The What's Your Excuse? Show

By: The Blind Blogger Maxwell Ivey
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  • Summary

  • On What's Your Excuse I interview people who have overcome adversity or thrived in spite of difficult life circumstances, people who have struck out on their own to build a successful business, experts who share actionable tips and suggestions that have been used by real people in the real world, and people who I like, admire, and am inspired by. By the end of the show I want you asking yourself if they can do it then what is my excuse. Please subscribe to my email list at http://www.theblindblogger.net Also please follow me on Face Book at https://www.facebook.com/maxwellivey or on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/maxwellivey You can also invite me to connect on Linked In at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellivey and please join the What's Your Excuse? Face Book group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBlindBlogger If you have any questions, then write to justask@theblindblogger.net Thanks, Max
    Copyright 2024 The What's Your Excuse? Show
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Episodes
  • Don’t Wait On Someday

    Don’t Wait On Someday
    Nov 13 2024
    Hello again friends. I'm sorry to have been scarce over the last little while. So far this year I lost a laptop and had to have a Go Fund Me campaign to replace it. Then we had the Deraycho wind storms followed by hurricane Beryl. But during all that time I continued to sing and play around with writing songs. And I think I have come up with a really powerful song this time. In my first book I wrote about not waiting until tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or that mythical time known as someday. So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a song about not waiting on someday came into my mind and heart. It started with just the chorus which came to me one night when I was having trouble sleeping. I had to play around with it a little bit, but it just seemed to leap into my brain. It goes like this: Cause you'll never have enough courage, you'll never have enough time. Cause you'll never have enough money, you'll never have enough spine. Just do it as good as you can, and do it better the next time. Cause if you're waiting on that someday, you'll be waiting the rest of your life. I shared this with several friends including my amazing editor and long-time friend Lorraine Reguly. I recorded the chorus and sent her the audio. It turned out she was having trouble sleeping. So, she wrote back right away. This is what she had to say. I hope she doesn't get upset with me sharing this. Holy s--t, Max, I f---ing love it! Excuse the cussing! It just means I'm excited! I'd love to hear the rest of the song! Definitely put energy into this one. It's bloody brilliant! I feel her response is important to the story behind the song and will become more important by the end of this post. You see, she wasn't the only one who told me how special this song could be. And that is why it has taken me over a year to get to this point. First, the verses didn't come as easily as the chorus did. Mainly because the words in the chorus pretty much forced me into phrases that end with a strong a sound. And once I wrote the first verse, I found that that too put me in a writing corner. Thankfully, I have a great friend who is a writer and a poet. Lorraine had some great ideas. I was able to give her two full verses and half of the third verse about taking small steps each day. She finished the third verse for me, and made a great suggestion about the last line of the second verse. She advised me that "when we are in the wrong place" was much more positive than the original "when trying to save face". But her most important contribution came to how I was singing the song. I was singing it in a higher pitch with my voice going up at the end of each line. She pointed out that my voice is more suited for singing songs in a lower pitch. Something I knew, but that doesn't maen I don't aspire to sing up higher. She was on facebook messenger with me and sang it over and over showing me how it would sound its best. It took me a long time to re-learn the song from the way I heard it in my mind to the way she encouraged me to sing this song. Even with her help, I was still having trouble finishing the song and sending it out into the world. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to do the song justice. I hated the idea of not living up to the potential of the song. I recorded and re-recorded. I tried verses and the chorus different ways. I did multiple test recordings to check my equipment. I just kept putting it off. So, I thought why not use those feelings. I mean it is important for you to know that I too sometimes struggle with putting things off until someday. So, I wrote a fourth verse. I wrote about how I thought this song could be special and let it put more pressure on me. And how I finally took great advice and sang it anyway. I remembered those times when I stood in front of audiences and told the...
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    4 mins
  • What’s Your Excuse? EP 077 Anthony Saldana & Jason FIgueira Promoting Hopscotch With My Brain

