers, we don't have that many. That's all right. ⁓ But the Lord's plan is perfect, whether we feel like it is not in the moment. And he has gotten us to episode 50. this is, we're very thankful for that. Yeah, it's been one heck of a ride. mean, we started the podcast to be an outlet basically for me to get some ideas out at the beginning, because I was pretty pent up. And yeah, it's been wonderful for me on that front. And it's also, it's fun to get Sam out there a little bit more so people could kind of see what I get to see more often from Sam. I think that's been good for you. And, you know, it's definitely something now that's grown into something that we want to keep growing, keep growing and continuing to make awesome. It's been weeks worth of missed recording opportunities though, to going five... ⁓ yes, sorry, not going five, the sun is blinding my screen. to going live with videos. So we finally got video podcasts going to episode 50. And the Lord has been blessing and is continuing to bless us and we want to continue making this podcast better and better for our listeners and for the glory we've got. Anything to touch on there, fellow podcaster? Yeah, to help us with that, you guys can comment. Yes. Please, comment people. We're at episode 50, it seems like it's finally time for people to actually comment on the things that they are, that they're liking or disliking or want us to talk about. Could be literally anything. Could be a big five zero in the chat. Yes, leave us five zero, leave us a thumbs up, something along that line. Sam, let's cover some of our best moments so far. Yeah. let's... Let's start at the beginning. So out of 49 other episodes, we've had some pretty memorable moments. Do remember how long it took us to have our first guest? Two whole episodes. Two whole episodes. Was that guest there on purpose or not? It was not on purpose. It was on purpose for a different reason. He was coming to help us set up chairs after the podcast and we were just like, and he showed up way earlier. Yeah. And we were like, oh. Gonna be on the podcast this time? Yeah, so Boaz Kuleshov was our very first guest. It took us all of two episodes to get a guest. And, you know, we talked about self-control with him for about a few minutes. He rocked it. He's also still in line to be our first employee. So whenever that time comes, Boaz, we will see you, my good sir. ⁓ Do remember then how many more episodes it took to have our second guest, or batch of guests, I should say? I don't remember, but in the notes it says episode four, so... Took us whole nother two episodes to have two guests on at the same time. Now, episode four arguably has the best title, I think, out of all the podcasts, which is No Small Potatoes. That episode did very well, I think, based off of the title. And that was where we had Maggie Rothenberger and Leila Bowers. Is that also our longest episode? Mmm. That's a good question. That's a great question. I should have looked that up. I remember. Not sure. But yeah, that was great to have them on. It was fun. We had two Secret Santa episodes, seven and 35, which also, just clear here, this is episode 50. That's a multiple of five. Between seven and 35, there's also multiple of five in there. So, pretty nice numbers there. I mean we really like and dislike parts of Secret Santa. So I guess that's why we needed two episodes. I mean we also didn't cover everything we wanted in the first one, but it took us a long time to get back to that which is very funny. We released our email. Now funny story that I'll get to in just a second, but we released our email in episode 10 where we also had Peter Leiden on. And we haven't had Peter on since, but I'm sure that that is possible. But I mean we also, we're trying to have, we'll have some new guests on. Lots of people on eventually. Yeah, totally trying to have a bunch of people on. ⁓ Funny story about our email. ⁓ Should have stated this a couple episodes ago, but I found this out recently that we have had the wrong Bible verse in our email this whole time. Our email was choicement212.gmail.com. Now that stands for Titus 2 verse 12. And that's not Titus 2 verse 6. It is a good verse. It's a good verse. It's not quite the same. But it's not the one we were looking for. So I spent some time trying to get a Google account reset up with a different email. That email is live as of episode 48, but I forgot to mention that in episode 48. So that's a bummer. But we got a new email. It's going to be great. ⁓ So sorry about that, guys. We've just been absolutely scamming everybody. Episode 19 is where we started our series under 30 minutes. That was due to some Feedback, I guess you could say from my mother in particular see what comments can do people exactly comments like hey Calvin you talk way too much and Also guys, why is this an hour and a half? It shouldn't be that long. So we were like, you know what great. Let's put it at 30 minutes and We'll try to try to break that down. I think think my, at that point she was not my wife, but I do believe that Bazen at that point, we were engaged, I think she also thought that that was a good idea to drop it under 30 minutes, if I believe, remember that correctly? So that was great. Episode 26, we had Xander and Bazen on for the first time, and they were together. And a little interesting, Well, interesting anecdote about what happened in our span of Choice Men so far. I got married in case nobody knew. She'd been living under a rock. I got married and episode 26 was the first episode that we had where I was actually married. Yeah, after you got married. Yeah, that was great. Fun time with them. So thanks to them for being on. ⁓ Yeah, episode 27, we started a series for students getting ready for school. And we've actually