Podcasts about adobe suite

JOIN THE VALOR COFFEE COMMUNITY – Courses, Exclusive Videos, PDFs, Spreadsheets and more: https://community.valor.coffee/invitation?code=E3A29BThanks for listening, following/subscribing, giving us a good review, and sharing with your friends on social media. It goes a long way!In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty of running a coffee business by breaking down the software and tools we use daily. From managing our books and financials with QuickBooks, automating workflows with Zapier, and scheduling shifts on 7Shifts, to creative tools like Adobe Suite and Figma, we cover it all. We discuss how these tools help us streamline operations, improve efficiency, and save time across our cafe, roastery, and catering arms. Whether you're running a single cafe or scaling multiple locations, this guide will help you choose the right tech stack for your needs.*If you purchase something through one of our links, we may be entitled to a share of the sale*Buy Valor Coffee: https://valor.coffee/shopWatch on Youtube: https://youtube.com/valorcoffee16Want to become a Wholesale Partner? Email us at wholesale@valor.coffee to set up an account!Want to send us coffee? Have a question you want to answer on the show? Send us an email to info@valor.coffeeHuge thanks to our partner Third Wave Water for sponsoring this episode! TWW enhances our brews by getting our water perfect for our coffee. Use code VALOR at checkout for 15% off your purchase! https://thirdwavewater.comWe're partnered with Clive to bring you sweet deal at a discounted rate! Use Discount Code VALOR5 at checkout for 5% off Mahlkonig, Anfim and Eureka products!Shop Clive products here: https://clivecoffee.com?sca_ref=5315485.6axWuRlcErWant to get your business in front of more people? We partnered with Local Eyes Growth to grow our business through SEO and the results have been incredible. Local Eyes is offering a FREE backlink ($300 value) to Valor Coffee Podcast listeners who partner through our exclusive link. Visit https://localeyesgrowth.com/valor to get the ball rolling!Follow the Valor Coffee Podcast on Instagram: http://instagram.com/valorcoffeepodFollow Valor on Instagram: http://instagram.com/valor.coffee____Subscribe to Riley's YouTube Channel:  https://youtube.com/@rileywestbrookFollow Riley:  https://instagram.com/rileywestbrookFollow Ross: https://instagram.com/rosswaltersFollow Ethan's Parody Account:  https://instagram.com/ethanrivers77700:00:00 - Start00:02:13 - The Progrum Returns00:04:06 - We Like These Apps00:05:04 - First Up00:08:56 - Next Up00:10:31 - Onto the next!00:13:54 - Love it #100:17:55 - Ross's baby00:27:12 - Some video editing tools we LOVE00:28:49 - You guys aren't gonna like this one00:30:26 - Love it, but it's kinda obselete now?00:31:43 - Uh Oh!00:36:30 - This one?00:40:26 - A lil splurge00:42:35 - Next One00:43:51 - A little about our sponsor00:46:23 - We don't know if we love it?00:50:25 - Like it? Love It? Gotta Have it?00:55:51 - Two sides to this one00:57:56 - This is a big one01:01:10 - This one is for US01:05:30 - Here we go01:10:11 - Lets talk scheduling01:12:15 - Design tools01:13:03 - The Editor of this podcast disagrees with this one01:14:09 - Team communications stuff01:16:27 - Speed round01:18:21 - Gotta talk dropbox01:19:03 - Lets talk calendar01:20:23 - Video Conferencing01:20:51 - Two More01:21:55 - Last ONE

Barbara Wardell and Ernesto Cullari run an agency that focuses on geofencing. This embraces a growth hacker mindset that strategically focuses on identifying and amplifying their clients' strengths while pinpointing weaknesses in the competition, utilizing GPS location data. This approach results in a significant and measurable impact on foot traffic and online engagement, making their efforts truly game changing and successful.  Questions · Now, we always like to ask our guests in their own words, if you could share a little bit about your journeys, how you got from where you were to where you are today. · Can you share with our listeners in the most simplest layman terms, what exactly is geofencing? · Organizations heavily invest in marketing, but then when the person comes to the organization to do business, case in point, let's say you visited Starbucks, and you had to wait for 20 minutes just to get a cup of coffee. You're extremely frustrated, because it's just a small item, you should be in and out in the shortest possible time. How do you tackle that with your clients? Is that something that you deal with as well? · Do you find that the behavior based on the geographic location or even the culture of the country, impacts how geofencing works? · Now we'd also like to hear from both of you, what's the one online resource, tool, website or application that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? · Can you also share with me maybe one or two books that you've read? It could be a book that you read recently, or even one that you read a very long time ago, but it has had a great impact on you, whether personally or professionally. · Now, can you also share with our listeners, what's the one thing that's going on in your lives right now that you are really excited about, either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. · Where can listeners find you online? · Now, we always like to wrap our episodes up by asking our guests, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get derailed or you get off track, the quote kind of helps to get you back on track. Do you have one of those? Highlights Barbara and Ernesto's Journey Me: Now, we always like to ask our guests in their own words, if you could share a little bit about your journeys, how you got from where you were to where you are today?    Barbara Wardell: Barbara shared that she and Ernesto met during Covid at a Halloween party, believe it or not, before they started their company together, they became friends. And her journey is she's a mom of two, and she was in the medical industry, specialty medicines for a long time, and then Covid hit, and then she and Ernesto met at a Halloween party, became friends, and then they started Cullari & Wardell, a geofencing ad agency, and a little over two years, they've been killing it, so growing small businesses. So, they're really lucky to do that.  Ernesto Cullari: Ernesto stated that as Barbara said, they met during Covid, they both have a medical background. For years, he was a Surgical OR Med Rep, so he would be working in the operating room with physicians utilizing novel technology to do abdominal body wall repair, post breast reconstruction after cancer and things like that. During the day, he moonlit as a professional songwriter, so he had songs on Disney radio, country radio, that he wrote for other artists. And along that journey, he became a songwriter. So, the mystery during his creative time was always wondering how to sort of growth hack, how to break an artist out into the mainstream. And they had a lot of success doing that. Paulie Litt from the show Hope & Faith, ended up having a number one song on Disney radio, which they wrote for him, and then had a top 100 song, and then top 15 country music song that he wrote for an artist named Bailey Grey.  And so, it does lead them up to Covid, because when Covid struck, part of their content, so he got more into advertising and marketing, and a lot of their clients just dropped off. And the problem that needed to be solved was how do you rebuild foot traffic, particularly in a market where the government won't let you open, when they do let you open, people are going to be slow to come back to retail. So, what do we do? So, putting that growth hacker hat back on to when he was a songwriter, he looked into geofencing, and that was about 4 years ago, and then 2 years into his journey of mastering, doing his 10,000 hours of studying geofencing technology, he and Barbara met, and it became a passion of theirs, and throughout their conversation, to help small businesses, to help them bring people back in.  People like the retail experience, people like the in-person experience, and geofencing is a powerful tool that uses satellite technology to draw virtual fences around locations of interest. It could be your competitors, and they use that to capture their devices to send ads to their devices when they come into one of their locations after seeing one of your ads, the satellite pings them and alerts them that a new GPS verified visit has taken place. And he and Barbara do about 5000 satellite verified visits in the US, Canada and Australia every month.    What is Geofencing? Me: Now, for those of our listeners that are tapping into this episode when it's broadcasted and they're getting a chance to listen into this awesome content, can you share with them in the most simplest layman terms, what exactly is geofencing?   Ernesto Cullari: stated that in the simplest terms, it is a form of advertising that uses your phone and when you walk into a location that they've identified with a satellite, he's drinking a cup of coffee at a coffee shop that he bought it at. And then in his surrounding areas, there's about 7 other coffee shops. Well, if he wants to show why he's better, he would use geofencing to draw a virtual fence around his competition. Once someone walks into a competing coffee shop with their mobile device, he can then capture their device and then send ads to their device. And the wonderful part is, is when after seeing his ad, come back to his coffee shop, he could say, “Wow, because of my ads, because I used geofencing to target their devices in my competition stores, I've therefore just measured 50 visits this month.”  So, it's critical because none of us are made of money, and advertising dollars for the small business is scarce, so we want to use our money wisely. And big companies like Chipotle, Chipotle, by the way, the CEO of Chipotle just got hired at Starbucks.   Me: I saw that yesterday.   Chipotle during Covid, utilized, he thinks it was one of their vice presidents came up with this idea, “Hey, let's use geofencing. I heard it works.” Well, during Covid, Chipotle was able to triple their curb side pickup from using geofencing. They saw where other people were picking up food, and then they decided to target those locations and let them know that, “Hey, Chipotle has curb side pickup.” So, Chipotle did so well that Starbucks needs to learn from them. As you know, a lot of Starbucks locations have been closing throughout the country, and they picked off talent from Chipotle, and he has no doubt that that talented team is going to be helping Starbucks turn around, but geofencing is part of that story.   Me: So, now our listeners have a good idea of what geofencing is and also what your organization does.   How Does Using GeoFencing as a Marketing/Advertising Tool Affect CX? Me: Now let's tie all of that back into the customer experience, right? Because we're all about navigating the customer's experience. So, you have marketed and advertised to the organizations to say, hey, you can come to this organization based on the geofencing marketing initiatives that you've put in place. Now, can you share with me how it is that the customer experience is addressed in this for example, like with your clients, because I find, for example, people spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising, not sure what the cost point is for geofencing compared to traditional media like the radio or newspaper, if it's significantly cheaper. But I find that a lot of times, organizations heavily invest in marketing, but then when the person comes to the organization to do business, case in point, let's say you visited Starbucks, and you had to wait for 20 minutes just to get a cup of coffee. You're extremely frustrated, because it's just a small item, you should be in and out in the shortest possible time. How do you tackle that with your clients? Is that something that you deal with as well?  Barbara Wardell: shared that for their end, it's the advertising end, they don't deal with the customers per se. The places that people go with their smartphones is indicative highly of the products that they buy. So, when they go into a geofence, what they see is they're open on an app, because they're on apps or on the wide-open web, they're not on Facebook, Instagram, Google. So, when they actually go into that geofence and they're on an app, they will see an ad for one of their customers, and from that, if they toggle it or click it, they will see a map how to get there. Once they go into that store, whether it's that day or 90 days later, the satellite will ping them. So, that part is their end. What they go into the store is on the customer itself of how they treat their customer. And Ernesto has some insight on that as well.  Ernesto Cullari: shared that when they do a consultation with a client, one of the first things they ask, they're one of the largest advertisers for laundromats in the world, so small business owners have discovered that owning a laundromat is a very good business, you're serving your community, you're providing a great service, but it's very important to set up realistic expectations. So, he and Barbara, when they consult a company, they want to find out even,  “What kind of doors you have?” “Do you have doors that are particularly when moms and dads are coming in with their kids, are the doors automatic? Are they wide doors?” “Are you operating new machines?”  Because they want to set up realistic expectations for the end consumer. So, when they work with one of their clients, they do ask them how their operations run. They've been very fortunate to attract top operators in communities across the US, but when it comes to restaurants and spirits companies and hotels and HVAC and doctors and things like that, service providers, they do want to make sure that the product that they say they're offering is the end user experience that the customer has. But as Barbara said, it's not their responsibility to make sure they do operations well, but they advise them, “Hey, get your operations down, and let's make sure the promise that we give is matched with the in-store experience.” Barbara Wardell: shared that that's something they think that is very important. So, that's why they do a lot of research before they take on a client. They ask them a lot of questions to make sure that they're doing what they're promising in their ads, because you don't want that customer to come in and say, “Okay, this is not what the promise was, right?” Then they won't come back.  Ernesto Cullari: shared that they're concerned about their numbers; in order to do well for you, they need to be telling the truth. There needs to be truth in advertising, and they don't want their numbers as a company to be impacted because they're committed to delivering as much as 5000 visits a month, and if their clients are not on their end, providing the proper customer experience, it does impact him and Barbara. So, they're very competitive, they want to make sure they uphold the things that they say they're going to do, and they tend to advise their clients 100% of the time to do the same to make sure they're matching the experience with their ad promise.   The Impact of Geofencing Me: So, in the feedback that you just provided, it got me thinking to the fact that, do you find geofencing it's most effective or impactful based on your geographical location. So, is it that you primarily operate in the United States, in North America? And do you find that geofencing would be different based on, let's say, a customer who is in Nigeria, in Africa, or a customer who is in Kingston, Jamaica, in the Caribbean? Do you find that the behaviour based on the geographic location or even the culture of the country, impacts how geofencing works? Is that data that you're able to provide as well to the clients?   Barbara Wardell: Yes. So, they're right now in Australia, Canada and the United States, and there is a culture difference when you advertise in a different country, they found that a lot has to do, they do a lot of studies before they break into another country, to make sure that they understand the behaviours and kind of they do a listening device that kind of listens to the area to see, because they track mobile foot traffic, right? So, that's one of the things that they do to work on their geofencing, so they already know when they go into that area, what the culture is like, and also talking to the customer as well to understand the area. And also, they do a listening device or a foot traffic study to understand the area that they're targeting.  Ernesto Cullari: Agreed, Barbara said it perfectly. They do set up listening campaigns, and it's basically a beacon to measure, he'll give you an example, Australia, for listeners that haven't been there, he and Barbara have not been there, but when they look at it via satellite, you have these communities that are densely populated, and then you have hundreds of 1000s of acres of wide open space. So, they really need to do due diligence and measure the amount of devices that are available in an area before they market to them. So now, they haven't tested yet whether this works in Africa or South Africa, but right now, they're for sure it works all throughout Asia and it's a matter of so say, Nigeria, for example, they would have to set up a listening campaign, they would have to measure the amount of devices that are available and then determine what kind of devices are they. Are they iPhones, Samsungs and Androids, or are they flip phones and some other mixture of devices and that will impact what kind of the ads they use.   Me: All right. So, that definitely answers my question, and I think it will help to guide the listeners as well in terms of if they're small business owners, or even working in organizations with small business owners that they can definitely identify if this is something that would benefit them and benefit creating more traffic for their organization, generating more customers and hopefully impacting their customer experience.   App, Website or Tool that Barbara and Ernesto Absolutely Can't Live Without in Their Business Barbara Wardell: When asked about online resource that they cannot live without in their business, Barbara stated that she thinks it's the foot traffic study only because it gives them a lot of information before they even launch a campaign for any one of their customers. It is something that they can see a half hour before and a half hour after the customers, where they go from that that area, or that specific customer, and also for a year, they can go back for a year to look at that traffic and see where those customers go. Ernesto Cullari: He thinks for himself, he has his hand in a lot of working on the creatives for clients. And even though there are wonderful platforms out there, like the whole Adobe Suite, which includes Premier, Photoshop, Lightroom and all that, and Adobe Illustrator, and he thinks they're all great. But he likes the prosumer which are applications that anybody off the street could use. So, if you're a small business owner or even a big business owner, and you want an application where you don't need to go to your team or your assistant, you want to be able to do something yourself, Canva is a wonderful platform that he has actually, when he works in Canva after working in something like Adobe, his turnaround time sometimes in Canva is so much quicker because it's made for dummies. Canva is made for dummies. So, he loves Canva, and also, they manage designers, and those designers, they work in Creatopy, again, so that's a prosumer, anybody off the street could use that website, it makes great looking html5 ads. And again, as someone who manages creatives, if he doesn't like something, can go into Creatopy, and he could fix it himself. So, he thinks no matter where you are in your journey as a business owner, whether you manage a fortune 100 company and you have to deal with your admin, your marketing men and women, or you own a small business and you have to do it yourself, or you're hiring an agency like them, Canva and Creatopy, in addition to the Adobe Creative Suite, are just wonderful platforms.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Barbara and Ernesto Ernesto Cullari: When asked about books that have had an impact, Ernesto shared that he read Confessions of an Advertising Man by Ogilvy, which he thinks is one of the greatest books on advertising you can read. But also, it's not just advertising, it's in general, if you're someone who needs to communicate to the masses or to discrete audiences, small audiences, learning the art of communication is important, and he thinks Confessions of an Advertising Man, he have found invaluable.  In addition to Sun Tzu's Art of War, sometimes you have to crush your competition, and you have to be able to have the stomach for it, and strategy is necessary. And Sun Tzu's The Art of War he would also say. And then the Bible.  Barbara Wardell: She has to say one of her favorite is Wabi Sabi Love, it's about being in the present and appreciating everything that's in your life at that moment, because it could be gone tomorrow, and she's had that experience, she's read a ton of marketing books, but that's one that's close to her heart.  Ernesto Cullari: He shared that Yanique asked earlier about cost effectiveness, and the cost per acquisition and things like that. How does this compare to other forms of advertising? So, he's sure a lot of listeners out there have for various reasons, could be for charity, could be for advertising, could be for marketing. They've engaged in Facebook, Google advertising to promote an event or product. So, he can tell you, doing the engagement using Facebook and then starting with other forms of advertising since then, and he can tell you that geofencing, pound per pound is the Mike Tyson, is the absolute Mike Tyson of advertising. Everyone else is a lightweight. There is no censorship.  So, if you run political ads, you will face no censorship of any sort on the geofencing side, unlike Facebook and Google, who will silence you if they don't agree with your viewpoints. And in terms of reach and measurement, dollar for dollar, there's just nothing as effective as geofencing.  So, on a $500, he doesn't recommend only spending this, but on a $500 budget per month, you can end up with 20 people coming through your door. I do recommend for five-mile radius that you spend at least $1,000 on your market, that way, if you know the cost per customer, meaning how much money your average customer spends, you have the opportunity to 10 to 30x your return on investment depending on what the value of a new customer is for you.  In some of their verticals that they work with, the value of a new customer is $40,000 so on the $1,000 ad spend, if you gain one new client a month, that's a quite impressive return on investment. For other clients they have in the laundry industry, some of their clients are worth 1200 to 2500 a year. So, if they send the 30, 40, 50 customers a month, then that again, is quite a handsome return on investment, agreed.    What Barbara and Ernesto is Really Excited About Now! Barbara Wardell: When asked about something that they are really excited about, Barbara shared that they just launched which they're really excited about, their dashboard for their clients so that they can go in and see the reporting instead of them emailing them their reports, so now that they can go into the system and actually on their time and actually look at and see their results of their campaign.  Ernesto Cullari: He shared that he's excited about he and Barbara just got finished running a fundraiser from his mother's orphanage in the Philippines. She operates what's called Street Kids Philippine Missions, and she's been there for 15 years with her husband, Matt, and they have rescued kids that were in danger of being sex trafficked, that were eating out of garbage cans, that were basically destitute. And it's their 15th year, they just successfully raised $20,000 and that was simply an online campaign where they used their podcasting studio to talk about what his mom does, and Matt does there. And they're pretty proud of being able to use their resources to help kids that face sex trafficking that would otherwise be destitute. And he would say he's most happy and proud about that development.   Where can listeners find you online? Website – www.cullarimedia.com   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Barbara and Ernesto Uses Ernesto Cullari: When asked about a quote to they tend to revert to, Ernesto shared from The Art of War, “He whose forces are of one mind will be victorious.”  Barabra Wardell: She shared that mainly, she always tells herself to be in the present moment and not get sidetracked by other things that are going on. But she can't think of a quote right now.   Me: Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedules and hopping on our podcast and sharing all of these great insights as it relates to geofencing and the impact that it can have on 10x'ing your business, getting new clients, the advantage that it has over traditional media, advertising and just the opportunity for you to understand your customer base a little bit more, get an idea of where they're coming from and why they're coming to you, so you can continue to build on that and even exceed their expectations. So, I think it was a great conversation, and I just wanted to extend my deepest gratitude to you both.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •    Confessions of an Advertising Man by Dave Ogilvy •    The Art of War by Sun Tzu   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

LaShawnda Jones explores navigating self-funding, defining boundaries, and embracing her own self-discovery as she navigates the creative journey. Hosted by Elzie Flenard, this episode is a roadmap for creatives on balancing passion and pragmatism.

