Benin Mwangi from the Cheetah Index asked:

I had a technical question for you.  I am going to be doing a podcast next week and wanted to ask you if you know of any simple ways to create a jingle…Otherwise, I hope all is well.  Keep up the good work!

My Answer:

Hey Benin. I will walk you through how I got the sound clips for the opening section of the Displaced African podcast and give you some additional ideas about where and how to get theme music for your upcoming podcast

1) I got the opening sound clip from a website known as Sound Rangers: You go there, choose a track, pay $20 and you own the copyright to that track forever. I then downloaded the free open sources sound editing software Audacity and combined the two to create the opening and closing section of every podcast.

Any other questions. Do not hesitate to ask.

Nakeel whose from the blog Nakeel asks:

1. Does Mwangi like Children or do children like Mwangi?
2. Whats the best thing that you have ever done in your life.
3. Given an opportunity to share a meal in your house with five guests who will they be?

My Answers:

1) Children are kinda like their adult counterparts, there are some who absolutely love me and some who find me as likeable as salt in cordial/juice (which btw, not good). So it really does depend on the child.

2) Hmmm, since I am writing on this blog, I can easily make the case that this is the best thing I have ever done for so many reasons:

a) First time I have committed myself to doing something day after day after day for so long.

b) I have built up a name and brand for myself at a very young age.

c) I have committed to something in spite of the taunting and discouragement.

d) I’ve met some cool cats, have been and will continue to be on the radio.

e) I have learnt a lot of things in a lot of areas including how to start a business in Melbourne Australia, how to start an online business, how immigrants think, positive projects like Ushahidi, met Kirk Nugent and Derrick Ashong.

Just for the Sake of Contrast

On the other side of the moral spectrum, the best thing I did was the first time I took a trip to Sydney. I was broke, had no plans but I got my cousin and his girlfriend in a car and we drove to Sydney where we spent the weekend partying. I loved it because it was a truly, spontaneous, uninhibited decision and the fact that I was in “the flow” and spontaneous the whole trip.

The first time I ever got on stage and acted.

There’s a few of them………

3) The reason I have chosen these folk is not only because of my love for them, but also because of how difficult it would be for me to actually meet with them.

Anthony Robbins: This guy is a true Renaissance man. His level of understanding of how to work within and manipulate the human psychology and achieve peak state on a continuous basis among many many many other things……YES, please, I want to learn that. He is also the best speaker I have ever seen with my own 2 eyes – he not only held my attention but had me for 8 hours a day for 2 days straight……I love his speaking ability.

ii) Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson: This guy is the best performer I have ever seen perform in front of a crowd. I have never seen anyone who has such command and control of an audience. I would love to know how he does that and copy that. Don’t believe me, tell me you have ever seen better crowd control than this

Also in that list, I would love to meet Erwin Mcmanus and Barrack Obama for their speaking ability.

iii) Whoever controls the world economy: There is probably someone or some organization somewhere in the States that pretty much “holds everything together” and is in control of the world economy, I would love to meet the head of it. If its a loose knit group of organizations that work together to hold the American Century together, I would love to meet the heads of this company. I want to move in this world with full understanding of how it runs.

iv) Jay Abraham: I want to become a marketing consultant like he does. His ability to see “money connections” where other people don’t is just simply amazing. Again, I would love to pick his brain and do what he does.

v) Jesus Christ and the Guy In charge of putting together the Bible: I know for sure we are not being told the entire truth about the man called Jesus from Nazareth. I would love to know what the reality was and what realities were shall we say…..”not included” in the official text.

v) JabbaWockeez: I am a mediocre-at-best dancer, I want to learn to move like these guys move.

vi) Malcolm X: I love and respect this man so much.

Other people I would love to meet: Timothy Ferriss, Yaro Starak, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Botswana.

Update on 13th August 2008: After watching a few videos of his interviews on Youtube, I MUST add to the list: Will Smith

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

1) Erwin Mcmanus

2) Kirk Franklin

3) Eric Wainaina

4) Malcolm X and Steve Biko

5) Anthony Robbins

The second last article in yet another series. Yay! I want the final one, as always, to be special and so in the meantime I thought I would share with y’all seven other people who have really affected the way I think and why

1. Timothy Ferriss

If there is one clear idea I have gotten from Mr. Ferriss, it is: question conventional wisdom, it’s almost always wrong. Whether he is completely defying the rules of working life and commerce in the 4 hour work week, or defying the rules of biology, physiology and physical education via his numerous experiements or even winning national kickboxing championships, Mr. Ferriss reminds us that when we set our minds to achieving a goal, almost all the limitations that we are taught to exist under don’t really exist.

2) Arundhati Roy

The writer of the Booker Prize winning book ‘God of Small Things’. I like Arundhati because of her writing style: she writes as though she is a grown up child with a simplicity and a playfulness of language that made the foreign land of India captivating to me. Plus, I think she is a pretty beautiful- a.k.a. hot- woman who is not scared to stand up for the oppressed and downtrodden.

3. Noam Chomsky

There was a period in my life where I ate, breathed, slept and consumed nothing but Noam Chomsky and his work. At the very base core level, Mr. Chomsky reminded me, even when I forgot that there was such a thing as logic. He reminded me such simple ideas as:

a) Any institution, a government for example, though set up for the alleged purpose of serving people, must have its own purposes and agendas, if nothing else, its own self-preservation and continuance.

b) A human right is a human right is a human right. A law is a law is a law. Nations cannot blatantly break international laws that they agreed to or created and expect any respect when they demand that other people follow international laws.

c) When you want to gain a firm understanding of what is going on in a particular place, read up on it from a variety of different perspectives: you get a more complete picture.

4. Jay Abraham

The marketing genius himself. He has worked in a wide variety of industries and has experience in more fields than most people have in 7 lifetimes. And the conclusion he came to after doing that and being a marketing consultant for a couple of decades: the only way to succeed in business is by putting other people’s interests above your own and being a benevolent leader and confidante in your industry or area of expertise. I rarely see the nobility in business life: In Jay I see it.

5. Yaro Starak

The man who taught me just what the heck a Wordpress blog is. This man is living proof that it is possible to create your ideal lifestyle if you are willing to work at it. Deciding that he never wanted to be a full time employee he has built for himself a blog that makes him a full time income from 2 hours of work daily. He has also created a membership site that has put him in the upper income bracket for most employees. All this without working himself to the ground for someone else. He even admits that he doesn’t like to do things when there is too much pressure. Like Mr. Ferriss, he makes you question what you were taught.

6. African Women

Until I was into my adulthood almost all of my heroes were older African women. In this day and age when so many women are trying harder and harder to be like men (why ladies why?) I just have to say thanks to all the older women who nurtured me, took care of me, listened to me when I rambled for hours and made me feel safe, secure and loved. Lord knows where I would have been without that.

7. African Men

As I entered my adulthood that’s when I actually began to find men I respected. The operative word in that sentence: respect. Men taught me, respect and honour and how to stay true to your word ( I strayed from that one a bit for a while but I am now trying to live up to this ideal). For all the older cats who carried themselves with nothing but true class and restored my hope in the African male, thanks men. You grew me up.

Be blessed, bless others,

Mwas

PS: Dead Prez!!!! My heroes for real. I will let their music speak for itself