I am starting something new called, “Learning to Lead”. It will consist only monthly video interviews with leaders and monthly podcasts, although I am not sure when the podcasts will begin. I hope that they will add value to your life!

Here is my interview with Tom, I hope it adds value to your life. After you watch it, I encourage you to connect with Tom and what he’s doing. Buy his book! You won’t regret it!

Interview with Tom Baker from Bubba Smith on Vimeo.

My first video interview is with my friend, Tom Baker. I met Tom earlier this year at an event Light of Life put on in which Tom was a nominee for a service award we were giving away. Tom is the VP of Programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh. He is also the founder of Baker Leadership, which he talks about in our interview.

From the moment I met Tom, I realized he is a natural leader and is someone that I need to get around and learn from. I took him to lunch and hammered him with questions. I learned a lot. He gave me a copy of his book: “Get Involved“, which I read and highly recommend in my review of the book here. The book’s tagline is “Making the most of your 20′s and 30′s.” It’s excellent.

I interviewed Tom and asked him the following questions:

• Tell us about yourself, your background, and what you have coming up.
• Tell us about your book “Get Involved”. What are one or two nuggets from the book that you could share with us?
• What advice would you give to first time authors?
• For someone who feels the urge to get involved with something, but doesn’t know where to start, what would you tell them?
• For young leaders already involved in something, but looking to go to the next level, what advice would you give them?
• How can people connect with you and what you’re doing in the City of Pittbsurgh through Baker Leadership and Big Brothers Big Sisters?
• Any other piece of advice?

Who inspires you? Who influences you? Someone does. So many things we do in life are the result of the inspiration & influence of someone else. It could be something they said, something they did, something they wrote, or somewhere they went.

Because of the inspiration of others, I’ve set goals, traveled to certain places, ran a marathon, do P90X, eat a certain way, listen to certain artists, blog, have a bucket list, have certain items on my bucket list, manage my time, use my social media strategy, dream, & live my life.

I can also say that because of the inspiration and influence of others I’ve: done drugs, got drunk, made horrible decisions, etc.

However, that won’t be the focus of this post, this post will be focused on inspiring and influencing for good.

When I think of who inspires me and influences me for good on a daily basis I think of:

Financially – Dave Ramsey, John Walczak, Mike Steidel,

Leadership - John Maxwell, John Nuzzo, Larry Bettencourt, Zack Blair, Jessi Marsh, John Walczak

Lifestyle: Ben Rath, The Steidel Family, David and Natalie Rice

Blogging: Michael Hyatt, John Saddington, Jeff Goins

Ministry: John Nuzzo, Larry Bettencourt, Zack Blair, Keith Moore, Kenneth Hagin, Craig DeBower

Networking: Larry Bettencourt, Cindy Shafer

Relationships: Zack and Lauren Blair, Larry and Kim Bettencourt

Family Life: The Steidel Family, The Bettencourt Family, The Moore Family

Fitness: Carl Deikler, Tony Horton, Michelle Myers, David Faulk, Matt Crummy

Travel: Mike Steidel

If you notice, the people who inspire us and influence are the ones we allow to shape our lives and experiences.If you show me who inspires you, I’ll show you what your life is going to turn out like. Where I am today is a result of the inspiration & influence I’ve received from the people above.

Inspiration and influence can come through many channels: one one one, a book, a cd, social media, a blog, a sermon, someone’s example, etc.

My question to you is, #1.) Who is inspiring and influencing who you are becoming and what you do with your life?

And the better question . . . 2.) Who are you inspiring and influencing, for good? Who’s life is better because YOUR in it? Who are you inspiring to dream? To go for it? To live their best life? To get drug free? To live for God?

Use every means you can to inspire & influence others! Meet with people one one one, live an interesting life, live for God, use social media, mentor others, write book or a blog, preach a sermon, create audio lessons!

It’s been 3 years since I started this blog. I started in July 2008. It’s been an incredible journey! I’ve learned a lot about myself, about writing, about connecting, about inspiring, about creativity, about web design . . . the list could go on and on. It’s been a great experience.

If my blog has helped you, encouraged you, or inspired you, I would love to hear that! Leave me a comment in this post or send me a message on FB or Twitter!

As for 3 years of blogging:

I’ve Loved:

• Being able to Publish Daily – I love that you can get your “work” out on a consistent basis and have it open for the whole world to see. 

• Helping People – I love when people tell me that my writing helped them in life! 

• The Challenge/Stretching Myself – It’s hard to come up with material day in and day out! Blogging has caused me to grow and stretch so much personally.

• Building a Platform – Writing has definitely helped develop a platform for me, while I still have a long way to go, my blog is vital to some of my long-term goals!

• The People I’ve Met Through Blogging - It’s opened up the world to me! I’ve met some great bloggers and connected with them all over the world! It’s been awesome!

I’ve been surprised by:

• The People I can Reach Through Blogging – I can’t tell you how many messages I’ve received saying that through my blog, I’ve helped people through problems, inspired them to dream, and encouraged them to keep going. My favorite story is: I was at a conference in Southern California, and a guy came up to me and said, “Are you Bubba Smith?” “Yes…” “I read your blog everyday man! Thanks for everything you do! I’m from West Virginia!”. It was crazy!

I’ve Been Frustrated By:

• The “Pressure” to Blog Everyday – I feel guilty if I don’t publish at least 4 days a week! It’s something I need to work on and be ok with.

• Writer’s “Block” – Sometimes I sit at my keyboard and have absolutely nothing to type! I can’t tell you how frustrating that is! I’m learning that when I don’t have it . . . I don’t have it and I just need to go do something else for a while, then come back to my screen and go at it!

• Being Able to Publish Immediately – While I’ve loved this, I’ve also hated it. Because I can publish immediately, I often put off long-term projects like writing a book, for publishing a blog post. It’s easy because I can publish immediately and get instant feedback, a book takes a lot longer. However, I know long-term a book is something I need to get done, in order to complete it, I’ll probably have to put blogging on a shelf for a while!

 Do you blog? If not, why? If so, what have you learned through blogging?