I'm always SO interested in how a business *actually* runs behind-the-scenes. How much are they spending to make everything tick, what are they doing manually vs. automatically, what programs do they use to keep on top of everything?In this episode I share a detailed look into the behind-the-scenes of my online business, highlighting the tech stack and software tools I use to efficiently run my business. From project management and content repurposing to design programs and financial management.Key Takeaways:- I utilize a combination of free and paid software tools, including Asana for project management, Airtable for data organization, and Slack for team communication.- My paid subscriptions include Kartra for course hosting and email management, Gmail for professional email accounts, Adobe Suite for graphic design, and QuickBooks for financial management.- I also employ additional software such as Simplecast for podcast management, Showit for website building, and Cast Magic and Opus for content repurposing.Full list of tools (*some links are affiliates):Asana https://app.asana.com/Slack https://slack.com/Google suite https://workspace.google.com/Airtable https://airtable.com/Creative Market https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100887243-15136940Castmagic https://get.castmagic.io/gyp4w1pwvk0oCapcut https://capcutaffiliateprogram.pxf.io/ZQ3ngkKartra https://kartra.com/Adobe https://www.adobe.com/Quickbooks https://quickbooks.intuit.com/Simplecast https://www.simplecast.com/Crazy Domains https://www.crazydomains.com.au/Zoom https://zoom.us/Vimeo https://vimeo.com/Calendly https://calendly.com/Interact https://get.tryinteract.com/f7vnhupludamCanva https://partner.canva.com/whitedeerCreative Fabrica https://www.creativefabrica.com/promo/8407/0P1055-FGHIJKLMNO/ref/4088225Dubsado https://dubsado.com/?c=whitedeerShowit https://account.showit.com/r/2mnkq4b1Opus Clip https://www.opus.pro/?via=b49cd0Zapier https://zapier.com/Since recording I'm now also using:Manychat (paid): https://manychat.com/Signature Hound (paid): https://signaturehound.com/

We're going over everything we have used to create our podcasts and deciding what to keep or not.In Episode #439 of 'Musings', Juan & I discuss: the couple of essential pieces you will need to produce an audio podcast, the extra thrills that are helpful for video production, why it is useful to play around with new tools periodically, staying lean/mean vs really high production value & our decisions to stop using some and start using others. Huge thanks to Sir TJ The Wrathful, Jen In Indy & McIntosh for the boostagrams. Your support means the world to us!Timeline:(0:00) - Intro(0:29) - We are the tools(1:52) - Essential hardware: mic/laptop/earphones(8:42) - Hardware thrills: camera/lightbox/mixer(15:22) - Essential production software: audio editor(17:42) - Software thrills: Riverside/Zencastr/extras(22:28) - Spotify distribution of new episodes(24:33) - Boostagram Lounge(28:37) - Essential distribution services: a podcast host(35:27) - Breaking news: Blubrry announces Vid2Pod(38:48) - Distribution thrills: Surveymonkey/Hootsuite(42:41) - Riverside grrrrr(50:54) - Opus Pro for clipping(58:41) - Adobe Suite(1:00:52) - Summary(1:08:34) - Testing AI Tools(1:15:12) - V4V: Time/Talent/TreasureValue 4 Value Support:Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/supportPaypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcastConnect with Mere Mortals:Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReUTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcastSupport the show

Unravel the essential software and subscriptions vital for every female entrepreneur striving to scale their business in 2024. Victoria and Libby, BrandWell's freshly appointed Chief Design Officer, sifted through years of trial and error to curate a list of their top-recommended tools—ones they use daily and suggest to their clients. Plus, don't miss out on the special PDF guide, packed with details, pros and cons, and even some hefty discount codes to get you started on the right foot.Listen in as they explore the multifaceted benefits of HoneyBook, which has revolutionized the way they manage BrandWell's operations, from client interactions to internal workflows. Discover how this all-in-one platform not only streamlines the client journey but also maintains the personal touch essential in automated systems. They also shed light on the versatility of Squarespace, Canva, and Haute Stock, sharing insights into how these platforms aid in website maintenance, design creation, and reflecting diversity in stock photography, catering specifically to the needs of female business owners.Rounding out the conversation, Victoria and Libby examine the strategic integration of tools like Google Workspace and Adobe Suite in daily operations, the practicality of Planoly for social media planning, and the legal ease provided by The Legal Paige's template shop. You'll hear firsthand about the efficiency gains from using Loom in a virtual business setting and how Square Payroll can streamline your financial processes. After years of searching and finding our favorite platforms, this episode is a treasure trove of tips and tricks for the modern entrepreneur.Link's mentioned in today's episode:The Ultimate Digital Toolkit for the Busy Female Entrepreneur Join The Branding Business School WaitlistBrandWell DesignsListen to past episodes with founders' of platforms mentioned in today's episode:Episode 96: Scaling a Wildly Successful Subscription-based Business with Haute Stock Founder, Rachel RouhanaEpisode 108: How to Leverage Email Marketing to Grow Your Business with Flodesk Co-Founder, Rebecca ShostakEpisode 111: Contracts, Trademarks & How to Get Legally Legit with The Legal PaigeFor show notes, head to www.thebrandingbusinessschool.com/thepodcast/ Show notes for episodes 1-91 can be found at www.brandwelldesigns.com/thepodcast/ Follow BrandWell on Instagram. Follow The Branding Business School on Instagram. Save 50% off your first year of Honeybook using this link! Save 50% off your first year of Flodesk using this link!

Intimidated by the daunting world of finances, specifically in the voiceover industry? Tag along with the BOSSES as we demystify the intricacies of money management. Our banter-filled conversation is set to shine a light on the critical role of financial discipline, understanding taxes, and the art of investment categorization for your business growth. We provide crucial insights on all things expenses - from domain names and web hosting to the nitty-gritty of audio editing software. We also tackle home studio costs and the relevance of physical inventory for product sellers. And for those lean times, we've got you covered with our practical strategies that ensure you stay on top of your game. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss Podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm here with my superpower boss co-host, Lau Lapides. Hey hey. 00:30 Lau. How are you? Hey, I'm fab. How are you? I need to activate my accounting financial superpowers because it is a new year and I've got a business that I want to grow and I need to make some investments and I need to really, I think, get my finances in order. So I think we should talk. I know people hate talking or even thinking about finances. However, I think we need to discuss what could be on the agenda for your business this year and how can you financially prepare.  01:09 - Lau (Co-host) I love that, and if we don't understand our status with our money and we don't have a good relationship with it and we don't have trust with money and we don't know how to treat it, then we will not have financial discipline and therefore not have the cash for the investments we need to make throughout our year. And I speak about that at every level. I mean, if you're making millions, even more so because I know colleagues of mine that are millionaires that are busted by the end of the year because they don't know how to save, they don't know how to spend, they don't know how to invest.  01:43 They're used to being managed by other people, and I think management is wonderful when you're at a certain level, but it can also be a curse and take a lot of that micro management over you and then you're left with like, wow, how do I live life? How do I earn money? What do I do with it?  02:01 - Anne (Host) Absolutely.  02:02 I've always tried to be so independent, just in my life and financially independent as well, and so it really behooves us as business entrepreneurs to understand even if we do let's say, I always talk about my accountant and the best thing I ever did was outsource my accounting but you also need to have an underlying understanding and concept of financials so that you can direct your accountant or also understand where's your money going, because maybe sometimes your accountant I don't know maybe they're taking it or maybe they're putting it in place is that you're not familiar with. So not that I want to infer that there's anything shady going on, but hey, we want to be educated.  02:43 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, I also want people to think let's talk taxes, baby. Oh yes, I am not an accountant, my husband is.  02:50 I do not get into that, but I will say running businesses, as you know, Annie, everything at the end of the day, whether it's quarterly, whether it's annual, you have to put you know one of the first things we say and we're fairly conservative fiscally my husband and I we joke. We say, oh, we just got a ton of money and that's awesome, what are we going to do with it? Put it away. I'm going to say I'm going to put 50% of that away from taxes for the next quarter and I'll say good move.  03:16 - Anne (Host) And I'm so glad that you brought that up. As a matter of fact, for the next three months I have a certain amount of money that is coming out because it might escort. I need to pay myself, and so I need to pay myself. I need to prep. So by the end of the year I'm not going to be paying tons and tons of money and taxes.  03:32 - Lau (Co-host) And has that ever happened to you? Because that happened to us a couple of times. It's devastating.  03:37 - Anne (Host) Gosh, when I first started off in voiceover and I started making money and I wasn't prepared, right At the end of the year I was just like, yeah, I'll do the taxes at the end of the year, put it off, put it off, put it off. And then, ultimately, at the end of the year I was like, oh, my God, I owe. And then it was like, oh, I don't just owe a little, I owed a lot. And then I was audited one year. I'll be very frank in telling you that?  03:58 Not because I mean, I wasn't doing any funny business, but literally sometimes you're a small business, right, and a lot of times if you are making claims, they want to substantiate those claims and make sure that you're doing your taxes properly.  04:12 So it was a random audit. Actually, I was audited twice. I passed both audits with flying colors. As a matter of fact, the last audit they owed me. So it really goes to show that I was prepared, and thank God I was prepared.  04:24 Again, like I said, I don't wait until the very last minute and I don't know if I was intending for this episode to be talking about taxes the whole time, but it all comes down to the end of the year, right when you got to pay your taxes. And so you have to understand, like, where is your money going, where is your investments going, what costs do you have? And I think that's super important, what are your costs and what is your income coming in? And you should be looking at your profit, your PNL statement. What is a PNL statement? I have people like I'm not even sure what a PNL. It's a profit and loss statement. So that is something that you should be familiar with, and if you're not, we're here to kind of talk to you about the basics at least. I'm not a financial advisor. However, I can share my experiences and I can tell you how important it is to be educated and to understand that there will be investments and you need to categorize those investments and you need to categorize your profits.  05:19 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and at the end of the day, even though we don't want to talk about taxes the entire time, we're not on a barter system. If IRS comes, they're not going to take a cow right. They want money, they want cash. So, just being honest, having integrity about your business, just doing everything by the book, being very careful, having a bookkeeper, having an accounting team having the people you need on your side couldn't be more worth.  05:43 It just couldn't be. But let's talk about money in terms of, like, fixed costs. Putting together your understanding what are my fixed costs versus my movable, shakeable, flexible, variable costs, which do vary month to month? How do you set it up, Annie? When you set that up?  06:01 - Anne (Host) Well, I don't remember which episode it was, but I did touch upon this at one point. In terms of fixed costs, like for running your business, there is the cost of I'm an S corp, so I have to pay a certain amount of money every year right to maintain that license, and so I also have to make sure that things that it costs for me to run my business so not only the cost of the business itself, which I pay to the state or I pay to the federal government I also am paying things that would be like my website, my web hosting right. That is something I pay on a monthly basis. That happens each and every time. So those recurring costs I found to be well managed, number one by my accountant and it's categorized in my system.  06:46 But also I downloaded an app. I pay for this app on a monthly basis called Rocket Money, and Rocket Money will go out and grab all your subscriptions, cause a lot of times you can be subscribed to things that you forget about. This is the new way of doing businesses those subscription models which I pay monthly for my domain names, for my web hosting, which is the place where I host my websites, kind of think what else, my subscriptions to my audio editing software, twisted Wave or Adobe Audition. I also pay Adobe because I have Adobe Acrobat, the Adobe Suite that I pay for. Goodness gracious, this is so much, and I pay for a lot of things too, like my Riverside subscription. Right, this is what we record our podcast on. I pay for my Zoom connection. I pay for gosh, all these backblades, which is my backup system Right.  07:40 - Lau (Co-host) So here's the key, though, annie, is like we're lumping them all together because that's everything that you do every month and in your mind because you've been doing so long. Those are fixed costs, right To a new person coming in for the first couple of years. Some of those may be more variable in cost because, let's say, let's say hypothetically, you're ready to do a blasting service like Constant Contact or MailChimp or VO Boss or VO Boss, but we're blasting things out to your hundreds or thousands of leads, right, and you're gonna pay for that monthly. Now, we consider that kind of fixed because we've been doing that collectively so long. But someone coming in who's fairly new and say, well, can I spend that $40, $50 a month or $90 a month to do that? That's more of a variable cost, because they may or may not feel like I'm at a point where that's gonna be beneficial. I may not have enough leads to do that too. I'll do that in a year and see where I am in a year, but I can't do that with my rent or my mortgage.  08:39 - Intro (Announcement) I have to do that every month.  08:41 - Lau (Co-host) That's a fixed cost right. So that's really interesting for us to just reevaluate every year or every quarter, like what are our variables that we're thinking of as fixed, Like if I think of Google or I think of like storage on?  08:57 - Anne (Host) Zoom, or I think of this. My mind it's fixed. My iPhone, my phone bill for myself, I'm paying on a monthly basis that to me. I consider that a fixed cost. But you're right, I mean, it all comes down to what is it that is necessary to run your business? But, interestingly enough, because most of us are home-based businesses, now, brick and mortar, brick and mortar. Are you paying Brick and mortar as well as I mean, we gotta consider our offices, our home studios, right? Yes, as part of it. So for me it translates into I've gotta pay the mortgage because if I don't have a house or I don't have my home studio, I don't have my studio in my house.  09:33 - Intro (Announcement) You gotta pay.  09:33 - Anne (Host) Your insurance, gotta pay the water bill, gotta pay the internet, oh my gosh internet.  09:37 - Intro (Announcement) Utilities yes, Gotta pay electricity.  09:39 - Anne (Host) Otherwise I'm not gonna have all of that to be able to run my business at home. And you law have a brick and mortar as well, so there's all of that which is considered fixed for you as well.  09:50 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, it is, and that's not to say it can't shift and change. So if I decide to move to a different place, then the costs would shift and change, but they're always there. In other words, they don't really leave, unless the caveat is I'm 22, I'm trying to save money. I move in with my parents. They're gonna pay a lot of those bills for me for a year. I don't have to worry about that. They're gonna let me save money. Okay, that's your caveat. But other than that, when you're in the world, those are now part of our business, because if we don't take care of those, we literally can't run the business.  10:22 - Anne (Host) And, believe it or not, on a very small scale. Right, I have physical inventory because I sell a vocal throat care line and a vocal spray along with my vocal essentials, right? So there's inventory. I need to purchase inventory so that I can create those sprays, also to run that business.  10:41 - Lau (Co-host) And we would have merchandise Exactly that we may wanna take to a conference or we may wanna do a swag bag giveaway at a networking meeting or whatever. That's the inventory you speak of. That is really variable, it's not really fixed, it's still a variable cost. But for us it's important that we continue to do that to promote the business.  10:59 - Anne (Host) Absolutely absolutely.  11:00 - Lau (Co-host) Right, I love this conversation. This is so good. So what happens? I get in trouble. I find that I'm not doing as much voiceover work this month as I see happen Quite often times. People come in, they start crying, they're upset, they're like I might have to get another job. I might have to pull back on my spending. Where do we go first to pull back on that spending? We go to the variables.  11:24 - Anne (Host) Yep, great question. Yeah, absolutely, the variables. I mean, what can I do to save money, number one, or cut down on costs? And again, as your business evolves and as things evolve, everything, that's really important that we take a look at that, gosh, at least I mean I look at that every month, if not more than that. And I know that, especially when things are lean right, you've got more time right. If you've got more time, you've got more time to. Let's take a look at our marketing. Let's take a look at our investments. What are we spending right and what can we cut back on?  11:59 And I know, for me, some of mine was subscriptions that were no longer serving me, right, I was like, okay, well, I guess I don't need that. And then I've got things like I have a Peloton subscription. Am I using it? Because that's a certain amount of money? Am I watching the Discovery channel? Can I cut back on that? Those subscriptions? And in reality, by the way, my cable, and well, I guess, do you call it cable, my streaming, my streaming subscriptions are part of my business because I am researching the market, right, and I'm listening to commercials, I'm seeing what's out there, I'm educating myself on trending sound, trending voices, educating myself as a coach for my students right. So that is considered a business expense.  12:45 - Lau (Co-host) I would add a personalized list to this. So you have your fixed cost, you have your variable, but then you have your very personal expenses. That could be one or the other but if I'm hurting for money and I gotta go skinny one month, I'm gonna go to that personalized list.  13:01 So a very simple example of that is I'll always ask a client. I'll say listen, what are you doing this weekend? What did you do last weekend? Oh, I went to the movies cool. What did you spend on that? Oh, that was 15 bucks great. Did you get any food or drink there? I did. I think that was about 30 bucks great. Did you go out to dinner Super. I think I spent 25 bucks on fast food great. Did you spend on gasoline? Yeah, I think I spent five or six bucks. Add that up. That is the money that can go into your investment piece when you really need the coaching session.  13:32 - Anne (Host) You really need that event. You really need that. Can I skip the Starbucks? I remember that's the biggest thing. Can I skip the Starbucks? I'm gonna skip the Starbucks.  13:38 - Lau (Co-host) And I have to say, annie, I'm not a financial advisor, so I'm not advising you financially. I'm advising you from a logical perspective of saying be careful of saying to yourself, lying to yourself and saying I don't have the money, when really you should be saying let me find the money or create the money Absolutely.  13:59 We used to go under the cushions to find the change and put it in a big jar. Now we can go to what we're spending, what we're actually spending, and find the change in that jar. A Starbucks which we love five, six bucks. A cup of that that I may need to put into my coaching session.  14:17 - Anne (Host) Absolutely Hands down. One of the smartest things I ever did was create that business savings account. And then where are you going to put that business savings account? I literally just moved my business savings account from my bank to a higher yield interest bank and I'll tell you what it made the difference between oh gosh, I might have made gosh my bank was paying me nothing. I was like 0.001. And I think I was making like maybe $5 a year.  14:42 Well, guess what? I'm 5% APY 5%. And when you invest that now, I've made thousands of dollars for this year and then that can be reinvested in my business. So that savings account also is what saved me from when things get lean, when the jobs aren't coming in, when things slow down and then all of a sudden, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do. And it saves you from that panic where you probably do yourself more harm than good with that guttural like oh my God, I am gonna have to like get a job or I'm gonna have to quit.  15:17 Voiceover it's just not working. It's in that panic that I have a lot of people they come to me. I just I can't. I can't invest in a demo, I can't invest in coaching, because I'm just not making it back. And again, that is something that you really do need to understand that there are investments to be made. If you have the money put aside to make those investments right, that makes you feel a whole lot more comfortable and a lot less panicky, whether you're like oh, I said I gotta get out, I can't do this anymore, or you become discouraged, and then it really becomes a whole mental game. And that, I think, is the toughest part about voice acting right Voice acting the acting we can always practice.  15:55 We can hone our skills, we can become better at what we do. But that business sense that when the business is slow, when all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, this isn't working or how do I survive, you go into that like fight or flight kind of mode and really having that nest egg, having that savings account that can be earning interest, having that passive income, all that good stuff, that can be that little pocket of confidence that's what I say that little pile of financial confidence is huge in, I think, growing and pursuing your voice of our business successfully.  16:32 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, and we all know those of us who have been in business for a number of years it's never what you make. It is never what you make. It is not about gross, it's about net. So it's about what you take home. That is, showing us how you are spending and investing your money, your gross income. And so having that level of sacrifice, of humility and of modesty to understand that just because I want something does not mean I need it or should have it. So if you're willing to sacrifice and give up something, you probably have more shot of building an actual business, because the business has the needs. You don't have the needs as much as the business has the needs.  17:14 And I wanted to say too what you're talking about, which is so important and we're doing that as well as diversification of your money. So not only if it's not making interest, if it's not building wealth for you, then you move it. But here's the thing there's a couple of really important reasons to move the money. Not only does if your bank goes bust. You don't have everything in one pot.  17:34 - Anne (Host) Exactly.  17:35 - Lau (Co-host) You're only insured, too, for a certain amount, right, but also you're literally setting up accounts for yourself that you hopefully will forget about. So you're not spending it, you're not touching it. It's growing, it's working for you, right? So that you don't have this. Don't think of it as like one clump, one lump of something. It's really different pieces that you're diversifying into the world. You may want to invest, you may want to go into the stocks, you may want to do that kind of thing, right? So the point is is like okay, I've got my business, it's great, it's moving in the direction I wanted to move in, but what am I sacrificing? What am I doing to make money and make it grow for me, and how am I treating it? Like? How do I think of money? I hear a lot of people, especially women, talk about money, talk about negotiation, talk about contracts in a really negative light, like in a very heavy way. They are either fearing it, they don't want to talk about money.  18:30 - Anne (Host) I think most of it is fear absolutely Based in fear, and most of it is fear right.  18:34 It's kind of like I don't want to go there, I don't want to talk about it, I want to kind of just go back to something we were talking about in terms of investing and kind of making sure that you have the money to invest in that next piece of equipment, or do I need that new microphone? Do I need? I'm going to give you an analogy and I'm going to be very frank. I have in my clothes closet. I have these little cubby holes for my shoes.  18:59 Now I bought them gosh a long time ago and I think I I don't know if I got them in IKEA, but they're great. They're little cubby holes and you can fit a pair of shoes in each cubby hole, and so I bought a series of them to put around. We have a walk-in closet to put on the floor and my husband has one of the boxes which holds 12, right, and I literally have probably eight. I have 70 cubby holes Okay, 70. Now I made a deal with myself that I would never buy more shoes than could fit in that cubby hole, and so if I wanted to purchase a new pair of shoes, I had to give up another pair of shoes or donate it or sell it on Poshmark or what.  19:34 - Lau (Co-host) Wait a second, annie, I just did some math. Are you saying you have 98 pairs? If you have 12 and you have eight of those right, or 90,? What is that? 96? All right, so I say 70. Should I call?  19:49 - Anne (Host) you a melda now.  19:50 - Lau (Co-host) Should I really name you a melda?  19:51 - Anne (Host) I'm going to say it's 70. I don't know how many boxes there are, so, whatever right, 70. I have 70 holes. I have 70 cubbies.  19:57 - Lau (Co-host) You just have to stay in that denial, stay at 70. Stay at 70.  20:01 - Anne (Host) Now I can't purchase a new pair of shoes until I decide that I'm going to let another pair of shoes go. And if I can't, I'm going to try to sell those shoes. But if I can't, I'm going to donate them right so that they go to someplace. I'm that kind of person where I have to love my shoes right, do you wear?  20:17 - Lau (Co-host) all those shoes? Be honest, do you wear all?  20:19 - Intro (Announcement) Not anymore.  20:19 - Anne (Host) I don't no but I used to right and so, literally, as I've aged a little bit, I mean the heels got to come down a little bit.  20:27 - Intro (Announcement) I can't quite fit in those.  20:28 - Anne (Host) Well, I can't walk in those higher ones anymore, but I still love to look at them. But that is like I feel like your business needs to operate in that way, right, you cannot make an investment more than you have. Like, you should not spend more than you have. I should not have more shoes than cubby holes, right? Because then it starts to look cluttered, it starts to look like a big mess, and so, therefore, I have put myself on a plan, right, where this helps me to. This helps me to manage my shoes, like I would say, manage your finances in the same way, right, you don't want to make investments with money you don't have, right, and you want to make sure that, if you have, how many microphones do you have? Like, you should not have more microphones than places to put those microphones right, okay, all right, I have a term for that.  21:14 - Lau (Co-host) This is from my husband, jeremy, who is actually a controller CFO type accountant his whole life.  21:19 He says listen, and I always hated this, it always made me cringe, it was cringe worthy, but he's so right. And that is don't live above your means. Absolutely Don't live above your means. And he's not only talking about financially, he's also talking about emotionally and spiritually as well. So I have taught myself. My father, who's an entrepreneur, taught me this too. He said buy something, get rid of something. Yes, oh my God, buy something, yes, yes, and not just kick it to the curve, but give it to the right place.  21:47 Give it to the right place, give it to the right place and boy, did that save my day learning how to do that and really learning to let go and learning to move around it. That's really good.  21:57 - Anne (Host) That's really good, for I mean being frugal and being wise financially and also like mentally, like I feel like you can't have too much clutter, because physical clutter turns to be clutter in your head. And I actually took a feng shui course many, many years ago. It was like a six month course. I mean, it was intense.  22:15 - Intro (Announcement) I love it, I love it, you should never put things under your bed.  22:19 - Anne (Host) Don't store things under your bed. Don't store things because it's kind of like clutter anywhere, really like clear out your corners.  22:26 - Lau (Co-host) Clutter anywhere physically means clutter in your head, right so when it comes to your money, you need to compartmentalize it Absolutely. How do you call that when you label it like we would give away key?  22:38 - Anne (Host) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. What do you call that? We label it. We're Maria Condoing, right Condoing, but that's what it is.  22:44 - Lau (Co-host) It's like knowing what you want to do with each piece of your life financially. Yeah, it's very freeing. There's a very openness to it, there's a breath in there, you know. Yeah, absolutely I love that. I love clearing the financial space.  22:58 - Anne (Host) That's what I like.  22:59 - Intro (Announcement) Clear the financial space.  23:01 - Anne (Host) Especially in the beginning of the year. It's always a great time to do that, to really sit back, and it may be hard. Right To sit back and take a look at where is the money going. How much are you spending? Are you spending more than you're bringing in? But again, like no more shoes than you have cubby holds.  23:18 - Lau (Co-host) And also test yourself, like once you give it away, like let a month go by and test yourself, say what did I give away? Do I even remember what?  23:26 - Intro (Announcement) it was, and I never remember.  23:28 - Lau (Co-host) I never remember the clothes or whatever.  23:31 - Anne (Host) If I haven't thought about it or used it in a year, it's good to go right.  23:35 - Intro (Announcement) It's good to go right. As much as I love it, that's most things.  23:37 - Anne (Host) I'll kiss it and I'll give it away and I'll say this deserves to go to someone. I'll donate it. This deserves to go to someone who will love it as much as I did. Really.  23:46 - Lau (Co-host) And then you're very Native American about it. It reminds me like, take the shoes to the river and just write a note and let them float away. Absolutely you know To someone else's feet. But that's what we need to do, because it makes us open to what is coming, like if you're so cluttered in your financial portfolio you can't invite anything in and allow the money to flow to you like a river right?  24:10 - Intro (Announcement) Oh, I love that you don't want your river to stagnate.  24:12 - Anne (Host) You don't want to block your river Again. No more shoes than cubby holes. Don't block your river with twigs, Just say allow the river of money to flow, I mean we're out of all here. Let's just imagine that financial flow coming to you and manifesting that.  24:28 - Lau (Co-host) Hallelujah and manifesting that Amen. I feel like doing a song right now, but I mean it's like language. If you're scripting, be careful the language you use to describe your money and your financial status. Don't be cheap, don't be dumb, don't be unknowing.  24:46 - Anne (Host) You're not greedy. If you appreciate money and you invited it, you are not greedy. That's like an old one. People say, oh, you're greedy. Although rich people are greedy, they just want more. Honestly, people who are wealthy are some of the most philanthropic people that give.  25:00 - Intro (Announcement) And we've had that discussion before.  25:01 - Anne (Host) But I mean really being rich isn't rich right Money rich, financially rich and spiritually rich.  25:09 - Lau (Co-host) It's all about you allowing the flow and not blocking it right with clutter and paying attention to details, Don't ignore it and don't act like you don't know how to deal with it. It's like treat it as if it's a person and you have a relationship with it. Would you say some of the things you say about money, about the person like, oh, I don't know how to deal with that, I just ignore it and I just let someone else deal with it? I don't think that relationship would go very far. You know what I mean. It's like treat it like a person, in the sense that there's a lot of potential movement and liberation that can come with that and what it represents. It's just symbolic of the kind of life and lifestyle and mindset that you want to have.  25:52 - Anne (Host) Absolutely.  25:53 - Lau (Co-host) And I always say too, you know, someone says to me Law, why do you want to make a lot of money? I've had the executive coaches ask me that and I said the first thing that comes to my mind is because I want to have more money to pay my team members. Yeah, oh, I love that. Yeah, I think in terms of investment, I always think in terms of what can I do with this money? That empowers even more, versus, oh, I'll buy another thing or I'll have another, whatever, I don't really need it. I would rather see it move in directions that can make a lot of people happy and things going on and that can only help your business, because, honestly, I feel like you're in toys.  26:30 - Anne (Host) I think about myself in the corporate world. What does it makes us miserable in the corporate world? Oh God, we don't like our colleagues, we don't like our boss. We're boss. It's a toxic environment. I don't make enough money. Exactly Like, if you think about it, if you're treated well in your environment, if you have employees that you're paying and you treat them well and you appreciate them, they're only going to work that much harder for you and you have to incentivize them to want to work for your business, and that is one way to do that.  26:58 So I love this conversation. Again, it's probably something we could have. 20 episodes on Law, I think we will somehow. I think we will. But speaking of allowing yourself to allow that money to flow, if you have a local nonprofit that's close to your heart and you would like to keep the cycle and keep paying it forward, if you've ever wished you could do more to help them, you can visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn how and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl you too can connect and network like bosses, just like law and I. So you guys have an amazing week and let's keep that river flowing. All right, bye, have a great week, bye.  27:40 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL yeah.  28:07 - Anne (Host) Hey, hey everyone. I don't know why I wasn't ready for that. Take two, Take two, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I am here with my super power.  28:26 - Lau (Co-host) Take three.  28:27 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss. Hey everyone, welcome. God, take five, yeah, take 105.   