    What’s Your Excuse? EP 077 Anthony Saldana & Jason FIgueira Promoting Hopscotch With My Brain
    Feb 23 2023
    Hello again, I hope you and your family are all doing well. Personally, I have been struggling with some chronic pain in my right knee. Things are improving thanks to some physical therapy, but I'm still a work in progress. Today, I'm bringing you another great interview on What's Your Excuse. This time a return visit with my friends Anthony Saldana and Jason Figueira. And they will be talking more about Jason's experience with obsessive compulsive disorder and their work to raise money for a film about the disease as seen through Jason's eyes and the eyes of his friends. You will see a great trailer that they created for the film and for their Indie Logo campaign. You Can find out more about them by visiting their Facebook Page. Sadly, I let them down in their efforts to raise funds for their next film through crowd funding. However, you can still help them make this socially important movie by mental illness by contributing funds, donating equipment, or offering your services. Just Send Anthony an email. Notes About The Show First, I don't edit my podcast. I prefer to share a real unscripted unedited conversation. Just think of the recorded live television of the 50s and 60s. Two, I sing on the intro to my podcast. I did it in the beginning because I didn't have a way to create an intro. People liked it, so I continue to sing. I will complete the post about this episode shortly, but I wanted to get it out there where y'all could hear it and be inspired by my friends Anthony and Jason. Thanks for listening. If you received value from our conversation, then please share this with your friends, family, and social media communities. Thanks and take care out there, Max
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    1 hr and 39 mins
  • What’s Your Excuse? EP 076 Award-winning Vision Loss Coach, Crime Fiction Author, Disability Advocate, Law School Graduate, and Podcast Host

    What’s Your Excuse? EP 076 Award-winning Vision Loss Coach, Crime Fiction Author, Disability Advocate, Law School Graduate, and Podcast Host
    Nov 3 2022
    Hello again, I hope you and your family enjoyed the weekend together. And I hope that my latest What’s Your Excuse? with my new friend Donna Jodhan will educate, entertain, and motivate you to overcome your own excuses. Donna is an award-winning vision loss coach, crime fiction author, disability advocate, and host of two podcasts. In Ask Donna she uses her lived experience to answer people’s questions about life in general and about living with vision loss in particular. You can even send her your questions for future episodes. She also hosts dining With Donna a cooking show. She started cooking during the pandemic with virtual help from her mother, and loved it so much that she just had to share what she has learned with the world. Be sure to listen all the way to the end of her podcasts for the mental stretch during Ask Donna or the cooking problem solving hacks at on Dining with Donna. She is the only person I have ever talked with who has experienced living as a blind person, then living with sight, only to return back to life without sight. I am also fascinated by anyone who writes fiction, and I am especially amazed by those who can create whole worlds full of brand new people without the aid of vision. I love the part about how she can do things like write fiction because she focuses on the joy rather than on any potential financial success. Finally, a couple of subjects that came up often are learning to accept things as they are, stretching all five senses, and finding work arounds to deal with the world. I just know you are going to find something to love in our conversation. Disclaimers There are a couple things you need to know about the show. One, I don’t edit the recording unless a technical issue results in dead air. I think of my show as recorded live in the same style used by television in the early days. Two, I sing on the intro. I started doing it out of necessity many years ago, and people loved it. So, I keep doing it. The music I’m singing is my own original song titled what else What’s Your Excuse? Now On To The Show Support Our Sponsors Blubrry has been providing both financial and technical support for my show, for Shredding For Gold, and for the WYE Podcast Network. I couldn’t keep doing what I’m doing without them. And it would be impossible to help other disable people with their podcast without their support. Show Notes A few friends have told me that it might be helpful to you to share a run down of the topics covered and their approximate time on the recording. This is the first time I have ever done this, and I could really appreciate your feedback. She explained about having seen vision loss from both sides having lived with no vision, then having her sight restored, and finally losing her vision again. 04:40 She talks about the emotional readjustment to losing that regained sight as an adult 08:13 She shares about how her family reacted to her changing vision. Including their patience when she wanted to see everyone and everything. 09:49 We discuss whether or not Canadian parents of visually impaired or of disabled children are more accepting and trusting than those from other countries. 11:41 I asked her about her about the various states of her vision effected her education. 13:18 She talked about pursuing her degree in Law and how the lack of accessibility in online learning was a problem that continues to persist. 14:20 We discussed how the features in overly robust software applications get in the way of people using screen readers ability to use the critical part of software. 16:35 We explained some of the challenges that screen reader users face such as needing keyboard command options because we don’t have access to the mouse. We also talked about how often software & website updates break accessibility. And we talked about how much we love Zoom 17:53
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    1 hr and 8 mins

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