Show Hiatus and More

Welcome back to the Spandered Show. This is episode number, show hiatus, and more.

So I really wasn't planning on recording an episode, kind of a send-off or fair. Well,

actually it's more of a pivot episode. I wasn't planning on doing it, but as I was

sitting down to recording another episode of the Sports Parenting Podcast and then

activate or put online my other podcast, Lessons From The Cage.

I figured actually as chat GPT should I delete all my other podcasts and chat GPT said

to keep the most popular one or most relevant one. So I'm going to leave the Spandered Show

up here just in case anyone wants to listen to the old episodes because there's gold.

I don't know how many episodes, thousands, several hundred. I don't know. There's a bunch

of episodes here in the Spandered Show. But why did I stop recording the Spandered Show

and what am I doing now? So honestly, podcasting is one of, it is my favorite thing to do,

but it's one of the most difficult things to do in terms of business. So to do a hobby

of podcasting, great. For a very long time, I was focused almost bullheaded in podcasting.

I loved it. I spent so much time doing it. And the listener base, I say this honestly,

and there's no real good way to say it, because there are listeners. You're listening

right now. But in order to devote the time that I was devoting in the sense of, hey, this

is part of my business, it just wasn't fruitful. There weren't enough listeners to validate

the amount of time and preparation and work that I was putting into it. And as I got

ordered as my priority shifted, I kind of got away from it and decided, I'm just not

going to do it anymore. Now, that was almost a year ago since our last episode, which

happens to be one of our most popular episodes, which deals with youth sports insights and

observations. And so the success of that episode, it kind of planted a seed in my brain. And

then I kind of let the seed germinate for a little bit. And then I started speaking

in prisons at the beginning of calendar year 2025. And if you're interested in that search

right now, lessons from the cage, because soon it will be up on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

And that talks all about my experiences speaking in prisons. That experience has kind of changed

my life, changed my interests. And so since I last recorded the Spendered Show, I've been

speaking professionally, mostly in schools. I don't want to say mostly in schools in schools,

but then also last calendar year, I spoke in 17 prisons in Pennsylvania. And it's been

such an unbelievable experience. And so I'm starting two new podcasts. The first is called

the sports parenting podcast. And I started that because. And first of all, before I get into

that insanity, that definition of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different

result, it is quite possible. The sports parenting podcast and lessons from the cage do not grow.

But I'm so interested in these topics. And I feel like I have such valuable insight into those two

topics that I'm going to do it and find out the sports parenting podcast I created because

there is a need for common sense. There is a need for guidance teaching in the sports

parenting world, especially with use sports. But honestly, it can be for older athletes as well

as, you know, college athletes and coaches. It's I have a lot of experience from coaching.

I have a lot of experience from professional fighting competition, mental edge, mental performance,

fierce doubts, insecurities. So that's what the sports parenting podcast is about.

If you're a sports parent, you want to learn, listen, grow, check out the sports parenting

podcast. And then my other one is called lessons from the cage. And when I end this episode,

I will create the first episode of lessons from the cage. I started speaking in prisons last

year and it blew my mind, the whole experience from start to finish. And I continue to speak

in prisons. I continue to work with inmates via Zoom sessions and in person events. I'm

reaching out to all kinds of associations and conferences to do more work in corrections,

the prison systems with inmates, with CEOs, with wardens. It's a whole wide world that

I'm very excited to jump into. So lessons from the cage, it's stemming from that. But

there's also a triple entendre lesson from the cage as in prisons, the bars, the cage.

My experience is fighting in the UFC, acting on the cage. And also the mental prisons

that you and I build for ourselves, the cages we keep ourselves in. So that's going to

be the theme of lessons from the cage. I continue to speak probably no books on the horizon.

Again, that's a lot of work without a lot of return. And I don't just mean dollar bills.

I mean interest generation impact. And so for now, I'm focusing on speaking in person,

creating content for these two new podcasts. I have four new online programs on my website,

fight for it for students, fight for it for schools, life's a fight for students and

life's a fight for schools. And those are variations of mindset, character development,

the sports ones pertain more to mental edged performance, et cetera. But that's kind of

what I'm doing to keep busy. I'll kind of leave this for now. Maybe I'll come back to

this painter show. Maybe I won't. But that's an update. CharlieSpender.com is my website

link. It'll be in the show description. But if you're interested in the online programs,

if you're interested, if you have a student athlete and you would like some mentoring,

some insights from guidance from me, please check it out. If you have a student who's having

problems with self-esteem, self-confidence, fitting in, pressure, stress, anxiety, again,

my programs on CharlieSpender.com. And please subscribe to Sports Parenting Podcast,

lessons from the cage. I'll see you over there. Thanks for tuning in.