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bjuRxPEnvOM We are running a fundraiser for a software purchase, Zoom, Adobe Suite and our annual website fees. Support the podcast click below. Support our work Bio:Mestres of Acadêmicos do Salgueiro Bateria Furiosa. Guilherme Oliveira and Gustavo Oliveira are local to Salgueiro having been raised on the same street as the quadra, Rua Silva Teles, the brothers have always had strong roots with the school. The love for percussion arose through contact with the instruments at the escola mirim Aprendizes do Salgueiro.Since then, both have collected experiences in the musical world. Their curriculum is vast, the mestres have played with great artists, such as Ludmilla and Xamã. Their talent and love for the Samba School eventually led them to the role and responsibility of commanding Bateria Furiosa do Salgueiro.As mestres, they seek to immortalize a legacy. The two toured with the “Furiosa pelo mundo” project, where they took Salgueiro's musical culture to other countries, passing through Europe and South America. They most recently visited us this past August at California Brazil camp.Links: Mestre Guilhermehttps://www.instagram.com/guilloliveira/Mestre Gustavohttps://www.instagram.com/gustavoliveira_91/Acadêmicos do Salgueirohttps://www.instagram.com/salgueirooriginal/https://www.facebook.com/salgueirooriginal

Sabrina Ginga of Salgueiro Samba School and Mestre Curtis of Casa Samba We are running a fundraiser for a software purchase, Zoom, Adobe Suite and our annual website fees. Support the podcast click below. Click here to support us! Watch the episode here! Mestre Curtis' letter that he wrote over 3 decades ago and was finally able to deliver to Sabrina Ginga the Ambassador of Salgueiro Samba School! Sabrina Ginga Bio:Sabrina Ginga, 34 years old, is a Social Scientist, Movement Director, creator of digital content, impacting the world with her independent art and activism. She is a defender of human rights and her agenda involves gender and racial issues. Sabrina's career includes participation in Heavy Baile in addition to years as a Funk Carioca and Afrovibe Danceworkout teacher. Recently, he shook global structures in her Ginga Tour Workshop, which was attended by more than 9 countries. Additionally, Sabrina also teaches group dynamics and Team Building activities in corporate environments. Recently awarded the title of Ambassador of Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, a traditional samba school in Rio de Janeiro. The position was created to create an international community, to build partnerships and build bridges to demonstrate the value and culture exchange created by samba schools. Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabrinaginga/ Sabrina Ginga Mestre CurtisCheck out our first episode with Mestre Curtis Pierre Here Bio:Mestre Curtis can be classified as possibly the only American in the United States who has reached his level as a Master in Brasilian cultures meaning that he is the first person in this country to be recognized as a master of Capoeira the first original African martial art to leave Africa and a master of Brazilian percussion and the first to bring Master Brasilian teachers to New Orleans in the early '90s. This is known by only a handful of people in the United States. Mestre Curtis has dedicated his life to his African roots of culture which he found in Brazil after 37 years ago.Mestre Curtis Pierre is the founder and director of Casa Samba, the first School of Samba in Louisiana and the Southern Region. Pierre is also known as "The Samba Man" of New Orleans. He has studied Brazilian music and dance for over 30 years. Casa Samba is located at 800 Race Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. The school offers: CapoeiraBrazilian percussionDanceCultureAfro-Brasilian dance and drum classesPierre also sponsors a community group called Samba Kids. Casa Samba's performances combine traditional music and vocals. The group is directed by Pierre and Brazilian master drummer, Jorge "Alabe" Bezerra. Links:Website: https://www.mestrecurtispierre.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealsambaman/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curtis.pierre.18YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2Mx-2m86bPUuLVvWl_yIA/about Check out Silvia Manrique's new EP on Spotify!open.spotify.com/album/5qOYOPvLppzyujWGh0aDnU?si=-f4KLURHTMeVhk-nCC2GpQ

Headlines 10.23.2023 Sports - College Football: Ohio St beats Penn St, 20-12. Bama beats Tennessee, 34-20. Utah beats USC, 34-32. NFL: Pats beat Bills. Birds beat Fins in Kelly Green. MLB Playoffs continue: Game 7 tonight in ALCS, Game 6 NLCS. Business - Foxconn investigation. Adobe Suite new features. Apple Pencil. FazeClan Aquisition. All Rights Reserved. Common Intellectual Creators, LLC. 2023

In this new exciting episode of Tea Time with me your host Cassia Marina, join me as I dive deep into the world of graphic design tools and marketing updates. As a brand strategist and web designer, content creator and graphic designer...I know the importance of choosing the right software, and today, I'm going to share my thoughts on the age-old battle: Canva versus Adobe. We'll explore the strengths and weaknesses of these two giants in the design industry. Canva, known for its user-friendly interface and a plethora of templates, has been a game-changer for many businesses and individuals. On the other hand, Adobe, with its powerful creative suite, offers a different level of sophistication. Which one is right for your needs? I'll help you answer that question. But that's not all! Stick around until the end of the episode, where I have an exciting bonus for you. I'll unveil the latest news updates from Zoom and Canva that are set to revolutionize your workflow. Zoom introduces "Meeting Summary with AI Companion," a feature designed to make your meetings more efficient and productive. And Canva has something magical in store - "Magic Studio™," where you can access all the power of AI in one place. This innovative feature is a game-changer for graphic designers and content creators, and I'll tell you exactly why. Let's Stay Connected: → Love to chat in the DMs via⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ → Let's network on⁠⁠ ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ → I share better more engaged BTS vlogs on⁠ ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠ &⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/teatimewithcassia/support

In this week's episode, we were delighted to welcome Marshall Fox, the creative force behind Marshall Creates. Marshall shared his extensive knowledge and insights into the world of graphic design, focusing particularly on his strategies for live video presentations and leveraging Ecamm Live.During our engaging conversation, Marshall delved into his live video presentation strategy, discussing his preferred tools, such as Ecamm Live, for creating interactive and engaging content. He highlighted the importance of authenticity and realness in live video presentations to connect with the audience and make the sessions special.Marshall also shared his experiences with Ecamm Live, specifically recommending the platform for its unique features and benefits. He emphasized the experimental nature of his work on Ecamm Live and the advantages of using the platform to engage with his audience in real time.As the discussion progressed, Marshall shed light on his approach to creating engaging content. He emphasized the importance of improving the quality of live video presentations and shared some practical tips for beginners, such as improving lighting and using a green screen.The conversation then took an exciting turn as Marshall explored the backstory of Marshall Creates. He shared how his journey began, his favorite episodes, and how he's managed to create a unique and engaging show that resonates with his audience.Listeners were also introduced to Marshall's brand, where they can immerse themselves in his design-focused content. Additionally, his Ecamm Live shows provide a platform to further indulge in his engaging and informative content.To connect with Marshall Fox and explore his captivating content, visit Marshall Creates on Ecamm's YouTube channel or follow him on all social media platforms, @MarshallFox.This episode of Bridging Broadcasts was made possible by our sponsor, Ecamm. Discover their innovative live show tools and learn more at www.socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm.Tune in to this captivating episode to gain valuable insights from Marshall Fox and discover how you can improve your live video presentations, leverage Ecamm Live, and create engaging content in your own content creation journey.Resources Mentioned:Ecamm Live: www.socialmedianewslive.com/ecammMarshall Creates on Ecamm's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EcammLiveMarshall Fox on Instagram: www.instagram.com/marshallfoxGood2Goat Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/good2goatGood2Goat membership: www.good2goat.comThe Future by Chris Doe: www.thefutur.com

John Nack's career spans over a decade at Adobe, including a significant role in the evolution of Photoshop, and seven transformative years at Google utilizing machine learning. John is now back at Adobe as the Principal Product Manager steering the ship of innovation with Adobe's Sensei AI. In this episode, John shares his insights on a plethora of topics including the cutting-edge Adobe Firefly, AI-powered Photoshop features, the diversity of AI creative tools for various audiences, and the future of AI generative tools for creators. Episode 23 Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:48 Adobe's AI Team 00:10:12 Adobe Firefly - Generative AI Models 00:13:18 Evolution of Adobe Suite 00:19:12 Photoshop with AI features 00:27:28 Adobe's target audience 00:34:20 Returning to Adobe after Google 00:36:25 AI Tools for 3D 00:45:00 AI for Substance Painter 00:52:11 Curiosity 00:57:10 Creative Jobs 00:59:28 Firefly for Video 01:09:11 Advice to young people 01:17:00 AI Assistant in softwares 01:25:46 Skepticism about AI 01:34:08 Memes Out-painting Find out more about John: https://twitter.com/jnack http://jnack.com/blog/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnack/ Join our discord server where we connect and share assets: https://discord.gg/zwycgqezfD Bad Decisions Audio Podcast

It's another week and another episode from the happiness spreaders that you know and love! John and Mark are back with episode 3 of season 2 and they have some good chats while they are road trippin' around the USA, specifically to Washington DC. They guys talk about all kinds of things that came up since you last listened, PLUS the old standbys like John's love life, weight loss journeys and more! Buckle up, folks. This is a good one. Business to highlight: Jacob Greene - jacobgreeneart.com  Jacob had our Differing Abilities design internship with us in 2021. He just published his third book -Grumpy Shark – and we went to hear him read at Barnes and Noble on Saturday. I am a young man on the Autism Spectrum who recently graduated from New York Tech in the school of Architecture and Design. My passion is Digital Art. I enjoy using Adobe Suite to draw and create illustrations for children's books, 2D animations and animations for video games. I have a very creative imagination and I don't have trouble coming up with ideas. Finding John's Crazy Socks: https://johnscrazysocks.com/  Hosted by John & Mark Cronin, co-founders of John's Crazy Socks. Visit John's Crazy Socks here: https://johnscrazysocks.com Follow @johnscrazysocks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. The Spreading Happiness Podcast is produced by Launchpad 516 Studios. For show ideas, guest inquiries, general feedback, sponsorships and media inquiries, drop an email: thespreadinghapinesspodcast@lp516.com Information about Speaking Engagements with John and Mark: https://johnscrazysocks.com/pages/speaking-engagements-1  Subscribe to The Spreading Happiness Podcast on Apple Podcasts and get notified of new episodes, every Tuesday! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-spreading-happiness-podcast/id1611218712 

Gru-maxxing with Illumination, being a master at rollerblading, we finally talk about the Mario movie (the Princess Peach movie), Skyler is accepting commissions for furry art, Adobe Suite nonsense, deep Midwest Scumbag lore, Winston Churchill, ritualistic suicide, photoshopping X head onto Y body, why aren't you in uniform? Guitar Hero ruined careers, blacking out in Chuck E. Cheese's, deep Five Nights at Freddy's lore, sissy hypno Star Wars, Elliott teases some Warhammer 40k talk intro/outro guitar by: youtube.com/@WhiteBatAudio email us literally whatever you want: midwest.scumbags@gmail.com DM your boi Elliott: instagram.com/penguin_king_elzoth/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/midwest-scumbags/message

Andriy Pereuda is a packaging engineer living in Kiev, Ukraine, and his story is an interesting one. He talks about his hometown being destroyed, his new wife living outside of the country, and his potential to join the Ukraine military and fight against Russia.On this episode, we'll talk about:What has it been like for the last couple of years, or at least since Russia invaded?How has it been being a packaging designer? What are some of his specialties that he's currently working on?Has he already been trained to serve in the military, or would he have to go get training first?Does he have any idea when this is going to end?How does he feel about his country and how it has dealt with Russia? Does he feel pride?Local crisis regarding packaging in UkraineAndriy Pereuda is an experienced packaging designer and process engineer. Deep knowledge in specialized software (ArtiosCAD, Adobe Suite, Rules, Cape Pack, Truck Fill, Autocad Mechanical, Inventor, Solidworks). Understanding of SDLC and QA process; Good knowledge of theoretical bases testing;Knowledge of HTML, CSS; Good bug reporting skills and knowledge in bug tracking system – Jira; Good social and communication skills; Focus on continual process of obtaining new skills and qualification.For more information and to explore other episodes, go to www.ppcpackaging.com/the-packaging-brothersFollow PPCPackaging on social media!  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pacific-packaging-components-inc-/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PPCPackaging/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ppcpackaging/?hl=en Website: http://www.ppcpackaging.com/Find out more about Andriy and connect with him on LinkedIn.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andriy-pereuda-76118364The views and opinions expressed on the "Packaging Brothers" podcast are solely those of the author and guests and should not be attributed to any other individual or entity. This podcast is an independent production of Packaging Brothers, and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2023.

