Welcome, welcome, welcome to the year-end wrap-up of the Jon of All Trades Podcast. I’m your host, Jon Eks. Thank you for joining us, glad to have you back once again.

On March 19^th of this year, I debuted the first three episodes of the Jon of All Trades Podcast. Since then, I’ve rolled out a new episode each week (except for Thanksgiving and this week) the following 38 weeks. In those weeks, I’ve talked to people from all across the employment spectrum – many of them entrepreneurs, a few of them wishing to remain anonymous. I have found every last one of them fascinating.

Sometimes I wonder if, outside of finding my guests endlessly interesting, there’s a unifying theme to the episodes. When you add up the runtimes of all the episodes, I’ve got more than a day and a half’s worth of conversations tallied. Just intimate, one-on-one, intellectually curious back-and-forth logged. In my estimation, that’s time incredibly well spent, and for whatever chunk of that journey you’ve joined us, I sincerely thank you. I hope you feel it’s time well spent as well.

But a unifying theme? Between those who have 30+ years in their career, and those just starting out? Between scientists, entertainers, parents, founders of passion side projects, salesmen, and a ton of other tradesmen?

If it’s anything, it’s this: Whatever you want to do, action trumps talk.

You’ve just got to start doing it, and figure it out as you go. It’s a lesson that served as a nice meta-mirror for myself in founding this podcast. I had considered hosting my own podcast for a very long time, and because of the misguided notion that there’s always more time to do what you want, I dragged my feet getting it set up.

I continued to inch forward each week on it until my entire world changed. Kristin was pregnant.

That lit a fire up under my ass as I knew that if I didn’t get this thing rolling now, I’d never do it with a brand new baby. I had to get it set up, figure out what the hell I was doing, and ensure I could keep it rolling once the baby came and fundamentally altered my life. I raced to build the site, conduct my first set of interviews, and get the podcast online. Whereas I had been dragging my feet for over a year, I finished everything and had everything up for consumption within a month.

So this is my holiday wish for you: Whatever you want to do, don’t hesitate and start doing it as quickly as you can. I am fortunate that I had lead time before my life changed, but the world isn’t always that kind. No matter what it is, the sooner you start doing what you love, the happier you’ll become. I’ve got 41 people, all of whom you can listen to at your leisure, who will tell you the same thing.

Get off your ass and create the thing you want to create, go to the place you want to go, and make shit happen. You can do it. I’ve done it here, and I work every day to live it more and more in every aspect of my life.

I believe in you. And I can’t wait to give you more stories like this in 2015. Thanks for listening.

Now, I present to you some fun stuff. So check out below for some numerical breakdowns of the show, some insights, and an invitation to ask me any question you want to ask. I’ll answer it on the show. Enjoy!

Jon of All Trades By the Numbers

Guests

41 episodes

44 guests

14 women

30 men

1 repeat guest (Brad Haag – Ep. 32, also a co-host of Reel Nerds Podcast – Ep. 25)

Brad Haag – most frequent appearances on the Jon of All Trades Podcast

Also, technically, Brad appeared a third time on the back end of the Kristin Nolan episode (Ep. 23) as one of the participants in the 48 Hour Film Project, which, technically, also means Christian Ijin Link appeared twice as well.

3 people based in New York, 2 conducted in New York, 1 in Denver (Kersti Bryan – Ep. 37, Thea Domber – Ep. 20, Mike St. Hilaire – Ep. 19)

Thea Domber and Jon on their way to brunch in SoHo.

2 people based in San Diego (David Martin – Ep. 12, Ben Brown – Ep. 10)

Ben Brown and Jon in Ben’s beautiful San Diego home.

1 person based in Seattle (Krista Welch – Ep. 11)

Krista Welch visiting Denver, and, coincidentally, the only photo taken in my kitchen from a different perspective.

1 person based in Hong Kong (William Nee – Ep. 21)

William Nee visiting Denver and chatting with Jon.

37 people based in the Denver Metro Area (everyone else)

Jason Calloway, owner of Rooster & Moon in Denver. Go there. It’s excellent.

3 guests in the Confidential Series (Ben Brown – Ep. 10, David Martin – Ep. 12, Sarah – Ep. 36)

Sarah talking to Jon confidentially in the kitchen about being a teacher.

Photos:

32 photos taken indoors

Melanie Ulle with Jon outside her office, but still indoors.

9 photos taken outdoors

Zach Knaus with Jon outside his office in Denver

22 Jon on the right

Jon on the right of Simon Lomax.

18 Jon on the left

Jon on the left of Mike Gaughan.

1 Jon in the middle

Jon in the middle of Alex Tooke & Derek Weber

17 taken in my kitchen (16 all from the same angle with my microwave and cabinets in the background, 1 taken facing a different direction – see Krista Welch above)

Jeff Bontrager, founder of Neckitecture, showing off one of his signature ties. It’s a familiar shot of my kitchen, no?

7 photos of Jon wearing a hat (6 times backward, 1 time forward)

Jon wearing his dirty ass hat with Kersti Bryan outside Station 26 Brewing.

7 photos of guests pointing back at Jon (Eps. 1 – 4 Mike Gaughan, Cindy Miller, Jason Calloway, Rogue Edwards, Ep. 21 – William Nee, Ep. 25 – Ryan Frost, Ep. 29 – Noah Miller)

Ryan Frost of the Reel Nerds Podcast enthusiastically pointing back at Jon

4 guests SUBSTANTIALLY taller than Jon (Ep. 7 – Will Matthews, Ep. 21 – William Nee, Ep. 26 – Reed Saunders, Ep. 29 – Noah Miller)

Will Matthews being noticeably taller than Jon.

