Engage! Social Media Paying it Forward
 
To build a community or following, you need to engage. By engaging with influencers in your industry, top fan contributors, suppliers, and cities where you do business, you can support their growth while getting your name out there as well. Follow and subscribe, watch their videos (time spent watching matters), like their posts, share them on stories or your own feed, and save them as well.
 
If you want to support your favorite author, musician, podcaster (*cough*), or artist, make sure to watch their videos/reels all the way through, like/love their posts, comment, share, and don’t forget to subscribe. Especially to podcasts  The more you do these things, the more likely it is for someone else to see your favorite’s post because you have helped support their organic growth. It also means YOU are more likely to see your favorite’s posts organically because you have engaged with their content.

Mike of all Trades – Finding the Silver Lining
 
What hasn’t Mike Faber done? Journey with me as we trip through time learning about his life. From Woodstock at 2 years old to finding the silver lining with his wife, Judy, Mike’s love of life and history shines through.
 
Mike started podcasting in 2007 and is the creator of The ESO Network. He is the host of Earth Station One, Earth Station Who, the producer of Tales from Hollywoodland Podcast and creator of The Dragon Con Report Podcast. His love of podcasting and paying it forwarded is why he does podcasting seminars and mentors new podcasters on how to get started in the field.
 
His long running Earth Station One Podcast started in 2010 and ran to January 2024, releasing an episode every week. A variety show with discussions on pop culture, science fiction, fantasy, comics, movies, TV, and much more. One of my regrets is I never got to be in the “Geek Seat” on the show.
 
Mike is still podcast hosting on Earth Station Who, but is starting to move into the producer roll with the Tales from Hollywoodland Podcast. He also has a YouTube channel with his wife, Wandering with Mike & Judy, where they share videos of their trips, concerts, and having a fun life together.  ​

I met Anthony on the Earth Station One Podcast –The Best Summer &#@% We Ever Ate episode. Later, he would meet my husband in a completely different setting – Freemasonry. Anthony joined my husband’s lodge, Atlanta-Peachtree Lodge #59, and they are now the best of brothers. Outside of being one of the most active Freemasons I know, Anthony is one of the hosts of the Watchers in the Fourth Dimension Podcast and a guest on the Modern Musicology Podcast. He has an MBA from Emory with a concentration in operations and strategy. Professionally, he is a Procurement Governance Risk Manager at a global professional services firm and has a banking background. And did we mention Anthony has a couple of degrees in history as well? 

Anthony and I meandered around geeky topics, from the British University System to his almost life-long obsession with Doctor Who to Dragon Con. And for those of you wondering about the popcorn container for the upcoming Deadpool movie, here is a link to the Variety article about it. I warned you—it is Deadpool, after all. 

I’ll leave you with Anthony’s words of advice for Dragon Con first-timers: “Dragon Con is a marathon, not a sprint.” I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Social Episode Tip:
In episode 13 we start out talking about the importance of reading and reviewing the terms of service for applications that you use to create and design. There’s been considerable discussion about the Adobe TOS lately, including whether they can use your created work to feed into developing Generative AI. Adobe maintains that you retain ownership of your work, but additional clarification on how they can use it to ‘improve services’ is still needed. An updated TOS for Adobe is slated for release by Tuesday, Jun 18th – so stay on the lookout. You can find out more in this Tech Report article.  
 
I’ve included a graphic developed by @XdanielArt that highlights potential replacements for Adobe products.

Gaming has been a part of my life since I was a wee lass. My parents taught me to play cards - Oklahoma Rummy - on vacation. As they grew older, we played knock-rummy in many Starbucks. My conversation with Andrew Greenberg made me nostalgic to play even more games. 

Andrew and I have been friends for a long time (let’s just be honest - I can’t remember when I met him). He’s the executive director of the Georgia Game Developers Association and has made his living as a game developer since 1990. He is the producer of the “Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced” strategy game that will be released on Steam, so make sure to put it on your wish list! Holistic Design Inc. is the multimedia company he helped form in the 1990s that created the Fading Suns property. 

Andrew is also the organizer of the Southern Interactive Entertainment and Games Expo (SIEGE) held at the Georgia World Congress Center this October. He started his gaming career at White Wolf and was the original developer of “Vampire: The Masquerade,” which I played in my 20s with an Atlanta-based LARP group. Andrew chairs the DeKalb Entertainment Commission and serves on the Georgia Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment Office board. Both organizations help bring entertainment industries to Georgia. 

This episode was a long time in the making for good and sad reasons. Before Dragon Con on Labor Day weekend, I pushed to get out four new episodes of the relaunched The Geeky Side. The Geeky Side is now a talk show where I interview a guest or two on what they geek out about. I've included links below to the episodes - so you can get your geek on too. 

Dragon Con was amazing as always, and I learned new things about myself and what I am capable of doing. My last con for the year will be Multiverse in Atlanta GA, October 14-16. Check them out - and make sure to drop by a panel if you are at the con. 

On September 12th as we were almost recovered from Dragon, our sweet Shadow was suddenly ill. I looked into his eyes, and I saw how afraid and confused he was and I knew something was wrong. Our vet broke the news to us later that our poor boy, just like our Clover girl in 2020, was riddled with cancer. With multiple tumors and internal bleeding, we sadly helped him to gain his wings and cross the rainbow bridge. He would've been 11 in October. 

I didn't realize how much of a presence he was, until his barking at the leaf three doors down wasn't present in my life. I miss him more than words can say. Our sweet 16.5 year-old Bandit is adjusting to being an only puppy again. He keeps looking for his bigger little brother, but thankfully his tail is a wagging and he is still enjoying life. Our two sweet kitties help bring smiles to our faces with their antics. Gidget and Leia are true blessings. 

I had a logo designed right before Dragon Con, and it included my sweet fur babies. The artist, Emily Swan, was sweet to add a little halo around my Shadow's ear. He's always with me. 

This time on Geek Meets Social I didn't include a tip and tool for you. I hope the conversation about Shadow will warm your heart. It warmed mine. Thanks for listening.