Powered by Mountain Collective Digital Courses: The 3 S's Workflow to Increase Freelance Clients in 4 Weeks

SUMMARY In this Episode Nick explains and explores his experience with YouTube. What he learned from launching a YouTube channel during COVID, and his new recommendation for churches and ministry leaders for delivering useful content online for Gen Z and Gen Alpha and beyond. Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry Or get FREE transcripts at http://www.hybridministry.xyz Or find more written content like this from Nick at http://www.myyouthmin.com TIMECODES 00:00-00:36 - Intro 00:36-07:22 - The lessons I've learned from starting a YouTube channel during COVID 07:22-10:31 - Why start with YouTube? 10:31-13:13 - How to get indexed in searches on YouTube 13:13-16:26 - Ministry Implications 16:26-20:36 - YouTube Best Practices 20:36-22:09 - Outro TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:00): What is up everybody? And welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Excited to be with you today. I am Nick Clason, your host, and today I wanted to talk about YouTube, and I actually wanted to talk about why I think it is useful for churches to quit live streaming their sermons. Now, hear me out. Hear me out. Before I dive into all that, let me just get a couple of things off the bat here said. So first and foremost, I wanna talk about YouTube. I don't like to talk about things on this show that I don't have a lot of experience with. And so today is an exception because I have almost zero experience with YouTube. And so for you to understand why and why and the history and everything like that, I just want to give a quick overview. So the church that I most recently served at, not where I am now, but where I most recently before here served at, had a almost 600 YouTube subscriber channel and over 300 or something like that, videos published on it. Nick Clason (01:22): The reason for that being that we started our YouTube channel and our YouTube show, the first day of Covid. And so our YouTube channel and strategy was primarily a digital version of what we would do if we were in the room. So we would think, let's do a game. And in our defense, I think what we did game wise and announcement wise and host wise was a little more YouTube centric than just simply throwing a camera in the back of the room and us pretending there were students there. But instead we were doing it a live stream. So what I mean by that is we built a studio and instead of a game, a screen game or something, we would do a segment. And it was almost like competition or challenge based. So I mean, if you think Mr. Beast or any of those big YouTubers, it was things like that. Nick Clason (02:27): So we were trying to think outside the box and trying to morph and do student ministry in a YouTube sort of way. One of the things that I think shot us in the foot was, first of all, we did it in a pinch. So we did it immediately and we pivoted very fast. And what we did and what we created, I personally was very proud of. But all that being said, once Covid began to run its course and things were over and opening a little bit more, people were looking for an in-person experience. And so what we were producing online was really no longer fulfilling the need that it needed to. So it probably needed an adjustment, and we started to make those adjustments. And what I mean by that is once Covid was over and kids were not stuck in their room, they're probably not that interested in our little segment or our little trivia game that we're playing or whatever on the screen. Nick Clason (03:29): But I do think that we had tons of formidable and useful spiritual content sermons, messages, whatever and whatnot that were totally useful. The problem was we did it in a full, long form show, so to speak. And so just youth group games and announcements and worship and all those things led into the message. And so you didn't get to the message until about 16 minutes on the actual YouTube thing. Typically the shows around 30 minutes or so. And so it was about half stuff and half a message. You get it If you're programming in the room, it's exactly what you would think as far as format wise, okay? And all of that. I was at a multi-site megachurch. All of that was handled by a creative team, a video editor, an audio producer, our tech department handled that, handled, uploading, posting, making it live, all those things. Nick Clason (04:29): And so I helped produce the content. I helped think through some of the philosophy and the strategy of it, but I was not boots on the ground in the weeds, hands on with doing, posting all the YouTube content and growing the channel. And in a lot of ways, the 600 something subs subscribers were a response to what happened during Covid, right? Everyone was subscribing to YouTube channels. Everyone that called our church home, parents, students alike, they subscribing to our channel. All right? So now fast forward to where I am now, and I'm at a little bit smaller church. We got a team of three, but we have around the same student count, or slightly more than the campus that I was at. And so we have a pretty frequent schedule Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday. So every three days, there's something that we need to be thinking for, planning for, and prepping for. Nick Clason (05:26): Not to mention, the entire team of where I'm at is completely brand new. And so we are basically building something from the ground up. There was some stuff in place before and whatever and whatnot. But the reality is we're starting from the ground up. One of the things that we're starting from the ground up, we're continuing on with the Wednesday meeting times, Sunday meeting times, but we're launching and fleshing out a completely digital strategy. And so with all that being said, I wanna just give that caveat to this is my experience with YouTube. I have been very involved in the production of YouTube content. I've learned a lot of things, some dos and don'ts and whatevers and whatnots. But also we are at the church of, we are gonna be changing our name here in January. And so I actually secured the YouTube channel for our future name of our student ministry, which is still a secret to a lot of people. Nick Clason (06:28): So because of that, I have not started posting things to YouTube. What I have started doing is I have started beta testing our YouTube strategy more on a video filming and editing side of things. Is this a sustainable and scalable process that I can continue to implement beyond on a week to week type basis? And so I've been practicing some things, and so I think I feel pretty good about the workflow and rhythm to be able to pull some of these things off. And so I'm excited about launching a YouTube channel and account in January knowing that I'll be able to replicate what I've been doing. So that's sort the background and the history of at least my personal experience with YouTube. So why start with YouTube? Alright, I think YouTube is, is actually a really unique social media platform. It's the only one of its kind in the category of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube is owned by Google, and it's the only social media platform in that category of those kind of core FI four or five that is owned by Google. Nick Clason (07:52): So you got Google, you got Meta, and then you got TikTok, who's sort of like the third player, the owner there in that, right? You've probably heard this before, but YouTube is actually widely considered by many to be the second largest search engine in the world behind only Google. Some if you get real nitty gritty with it, some actually say it's not the second largest, it's the third largest because Google Images is technically larger. Bottom line, all three, Google search, Google images and YouTube are owned by the same parent company, Google. And regardless of that, right? YouTube is a search engine. And so who among us has not installed a light fixture from the help of a friendly person who posted a YouTube tutorial on YouTube for us to watch and consume and use, Okay? And because it's a search engine, I think it's actually a pretty strategic advantage that can be used by us as pastors and ministry leaders. Nick Clason (08:55): Because if you think about it, when you search for a video, right? Search more how to or think how to fix, how to answer, how to do this, how to navigate this. So, or challenge us to think YouTubers rather than pastors or speakers. And I think that was one of our number one Achilles heels in where I was before. We were thinking YouTubers in a lot of ways, but in our, for example, and I'll get to this in a minute, but in our titling and in our thumbnails, we were treating this as series, the series Jesus series, Part three, March 1st. That's not a compelling, in captivating title for our audience who is with us every week and just wants to get on there and watch something on demand that may be helpful. But to someone who's gonna organically come across our YouTube content, that doesn't explain anything about what's in the video. Nick Clason (09:59): So why is live streaming problematic particularly? And full disclosure, I'm a student pastor. And so if you're watching this in a senior pastor and your church has good cameras, good audio equipment, good lighting to fully embrace a live streaming strategy, then by all means continue to do that. But if you're a youth pastor, I would not necessarily recommend building the gear, the switcher, the infrastructure of live streaming. All right, So let's talk about watch times. Cause this plays into it. According to a backlink.dot com, they surveyed and looked at 1.3 million YouTube videos to try and better understand the YouTube search feature and algorithm. What they determined was that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos. And the average length of a first page YouTube video that's beneficial and helpful is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. All right? So you need to understand that the way that YouTube indexes and categorizes their videos is a combination of two things. Nick Clason (11:15): Overall, watch time paired with average percentage viewed. And so it turns out that videos in the 14 to 16 minute range actually index really well. In fact, those are the highest ones on search. There are other factors of things that help increase watch times, such as the hook or the intro. All right, So let's just think in the land of sermon delivering a sermon, Okay? I want you to just rank these two scenarios. Scenario number one. Hey everybody, welcome back. Real quick before I dive into tonight's message, I wanna remind you about the Churchwide Bake sales. It's coming up on Sunday, and if you want to earn money toward the mission trip, it is required that you be in attendance. If for some reason you can't make it, just be sure to talk to me afterwards. All right? Now, last week when we were in part three of our series, Jesus, we were reminded that Jesus was bonded together with his disciples because of their love. Nick Clason (12:14): And so tonight, what I wanna focus on in part four is what happens after the death burial and then ultimately resurrection of Jesus, right? That's scenario number one. That's you preaching to your congregation, your students, the people that call your church home. Let's talk about scenario number two. Hey, what if you could win a million dollars? What if I told you that the message of Jesus is actually one that supersedes and rises far above the benefits of winning millions and millions of dollars? Do you see how one at least has the intention of a hook? I don't know if it's good or not, right? That's why I say in fairness, I'm not a YouTube sivan or expert, but I want you, I wanna challenge you to think like a YouTuber. And so where one is taking care of housekeeping in your student ministry, what's going on the bake sale? The second one is actually thinking about YouTube first. It's creating a hook. So what are some implications for ministry? Well, first of all, a 30 to 45 minute sermon where the speaker is presenting primarily to a room full of people versus not really looking or paying attention to the camera. It's just there. Capturing them, doesn't act, Doesn't exactly right. Speak YouTube's preferred language. Think about it, in a live room environment anyway, messages between the length of 10 to 25 minutes seem to have become a pretty optimal length for student ministries who gather in person. Nick Clason (13:51): And I also think that if you take your YouTube or if you take your message content that you're going to already naturally deliver into a room, what I'm gonna actually propose here is that instead of capturing you delivering live to your room, I'm gonna propose that you prefill your content. And what happens is when you prefill your content, number one, you can create and craft a hook that is specific in particular for YouTube. Secondly, you can shave the time down to fit into that 14 to 16 minute window. Even if you go longer in the room, aim for that 14 to 16 minute window. And third, it gives you the opportunity to practice your message before you get up there and deliver it to a live room full of teenagers or parishioners or congregation members. And so that's one of the things that we've been doing. Nick Clason (14:58): We teach live every single Wednesday night, but during that week, after I'm done with my prep, I sit down, I put up a camera and iFilm my message. Then I do a little bit of post production, I add a sound bed behind it. I do some flying in graphics, lower thirds slides, and I put those on the screen as well. And that's gonna be our strategy for YouTube. Why? Number one, it's gonna let us do a YouTube first messaging. We're not gonna bury it behind a bunch of other elements. We're gonna go with the message first. If YouTube is in fact a search engine and kids are out there searching for answers to their faith, then let's give them the answers to their faith. And they might not care about our church announcements. They might not care about the worship, but what they do want is they want answers. Nick Clason (15:45): So answer the question, tell them what you're gonna talk about with the hook right up front at the very beginning of the video. And that for me is one of the hardest shifts, is moving from holding my ace content up my sleeve until the very end, waiting for the message to climax, but instead giving a teaser and a preview at the very beginning of the message. That's a shift. YouTubers do that really well. Pastors build to their ultimate conclusion, and so they try to create this mystery around what's gonna come. But the reality is on YouTube, if you don't hook them right off the bat immediately, then they are gone and on to the next thing. And so think like a YouTuber. Let's talk through some other YouTube best practices. Like I said, make sure your titling is something that a YouTuber would search for as opposed to Jesus Week three, Mark 14, one through 10. Nick Clason (16:39): That's not as captivating a title as Is hell a real place dealing with crippling anxiety or is rest even possible? You see the difference between those two. Think YouTube, think search engine, think click bait, think controversial type titles that help your video perform better because it's a search engine. The meta description or the title, the description of the video, those things all play a huge role in the YouTube ranking. So make sure you spend a little bit of time thinking through and crafting some good compelling descriptions. And then you can also link to things on your church's website or social media, or maybe even some products in the description of your video. Also include tags. YouTube gives you a spot to do that. So include keywords from your videos or tags that relate back to the topic. All three of those factors, title, description, tags, all play a role in the searchability of your YouTube content. Nick Clason (17:33): Also, your thumbnail plays plays a role. Go look at Mr. Beast. He's like number one, YouTuber in the world. Go look at his thumbnails on his YouTube channel and just get some photos with a decent iPhone, maybe a Google Pixel phone to take some halfway decent portrait shots. Throw some catchy text over it using maybe something like PowerPoint Canva, or if you have more skill Photoshop and use different catchy thumbnails to try on your videos. You can also then use a free tool like trends.google.com to look up your searchable words and compare things. AB testing. If you wanted to use the word fear versus the word anxiety, put those into trends.google.com. And you'll notice that anxiety has a higher search level. So use that. Nick Clason (18:25): And then also comments and shares and people embedding your videos are all things that are gonna help index it better in the YouTube algorithm. So ask for things like comments, ask for things like shares, and then on the embedding feature, try to embed your YouTube videos onto your church website onto your, And so then your website is hosting your YouTube video and embedding it already helps index it better. So you already have a platform that people are going to. So use that. That's a feature that's already built in and that can help you get going. All right, what if you're just starting? What starting gear do you need, right? Listen, if you're gonna go budget friendly, get a nice smartphone, right? I just gotta Google Pixel, the latest iPhone have some great things. One of the main things for filming is you need a separate microphone, Okay? Nick Clason (19:24): So you can get, just go on Amazon, do a quick search for a shotgun microphone with your style of phone connection that's needed. You can get something for under a hundred bucks. You can also get a lapel, a wireless lapel lighting. Natural lighting is great. Some ring lights can help. Do the trick. Get a tripod that you can stick your phone on. If you want a more professional rig, then listen. Just go to YouTube, search best YouTube starter set for gear, and you'll find something. I love everything that Brady Sheer from Pro Church Tools has to say just about anything in the church digital space. And in fact, I think the day I'm recording this, he yesterday just trapped a video on his favorite camera gear. So go copy that if you got the budget to do it and make it happen. And then you're just gonna have to do things like edit, and you're gonna figure out you wanna use iMovie, Da Vinci, Resolve Adobe Final Cut Pro. Nick Clason (20:20): Again, budget for some of those are cheaper, like iMovie and Da Vinci Resolve are free. More expensive options are the Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro. You're just gonna have to see what you have and what's available out there. But listen, my recommendation, again, like I said, get on YouTube. Treat it like a search engine. Get out there. Put your message, the message of hope that you have about Jesus. Create a YouTube channel. Prefill your content or film it after you deliver it. If you want it to be a little bit more polished and you've a little bit more familiar with it, and just start posting some stuff out there, right? Try some things. Follow some of these best practices. You may not go viral overnight. I can't promise that, but these are some of the best practices out there on YouTube. And so simply following them is just gonna give you the best chance to be discovered. Nick Clason (21:12): And that's the goal. We want students, teenagers, or people wrestling with faith to come across the content that we have to offer, and hopefully give them something that's helpful. And this is just a way to expand your impact and your reach as a youth pastor, as a regular pastor in 2022 and beyond. Hey, I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did get, Man, leave us a rating or a review. We are on iTunes, Spotify, all the major podcast platforms, hybrid ministry. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We have full transcripts of everything. We provide this to y'all at hybridministry.xyz Come check us out there and we will talk to you guys.

Who are you? How does your identity influence who you are and what you do? Have you heard of dana washington-queen (they/them)? They are a queer, research-driven writer, lens-based artist, director, poet, photographer, editor, and screenwriter who examines power, memory, and spirituality in place through narrative, blackness, and visual culture. dana explores blackness, cultural/knowledge production, and power systems through narrative, image, performance poetry, and video. Their research and practice integrate embodied knowledge with experimental approaches to investigate figuration of blackness, queerness, knowing, and being in the world.Also, they are a self-taught artist. They recall 2012, when they got into the editing space. Their friends introduced them to a cracked version of the Adobe Suite. dana invested into their filming and learned how to edit.  They used various videos and photographs to create narratives. In this episode, dana takes us through their journey to becoming the fantastic artist and writer they are today. They share what time means to them and how they have built their brand through identity. When it comes to the black body and politics, dana believes you cannot separate one from the other unless the gaze audience is black. They also share how they are changing the black body narrative through their work. washington-queen received a Bachelor of Art in English from California State University-Long Beach and a Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from the University of California-San Diego. Would you like to hear more about dana's story? Listen to this episode. Key Talking Points of the Episode: [01:33] Getting to know dana [05:00] What does time mean to dana? [07:18] How dana got started with their work [10:11] How dana built their brand through self-identity [12:16] dana's experience in academia as a queer black artist in white spaces [17:40] How identity influences dana's work [22:15] How dana takes up space [23:29] dana's view of the black body. Is it political? [24:37] How dana is changing the gaze narrative [28:25] How dana unwinds [29:22] dana's favorite basketball team and player Magical Quotes from the Episode: "I think a lot of us can be considered archivists who may not consider ourselves that because your Instagram feed is an archive. Essentially, it just depends on the value of what that archive." "Usually, when you're queer, the church is in opposition to you." "I try to be authentically myself and that my work is authentic. I feel like if you see my work, you have an idea of who made that because the voice is so strong." "I'm very shy, and quiet. I want my work to be loud in the ways that loudness can be, and hopefully, you hear and receive it." Connect with Dana Washington Queen: Website: https://danawashington.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danawqueen/ Vante's Website: vantegregory.comVisual Intonation: visualintonations.coInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualintonation/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directedbyvante/Visual Intonation Website: https://www.visualintonations.com/Visual Intonation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualintonation/Vante Gregory's Website: vantegregory.comVante Gregory's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directedbyvante/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): patreon.com/visualintonations Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@visualintonation Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@directedbyvante

We spoke to Figma founder and CEO Dylan Field earlier this year, and while we didn't know at the time that the startup would be entering into a deal to be acquired by Adobe for north of $20 billion, the lessons that Field shared around his journey building Figma and bringing on the right investors are definitely extra resonant now that the acquisition has been announced. Please enjoy this ‘greatest hit' in light of the news!If you love live conversations with founders, you'll love TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco from October  18-20. Use code FOUND for 15% off your ticket.  Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:On TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.comCall us and leave a voicemail at (510) 936-1618

Are you just learning to code or a self-taught developer? Need help with structured direction in your learning journey? Then you have to check out The Coder Coder!! If neither apply check this resource out anyway, there is something for everyone. In today's episode we examine the world of learning how to code from the perspective of the teacher and dive into what it's like to sit in the driver's seat creating content and running a successful Youtube coding community. We also discuss how to learn, tips on asking for help, best places to start your code journey, and much much more. Our guest today is a beacon of hope for career changers everywhere. She is a self taught coder who began her coding career doing data entry and now creates extremely approachable, fun, entertaining and very educating tutorials for beginner web developers via her blog, online courses and videos. She is a Youtube sensation with a community of over 361K subscribers that she has built from the ground up. She has been in the industry for 8 years, recently quitting her full-time job to focus 100% on her Youtube community and has worked on every part of the development stack. Connect with Jessica: Twitter Instagram Youtube Website/Blog Show notes and helpful resources: Frontendmentor.io - build real world projects Freecodecamp resource and Discord community Odin Project - Learn how to code! Jessica's responsive design course coming soon! MDN - Mozilla Developer Network - great web documentation Jessica's Freecodecamp articles Jessica's video: Learn web development as an absolute beginner Jessica's video: How to stay motivated when learning to code Jessica's video: Are you sabotaging your coding career? (with Mortal Kombat style fight scenes) Jessica's video: Stop wasting time when learning to code video Jessica's gear: RE20 mic, A7S Camera, OBS Screen Casts, Adobe Suite, Vissles keyboard, Fully standing desk Jessica's favorite/highest production coder coder video: The Office Tour Building something cool or solving interesting problems? Want to be on this show? Send me an email at jointhepodcast@unfilteredbuild.com Podcast produced by Unfiltered Build - dream.design.develop.

Justin Horstmann is a Denver-based graphic designer who focuses on blending the worlds of architecture, 3D modeling & illustration. With a background in architectural design & rendering, Justin works as the senior graphic designer at SketchUp. In his spare time, he leverages SketchUp, V-Ray & the Adobe Suite to create texture-heavy abstract artwork under the moniker Kidfue. https://www.instagram.com/kidfue/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/xrmotinon/support

Me and Matthew Shealy discuss how he chose the career of sports journalism, the variety of skills he's acquired because of the responsibility his position comes with, and what makes Winthrop University's mass comm program special! Here are the timestamps // * :55 - Matthew talks about how when thinking about what his skills were inclined toward and what he'd enjoy, he chose to pursue a mass comm degree very near the start of college. * 2:22 - How getting an interview with former Winthrop basketball coach Pat Kelsey solidified his resolve in pursuing a mass comm degree. * 3:55 - How Matthew was able to set up an interview with Winthrop's head basketball coach. * 6:02 - How working for the Johnsonian and making connections made Matthew's first two years at Winthrop meaningful. * 6:45 - Some of the most memorable moments Matthew's had to cover in Winthrop athletics, and how he got to talk to Mayor Gettys amongst other important officials in Rock Hill. * 9:55 - The self rewarding work The Johnsonian presents. * 10:20 - The staff set-up of The Johnsonian weekly student news publication. * 14:10 - How the diverse responsibilities of being The Johnsonian's sports editor better prepared Matthew for his career. * 16:07 - What Matthew does in forms of journalism other than print, such as podcasting and social media. * 19:35 - The importance of being able to use the Adobe Suite as a modern content creator. * 21:44 - Being a member of the Student Media Poll, a recently started media poll of student journalists that rank the top 25 teams in college basketball and football. * 24:24 - How the 1 on 1 time you get, and the variety of opportunities Winthrop presents better prepare mass comm students for their careers; including tv studio practice, print, and radio broadcasting amongst other things.

#37: Graphic Design Assistant Cheri and Merchandise Design Assistant Saige team up to answer design questions that were sent in on Instagram. They share what they do to get out of a creative rut, their advice for people looking to launch their careers in design, and the pros and cons of design school vs being self taught. Plus, they talk about how they've grown as designers while working at Mayfair!   Today, Cheri and Saige talk about:    Their favorite elements of design  Design trends for 2022 What sparked their love for art and design   Staying open minded to inspiration  Honing in on their Adobe Suite skills  Supplementing traditional education with self study    “We just have to keep breaking the boxes and getting outside of our comfort zones to find new techniques.”  #MAYFAIRWORLD Get In Touch With Cheri and Saige: Follow Cheri on Instagram HERE  Follow Saige on Instagram HERE    MERCH: We are offering 20% off with the code MAYFAIRWORLD. Shop our latest drop HERE.    Want More From Mayfair? Follow Sam on Instagram HERE Follow The Mayfair Group on Instagram HERE Shop The Mayfair Group HERE TEXT 81247 for exclusive updates! By signing up via text, you agree to receive recurring automated promotional and personalized marketing text messages (e.g. cart reminders) from Mayfair Merch at the cell number used when signing up. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Reply HELP for help and STOP to cancel. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. View Terms {http://attn.tv/mayfairmerch/terms.html} & Privacy {https://attnl.tv/legal/p/Vii}   This podcast is produced by Nikki Butler Media

Have you ever thought "Hmm, I probably shouldn't really be using Canva for my graphics... it's not that professional".Sure, it doesn't do as much fancy things as Photoshop or cost as much as the Adobe Suite but friends - I use Canva for 95% of my own designs!! (AND my clients who run million dollar businesses).So, the clincher isn't Canva itself... it's something else.In this episode of Design Hacks for DIYers I give the goss on why it's not Canva that's the real culprit (the THREE things actually).I talk to how these mistakes are hindering your success:1.  Not having a brand strategy2. Not knowing how to communicate your message3. Not being in the know around good designLINKS:Website: www.whitedeer.com.auInstagram: www.instagram.com/whitedeergdHelpful Resources (Free): www.whitedeer.com.au/freebiesThe Co+Creation Club Waitlist: www.diydesignmybiz.com/club

>I am struggling on what to do in a post Adobe Suite subscription world. Microsoft buys ANOTHER gaming company, is Playstation dead?