stayed pretty close to that theme for the majority of the time. Obviously some of them have wandered a little bit off of that theme, but we've actually been, we seem to have kind of hit a groove with that idea. But I mean, we're talking to the youth, so that kind of adds up. And let's see here, we got, yeah, actually, Bazen joined us for that one as well. So she was two weeks in a row there. Then episode 29, you had Bazen on again. And that was again, that was continuing our student related content theme, so that was great. Now, you'll notice if you go back and you look, that episode 32 and 33 are missing and you guys might be like, well, what's going on there? Well, me and Sam had recorded episodes 32 and 33, but never posted. due to a couple of reasons. One is I was a little bit behind in posting some of the podcasts. I was getting ready to post those and I was like, you know what? I don't like those very much because we tried to do a gift list, but the gift list we didn't have set up very well. And there was another one in there. I don't remember what that one was about, but they weren't, they didn't feel worth posting. And so we never posted those, but man. We did not, hopefully, disappoint you guys with episode 34, where we came back, bigger than ever, with our first video podcast. video podcast. And Sam, do you remember where that was? That was at the building, at the church building, with the Christmas tree in the back. Or was this? It was there. Yeah. Yeah, with the Christmas tree in the background. Yep. And one of them. Yeah, it a great background to have as our first video podcast. Nice and decorative. Yeah. We went to a new format script-wise per episode with number 38 being our first one and basically where I started realizing we got to draft our podcast episodes we wander a little too much and I was like, all right, let's make a little script. My wife helped come up with that idea. So I made a template. We're inside a notion now. It's working great. And Basin was back on for episodes 42 and 43. So as you can tell, she's been a regular guest. She might as well be like a sub-co-host. I'm sure we could come up with a title. But I mean, at this point, she's been on one-tenth of our episodes, so that's a party. One-tenth, that's... That is actually a lot of being a guest, so thanks to her for being on there. Yeah, we also did our very first podcast on the stage the night before an event. It was kind of like for the event. It wasn't actually promotional, but it was like, it was our own fake promotional stuff for that event, which was the Fiction Festival. We had the whole event decor behind us. Rad, it was very rad. ⁓ And yeah, I think we should definitely try to do that again. We should. Whether it's for the Fiction Festival or for some more events, I think that could be pretty cool. Maybe information night for school at some point. Information night, that could be cool. ⁓ Orientation. I'm sure there's things. You guys could leave us some suggestions for events that you'd want to see us kind of ⁓ via the pod. And here we are. Episode 50. That's a big deal. We made it to episode 50 and we can't wait to bring you more great content and that leads us. That leads us, people, to the big announcement. Can I get a drum roll, please? We, choice man the podcast. I some big news. I made this decision flying by the seat of my Levi's 5'7", baggy style jeans. I did not even ask Sam for permission. It was a random Thursday, which in light of recording this episode was two days ago. But without further ado, choice men, the YouTube channel is coming your way everybody. Can we give it up for that? Yes we can, absolutely. Just marvelous. And the idea with that is we want to get our content more places and we want to try to grow our audience. And we also want to post some more stuff down the road. That probably won't be happening for a couple months because we will be working on strategizing that. But all are yours and the Lord will bless the steps you take. so decided we're going to take a step. And it's a pretty big step. I think less so. also on Apple podcasts now. Yes, Apple podcasts. We still are findable on Spotify, but we're hosting out of a new platform. if you guys notice when you go back in Spotify, not everything is in video. ⁓ That was in video. So that's a little unfortunate, but that's what happens when you move your podcast hosting. But we'll be trying to bring you guys better content, better produced. So, I over the next year, I would expect to see some pretty big changes in even the film quality, stuff like that. mean, I just record on my phone. ⁓ So, yeah, our main podcast videos, shorts, medium length content, ⁓ maybe some non-podcast material. Try to bring that your guys way. ⁓ We don't have an expected release. for certain content right now, other than our main podcast videos, which is every Wednesday and Saturday. We're trying to be on that schedule. Sometimes that'll ebb and flow. The link to the channel will be down below, as well as on my Facebook page, but also, we actually do have two announcements. We are also moving to a business. Facebook pages, and we don't actually have a business, but it's the only way that I can schedule out Facebook posts. we will, it's Choice Men, I'll also link that down below, but I'll also put that in my final post on Facebook for Choice Men, and we'll move that all into that Facebook. So mean, we're making big changes, we're excited for this new challenge, and we want to continue making more great content for you all. So we wanna thank all who have made this So Sam, why don't we just go back and forth? I'll start because I did make this list and you're on here first. So Sam, thanks for co-hosting with me. It's great, man. Thank you. It's great. Thanks to Calvin for being the tech