This episode of the Robert Hester Entertainment Podcast centers around Private Things I Thought I’d Never Say In Public that serves as… Self-Empowering Motivation! And for good reason because the day I recorded this episode was April 2nd, 2025, better known as Autism Awareness Day!

In spite of the episode being recorded on the second day of April of 2025, it comes on the heels of a very brutal month of March of 2025. But in this episode, aside from discussing a few things that happened in March, I’ll bring positive light to myself and—more importantly—all of you listening to this episode with some positive words/feedback that came my way over the years from private messages I’ve received over the years at times I wanted to quit photography, my passion.

But it’s because of the positive, motivationally-empowering feedback over the years that I’m determined to continue on with my passion while learning some valuable lessons that are part of the keys to success and greatness that lie ahead throughout the next 15 years for this photographer on the Autism Spectrum!

I also share the news that I'm taking some of April off from photography in terms of events as a result of all that happened to me in March, and the exciting news that I'm returning to the Monroeville Farmer’s Market in May to help sell that Coffee That Helps (https://coffeethathelps.org/), on behalf of Uniquely The Same (https://www.uniquelythesame.org/).

This is an episode of the Robert Hester Entertainment Podcast HAD to be made after hearing about the potential closure of the Monroeville Convention Center in June of 2024 after its ownership, Oxford Development, agreed to a multiyear lease/deal with Hobby Lobby to redevelop the property of the convention center. I explain from a human, spiritual, and heartfelt standpoint on the reason(s) that an opportunity like this from a big name like Hobby Lobby is so wrong and devastating to a community like Monroeville, a community that needs a place like its convention center to maintain its status as the East Hills' Mecca of shopping, dining, entertainment, lodging, and living! I also read excerpts from an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which I verbally celebrate and give kudos to the mayor of Monroeville, Nick Gresock, on his and others' efforts to do whatever it takes to come with a plan, any plan, to fight against this lease that will eliminate one of Monroeville's top destinations, the Monroeville Convention Center. #SaveTheMonroevilleConventionCenter

This Summer was, utterly, the best one I ever had! And in this episode, in which the audio was recorded off of Robert Hester Entertainment's Facebook page due to issues with my regular recording software on my laptop, I explain what I learned through the many moments that happened during the Summer of 2023!

From my photos being displayed at a show at a coffee/arts and crafts shop in Murrysville, PA to finding a new–and familiar–home at Monroeville Mall! Speaking of which... I talk about finding a new calling as a motivational speaker during Progress City's Summer Camp at their new space inside Monroeville Mall. And, being a part of the 2023 Monroeville 4th of July Parade to help celebrate the reboot of the SpectroDolce experience in Monroeville Mall after Labor Day!

Also, I verbally celebrate a few personalities from WTAE-TV who graced Robert Hester Photography's lenses this Summer. Kasey Reigner for Pittverse Magazine; Kelly Sasso, along with her husband Nic, and their son Ayven for one of their first "Family Portraits"; and Emily Giangreco, who I finally met and photographed at Pittsburgh's Little Italy Days. Plus... I play a few of Emily's TikTok's that are as comical and inspirational because that's who Emily is on her TikTok!

And I verbally celebrate a lot more people and events that occurred this Summer that made it such a very special one!

I've been so busy with a lot of things over the last couple of months, that I haven't made an RHE Podcast... UNTIL NOW! In this episode, I'll let you in on the top five things that have happened to Yours Truly since Yours Truly made its last podcast in early April: Throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game at PNC Park; Travel to Atlanta for a wedding, and seeing the fabulous Biltmore Hotel–whose the inspiration behind Biltmore Radio, proudly played at SpectroDolce; Travel back home to Pittsburgh only to be stuck in Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport for 10 hours! Speaking of SpectroDolce, I reveal when the "Full Spectro Experience" will return to Monroeville; my YINZER celeb photo shoot for Pittverse with Kasey Reigner of WTAE-TV; And briefly celebrate the life and career of another YINZER celeb, Stan Savran.

This is a premiere of a new series of episodes on the Robert Hester Entertainment Podcast in which you truly get to know more about the real and personal side of Yours Truly as I acknowledge my long and positive—and a little negative—history in photographing events in the Pittsburgh area, a history that continued at the start of March of 2023 at History Uncorked: A Beautiful Night in the Neighborhood, and will continue the day after this episode premieres at the Pittsburgh/Western PA's chapter of the American Heart Association's Heart Ball! Also, I recall a private conversation/chat on Facebook in which former Pittsburgh TV journalist, KDKA-TV's Pam Surano, prophecied that after a photography failure at a place in Pittsburgh that doesn't exist anymore, I was, "Meant for something more." And, I have another personal recollection of a YouTube video about having "Compassion for the Underdogs". That video and mantra happens to serve as a positive shoutout to a current member of the KDKA-TV News team, meteorologist Falicia Woody, who was left out of a March Madness-style tournament on local social media because of a certain criteria that she didn't meet?!