Herzlich willkomen zu einer neuen Folge Bugtales! Es ist ein kleines Jubiläum, da es die 50. Folge unseres im letzten Sommer entstandenen Podcasts ist - yeah! Deshalb haben wir Halloween zum Anlass genommen, euch in zwei Gruselgeschichten zu entführen: Jasmin erzählt von den Dementoren des Tierreichs und Lorenz nimmt euch mit in einen Blutgletscher. Außerdem neu: Ihr könnt uns ab sofort helfen, den Podcast weiterzubetreiben und auszubauen, indem ihr uns bei Steady unterstützt. Wir haben viele laufende Kosten (Server, Adobe-Suite, Technikkrams, und, und, und) und da der Podcast werbefrei bleiben soll, hoffen wir, dass ihr etwas für den Content in unseren Hut werfen wollt. Ihr könnt uns mit 3, 6 oder 9 Euro monatlich unterstützen und erhaltet dafür natürlich auch Rewards! Wir sind super aufgeregt und für uns ist das ein großer Schritt. Vielleicht können wir uns dann auch ENDLICH bessere Ausrüstung besorgen und, falls ein bisschen was zusammenkommt, wieder wöchentlich durchstarten! ----- ++++ Auf Steady unterstützen: http://steadyhq.com/bugtales ++++ Material: Eine afrikanische Grabwespe "zombifiziert" eine Schabe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySwuQhruBo

If you're a business owner, chances are you want your brand to represent your values - tune in to find out how to create a brand that's unique to you and yet a representation of your ideal client.    Episode Introduction:  In today's episode of Law Chat with Girija, we're joined by Kelsea Buddo, a brand design expert who talks to us about all things branding and how to make sure you're getting it done right for your business.   Episode Summary:  Kelsea Buddo walks us through her journey of graduating as a journalism major, working with multinational companies, taking the leap of faith by quitting her job, and having built the business of her dreams. With fun anecdotes from her professional career and action-based steps for yours, this episode is jam-packed with value.   Main Takeaways: You don't necessarily always need experience in order to experiment with a new field. With things getting back to normal, in-person networking is a great way to acquire new clients for your business. Social media is another great way to grow your network in order to get more business. It's okay to tell your clients when you're unsure about something and ask for time to get back to them about it. It's important to understand what your ideal client is looking for beyond the surface-level questions. Tips to evaluate your brand: Do a business audit before you reach out to a designer. Determine if your brand has hovered in trends. Look at your brand suite as a whole.   Fun Facts About Kelsea Buddo: Her favorite business tools are Honeybook, Asana, Adobe Suite, Creative Market & the What Font Extension.   Resources Mentioned: Kindly Kit: https://kindlybykelsea.com/kindly-kit   Find Kelsea Buddo: Website: https://kindlybykelsea.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindlybykelsea/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KindlybyKelsea/ Get the visual experience, watch the videocast for the episode here: https://youtu.be/JyZeZVdxAn8   Connect With Girija: Website: https://www.gbplaw.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbplaw/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GBPLaw/   Get Ready To Use Contact Templates At: https://yourcontractbuddy.com/

My name is Michael Steinberg, and this is the third episode of the Future Motion Podcast! Today we have a great episode with Vincent MacTiernan who is what I like to call in the motion design field, a true artist. He makes stunning art that will make your jaw drop and he also has an arsenal of skills using Adobe Suite, C4D, Blender, Unreal Engine 5 and more. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/xrmotinon/support

"As an interactive designer, I'm very interested in the latest tech, design, fashion, and art development. I'm always on the lookout for new implementations and ways to express and develop a concept from an idea to a final product. The Adobe Suite is my second language in addition to several other computer languages." Isabelle Udo, Founder at Videorbit Studio Videorbit Studio is an Amsterdam-based company specializing in Augmented Reality. Our experienced team consists of, 3D artists, interactive media designers, and AR-specialist. Our creations have been viewed more than 200 million times worldwide. We make AR concepts for small and large organizations. Creating strong and coherent end results is always our goal.

ALL ABOUT DESIGN TOOLS: Canva, Over, Procreate, Adobe Suite, Photoshop Mix & more My favorite designers + digital artists: @kinziemadsen @emydyer @morganharpernichols @carlywiggersart @oldsoledesign @wawardlifee @writteninsage @samlarson

Where professional creators share with you the tools, so you can thrive... while your'e still ALIVE! Want to join a supportive community of professional creatives? Click the link below. www.sketcharium.com Chance McGee is an American born illustrator and caricature artist living and working in Dresden Germany.In this insightful and honest interview, Chance shares how he followed his creative voice and took the leap of faith into a career as a full time artist. He says: “As a child making art seemed like the best way to explore the world, and now as an adult I believe that to be even more true. I love to dive into new territory. I have a deep understanding of digital art, motion graphics, design and the Adobe Suite that are often used in combination with all of my projects. With my Wife's keen eye for over exaggerating the female forehead and my dog's constant reminder that he needs food, I've managed to develop into a reliable partner for many projects. But most of all, I seek to understand the world by drawing it.” You can find Chance on his website www.chancemcgeekunst.com Or on instagram www.instagram.com/chancemcgeekunst Video Version of the interview: https://youtu.be/luuC2mec8sU If you get value from these interviews please.. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=6470057 SOCIAL instagram: www.instagram.com/famous_when_im_dead facebook: https://www.facebook.com/famouswhendeadpodcast Big thanks to Petr Meso for the music And to our Patrons: Alfred Reid - @alfierw288art Chance McGee - @chancemcgeekunst Darren Kennedy - @dkdelicious Joan Flemming - @caricaturesbyjonifleming Tom Lambert Lynne Davis BIG THANKS! to our sponsor www.drawsome.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/famouswhenimdead/support

On this episode we share our experiences of looking for a new job role, which includes what catches our attention and what we try to avoid, from sneaky job descriptions to questioning if having a diverse skillset is a hindrance and what does being "proficient" in Adobe suites actually mean. Finally we dive into if companies social issues align fully with their process.

Learn the costs of creating a podcast and how you can create something polished that people will want to listen to. If you've ever scrolled through podcasts on your favorite listening platform, you know there are countless shows out there. It must be easy to produce one if so many people are creating them, right? Just hit record on your computer and talk. Not quite. The truth is that a podcast is much more than a recorded conversation. One of the most important aspects of a podcast is the audience. If no one listens to your podcast, it doesn't matter how much great information you're sharing. You need to reach people, and that comes with costs. Over our two seasons of producing Paper Talk, we've learned all about those costs. In our latest episode, we discussed what it takes to create a podcast and why we continue to do so. This post covers some of the most important points we chatted about. After reading this you'll feel prepared to create a podcast of your own because you'll understand the costs upfront, and you'll be able to produce a polished podcast right from the start. Hard Costs of Running a Podcast So how much money will it take you to run a podcast? It obviously depends on your situation, but there are some set costs that you will have to tackle. At the very least, you will need to host your podcast somewhere online. There are some free options out there, but keep in mind that those come with non-financial costs and won't provide you with the many tools available elsewhere. We host Paper Talk on Simplecast for $25 a month. There are other options out there, but when we priced things out, we found Simplecast to be the best value for our money. We also love that it is very easy to use. We also recommend editing your audio. Some podcasts don't, but it makes a huge difference in the end (we'll explain more about why this matters in a bit). We use Adobe Suite, which costs around $50 a month. If you want to produce a more polished podcast and reach a wider audience, you'll also want to look into a website (we use Squarespace for $20), recording equipment (including video conferencing like Zoom for $12 a month), an email provider (Kajabi for $150), and a graphics creator (we highly recommend Canva at $30 a month). We also employ a copywriter who saves us lots of time and brainspace and costs around $45 an episode or around $200 a month. You can decide what your podcast needs, but we've found that all of these costs really help us create a more polished and accessible end product. On a whole, Paper Talk costs us around $500 a month to produce, which is why we decided to ask for your help to keep it going! You can support us on Patreon and sponsor an episode. Soft Costs of Running a Podcast Now that you've seen the numbers, let's talk about time. It's easy to discount how much time you are spending on something like a small business or podcast. But your time is valuable! You only have so much of it. Some of the things we pay for help save us time, like our copywriter. But simply buying something like Canva won't make graphics magically appear, ready to use. Canva has great templates and makes creating beautiful graphics really easy and quick, but it's still time out of your day. Same with editing your audio, researching guests, sending newsletters, updating your website, and on and on. For us as paper florists and small business owners, time spent on the podcast really means using time that we could have been utilizing to produce paid work. We love sharing information with our community and connecting with guests on our podcast, but it is largely a labor of love. As Quynh said, “We do these things [like teaching online courses] to pay for the things we're passionate about. The podcast, we are so passionate about it.” Realize that you will need to pour time into your podcast and that it won't pay you back immediately. Many podcasts like ours ask for listeners to donate on Patreon for this very reason. To produce a quality podcast, you need to be willing to spend your time on it. Creating a Polished Podcast Now, you know what it takes to make a podcast. Here's our pitch for why you should go the extra mile to create something polished. Listeners want to listen to more polished podcasts, even if they don't realize it. Taking the time to edit out fifty “ums” from every episode is tedious, but it will make a big difference in the end. As Quynh said in our episode, I know with Jessie and myself, we like the polished look, the polished sound...I make an extra effort to make sure that the podcast does sound polished for you guys, so it makes it easier for you to listen to. You also need to create a solid platform and presence on the web to help you reach more of those listeners. Again, people will notice if you nail that polished aesthetic. Take the time to make beautiful graphics, to update your website, to post on social media. More people will be drawn to your podcast. Yes, you can keep your monetary and time costs down by skimping on some of these things, but keep in mind the drawbacks if you decide not to focus on something we've discussed. To hear even more about how we produce our podcast, listen to our latest episode. Here's what you'll hear when you listen to our conversation: How we research guests and choose topics. The costs of running a podcast. How we edit our podcast to create a polished product. What we've learned to do better now that we've produced two seasons of Paper Talk. Why we're so passionate about sharing valuable content through our podcast. If you want to share, connect, and grow more with us, join our Facebook group or support us on Patreon where you'll get even more behind the scenes looks at Paper Talk. **Paper Talk is supported by our community of readers and listeners. When you click on our affiliate links, we may earn a commission for qualifying purchases made through Amazon.com. This commission goes directly into the maintenance of this website and podcast. Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer.

Powersport Roundtable - Dec 9th - Part 4 - Laura Rondon Laura, a creative designer with 10+ years of experience in graphic design with the Adobe Suite. Is a part of the Beyond Creative team and has designed for companies like Harley-Davidson of Miami, Miami-Dade County and others. Focus in Marketing | Graphics | Social Media She shares some ideas that may go counter to assumptions we have in how to best use social media for best results in business, plus which social media realms and how frequently to use. So many great morsels in her session. Find Laura - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurajasmine/ Portfolio: https://lauraajasmine.myportfolio.com/work Powersport Roundtable original content including video of the zoom, can be found here: https://powersportroundtable.com/ *************************************************** Thanks for listening and sharing! The dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealers into high performance ideas! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dealershipfixit/message

Matt Bach joins us this week to talk about the latest developments in the Adobe Suite and answer any questions you have about how to optimize your hardware choices to get the best performance you can. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/puget-systems/message

Matt Bach joins us this week to talk about the latest developments in the Adobe Suite and answer any questions you have about how to optimize your hardware choices to get the best performance you can. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/puget-systems/message

On today's episode of the Marketing Lyfe Podcast, I learned a new way to create quick Facebook ads with Adobe Spark! Honestly, this tool changed my perspective on ad creation. It was quick, easy, and anyone can do it! Some of the topics we are going to discuss today are:How to Create Quick Facebook Ads with Adobe SparkMy Old Process of How to Create AdsWhat is Adobe Spark?Adobe Spark TemplatesStock Photos Built InAdobe Spark Saves Time on Ad Creation

“When you push someone into a sales conversation they are not receptive. A sales meeting is not the place to do the education.” Chris Walker was fired from his last job and decided to take matters into his own hands. Chris generated over $2,000,000 with a team of two, a freelance video editor, and an Adobe Suite subscription, but how? In this episode Chris covers areas of his marketing strategy that include being customer focused and utilizing the tools at your disposal properly. Learn his strategy and why technology is not your answer. Connect with Chris Website – https://refinelabs.com/ Podcast- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-demand-gen/id1511588213 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-walker-41597028/ Email- chris@refinelabs.com In this episode, we discuss: Platform use and accountability  What is account based marketing? How to shift to customer focused Sales vs marketing metrics Why tech is not the answer Using money wisely to build business

For today's Open Office Hour, Matt Bach and Kelly Shipman join us to answer your questions about the Adobe Suite, 3D Modelling, and Game Development! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/puget-systems/message

Scaling Freelance by Devscale Our guest today is Jennah Lear, the owner of Blue Loui Studio - a brand strategy studio that helps purpose driven female entrepreneurs create a brand to attract clients. Freelancer Fav Five: 1. Best Month: $21k 2. Big Magic, You Are a Badass, You Are a Badass at Making Money 3. Adobe Suite, PayPal, Zoom, Moonclerk 4. Andy J. Pizza bluelouistudio.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scaling-freelance/message

What is it with Adobe vs. Apples Suite of apps?

In This Episode You Will Learn: 1. That Thee Taiwan Training Has Been Canceled Do To The Coronavirus 2. All Of The Tools and Software We Use All Of The Time  Agorapulse  CauseMachine (Contact Us For A HUGE discount.) Calendly Adobe Spark  Adobe Suite  Google Docs ManyChat Disciple Tools Trello Slack  Google Data Studio and Analytics IFTTT  Feedly  Bitly Twitter  Mac Eco System

