The words in the above headline create some great advice for people of all ages but especially for those of a younger generation. 

Des Moines entrepreneur John Ruan, Sr., who died in 2010 at age 96, said his business success wasn’t because he was so much smarter than other people, but rather that he simply got out of bed earlier and, as a result, accomplished more each day. Great point. 

Cyd Koehn, owner of Cyd’s Catering, told me that some of the most important decisions are hammered out over early breakfasts that she caters while the majority of people are sleeping. She’s correct. 

Michael Gartner once suggested that I sleep in as much as I could while I was young because the older I would get, the more I would be staring at the ceiling at 5 a.m. Bingo. 

Getting out of bed earlier does seem to get easier the older I get, and it was certainly a challenge when I was younger. Regardless, it is a good habit that we can all form if we put our minds to it. 

In a 2014 article in the Huffington Post, Mike Fishbein wrote 11 ways to get out of bed faster and have more energy in the morning. Some are wonderful ideas, like opening your blinds before going to sleep so you wake up with the sun, placing your alarm clock away from your bed so you can’t hit the snooze button, exercising when you wake up, and simply being accountable to others. Others are just awful ideas, like drinking water before going to sleep, eating before bedtime, and setting the alarm clock to play your favorite music. 

Some people claim to be the most productive at night. It’s possible, but research says that less than 1% of the population are actually genetically programmed to work best later in the day. The rest of us need to simply get out of bed. 

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305

Not your goals or visions or plans. I mean, what do you literally dream about while sleeping? Well, if you are in the 95% of us who forget our dreams, you simply don’t recall. Seeing how most of us have four to six dreams that last up to 20 minutes each, that’s a lot of dreaming to forget. 

Do you sleepwalk? My brother Steve did when we were kids. I thought it was funny. He didn’t laugh. About 15% of people do sleepwalk, and it can be a dangerous habit, especially when it involves grooming oneself, cooking food or driving a car.

Do you dream about falling? More than half of Americans do, making this the most common recurring dream. It is followed by being chased, being back in school,or being naked in public — or in my case, all three at once. These kinds of dreams are likely brought on by stress.

Does everyone dream? The vast majority of us do, and even blind people can have visual dreams. If you are a pet owner, you likely know that animals dream, too. 

Do we dream in color? Most people do (in pastel colors, to be specific), but about 12% dream in black and white. Either way, the visual aspect is the primary sense. People rarely use their smell or taste senses in dreams.

Did you know that we can only dream about people we’ve seen before? Whether we know them well or just met them briefly, the people in our dreams are all people we have seen prior.

Do you have nightmares? Up to 85% of adults do, at least occasionally. Nightmares are common for children ages 3-6, but the serious ones usually diminish with age. As a child, I would dream that Santa Claus was chasing me down to kill me. I hid under my lower bunk bed in each dream and would wake up in a sweat when he would reach for me. Merry Christmas.

And finally, how about recurring dreams like being late, failing an exam, being attacked or losing control of a car? I often dream that I am driving a car too fast with hopes I can ramp over open water and land on ground. When it becomes apparent that I can’t, I wake up. Recurring dreams occur when people have to deal with unresolved conflicts in their lives. Hmmm.

Want to learn more about dreams? Check out the research behind the statistics I shared and much more at disturbmenot.co/dreams-facts.

Have a thoughtful Tuesday, and, as always, thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

I am often asked how we are able to grow the readership of our publications while paid subscription newspapers continue to suffer from declines. The answer is two-fold.

First, it starts with our business model, which is based on providing our publications for free to our readers. Unfortunately, many paid subscription newspaper publishers became greedy over the years, increasing the costs for consumers to subscribe while providing less content (more on this in point No. 2). Charging more and giving less is not a good recipe for any business. This became more complicated when paid subscription newspapers decided to give away content on their websites and social media for free. I challenge you to name any other industry that had two-thirds of households buying their product and then acted dumbfounded when fewer people continued to purchase it because they could get it for free from the same company elsewhere. That decision by newspaper execs continues to be mind-boggling.

For us, the digital option was simple. We give our publications away for free in print… and online. Our digital efforts do not exist to replace our print publications (and alienate our most loyal readers) but rather to enhance our print publications. That may change over time, but, for now, our print readership far exceeds our digital readership. Meanwhile, we are focused on providing as much news and information as we can through every available medium — for free.

Second, content truly is king. Michael Gartner shared a story with me a few years ago from Abe Rosenfeld, who was the executive editor of The New York Times. Rosenfeld’s father ran a lunch counter in Manhattan. He said there were lunch counters everywhere at the time, and business was awful for all of them. To help their bottom line, some of them started adding water to the soup. Their customers soon realized this and went elsewhere. Slowly, those lunch counters went out of business. Rosenfeld said his father took a different approach and added more tomatoes to his soup, and his customer base grew. That was Rosenfeld’s — and is Gartner’s — advice to improve newspapers. Newspapers and magazines today need more tomatoes — more content.

At Big Green Umbrella Media, we spend substantial time and money on producing local content for our publications. Although we certainly don’t have it all figured out, we are convinced that a focus on local content is crucial to any success we may have.