guru ⁓ and all that good stuff with all the bugs we have to go through. mean, holding together. Yeah, talk about this morning trying to go through some bugs. ⁓ man. Yeah, Philip and Sean, so all of yours. That's another podcast. I'll link them in the description. Thanks for letting us ⁓ use your guys' mics for a while while we were getting started. Thank you guys for that. Boaz for being the first guest. Yes. Nailed it. Love that, Boaz. Thank you, Maggie Rothenberger and Leila Bowers for being our next set of guests. then Peter Leiden as well. Yes, Attaboy. Xander Avia for guesting with us as well. And I guess I'll do that next one as well, because that's not your wife. And my wife, Bayes and Avia, for guessing a total of five times. One tenth of the show. Thank you. One tenth. Yeah. And Mr. Sean Higgins, Pastor Higgins, for the use of his office while we were getting started. So when we were borrowing their mics, we were also sitting in his office doing recording, which is very nice. Yes. Very nice office. If you guys haven't seen it, it is very cool. Yes. Very... It's got some good feng shui. It's got a lot of books, a lot of books. Thank you to Reva and Emerson Avia for the use of their house to record a couple times. We've used their loft and downstairs during Christmas time. That was a huge help. Yeah, well and TEC as well for unofficially letting us film and record in the building. Yeah, they don't know that they approved that, but we were there. Yeah, there were certain people that had... things going on that we were able to get approval from to use the building at certain points. True. It wasn't necessarily TEC strictly, but it was the use of the building. Right. Thank you guys for that. Yeah, thank you. And thank you to our listeners for listening. ⁓ But we want more from you. So let us know stuff. Comment whether that's on the new Facebook page or even on my own personal. That is fine. Sam currently does not have a Facebook page. We'll try to help him get that set up. Not that Sam is not techy, but his phone is messing with him. Phone literally didn't let me get a Facebook account. Yeah, that's... Literally. And I was only going to use it for one thing. Yeah, that's brutal. It's hilarious. Yeah, so we'll try to get him set up on there ⁓ so then he can also be reached out to. But me, currently, if you have either of our numbers, you can text us. We currently are not big enough where that's a big problem. At some point, we'd love to have our own number where you guys could even leave voicemails and we could react to those. That'd be great. Yeah, comment on YouTube now. Comment on... I mean, anywhere you can comment, we should be able to see. So leave us those comments, ideas, questions, thoughts. Email us. Choice Men, lowercase t, 26, at gmail.com is the new email with the correct Bible verse, which is just so unfortunate that we have to say that. But hey, you know what? We're starting afresh, episode 50. Gotta love it. ⁓ Yeah, I mean, if you guys could keep thanking the Lord with us for 50 episodes and pray that He blesses our works and gives us the energy to do so faithfully. to do what he wants us to do faithfully where he calls us to be. That'd be much appreciated. I mean, we're not massive content creators, but it is tiring. ⁓ There's a lot of work when it goes into editing, especially like a day like today where we're trying to prep for me being gone for two weeks. that's kind of tough, ⁓ but it's worth it. We really like doing it. So thank you guys so much. Please keep praying for us. Practical Life, next step for all of you would be to subscribe to Choice Men, whether on YouTube ⁓ or wherever else you get your pods. So that would be greatly appreciated. And if you find us on Facebook, follow us there as well so you don't miss any updates. And if you're on a place that takes likes, please like the podcast. ⁓ That'd be fantastic. That's a way we can see if our audience is growing. If you can't like the podcast because of some reason, please comment on that reason. Please send it to us so we can consider it. Like not like the podcast based off what we're talking about? Yeah, like that or like there's just one little thing that you'd have us change before like you could actually recommend it heartedly to somebody. Totally. Yeah. So again, guys, we're very thankful that we've been able to keep doing this. We really want to keep doing it. We want to keep making it better, more professional. I mean, obviously we've got dreams and aspirations down the road. Another thing that we've asked a couple of episodes ago and then continue to ask for is business ideas. So we'd love to know what you'd want to see us do business-wise, whether you have a problem that you would want solved. Here's the thing guys, we might not go with what you tell us you want us to do. But we do want some brainstorming help. So give us your ideas, give us your feedback, it kind of lets us know who's really listening. And that'd be much appreciated. So that's it for episode 50. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thanks for celebrating with us. It's not really specialized dad advice for this episode. That's right. Whoa. ⁓ Whoa, I forgot, wow. Yes, don't let your kids choke on balloons. From Bazen in the back. Don't let your kids choke on balloons. I think that's mom advice. That could be mom advice, yeah. I think dad advice is maybe let your kids choke on balloons so they learn not to do it. Or actually, dad advice. Let your boys pop balloons with knives. ⁓ That is dad advice. You know what, I think that deserves not just clapping, that deserves cheering. It deserves all this cheering. Let's go. But not anymore. All right, thanks guys for tuning in to episode 50. We love you guys and we'll catch you next time. Peace Peace out.