All right. Welcome back to the gut check project. This is now episode number 25. With your host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. I'm Eric Rhaegar. And can today we got an awesome guest, Michael Williams joins us.Well, like always, one of the coolest things about the gut check project is that we check our ego at the door. And once again, we brought in an expert. And we spent the last two hours being schooled on some stuff that we should have been schooled on a long time. Exactly. We don't know anything about Mike. How you doing?Pretty good. How you doing? You don't go by my hair. I go by Michael. Michael. See, that's what I did. I did it wrong.Yeah. Well, the one thing that we've done wrong a lot is the lighting in the studio, the green screen. We're having fun with trying to learn how to do this. So as it turns out, Michael is an expert in video green screen. He has been doing this for a long time, and we're going to get into that. And if you're a podcast or if you like watching this stuff, you're going to understand that everything is not as quite as easy as it meets theeye. You said something earlier like you know, Eric, one thing I really like is just talking to experts. Regardless of the field and that's what we're doing today.Yeah, well we had the financial experts on we had CBD takeout we've done Marisol, the queen of Thrones who's interestingly an expert in pooping which but that's very separate from what Michael does.But well I do that.Well, interestingly, I know that will do quid pro quo on this. I happen to be an expert in that in pooping, not in lighting. So since if we should trade back in the day, you helped us out with lighting, I'll make sure you poop. Okay.Appreciate that. Well, awesome. Let's do a quick rundown today. We're going to talk quick update on thanksgiving for all three of us. And then we have a new unboxing that we're going to share with everybody in the gut check project. Then we're going to hop right over to what Michael does best. Absolutely. So Thanksgiving, I I'll just go and start. I went over to my brother's house, Brad hosted we fried Turkey. We baked a turkey. We ate a lot of food. I had a blast. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I don't really have Any crazy details about it we just we played games we hung out my family, his family, my mom, we had a great time. Why is it your favorite holiday? There's no pretense around Thanksgiving. You just it's family coming together hanging out and spending time we we bonded over some some athletic events, football and basketball. We watched on TV. We played games. The entire time we're together. You just eat great food. You get lazy. You wear pajamas. It'snice. You know what, you're right. It's kind of like there. Michael, how was your Thanksgiving?It was wonderful. We had our first Thanksgiving in our new house. So we just bought a house in McKinney and you know moved in of mccamey. Peru. Yeah. Okay. But, and we've been there just a couple of months and we had four of our kids there. So for a six right for the six. Yes, we have our six one on either coast, New York and Brooklyn and everyone in Burbank in California. And, you know, we think they could make I think I'll be here for Christmas. We ate you know that all the turkey and the green bean casserole and lots of sweets and then afterwards, retired to the backyard with a single malt Scotch in a cigar. Oh, that sounds. And you know, it's the only holiday that it's really you're expected to watch football so it was kind of fun. Ranwell I decided to not be quite as this particular Thanksgiving I decided that it was my time to take the family on vacation. And so we went to my wife's from Puerto Rico and we went to Puerto Rico but I chose at almost 52 decided to pick up a new sport which is surfing, because I've seen Point Break and you know a lot of others. And so as it turns out, it's hard, man, but it's rewarding now. So cool. So I took the family to Puerto Rico for a week and it was really cool, sat on a beach made some good friends and some Virginia people that were sharing the house. With us, and it was it was exactly what Thanksgiving supposed to be, which is be with family have some fun. It was not relaxing, like watching football, but it was relaxing, like drifting in the ocean. So it was super cool. And I hope that everybody out there had a great Thanksgiving as well.Yeah, I hope so too. Hey, let's get to it. You want to get to the unboxing?Alright, so let's talk about the unboxing. So why don't you hold up the box. So we're having some great feedback, what we've been learning. So in my clinical practice, I know that there are certain supplements that can change people's lives. And one of the biggest frustrations that people have is that they don't understand what to take. Well, we took it upon ourselves to vet certain science backed supplements, which have Certificate of analysis so that I know what affects people. So every time somebody comes into my office, they go, Oh, I've been taking this and nothing happened. What have you been taking? Well, let, let me give you the brand that I've researched and then they start seeing some changes in their life. So what we want to do is change the landscape of our community so that people become healthier. So every month, somebody can get a box called the KB MD health box, which is, comes with a little love letter and explains everything just like this. And what we want to do is offer products that can change your life. So Michael, for you, what we're going to do is explain what this box is, okay? And what this does is we want to make sure that certain things, protect your gut, help your brain help you sleep better, and if I can get those three things done, you're going to be a better person, you're going to be able to like crazy studios, you're gonna be able to do your movies and all that stuff at next level stuff. So Ericsson go through each product this month, this is just this month. unboxing. So first product, no mystery are trying to we talked a lot about it on sale. So we talked about that otra until a sponsor of the show our Tron teal is my baby. We developed this specifically for one of the only products which has been proven to help with bloating. But not only that the polyphenols in it helped with anti aging and anti inflammatory processes. So we know that everybody needs to be on this, you're going to be seeing a lot of information about this, about these molecules in the future. We're cutting edge on this super proud to have this in the box. Retail Price Is $40 3995.Save a lot. And the cool thing that that letters you get to see how much yeah, sobasically what we're getting at here is that the total cost of this box is about $270. And you get this sent to your house every month where we free at a fraction of the cost of $147. Awesome.Also another core product megasporeThanks for probiotics, so megaspore probiotics, so this is very confusing for people everybody comes up and asked me and they go, Hey, I'm on a probiotic Which one should I be on? I'm going to tell you one to be on a spore based biotic and what that means is that the probiotics, almost all of them get destroyed in our digestive tract, right? Because everybody says oh, they're good for me, but they really never make it to where they should be. We met kid on Krishnan who is the CEO and scientist behind this, we actually did a whole podcast with him if you want to geek out and look at this super cool stuff, but spore based biotics Plus Ultra and teal are synergistic, and they actually help diversify your bacteria. Brilliant dude. Next one is upgraded nano magnesium. Oh my goodness. Alright, so nano magnesium. A lot of people don't realize that we are actually deficient in magnesium and it's needed for cellular health. The reason why I love magnesium, because the nano encapsulated here crosses the blood brain barrier, calms your brain and actually helps replace your cellular magnesium, but helps you calm down in your brain so it's used also to sort of wind down at the end of the day. Next one really cool looking bottle. This is the Zen blend. So, Zen blend Zen blend is a fantastic blend of scientifically proven mushrooms. To help do exactly to augment what the magnesium is doing Reishi core topsis and a few other natural cow is in a Zen blend that helps you wind down at the end of the day. And a recent Joe Rogan episode where he had What's his name? Oh, the mushroom expert. Paul Stamets, Paul Stamets was talking about these specific mushrooms and how we all need to be on this for mental health and neuro regeneration. It's abrilliant episode. Thisis a this combination alone is absolutely insane. Because I'm on it. My kids are on it, everybody's on it. This actually helps you calm down deal with the world. Help your gut already and you start regrowing neural regenerative processes.Next one, turmeric and ginger,turmeric and ginger. We know that turmeric has been a staple of a lot of functional medicine people people take tumeric all the time. What's unique about the omeka Organics brand that we made a deal with here is that it has ginger omma and a few other ingredients that actually work to increase your nitric oxide, which Veysel dilates and allows you to absorb the tumeric. The ginger allows gastric movement of this and the omma has been shown to actually improve insulin sensitivity. So no joke. We've actually found a company and every one of these companies, we've talked to their CEOs, we've looked at their certificate of analysis, and we know that it's backed by science. If I'm going to take something like this, I'm going to help my insulin sensitivity. I'm going to make sure it gets absorbed. So that's one of my favorite versions of that.I mean, if you're an athlete, this is looking like a pretty solid box.Or if you're type one diabetic like I am, Oh, looksawesome. Holy cow. Absolutely. You're type one diabetictype one diabetic for almost 40 years.Yo, you're doing a group Great job of controlling your insulin because, or your sugar I'm sorry, because Type One Diabetes is a tough disease, autoimmune disease where these products we are now seeing that autoimmune disease starts in the gut. So this is one of the things we're trying to do is help all kinds of people but autoimmunity is one of the things that we're trying to fix. Also, believe it or not, we still have threeproducts left whatthe hell we'redone, we are not finished. Live wise naturals.Alright, so live wise naturals. This is interesting because it's something that I really have not thought about until my practice. Almost everyone I check is vitamin D deficient. And now we figured out that being vitamin D deficient is related to coronary vascular disease, dementia and autoimmune disease. Yeah, yeah. So all my Crohn's and colitis patients, all my ulcerative colitis patients, they all would I always check vitamin D and I always make sure We're up on that and the reason why is because we live in a society now where we put sunscreen on everything we are indoors. We've got fake lighting going on right now and we probably just don't get enough sun and in our diet we're not getting the proper ingredients that are there. So almost everyone is vitamin D deficient.The next one I believe is straight from New Zealand The Balm of Gilead manuka honey stickAlright, so this is the one I've been waiting for. And here's why. Alright, so manuka honey has many medicinal properties. But I put this in the box this month because we're heading into the winter months. You can see on my lips I am chat chat chat. So I've been waiting for this one so I can do the rest of the show. Because he's applying it is literally I'm applying it to my lips right now. Because manuka honey, this is straight out of New Zealand and you'll never be able to find something like this here with it actually has real stuff. Remember when you get on and you start looking at Walmart and cheap things. You get what you pay for bottom line, like lighting,green screen effects and whatever. You know a cool thing is if you order from us and get a kBm D health box, every single stick of manuka honey is applied to Dr. Brown's lips first.Yesthat is my signature. It's like welcome back this onethat is not true that is a true freshman who got me got a seal on it and everything but the whole thing about manuka honey is it actually has a tremendous medicinal properties. This is actually a vegan version, grass fed all this other things you know, I said these grass, grass fed vegan vegetablesno but it's the distro and take a look at it. It's it's fantastic stuff.The next one I'm going to go ahead and kind of hijack it because there is my green pills, which is awesome. If you're interested in having healthy products around Your home. My green fills is an all natural laundry detergent refillable laundry wash. So if you don't want to have more waste, you can order mail order from my Greenfield. And in your box you can have your very first container sent to you with laundry wash. And the cool thing is is whenever you need more wash, they just send you just this packet. You save this you just add water in our house Murray subscribe to my green pills almost two years ago. Kids love it. Your clothes smell clean and fresh. That also comes with a rinse. It's it's a beautiful thing. You save water you save a waste, and you basically save the environment we're on a septic system is this basically protects everything that we have.So two quick things. Number one, I'm probably wrong on that particular maneuver being vegan. I don't think it is vegan. I think it's a tallow grass fed tallow balm. So if you're vegan, it might not be Good for your butt or you want to use it, but that is my that's probably my misstep. But the most important thing is here with my green fells. We know this the CEO of his company, Mr. Stephen is out and the things he does for the world. He has the my angels. Oh, yeah. What is that? The guy, Stephen, I apologize if I screw up the name. But essentially, he uses proceeds from this company and two others that he runs. And what they do is they take some of their money, they have a charitable arm, and they specifically go out and find women who've been victims of the slave trade. they negotiate with their captors, release them and then give them employment. They don't just free them and say, well, you're free now go find your way. No, they they actually will hand so the dryer angels that you write to the function as an all natural fabric softener whenever you subscribe to my greenfields It's a beautiful program. Stephen is a huge philanthropist. And he is Yeah, he started his whole business when he had nothing with knowing that the first 10% of everything that he earned would be going to charity. And now he is actually driving and he's the one that came to us and he's the one that's powering the member box. And that's why we're so honored to be involved with somebody who is so charitable, giving back and helping lives day to day but bottom line is the KVM D member box you if you take this, this is what I take every single day. The manuka honey will probably change out when it comes springtime, we'll find something more spring related. Eventually we're going to get to a point where we're going to have the perfect mix and change the health landscape so that people like Michael, that chronically deal with tight you know, issues like type one diabetes or anything, we can start making a difference in their lifekBm D health box calm that's kbd health box.com you can order your own health box this month. This is what's featured In the in this current month if you were to sign up, like and share, like and share not only the gut check project like it should just this episode to tell someone tell a family member or a friend, I want you to start living better. Check out what this box is about, save some money delivered to your home. You don't have to think about it. Everything's been vetted by position you, Dr. Brown, and essentially, let's, let's start off the year 2020 on the right foot, and wegot one last little bonus with that if you become a member of this. Oh, one other thing that I think makes a huge difference people's lives is CBD oil, yes. or full spectrum hemp. And if you become a member, you get steep, steep discounts. As a special gift to get our CBD oil, you get a code that allows you to get it dirt todirt cheap at KB MD health. And if you've been to the website in the last 11 days, 10 days, you've seen that the store is now fully operational. We had an incredible weekend. Thank you for everyone who participated in Black Friday, Cyber Monday. That was fun.Are we going to start with discounts there? I don't think so. I mean, we want we don't want cost to be a barrier to entry for people to have quality CBD. So one of the things that we want to do and our mission is not to just say, Oh, the whole reason for having this box is so that we can get these quality products out at an affordable level. We just want to make we just want to change lives. I want to be like Stephen as well, and I want to make a difference in the world. That's the primary goal here and I believe that we are all Endocannabinoid deficient. And next week, when we talk, I'm going to get way into this FDA statement where they're saying we don't know if CBD is safe. We don't know this and that. I've got all the data on this and it's really fascinating. You may even be a two part show, but that's going into that so keep in mind that everyone probably needs some CBD. We're going to give you the best quality CBD at the best price action fraction of the price right and all of these things delivered to your home so that we can bring health to your home. That's the first part of the show. Now the coolest part,our guests, our guests again, this is Michael Williams. Now Michael, you told me before we got started you have your own company called creative eco correct? I do I do based in McKinney, Texas, as to McKinney. So tell us a little bit about it.So creative echo is what I like to call it a micro agency. So I've been in video production for quite a while when we get this mic in the right place. Usually I have a wireless lavavideo guy. I'm a video guy. I'm not a radio guy. But Butwhy do I feel like he just started the show with I came down here to your really rinky dinkSo, yeah, I was sitting there working on the Star Wars set and somehow I ended up hereI like a car battery lights andSo you guys called me to come down to you know, kind of do some consulting because I do a production video production maneuver about 30 years and, you know, back 16 millimeter three quarter all the way through the digital age and now finally file based digital, you know, so I worked as a graphics operator for live news, hated that get type and then became what I call paint monkey I started doing paint graphics and you know, animation doubler paint system, which is eons old, and then got my first Mac and 1988 I think it was the one yeah, it was it was a two X and actually was doing non compressed video in and out of the Mac in 1988 frame by frame, but it was not compressed. Is that still floppy disk and just as it didn't have floppy disk, okay. Yeah, the three and a half floppies. And you know, scuzzy to Loud chattering thing but and then hooked up to a regular tape deck and broadcast tape deck and we go out frame by frame by frame by frame and I was out putting animation from agencies you know all over the US getting them to tape sending them their video tape so they go into video production post production and actually cut their animation into their spot or whatever they were doing. Sure. So you know I did that for a while and then started my company when I got that Mac I was in post production at the time doing the paint workto back you up a little bit. Were you educated in this at that time?Yeah, I actually have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in video and film production andso this is so they actually had that degree were there you were there really hard on the back and all that.We didn't have Mac I mean the Lisa was out when I was in college but you know we did they were dedicated systems and you know, for very good, butwhat is the lead? I mean, I feel likeLisa is like one of the first production max that hit the market. Okay, and then you get the bat classic the big square box in the two X, you know, it was about this big that all heavies about anchor and you know I had a one gigabyte hard drive and my system had eight megabytes of RAM. So that was awesome back thenI'll just slow Yep,yeah but i mean i'm sure then it was fastthen it was it was state of the art there's only a couple of these in the country you know with a new VISTA card in it and being able to pull in component video non compressed. So it was a lot of fun. And so you know, I've been in production for quite a while and now I have the what I call the micro agency because I've been given away creative I'm a creative at heart. I'm technical by necessity, but I have a you know dichotomy every morning I wake up and which brain is going to win, you know, the creative side, the left to the right side, you know, and I can set up roll anything technically just about any piece of equipment in production. And then on the other side of the camera and then produce something fun and creative and you know, meaningful that, you know, tells a story. Sowhen you're doing the productive side, does the creative side start kicking and regrow, I see where this is going to end up.And without a doubt, I mean, I never lose sight of the creative, you know, the creative vision. And you just technically you want to learn how to augment that vision and make it better, you know, and tell the story better. Nobody's gonna do effects. If it's not telling the story, you hope it's not helping tell the story. So it's like you'rea director of a movie every single time you do any ad roll anything,pretty much. So I didn't mean to pop that there. But yeah, so I will step in as a producer, a director. I'll get behind the camera as a director of photography, and then I'll pull the footage and avid an added for about 30 years and do all of my cutting, and then do some of the compositing there or jump in After Effects, do some multi layer compositing and turn it out to the audio design. And push it out encoded and away we go. So that's on the production side of things I do a lot of live streaming will go into corporate places and we'll set up set up a multi camera and live switch with video roles, you know audio stingers music I mean a full production and what live switch it and away we go.So you said that you had if I understood you correctly back when you were in the in the early stages of before you started creative eco You said you did live news.I worked at Fox News that's where I was first hired out of college was it channel was a channel four thenit was actually down in Houston. Oh down in Houston. Okay, what's a tale 26 Okay, hey, okay. Alrighty. So I'm just kind of curious, leading to what you just said that you've done on the creative side from doing the lighting and seeing the vision. What did you not like about doing live news compared to now doing a full creative production what was what were the limitations and doing a live news broadcast compared to thisalive news by Cast, everybody has a single position and you're an expert, that single position, you know, and it takes a crew, you know of people, obviously your director, your technical director, your producer, your camera guys, your audio guys, your graphics guys, and you know, all of the research that then goes on way before that and leads into it.I mean,I do a lot of different things and I, you know, I get bored easy. So if I'm sitting on a camera, I'm gonna sneeze, you know, if it's multiple days, day in, day out. So I like to jump around and learn and I've been learning for 30 years and you know that that was why I got out alive is plus I can't type fast so and I was a Cairo operator, which was doing the live CDs, you know, that show up right here in the lower thirds. But it just wasn't creative enough. And Funny enough, it was the same format, the same grind, just different content. And I like to change things up a bit and have some fun.So let's see the reason why I was asking that questions. It seems to me that what you did is the evolution of where everyone is intuitively going to get their information. Now, when I was growing up, everybody watched the news. My parents watched the news in it. I don't really know anybody who really watches traditional news like they used to certainly not in the same numbers, certainly not by by percentage or capital, right. So you left the stodginess in the in the like you sent me is almost sound like you were describing a sterile environment for the way things were represented in now you're creative in what you want to do. podcast, people turn to podcasts more than they do traditional new shows. It's it's really interesting that that was what you just did, intuitively, on your own. That's what everyone's doing.Exactly. And it's interesting because this this kind of shows the level of knowledge it's actually required to do something at the level that you're now doing things. So you have all these people that want to do YouTube videos, you have all these people want to do things we brought you in today, and you start looking at the studio and You just went, Okay. So this is why it doesn't look as good as it should. And you started going into such detailed analysis, which is so cool, because really what I want this show to be, is let's talk about the technical aspects because a lot of people want to say, Oh, I want to have my kitchen show for even my prank, hundred audience, whatever. So let's start breaking this down a little bit. Let's start looking at what we're dealing with here, what you changed up and the simple changes that you made for the lighting.Okay, so when I came in, and of course, we're using what we have. And we've got some LED lights, we've got four LED panels, they they're probably about 400 LEDs at that at 300. Looking at them, LEDs per unit.So before we get into that, let's just back up a little bit. Remember, Eric and I, we came from spoonie studio that was all set up. And we had so much fun doing that we got such great feedback from everybody. We're like, let's just keep going but it's been Eric and I tried to do this and Well you know what maybe we should bring in somebody like Michael who actually kind of knows and so he came in and looked at what we have and okay. The greatest thing you said was let's let's work with what you got.I mean anybody can set up a studio you know he got he got a budget man, you got a real budget you can get, you know, real life real cameras, you know, you guys have great mics obviously. But, you know, on a budget, you can still set up a pretty professional looking studio. You know, if you don't have the money, the hundred hundred 50 bucks per light, sure for the LEDs. You can go to Home Depot, get a lighters, a Pinterest lighting kit, you know the little aluminum with a little clip on and then get a compact fluorescent daylight. That's the keys. You want it to be the same color temperature and 56 K or daylight is what you want. Otherwise, you're gonna look orange, and you know what's the balance of that? But you get one of those bulbs, the brightest one they have you put it in there and get two or three of those, light it up and you can do that for 3040 box you know,so if I'm a so if I'm somebody that is starting out with my podcast, or I want to be a YouTuber I want to describe something by can go to Home Depot and you're saying Say that one more time it's 56 K.So what you want to look for is your 56 K is 5600 degrees Kelvin, which is the light temperature of which sunlight is roughly a shade is a little bit lower. And then you go all the way down to the old school, the amber looking lights, you know, your mom and dad's lights as they're watching the news on live TV. Nobody's using but those are, you know, either tungsten or incandescent, but burns at a much lower temperature and it's warmer, brighter, the light, the more blue or white It is so and you can produce in any light temperature as long as they're all the same. If you mix it up then one has color orange or red one parts can be blue, like we set up in here and tuckson and we open the window blue lights going to come inReno is the interesting thing that he did. I mean, you gave us credit for thinking about backloading. That's pretty much where amount of your knowledge guessing knowledge stop. And then immediately you got you started drawing diagrams about how you're going to make light angles cross and cross each other to even out. Right. Sothe issue we had here is one of real estate, its space sure we don't have the space that we need to, you know, create a nice, your piece of trust or something to hang our lights evenly at the same distance from the green screen for the background. So we had to go to the corners and then light across and to get it as flat as possible so that the green goes away and whatever you want goes there. So we cross the lights and it evens it out a little bit. And there's still some hot spots, we spent maybe less than an hour You know, coming in and looking around and say, Okay, let's make this work. And you know, it looks pretty good. There's a couple of hot spots, but for the most part, that Greedo key out one click, and you put whatever you want back there.It's pretty sweet it's it's really cool and I think it's pretty sweet when he came in so so where do you guys train at I'm like I'm a button doctoroh boy calls his wife says honey I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a little later and I thoughtI was about so when I leave herewhy why this fieldmy wife asked me that every day because it is not a nine to five job you know we get up at the crack of dawn we drive to a location we set up in we bring the truck all the stuff to set up and then we film all day and you know of course golden hour is you know, really our right after sunrise and you know, the hour right before sunset. That's the best lighting of your shooting outside. So we're shooting from you know, dawn to dusk, and then we gotta break everything down and pack it up and drive back so not a nine to five my wife's like, could you just be you know, a dentist or a CPA or something stay home. Yeah, Ithere's Dennis and CPAs going. That's pretty much myYeah, so, butI'm trying to think of jobs now that like are just, oh crna That's it. That's the one job.But it's a lot of fun and and I tell people, you know, whenever they ask, you know, why do you through a six I haven't worked a day in my life. You know, I have so much fun. I love what I do. It's different every day. The topics are different, you know, I'm worrying about you know, gut check and you know, and that's important to me being a type one diabetic, you know, it's like, everything is based on metabolism and you know, you can't metabolize anything if your guts not working right so you know, it's your I go hang out with a helicopter and film you know, do air to air filming or climb up 200 feet on the tower and 200 feet out on your big crane and, and then heights. No, no, I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie. Oh, and then clip in and lean back and a camera and film The guy talking to me who's out on the Yeah would be fun. That was a lot of fun. And so I never know what I'm going to be filmingso you actually don't actually carry the cameras and stuff. Are you directing it? Are you are youIt depends.Are you that on wall guy thatNetflixsat there and I actuallyI can't sit idle crew I drive him crazy because I hire crew and then I go do it and butit's like you're hiring them to come watch you.I always admired the people that got the camera shot more than the person doing it. You watch Bear Grylls do his stuff.Yeah,climbs trip just like there's somebody up there already filming you. That'sfine. Bad is bad. Yeah.Or they're doing the terrain like down a steep mountain where there's where there's snow ski, and you gotsomebody else don't even have poll.Exactly the real hero to everything is The person that gets the shotyeah definitely camera man or you know the unsung heroes of productionyeah get to the bottom of the run these posing and you look at the camera guys missing a leg shotI love you.But yeah, like I said I started out as a graphics operator I thought I wanted to be a digital artist you know, I wanted to be an artist some sort and when I went into college, I want to be a starving artist. So I got a technical background and then started editing and fell in love with editing because that's where the story is really told you can have horrible footage and a great editor and come out with something that's pretty darn good. And you got great footage and a horrible editor and it comes out like crap that has no job.So the editing, I actually so I downloaded Final Cut Pro 10 you know to try and do some stuff with ABS and with zero training and oh my gosh, like all things it is it's so frustrating and You just you just get immediate humility. Anytime that I try and do anything that somebody else is really good at and you're like, oh, wow, I know what I can do. I can do a rectal, really good. But beyond that now I don't know.Yeah, well, I mean, it gives you tired head you look at it and then after a while you get frustrated because it you it's not nearly as intuitive as you want it to be. Right. Right.And not not right away anyway. Yeah, I mean, there is a deep learning curve on any editing software. Yeah, it's gotten so much easier. It wasn't a past.Yeah, what you're talking about it with the equipment you were using and what they're able to do. I was thinking about this when you were saying that I'm thinking of movies now that I watch. I was like, Wow, those graphic effects can Assad and you realize they're pretty amazing for the equipment that they had?Oh, yeah,a lot of those without an optically you know, with film up until you see, you know, digital was there but not for film quality. And do you know you could get on a flame or fire your discrete logic big system you have the size of refrigerator the computers and onyx in get all in stock frame by frame but you get up to K images. Now we you know take it off a micro SD card drop it in a way we go, you know, a lot has changed and it's got a lot a lot higher resolution and a lot smaller form factor so makes you know, your creative vision easier to to maintain and keep focused on instead of having to worry about too much of the year. You remember Terminator?Oh, yeah. That was a huge fan favorite for my my friends and I growing up was Terminator one. And then when finally Terminator two came out with the T 1000. And it became it was already animated. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I didn't even know what to think. I remember seeing that and looking back at Terminator one saying I love Terminator one, but I don't know what this is.And this is amazing. That is a great question. So as somebody who's an expert that has been from the beginning and you you continue to evolve Which is also very fascinating to me because I would think that a lot of your people that were doing it with you back in the day have probably gone on to different fields. You're probably one of the few people that has stuck with the industry for 30 years and grown with the technology.Yeah, there's, there's more of a thing you might think but you know, a lot of people will move on or just, you know, move into something different. But, you know, technology is definitely definitely changing. You've got to keep up with it. Are you going to get lost?So as a as an editor, what movie when I asked you what is your favorite movie that you look at and you go from a technical aspect? This is brilliant.Well, there's I don't have one favorite movie.But there are there are several if you want to go back to one of the classics, you know, Citizen Kane, I mean, look at the the editing they did the opening scene where they push through a window. How the heck did they do that back then, you know, it's like you know, there's some music videos out there that are single shots. No editing just a single shot the whole time real time Yeah. It's I think was Madonna was the first one to do that. And of course you know Guy Ritchieall that's rise,you know her bow at the time and you know, so he was doing some cutting edge stuff, but I don't I don't know don't quote me that he actually directed that but i would assume so butwas the movie I'm sorry to interrupt but what was the movie that had? Was it the Birdman or something that was like no or yes for being it had something special about the way that they filmed it. Michael Keaton MichaelKeaton I'm not real familiar with the verb I didn't watch rightyeah, I think it was one take I think it was one stream or so I don't remember those shots I'm only didn't showthe whole movie but yeah, they really kind of embedded that and you know, it's fun to be able to tell the story and not have to cut away you know, to be able to just because we don't cut we don't blink and Okay, another shot. Yeah, we turn our heads we move. We will as Humans that's more natural for us to see the world that way. So it's, it's interesting that people are finally getting back to the way that human eye perceives reality rather than forcing your brain to take the story you want them to you. So you're cutting away to something you want them to see rather than turning and showing them you know, the way you would normally turn with your head or something like that.Well, what's also fascinating about this is because of the YouTube phenomenon, the the non commercialize the non the non perfected type videos like our podcast,yeah. Well, they're there. They can be more authentic. They're raw.Yeah, they're real and they're not overproduced. Which you know, you can over produce things very easily.Okay, so that brings up a different point. So with your production company, you probably run into all different types of different requests from customers of all different hills. High End corporate, low end a I just want to make a quick video. Is it hard to explain Blame to the over corporatize customer, hey, you really need to inject some personality here. Whether or not they take your advice could be completely different situation. But do you find that that's that's difficult to do even in today's world where that seems to be what people readwithout a doubt, you know, it's all based on their personality, and it's not something they do all the time. They're not a TV personality. They're not a radio personality. They're a CEO of a tech corporation or, you know, whatever, and you gotta pull the stick out. Sometimes, you know, you being that kind of doctor, you got to pull that stick out and let them loosen up. I don't usesticks in my job. everybody listening, please don't worry that I'm gonna use a stick.You're pulling out little little loosen up a little bit. Yeah, that'snever loosens everybody up when you go to sleep.But, you know, you got to get them loosened up and you got to get them to forget about the camera and the environment and then just talk to them. You know, I have You know, CEOs will come in, they'll have a script and they're, they're ready to just regurgitate that script, like, okay, let's read through it. And I'm like, do you know teleprompter here, you know, what's that? Like? Okay, well read through the script one more time. And we're gonna put down. It's like, No, no, no, no freak out like, no, we're just going to talk about it. I'm going to ask you questions, and you're going to respond. And we're going to get the real story, not, you know, something that's been too legal that we have to go through the legal later. But, you know, at least it's from the heart. And it's real. It's authentic.We were, I've, like we were talking about before Eric, Eric's father. Well, but I didn't actually tell you about this. But the reason why Eric is so good at sound is because his dad was actually involved in radio most of his life. And so Eric was around this and enjoyed it. And his dad taught him and he was a musician and Eric's a musician. And tell me about that real quick. Oh, yeah. I mean, that my dadwas, he was grew up in Gainesville. And my dad when I was by the time I was born, he was the sports Director for the small kgs radio station which is still there today. And he also was a DJ out there at the radio station. He had plenty of friends all throughout DFW there were also in radio, dad played a self taught piano, drums, bass guitar, and he just, he was a true audio file without ever using the word. I mean, he's loved it. And so whenever he would toy around and tinker with stuff and mix with sounds, I just thought it was cool. Didn't have any idea. I was getting an education on it. And then within this opportunity presented itself and there's a lot of fun. So that's something when you when you say things that you never really worked a day in your life playing around with stuff like this, to me is just, it's fun. It's sick people that say like to tinker and this is just Yeah,and I get to do it. You know, just about every day. It is a lot of fun. And there's a lot of hard work that goes all ofus. All of us are not working but one of us is getting paid.That's right as consultantButso you know, technology has really enabled anybody to, you know, kind of pick up a camera and, you know, do a webcast or podcast or you know, even you know, cut it and don't do it live, you know, you can post it later.So we, we've got a lot of different experts that they can talk to to help us both with the podcast and in a whole bunch of different facets. So one of the people that helps us with this show Now, of course, there's Ron Phillips, who's been on the show before. And then Paul Rogers is the guy that helps us cut and basically create promos, all the stuff that we're not any good at. And Paul does a fantastic job. He's really been helping give us some different guidance on how to move through topics and sometimes you don't stick to it all the way but we're trying to and but Paul is actually helping put together a package for a small city in North Texas to help, record and transmit their city council meeting. They were ready to throw down something like $100,000 on equipment and Paul's like, okay, you could also save $90,000 and let me help you with that. And it's amazing because you're right, the technology really is not that inaccessible anymore. No, not at all. And it's crazy because people just want to spend the money thinking they're getting the best andbrightest and it doesn't want that. So if I am a I'm an up and coming YouTuber, because I saw this fantastic stat where it's like Generation Y like 30% of the kids want to be youtubers isthere I want to be YouTube famous or famous, Snapchat famous or you know, whatever the whatever. Snapchat so I guess waning a little bit but Tick Tock or whatever knocking whatever is all the rage down, which is musically rehashed, I think butso it's it's fascinating because Eric's Eric's kids gage and Mac actually were taking classes during high school on Final Cut Pro Which, which is what the class that his high school chose to do. And so now kids are coming out and they're learning this kind of thing. So as an expert seeing all of it, I'm a, I'm a dad. My kid is graduating, they've kind of done pretty well with playing around with different things. I want to give them a graduation present, which would be an audio and video package. Let's say less than $2,000 What would you dothe laptop in that or no, no, no, no, they'vealready already got a laptopand something you know fairly. This just so that you can sitthere like I'm thinking of gates. I'm thinking of the dangerous off to college. He's done a great job. They've got a they've got their the floaty thing, what's the drone?So they've got it. So theonly thing would be a balloon. Yeahin my generation anything we got off the ground was a floating thingthat floated a flag that says that's a fly dad it floats defies gravity to defies gravity. So whether you're a drone or a fly, right, throw a rock for all the same. So if I'm going to sit there and give a graduation present, we got Christmas coming up and you say, Listen, my child's really into this. They're kind of doing some small YouTube videos and stuff like that. Where are what would I give them like as a package gift, and I know I'm putting you on the spot here. But like if you didn't get allyour children, I would get a good either DSLR or you know, the new mirrorless digital cameras are awesome. And make sure it's you can change out the lens in that way you can grow into it. My personal favorite, Michael pop and again,my production never never actually showed up. Somy personal favorite would be At this point in time yo cannon five D but that's more expensive the body on that you know three grand oh but you can get something I mean they shot house several episodes of house you know with the Canon five D and we can put them in places that you can't put the other cameras here the bigoh that makes sense so that like you got this you can come in hereand it's just it's just a great format you know of course I'm a Canon guy I've always loved canon, more so than Sony but Sony makes a great product says Panasonic you know I've got a Panasonic camera that I use for you know EMG production but we get something that if you can has an interchangeable lens DSLR type and they're gonna become cheaper because the mirrorless are out. And so maybe a wide angle or fixed 50 lens. And my favorite lens on the five D is my 7200 L series beautiful lands you get that nice soft that the field gorgeous lands. You know, but again that's a more expensive plans.No no fortunately we're sponsored by all these products you're talking about. Yes. Yeah.So just to recap so I would get you know a the best DSLR you can afford with you know, a decent lens and you can get one that is wide enough that has a zoom a little bit so you can zoom in and get different focal length. A good microphone. And you know, you could get aWhat do you say good microphone attached to the camera or you mean a lapel micon what they're doing, you know, for a podcast, you know, these are great studio mics. If you're out in the field. You might want to get a wireless love or a wire, you know, boom or shotgun mic. You use different mics for different environments for different reasons. But just get road makes a great cheap mic that will hit on the on the hot shoe, plug right in the mini and it's not bad. It's a shotgun mic right on top of the camera. Very, very affordable. And then you know, maybe a light kit depending on what they're doing. They may not Don't need it but lights you know, it's all reflecting light, you don't have light it's going to reflect nothing and you're not gonna see any more black so you gotta have enough light and as we found out earlier that was your issue with your green screens earlier is that you didn't have enough light on the green and you know that wasn't enough. I guess Chroma difference. So isso is there are there are there light kits that come with multiple lights and you can do different things.Oh yeah. And you know, LEDs are wonderful. Now we didn't have the luxury of using LEDs. When I was coming up in production but LEDs, you know, it's a small form factor. It's super bright, you know, you can even go to Walmart or Home Depot or any Batteries Plus actually has some great LED panels that are battery powered. And you get a little skinny arm which is you know, a quarter 20 thread that can go in the hot shoe or you know on the camera or clamp on and you can put the light up here and you got to Gun light. very affordably.Even. That is so cool because if the the number of lights that we have in here right now to get this amount of light back 20 years ago, we would be sweating.Yes. Oh, without a doubt. Yeah, I mean it would be incredibly hot in here if it weren't because of the heat on the I'm sweatingby the way. Sowhat is what you say? Yeah, it would be worseYeah, I refused to like you know, everybody raise your hand like no no way.Well, and then wait, final thing. So now Okay, so as a dad,graduation gift is the expensive camera. You talk to the uncle that says Look, this is this is kind of thing we're dealing with. He's graduating. Why don't you do the lights? Why don't you know aunt Karen, you do the mic. And then what are we gonna do to video edit it.So there are some good software's out there. You can get some cheap, almost free software. out there some of you know, but you get what you pay for. Probably I would say the best bang for the buck because you get a whole suite would be the Creative Cloud, you know, just do the Adobe Suite, get the production bundle so that you get Premiere Pro, which is a great editing software, you get after effects, you get Photoshop, you get Illustrator. I mean, depending on how much you want to pay per month, you can get the whole suite and do whatever you want. You know, they've got you know, soundbooth they've got, you know, all kinds of different tools, and you're paying like 59 bucks a month or 50 bucks a month for that. That would be the best but to go out and buy something you know, I'm an avid guy, Bill and Avid Media Composer. It used to be $100,000 on a system and then it came down to the price point recently and it was like two grand for the software and they just recently have gone back to The same model Adobe is with a monthly subscription is about 30 bucks a month as well okay? But there are some out of the box stuff depending on your Mac or PC. But the main thing you want to look for, you know is your edit interface you don't want to think about what you're doing you want to cut a story and just kind of have it the you know, just very natural you know, the whole way that the layout is the way you know the premiere let's see your change your your edit desktop, you know, avid wants to change your desktop. I think you leave had some real super cheap stuff, these come with the DVD stuff, and you can cut on that even you know, the iMovie you know, on a Mac, you can do some things there. Certainly from the presets because everybody uses them and you know, my my opinion over use presets and overused graphics just because you think they're cool is kind ofcheapens it thinking what kind of it doesn't have to be graduation gift. I think we kind of a cool thing. It is Your children are going to be using this technology anyways, your children are looking at YouTube, they're already interfacing with this, they're already looking at this, then if you give them the ability to tell the stories that they want to tell, then you can start directing. Hey, we're going so and so's getting married. Why don't you cut some disco and bring your iPhone, just cut some film and then you can edit it, you have the equipment, bring the bring your road might bring your light, then you can start having a documentation of whatever you want, in a really cool way because everything that I have right now is just snippets from from the phone. Right and, and I and I have all these old I mean, I evolved very quickly when things started changing. I've got little mini cams, I got HD, whatever DVDs, and yet I've got, as Jim gaffigan says it's very funny. He does a whole set on. It's like we don't have photographs anymore. We just have hard drives, like Well, there's my hard drive from Disney World. And that's my Wedding harddrive and that that's where we're at right now. I'm like oh, but if you can convert things to little snippets and movies this is the two minute thing because if you're good at it and fast at it when you give a gift like this to a family member that actually uses it yeah you're buying memories.Oh yeah. Without without a doubt and most of us you know, we you know, probably probably about your age but grew up in the era where you know, is either film or is video Well I know we'rethe same age because the jokes I'm saying you're theso I mean, Christmas morning we wake up and you know, dad would flip on the super eight boom and then the lights come on. Boom. And we're like blind we're getting a headlights Yeah, we'll do something like I can't see any turn up lighting see spots for an hour? Yeah, yeah. Now you know, it's like you can you can if you get the footage and you never use these ever watch it you know it was on film you got to develop it and it's at the in the middle can for years and which is our family and recently a product of five years ago, maybe 10 years ago, digitized everything from my parents 50th color to music and, you know, did one, you know, a little segment for each of my siblings and for myself and then you started my parents and then you know, went through the whole family and all the way through there, you know, from literally black and white shot in the 50s on film, all the way through, you know, digital, almost so he was on that's cool. Hey, you know, and it was fun. It was a lot of fun took forever, never discount how long it will take to edit especially a project like that.Oh my goodness, a trust me that's that's the thing. That's why learning how to edit it. edit anything in a rapid way is the key. When you sit down to about the equipment when you sit there and say the lighting and everything. That's what everybody focuses on. When everything shuts down, and it's on your computer and you start looking at it. Eric has watched me and Paul will laugh at this who's who's helped me with through this I didn't realize that there's a lag when it comes to the way that we're recording and the audio and I will sit here for an hour and try and move a soundbite a millisecond so it matches so it doesn't look like an old kung fu movie right where Eric and I are talking like I'm telling you that wowyeah there's I mean depending on how you record and you know, you're recording you know, from your camera and you're running it into your laptop and running it through software and then it's running and running the file to your hard drive. Of course there's going to be some latency there you know, there's going to be it's not going to be real time there might be some audio drift depending on how you're recording and how your format is set up.So this was the but when when he first showed up and started talking like this, he's like, Oh, I can see what's going on right here. You can have a little bit light drag over here. We need to change this in this room have audio drifted, you can have lighting I just went different language. Yeah, totally different language you have a you have a skill set. That is unbelievable. And I love that you've kept this passion for over 30 years you said yeah for over 30 years and I've thank you so much for coming here and helping us set this up and hopefully be easier for Paul to post edit this and yeahyeah you probably got some helpso we can you know we set up pretty quickly and I didn't have time to tweak but it should be a lot better than it was and of course we do have some environmental issues but yeah, spaceyou knew where you were in trouble I was like okay, where are the makeup people?Yeah, yeah I always carry in makeup mean it's huge because if you're sweating and shiny I mean nobody wants to listen to you you know you're just You look like a shifty you know sweating bullets and you're like nobody's gonna believe so get some you know some corn silk so just a little powder and not knowwhat's up. Go check projects that shifty as Dr.Careful,little power. I mean little things like that go a long way and little cheaplittle powder goes a long way. We tried that once with Eric and it all got cut his upper upper mustache here and I'm like, Eric, you don't look like you were trying to hell and then I inhaled I caught it all out.A little powder. But what's the beard? Right? That's right.Well, Michael, thank you so much, Robin. My pleasure. This was this is only our 25th episode here on gut check project. But each episode, I feel like we're getting stronger. And now that we've, unfortunately had to try to build her own studio. We're we're learningYeah, and let's just go ahead and recap here. So what I think we learned what I got out of this episode number one is that we don't know a whole lot about there's experts in this field. But Michael, what I took away from this is is that you just gave a recipe for every father or mother to say my child likes to watch this. Now have a box that I can say, look, pull away from the computer, walk out into the world and do it yourself. Yes, start interacting with people again. Because that's one of the biggest things as we automate everything, and we isolate ourselves. It just leads to more and more of that depression and anxiety. And even though wherever, you know, even my children, they don't watch TV, but but though they have the YouTube people they watch and they've turned me on to some great YouTube people that I love some science stuff that I just geek out on, like, holy cow, and and of course, I sit there and I don't just watch it. But Lucas looks at me. He's like, isn't that cool? I was like, how did he edit?Yeah,I just look at that. Go. What? How did you get that angle? How did they zoom inlike that? That's crazy. Man. That's a cool point, though, too, because the technology and YouTube and these platforms aren't going anywhere. So what basically what you just said what Michael is just described on how to do it with that recipe is OK, so the technologies now going anywhere, how can I help my kids and my family members get back into being a human withback into being a human with this technology? One great way to do it is to put a mic in front of somebody and say, Michael, tell me about yourself.Give me Give me your story, your story. And you know, the great thing is that, you know, they're used to being in front of a laptop, and they've got this digital world. Well, they've got their little digital security blanket and a camera, you know, they that's theirdigital security behind so cool. It's so cool. You can sit there, give a gift to your introverted child and say, Look, you're really good at this. You don't even have that. People like being on camera. Yeah. So you can take somebody and say you're behind the camera, you're protected. Ask a question. People like to tell their story. And when you start engaging like that, then you can turn that story and you can make them look like a hero after editing and go back to them and say, here you go. Yeah, this is your story. You become the hero you control. What's going on, and you now have the ability to interact with people, people come to you and go, that was so cool what you did. And now as a parent, if your child is being a little introverted and stuff, you can sit there and teach them how to come out of their shell with a camera.Yeah. And it inspires creativity, you know, have fun thing to do is we gave my daughter I think she at the time was like 10 or 11. If we gave her my my five D, and she said, just go film some stuff. Let's have some fun. And she took around the house and shot all kinds of random weird stuff. And she's like, well, I want to make a perfume commercial. Perfect. Yeah, we didn't have Johnny Depp but we had this random thing. And it was it was awesome. Together 32nd spot and there's a lot of fun to see inside your kids brains. When you're not looking. You know, it's like what's going on in there. I had a lot of fun. That's cool.My son a few years ago had to do a commercial and you can do it like either written or recorded or whatever. And I came home and they showed me He got my daughter involved, my wife involved they wrote a whole script. And I just came home to watch the end product which was unedited. But it was so funny to watch that and so and it was so well done for an iPhone just right, right clip clip clip, quick time put it together. I was so proud of that. And I just looked at I was like, that is a family moment. Everybody got involved. It was cool. But almost family moment I had to work so that they could afford to do that. That's a whole separate that's pretty much the theme of my life.I understand that.But that man, I like that. I like the whole idea that we just came up with right here. Yeah, you know, engage the put everybody so the Joe Rogan recent podcast with Joe Stanek was it? Paul? Paul Stamets Paul Stamets. So it's all about mushrooms and Sol Simon and a few other things. If you don't know anything about that listen to extremely wild. But he said the coolest thing ever, which was, the thing is, is that we are in a competitive world. And if everyone became a little bit more enlightened, a little bit more accepting and a little bit more willing to learn, then we would grow exponentially as a race, as opposed to what we're doing now, which is I'm trying to beat you to the next hurdle, right? But I try $10 think of where we could grow exponentially if everyone had the ability to go you're a really cool person. Let me pull out my digital journal and let let me learn about youknow, which which is well it is it is a digital journal, Colonel. So, one of the things I would recommend is you know, we shoot this and you know, you give to your kid they go to college. Whattime they gonow, my phoneThat's yours.I don't know howwe get this turned off. It's on silent.That's the weirdest thing. It sounds like it's coming through our sound system here. This weird does.Yeah, I've got nothing running here. Itis coming from here. That is so weird. That's awesome.Yeah. So the cool thing about video editing.What mostly happened is my wife got into my Spotify account and it started playing here on Spotify on at home or my daughter more likely into that. But what I was gonna say is that, you know, you could go off to college and you shoot all this footage and they're gonna run out of space, you know, so I would recommend you get a Cloud account of something and have them upload it because then you have access to it. If you give him a hard drive, you'll never see it.Yeah. Havethem upload it and you're paying for it. So say look, I'll archive it for you and then you've got access to that footage.Yeah and I think now we're just I've been finally finally got my foot my kids phones. We talked about that a couple episodes ago and you having unlimited storage now with the iCloud is Oh, yeah, dirt cheap. It's it's not it's like, I mean, it's just I don't know where it's all going. I don't know. I mean, I keep thinking that like SpaceX is going to go, we're hitting data, we can't get through it too many pictures, right and stand the whole cloud thing. Someday we're gonna look up we won't be able to see sunlight, right? Just gonna bea bunch of ones and zeros all over the sky. Right, right. We don't do anything about it. Well, I do know that you need to go. But we've had an awesome show here today. I do want to remind everybody to Like and share the gut check project. certainly appreciate everyone. The new website will launch at some point December we thought was gonna be before Thanksgiving, but that's not how websites go.And most importantly, we're one of the few places right Now that you can actually purchase CBD online, Greg has there's been, as everybody's probably noticed, they're popping up all over hard like in buildings. But the reason why is because we went through all the meticulous process to actually have the ability to sell a vetted, CBD full spectrum hemp product called kBm D health CBD that we've got Certificate of analysis, I see the clinical benefit with people. And we are giving tremendous discounts because we know people need it. This is much more about us helping people much like you, giving this kind of advice to help people to have great video editing. We want to make sure that everybody ultimately has a better life. That's what the gut check projects about. It's about trying to improve lives.Definitely don't forget to do you want to connect without drawn to it, you can go to love my tummy.com forward slash spoonie if you would like to learn more about the kBm the health marks go to KB MD health box.com or KB Md box.com. On the above take you there. If you'd like to connect with Michael Williams and creative Echo, is there a place to get rejected?You know, my go to creative echo.net and you can find out more about what I do and you can book an appointment or you can get my email or any other contact information. Sothat's also creative echo.net not calm, creative. echo.net connect with Michael Williams. Thank you so much for being a part of our 25th episode, like and share a gut check project. Thank you all very much. Once again,thank you.Thank you. I appreciate it. event.See y'all soon.