3 photos featuring Jon in sunglasses (Ep. 20 – Thea Domber, Ep. 22 – Marc Leverette, Ep. 29 Noah Miller)

Marc Leverette and Jon, outside his office, which is upstairs of this METAL shop.

2 photos where Jon’s sunglasses are visible, but he’s not wearing them (Ep. 25 – Reel Nerds Podcast, Ep. 23 – Kristin Nolan)

Kristin Nolan outside her home with Jon

2 photos featuring men who look like LUMBERSEXUALS (Ep. 38 – Alex Tooke & Derek Weber, Ep. 13 – Gabe Schirm)

Gabe Schirm with Jon, looking like a mighty LUMBERSEXUAL.

1 where our cat Jax is visible (Ep. 8 – Candace LeClaire)

Candace LeClaire, Jon, and Jax the Cat.

Most popular outfit: Red short sleeve collared shirt – 3 appearances (Ep. 2 – Cindy Miller, Ep. 23 – Kristin Nolan, Ep. 28 – Dan Knudson & Mike Anderson)

Jon with Mike Anderson and Dan Knudson, wearing that red shirt. (Jon also thinks he looks fat in this photo)

Content

Anyone who knows me well knows how generally profane my language is, so it should come as no surprise that many of these episodes feature some colorful language. (And that’s before even considering my old signoff line – “And in the words of my wife, ‘Peace the fuck out.’”) With that in mind, I present to you the following list:

Episodes with the most profanity:

1. Ep. 13 – Gabe Schirm – World Traveler and Founder of Global Gabe Travel
2. Ep. 37 – Kersti Bryan – New York Based Actress
3. Ep. 28 – Dan Knudson & Mike Anderson – Commercial Photographers and Videographers

Those will light up your friendly, neighborhood Standards & Practices team, and are great fun! Hooray for profanity!

However, I’m also a professional, so I’m fully capable of having a conversation with no expletives whatsoever. This was especially helpful in booking Reed Saunders, who works for the Colorado Rockies. Before doing the interview, they basically told Reed, “Just keep it clean and don’t say anything we’ll have to deal with later.” He assured them we were old friends, which only made them more nervous. Fortunately, we waited until the mics were off to exchange old tales of ribaldry with each other. So, if you’re looking to recommend episodes for your mom, here are some good places to start:

Episodes with basically no profanity:

1. Ep. 12 – David Martin – Aerospace Auditor
2. Ep. 17 – Kate Schulz – Registered Dietitian
3. Ep. 24 – Liz Wolfson – Founder of Girls Athletic Leadership School
4. Ep. 26 – Reed Saunders – Voice of Coors Field
5. Ep. 30 – Jay Titterington – Auto Broker at HM Brown
6. Ep. 35 – Dr. Debra Minjarez – Infertility Expert and Reproductive Endocrinologist
7. Ep. 39 – Shari Shink – Child Advocate and Founder of RMCLC
8. Ep. 40 – Jarrod Perrott – Owner of FastFrame of LoDo

Episode I was most personally excited for: Ep. 16 – Jason Heller – Professional Freelance Journalist

Almost everyone I’ve interviewed I’ve known from some other part of my life. I didn’t know Jason at all, but I’d read him for a long time, and was a huge fan of his. I basically sent him a cold call email, and he responded quickly. I didn’t think it would be that easy, but it was. He came over to my house on a Sunday morning, and we had a really nice chat. He’s an awesome dude, which is such a cool thing to learn about someone of whom you’re a big fan.

Episode that took me the longest to book (tie): Ep. 29 – Noah Miller – Owner of Ark Tactical; Ep. 31 – Sean DeHerrera – Owner of Theoretical Ink

Noah Miller, also noticeably taller than Jon, featuring them both in sunglasses outside his shop, Ark Tactical.

I wanted these guys – the gun store owner and the tattoo shop owner – to be part of my launch. I thought those two jobs would showcase nicely what I wanted the podcast to be right from the get-go. They’re both insanely busy running their businesses and growing them, so I ended up talking to them 6 months later. The amount of behind-the-scenes work this podcast takes is ridiculous.

Drinkingest Episode: Ep. 15 – Brett Zahrte – Co-Head Brewer at Renegade Brewing

Brett and Jon showing off Renegade’s tasty brew

This one shouldn’t be a surprise, but naturally the conversation with Renegade Brewing’s (at the time) Assistant Brewer (he’s now Co-Head Brewer) had the most beer consumed. He gave me a tour of the facility beforehand. Then we had beers during the interview. Then had dinner and drank a bit more. And my voice paid for it. You can hear it during the episode. I sound awful.

A close second is the episode with Alex Tooke and Derek Weber. That was the first interview I conducted after my daughter was born, and it was preceded by my wife and me trying a new brewery. Then the three of us chatted over beers, and towards the end of the conversation, the lights went out. Surreal time.

Episode I was most nervous for…

How long does it take me to edit?

Who’s rejected my pitch to be interviewed?

Who is my dream interview?

All of these questions and more can be answered…

You just have to ask them, and I’ll answer them on air. Send me an email at eksaxis@yahoo.com, tweet them at me @JoATPod, write them on Facebook, or ask in the comments under this article.

Next week is a special Mailbag edition of the Jon of All Trades Podcast before I kick off 2015 with brand new guests. So get those questions in, and find out everything you want to know!

And I’ll see you next week.