So despite the fact that most paid subscription newspapers are dying, all print is clearly not dead. We are proving it. Others are, too. There is also no doubt that in the media world — both in print and online — content is king. We are determined to prove that as well — one tomato at a time. 

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305

If you had to name a device that defined how people of a specific era listened to music, what would you offer? Today, the options seem endless. Seems like just yesterday when the iPod was invented. Then streaming music. And now smart home devices. But, how about past decades?

The jukebox for the 1950s? Albums on console stereos for the 1960s? How about 8-track players for the 1970s? And, then there were the 1980s, the era when I attended high school and college.  What would you suggest represents music listening habits for that timeframe? Cassette recorders? CD players? 

For people of all ages in the 1980s, it was all about the Sony Walkman. That single device changed how we listened to music, and it added an element of “cool” to cassettes. Sony truly was “the one and only.”

I vividly remember my first Walkman. Silver metallic. Cassette only. (Who needed radio?) Lightweight headphones. Telescopic case. I listened to my cassettes in that player for countless hours. And when it finally wore out, I bought the yellow Walkman Sports version.

The original Walkman launched in Tokyo in 1979. Ultimately, total production of Walkman units surpassed 200 million globally with more than 300 different Walkman models. But as cassettes became less popular, so did the Walkman, and this seemingly must-have gadget came to an end in 2010. 

Will the iPhone meet the same demise? Seems unlikely today, but many of us Walkman users thought the same in the 1980s.

How about you? Did you own a Walkman? Which model? Do you still have it? Shoot me a note and let me know.

Have a terrific Tuesday, and, as always, thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

As Americans returned to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic, many adopted a style that became known as “workleisure,” as CNBC reported at the time. “Ties are out, and stretchy pants are in,” they claimed. Well, Iowa is not New York, and if you are a guy like me, you haven’t worn neck ties in quite a while. Having said that, I am also not wearing stretchy pants to work, or anywhere for that matter. And, thank goodness.

Dress attire has changed a great deal in my lifetime. When I graduated from college in 1990 and started working at The Des Moines Register, I needed to purchase some business attire. On my first day, I called on Joe Tumea at the Foreman and Sons clothing store in Southridge Mall, and he not-so-subtly pointed out that I was dressing “like a college punk” and that if I wanted to be respected in the business world, I needed to dress professionally. Within seconds, he had his measuring tape out and was fitting me for suits. Later in life, Joe and his family opened one of my favorite restaurants, Tumea & Sons. I reminded him of this incident one evening over an incredible lasagna. He reminded me that he was right. 

My father had a slightly different outlook on what to wear. He owned a gravel and excavation company and was covered in dirt and grease most days. His daily dress code consisted of blue jeans and work boots. But. when it came time for church on Sunday, he almost always wore a suit and tie. His belief was that we should all wear our best clothes in a place of worship. If our best clothes were T-shirts and blue jeans, then so be it. But, whatever our best clothes were, those should be the ones worn in God’s house. It’s difficult to argue with that. 

Check out old photos of attendees at baseball games, and you will see crowds of men wearing suits, ties and hats and women in dresses and heels. Try finding that today. 

There are still a few hold-outs. My friend Joe Mathes wears a suit every time he flies. He says he feels like he is treated with more respect when he does. I think he is right. 

Admittedly, our dress code at Big Green Umbrella Media is the most relaxed of any place I have worked at. I expect our staff members who work with readers or advertisers in person to be dressed in business casual (no jeans), but those who work in the office can be on the relaxed side (but no shorts).

Meanwhile, don’t expect to see Joe Tumea — or me — in stretchy pants. 

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305

Do you remember pulling up to the gas pump and carefully filling your tank by rounding to the nearest dollar? Some of you may recall the days before auto-shut-offs when you would overfill your tank and have gas spill all over the side of your car and the pavement. And a select few of you may unfortunately recollect driving off from the station with the nozzle still in your tank and the hose dragging down the road. 

Some of the more age-experienced readers of this column may even reminisce about the days of the full-service station when a friendly attendant would not only fill your tank but check your oil and wash your windshield. “Fill ’er up!”

Believe it or not, there was a time when buying gasoline was straightforward. Then, along came a gazillion choices. It started in the 1970s with unleaded, and that was simple enough. Now, we have a variety of octane choices along with three different ethanol blends. I didn’t know I needed a master’s degree in petroleum engineering to fill my car with gas. 

Unfortunately, choosing your gas is just part of the process. Although I appreciate the whole pay-at-the-pump idea — as it prevents me from indulging in a Coke Zero fountain drink and a Snickers bar — I cringe at all the information I am often asked to submit at the pump and the seemingly endless questions I have to answer. Debit? Credit? Zip code? Fuel saver card? Car wash? And then, at some stations, I can’t concentrate because of the blaring music and the barrage of ads popping up on the display screen. I just want some gas, for Pete’s sake!

But, alas, I eventually surrender my name, rank and serial number and begin fueling. And, as I put the nozzle back in the pump and submit to accepting the entire pay-at-the-pump process, a message comes across the screen that I need to go inside the store to collect my receipt. Ugh. So I do — and I buy a Coke Zero fountain drink and a Snickers. 

Have a terrific Tuesday, and, as always, thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707