There's a lot of hype about what it means to build a personal brand, but in reality there are a few simple things that anyone can do to establish themselves as an expert in their space. This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, BlitzMetrics CEO Dennis Yu shares the simple process he says anyone - from successful CEOs to younger professionals just getting started in their careers - build a strong personal brand. Dennis is a master at building easy-to-follow, repeatable processes, and his approach to personal branding is no different. In our conversation, he breaks it down in a way that anyone, regardless of their marketing or technical skills, can follow. Some highlights from my conversation with Dennis include: Personal branding is really just a sum of stories that you collect that you sequence together. Four or five years from now, personal branding won't be a thing because it's just what we do as part of communicating, as part of marketing, as part of growing, as part of operating. Dennis's approach to building personal brand involves the creation of a series of one-minute videos that are lightly edited in tools like Apple Clips and sometimes in Premier or Lightweight Aftereffects or other tools so that they can be distributed then on LinkedIn, on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter. Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner is a great example of someone with a strong personal brand because he obsesses about creating content to answer peoples' questions and solve their problems - but he's also an influencer because doing this has built a very large audience.  The secret to creating effective one-minute videos is to share stories that are empathetic, that are educational, and that bring people along in a sequence towards an overall mission that anchors your personal brand. When Dennis works with clients to create a personal branding strategy, he starts by building what he calls a "Topic Wheel." Then, he identifies experts in those topics and does one-minute videos with them. The videos aren't about him - they are about the people he is interviewing, who are all recognized experts. The Topic Wheel has three rings - why, how and what. Why is your mission, how is how you do things (educational content), and what is your offers. This is very much like a circular sales funnel. The outside layer of the Topic Wheel - the why - is personal branding. There are many tools that you can use to create one-minute videos, from Apple Clips to the Adobe Suite, regardless of your skill level with video. Once you've created your video, think about all the different ways you can reuse or repurpose your video, and distribute it out across a variety of platforms. Resources from this episode: Save 10% off the price of tickets to IMPACT Live with promo code "SUCCESS" Visit the BlitzMetrics website Visit Dennis's personal website Connect with Dennis on LinkedIn Listen to the podcast to learn more about the exact formula Dennis uses to help his clients build their personal brands. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast, my name is Kathleen Booth and I am your host. This week, my guest is Dennis Yu, who is the Chief Executive Officer of BlitzMetrics and the author of Facebook Nation and, and, and I could list so many other things. Conference keynote speaker, expert on personal branding, Facebook, et cetera. Dennis Yu (Guest): Kathleen, you're too kind. Dennis and Kathleen having a blast recording this episode Kathleen: I was so impressed reading everything that you've done, when I saw your bio. I was really excited that I got to meet you in person a few weeks ago at DigitalMarketer, so thank you for joining me for the podcast. Dennis: Thank you. Kathleen: Before we start, I have a really important question. I was reading your bio and I saw that you have run 20 marathons, but you have run a 70 mile Ultra. What were you thinking? Dennis: I know, what was I thinking? It's my first one and my last one. I said to myself after running all these marathons because you know the thing is, it's a slippery slope because you run one and then you do more and then people are like, "Oh, you should run this Ultra marathon because you're gonna have this spiritual experience." I thought, all right I'm up for that and I ran a 70 mile race. It took me 12 hours. I set the course record. It was just outside of Microsoft's headquarters and when I finished, it was so bad that I had to be put in a wheelchair and wheeled to my gate at SeaTac airport because my legs were so stiff. Kathleen: Oh my God, I was gonna say, when people talk about spiritual experiences, all I can think about is when you're dying and you see the light. Dennis: Yeah. I didn't get a spiritual experience, I got a lot of pain. Maybe I didn't see past the pain, who knows? Maybe I needed to run 100 miles. Maybe that's what it needs to be. Kathleen: Oh my God, I am so impressed because you talk about how people run marathons and then they wanna run more. I ran one and only marathon the year I turned 40. Dennis: That's smart. Kathleen: I was like, I better do it now or it's never gonna happen. It's a good thing I did it because after that, I was like, no way, I'm too old for this. I'm glad I did it and I checked the box. That's awesome that you did that. Building A Personal Brand One of the reasons I was excited to have you on the podcast is that as part of the presentation you gave at DigitalMarketer's Agency Training Day, you touched on some of the work that you do building personal brands. You actually have a really cool process behind this. I think a lot of people talk about personal branding, but I've never heard anybody actually express it almost as a definable process. So I just want to dig into that and learn more about it and hopefully come away with an idea for people who are listening who might be interested in building their own personal brand, what goes into that? Dennis: Yeah, a lot of people think personal branding is this Tony Robbins, keynote speaking, motivational figure head who's doing the private jet and mansion lifestyle. I think personal branding is really just a sum of stories that you collect that you sequence together. If you're an agency, if you're an entrepreneur, it's not that you're showing only these highlight moments of the figurehead. It's the sum of what your people are doing, of your customers, of anyone that you engage with, someone you just had lunch with and they said something that's interesting and you pull out your cell phone, you say, "Kathleen, wow. That was so awesome. Can you just repeat that again? I want to share that on social." So you need a process to do that. So we're here in Miami and the last couple of days, we've been capturing one-minute videos for a fintech company that provides loans to small businesses. The kind of marketing they were doing is the kind of stuff that you'd expect that they would do. We go the CEO on camera. Literally, I was holding an iPhone and I was recording the CEO, asking him, "What's your favorite restaurant here in Miami? Tell me about your parents and the kind of business that they started and how that influenced you to run this particular kind of company. Tell me about what kinds of things stress you out at night." Then we drove to different small businesses, one is a pet store, another one is a food truck, another one is a computer repair place in the strip mall, and we interviewed these people, asking them about their why, how, what. Then I would put all of that in the bucket of personal branding. In fact, you know how a lot of people are talking about influencer marketing, content marketing, social media marketing? Now, those things have expanded to be so big that they mean nothing. It's just like digital marketing has expanded to be so big that you really can't define it anymore. Just like the phone was 50 or 60 years ago, or the internet was 20 years ago. It started off as this niche thing that people were specialists in and once it becomes so big, you can't really define it. I think personal branding is in that teenager stage where now everyone wants to do personal brand until the stage where, four or five years from now, personal branding won't be a thing because it's just what we do as part of communicating, as part of marketing, as part of growing, as part of operating. Because we see that's where things are going. We have everything we do, from a client standpoint or from our own internal operations or how we train people, encapsulated as one-minute videos. Everything's a one-minute video. For example, one of our guys this morning recorded a one-minute video on how to quickly see all of your tasks inside of Basecamp. In one minute, he said "Literally, did you know if you press control K plus whatever, it immediately shows you this screen with all of your tasks of the day and your schedule?" I'm like, "Pssh, I didn't know that." Or a one-minute video about this restaurant that's two blocks around the corner and how awesome it is. That's cool, that's very specific. Personal branding isn't this, I aspire to climb Mount Everest or I want to live a life of riches and make six figures every month. It's individual stories of other people, and thus our approach, which I think you find interesting and other people do too, is that we have a particular process on how we collect one-minute videos. It has to be particular because all of our work is being done by young adults. So these are 22, 23-year-old kids, if you will. I'm over 40, so I know younger than 40 is a kid. They go through our training. Maybe they served four years in the military and now they need a job and they wanna be able to make 35 thousand dollars a year, whatever they were making before, right, because they have a kid now or whatever it might be. We have everything check listed out, it's not that it's about personal branding, it's that the collection of one-minute videos. So instead of saying personal branding, I'll say the collection of one-minute videos are lightly edited in tools like Apple Clips and sometimes in Premier or Lightweight Aftereffects or other tools so that we can distribute then on LinkedIn, on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter. Then amplify them for a dollar a day to be able to drive views, leads, and sales. That is mechanically what we do. It's not about me trying to motivate other people. We have a number of high profile personal brands like entrepreneurs that are billionaires. We have some of these guys as clients and boy, it's very shiny. But that is not what personal branding will be in five years from now. It'll be so defacto that anyone who's doing any kind of marketing, by definition will be doing personal branding and social media and SEO and all of that, not as separate functions, but they're all now the same thing actually. Personal Branding v. Influencer Marketing Kathleen: Yeah, it's very interesting. I have so many questions for you from what you just said. The first thing that comes to my mind is it's fascinating to me to have this conversation at this time because you use the word influencer earlier. There is this really interesting evolution of what it means to be an influencer now, especially with people from younger generations who grew up with Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook. They're very comfortable being in front of an audience and being very personal. Their definition of privacy, I think, is different than other generations. So I guess my first question is really, how do you draw the line between influencer and personal brand? Dennis: I don't like the word influencer because it's got that taint, look at me, I'm an influencer. You might as well replace that word for thinker. Oh I'm a thinker. I guess you're not allowed to think, Kathleen, because I'm a thinker. I'm an influencer and you're not. I even wrote an article on Influencive, which is the site for people to talk about being an influencer. The title of the article was Why I Am Not an Influencer. I think it got 23 thousand shares. Kathleen: It's like a dirty word now, especially after the Fyre Festival. Dennis: I tagged Michael Stelzner, who is one of my mentors. He is the guy in social media marketing. He runs social media marketing world, he's the founder of Social Media Examiner, he's got the biggest blog, biggest conference, makes the most money, has the biggest audience of anybody in the world of social media marketing. He told me how he was not an influencer and really he was a servant leader and how he does everything to take care of his team. I thought, wow, he is the exact opposite of all these people that are beating their chest. Look at me, look at me, look at me, it's all about me. Yeah, I would define him as an influencer because he influences the behavior of other people. He has the biggest audience, so by definition he's an influencer because he has the best education. His approach has been to be an influencer in the world of social media marketing to actively do research and find out every day, what are the things that people are searching for? What do they care about? He is so scientifically in tune with the data of what an audience wants that that's how he was able to grow Social Media Examiner to getting millions of visits per month on the site. There are a lot of people that are social media consultants, there are a lot of people that have a blog, lot of people with podcasts. We had an episode on his podcast, I think it was ... what was it called? He even chose the title because he knows what people want, so he came up with the title, What Marketers Really Need to Know About the Facebook Algorithm. The thing got 50 thousand downloads in the first month. I thought, holy moly. Mike and I chatted for half an hour and he got 50 thousand downloads. People are wondering, wow this guy is so big, will he interview me? I hope I'm next. Oh, will he let me speak in the Social Media Marketing World? That's what all of the moths are doing when they come to the flame. I ask him, because we spent the day together after Social Media Marketing World? After all that kind of stuff, he and I just hung out. I said, what question do people not ask you? He said, "They don't ask me how I was able to grow Social Media Examiner from nothing to the largest property in this space. The answer is because I use the data and I create content that satisfies that because I look at what the search engine queries are." 2% of his traffic comes to the homepage for Social Media Examiner. Kathleen: Yeah. Dennis: The other 98% is on every little micro-topic like why is my Facebook ad disapproved or how do I make a video or how do I use my Google Analytics and what's a good bounce rate? Those micro, micro moments. I define him as an influencer because it's not the tip of the iceberg of him speaking on stage in front of seven thousand people. It's his conference, so he can do that. It's the stuff beneath the water in the iceberg of lots and lots and lots of little stories and his process. Where he and I have massive alignment is we have deep process. The way he runs that conference that has seven thousand people, the way he organizes volunteers, how he trains them, how they come in a few days before, how they line up and they wear name tags and they know exactly what to do. Every single part of the process. You guys run and event, so you know what I'm talking about. The level of detail that's required. Can you imagine being a conference organizer? If you were to approach influencer marketing or personal branding the same way that you run a hospital where there's lots of processes and there's lots of detail. I think personal branding and this influencer marketing thing will have to evolve from witchcraft and Ouija boards and voodoo dolls to actual established processes for how you become a doctor, anything that requires an actual process like running a factory. I believe that's where we'll be in five years, but right now, people can get away with nonsense because there's not a lot of accountability. So it's easy to say, oh personal branding, well what the hell does that mean, right? You can't say hell, that's not good. What the heck does that mean? Kathleen: You can say hell on this podcast. Dennis: All right. Kathleen: Yeah, there's a lot of throw it at the wall and see what sticks. This is the sense that I get, then there's also a lot of copycat like oh, I see so and so doing this and it seems to be working, so I'm just gonna do that because that must be what works, because it worked for them, right? Dennis: Yep. Kathleen: I think in some cases that can work. Somebody might have stumbled upon a good tactic, but I think the thing that I've at least observed with people who talk about wanting to build their personal brand but then they don't really do it is they don't have a plan. Therefore, they're not consistent with what they do, so there's a lack of follow through. There's a lot of one off, here and there things, and ultimately that prevents them from getting traction which is why I thought your approach was so interesting to create the process because when you have the plan, you at least have something to follow. Then you know if you're on track or off track. Dennis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kathleen: I was gonna say, you mentioned in the beginning, meeting with the CEO of the fintech company and getting him to do one-minute videos. I'm really curious to know if you find any sort of, again going back to the idea of a generational divide, is there any kind of reticence, especially amongst the more established business leaders you work with, to get as personal as you're looking for them to get? One Minute Videos Dennis: Yes and no, because if you broad brush with the stereotype and you say, "Oh, those people under 30, they were born with a phone glued to their hand and Snapchat and all that." Actually they're digital nomads or whatever you want to call them. I don't think that's necessarily true. At the 40 thousand foot level, yes. Three days ago I was in Denver and I was with the CEO of a new company, it's my buddy Mark Karloff, he does MNA and buys himself billion dollar companies. I wanna say he's 56 or something like that. I said, "Mark, for your company, we're gonna have to make these one-minute videos to help explain what it does." It's the Hoover for law firms to be able to serve, it's called Proof Serve, you have to serve people documents, right? That's what happens in the world of the lawsuits, right? A lot of law firms have to do the serving in different states. He wanted to get more law firms to enroll and I said, "Well, you need to collect one-minute videos of the paralegals and what they do day to day because they're the ones who are choosing who's serving. You need to talk to the different people that are doing the serving so that you know that they are legit and not these crazy people that just signed up. You're trusting them to deliver your documents for you. It's an important case, you can't afford these documents to get lost." Collect one-minute videos so that people can see how real it is, so they can see that there are other personal injury attorneys that are doing the exact same thing, that they trust in their neighborhood, to collect at it's scale across all of the hundreds of customers that he has. Because other than that, what would you do? You'd create a glossy commercial or you're do a website. You'd sign up for InfusionSoft or there's all these marketing technology, but those are all ways that I believe people who, whether they're old or young, they try to hide behind the technology instead of connecting with people directly. I don't think that's an old or a young thing. Are people willing to connect at a human level to show empathy because they really care about their employees, because they really care about their customer? I think that you have a spectrum where the people who are 40 plus are actually more likely to really care because they're more likely to be more mature, they have more business experience, but maybe they don't understand exactly the mechanics of having to press record. The young people, maybe they make more video, but they are less likely to make video that is uplifting other people, that is sharing deep knowledge based on experience. If you're over 40, like you and me, you're gonna have a lot of stories. We have a lot of experiences to share and it's not just take a look at this food that I'm having, that I'm at the beach. Two days ago I stayed in this penthouse in Miami downtown on the 50th floor. I made some videos from the top. If I was a 20-year-old, I would more likely make videos showing how amazing this penthouse is. But instead, I made videos showing how this looks glamorous, doesn't it? Look at this view, all the way out to the ocean, there's South Beach, and there's downtown. Do you know this is an Airbnb that I paid $200.00 a night for and it's paid for by the client? Did you know that I flew here on Southwest airlines and I sat in the middle seat for four and a half hours all the way from Phoenix? I didn't tell you that, did I? Do you wanna know what it's really like? Do you wanna know some of the things that I struggle with in growing my company? That's exactly the opposite of what you'd expect of someone who's out on a balcony and overlooking the ocean in a penthouse at the 50th floor, right? Kathleen: Yeah. Yeah, that's so much more real. Dennis: [crosstalk] between older versus younger, it's not that the younger people are more willing to make video. It's who can share stories that are empathetic, that are educational, and that bring people along in a sequence towards an overall mission that anchors your personal brand. So anyone who's going into personal branding and I have to ask them, "Do you have a mission that's bigger than you, that's authentic? Not just because you want to help the world in some vague way, but you want to help small businesses save on their tax bill. You want to help local university students overcome crack addictions because their parents left them." It doesn't have to be some Mother Theresa kind of thing. We all have some kind of bigger thing that we're doing, like us, we're training up young adults. A lot of them that maybe they didn't go to college, where they just graduated from high school or that they came out of the military and they just had a kid that popped out and now they have to work. They're not trying to be a CEO, they're just trying to pay the bills, right? When you tie your mission to that, it's a lot easier to then build a sequence. If the personal brand is just look at me and my food, it's pretty shallow because you can't build a whole story around it, you can't get all these other people around it, you can't build the infrastructure that's necessary, what we call the topic wheel. What you saw when we were DM in Austin, we explained the structure of the topic wheel, about what anchors your brand are all the different topics and the topics move out to the individual stories of all the people you're connected to. Start With Your Mission (and Build a Topic Wheel) Kathleen: That's fascinating. So I love the idea of starting, if somebody's thinking they want to build their personal brand, of starting with figuring out what your mission is. Once someone has been able to successfully identify that, you talk about the topic wheel, the question I think people listening probably have is then, are all my videos about this mission or is it just a certain percentage? How does that fit in to this topic wheel? Dennis: The topic wheel allows us to all be humans, because there's something that you might do to make money, but you also might like to boogie board at the beach, you might also like Italian food, you might also have a parent who is disabled, you might also have a particular hobby, right? We start the topic wheel with six topics, we call this why, how, and what. So on the outside, we have different people that are telling stories around six particular topics. One of my topics is education, so Doctor Karen [Freeburg] is one of the people in my topic wheel because she is authoritative on education and we have lots of stories around that, we made one-minute videos around that. There's other people in education that are part of that particular topic. Another topic of mine is digital marketing and I'll put in people like Ryan Deiss because he's authoritative in the world of digital marketing and I've got plenty of interviews with him, where we've made one-minute videos where I'm not trying to get him to talk with things about me, although he has, but I'm interviewing him like a journalist. It's not about me, but it's about his knowledge and his experience, and I'm making it about him. Maybe I'm interviewing Tony Robbins or maybe I'm on CNN talking about the Facebook controversy or whatever it might be. Those are all different topics that are not to show that I am an awesome person or famous, but to precede the authority because I am spending time with people that other people recognize are legit in that space. When I make one-minute videos with these people and I boost it out there on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and all this, that allows me to re-market for my topic, all the way into my product which is when I can sell courses on digital marketing, I can sell packages on implementing the things we talk about. The idea of why, how, and what is, why is your story, it's your passion, it's a particular moment in time. It could be when I was 18, I dropped out of high school and I wanted to be a professional athlete working for Nike. True story and I have a one-minute story talking about that and how eventually, they didn't except me, but then we got Nike later as a client to do digital advertising for them and how I learned that what the 18-year-old Dennis thought Nike would be like versus the 40-year-old Dennis was completely different. That Nike was this big corporate and it wouldn't have worked out for me as an athlete because it's long travel on the road. I guess I do a lot of travel on the road, but if your career only lasts a couple years as a pro athlete versus a 20 year career as a digital marketer. So those stories, the why stories are the outside ring of the topic wheel. Then move to the middle ring, which is how. Expertise, tips, how to do stuff, checklists, right? Remember, Kathleen, you saw all these checklists that we were showing, like how do you [crosstalk] manager? How do you get a drive in golf down the middle of the fairway or how do you tie your shoes with one hand or how do you juggle the ball? How do you do all the things that you know how to do, especially when you interview these other people who are experts. They've got tons of how do you do a very specific thing, right? So you're marketing from the outside of very specific stories. Not just, oh I was once really sad and now I'm successful, but specific things that had happened, specific moments in time where you point the camera, you can follow the scene of what happened, right? The beauty of the Pixar is that they focus on specific scenes. So the why we market to the specific scenes of the how, which are specific, let me show you how to do something very useful, like a recipe. Let me show you how to make my brand of chocolate chip cookies with macadamia nuts. I really like macadamia nuts. Kathleen: That sounds so good. Dennis: I know a lot, for example, about how to make a perfect batch of popcorn. I have a movie theater popcorn maker in my kitchen. Kathleen: That is so cool! Dennis: Do you ever walk to the movie theater and you're like, "Mm." You're almost willing to watch a bad movie just to eat the popcorn, or no? Kathleen: I, 100%, think that popcorn is the highlight of the movie. Then, so I have to ask you one important question then, this is a slight digression, but are you an add the butter oil to your popcorn person or are you a eat it as it comes out of the maker person? Dennis: Yes. Whenever people ask an either or question like do you want to eat the fish or do you wanna eat the burger? Yes. Kathleen: Yeah, I like adding the extra butter, myself. Dennis: Yeah, I add the extra butter to the popper, then when it comes out, I actually have the movie theater quality bags, right? I wanna simulate the whole experience. I've got a butter pump and I'll pump the butter in there too, on top of that. Kathleen: Dennis, you're a man after my own heart. I'm all about the extra butter. Gotta do it. Dennis: See? So then when we get together, maybe just outside of Baltimore, we can make some popcorn together. I'll ship you a popcorn maker, you'll see what I'm talking about. I'll show you how to do popcorn the way Dennis likes to do popcorn. Kathleen: I love it. I love it. Send me that one-minute video. Dennis: I'm gonna make a one-minute video, yeah. Yeah, and then we're sharing expertise on how is this different than microwave popcorn, which is garbage. Kathleen: Yes. 100%. Dennis: Yes, very different, and how movie theater popcorn tastes so good because it has coconut oil, did you know that? Kathleen: I did not know that. That's interesting. Dennis: If you try to use olive oil or butter, the flashpoint is so low that you burn it and that's why movie theater popcorn can go so high because coconut oil has a really high flashpoint. Kathleen: Oh, interesting. Dennis: We could make several one-minute videos about microwave popcorn and then you'd come away from that thinking, wow, that's really cool, I didn't know that. So I'm sharing how. Then I get specific again, into the very center of the onion tootsie roll, multi-layer thing, into the what, which is how you sell. See, conversion is about ... We all understand conversion, buy my stuff, it's on sale. The thing ends on Friday, it's got these many features, it's better than the competitor, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. There's only a limited quantity, but all these different ways of trying to get people to buy, right? All the things that you say, features versus benefits. That is the what. Everyone understands what. The trouble is when they get to marketing, they're so eager they can't help themselves. When they're supposed to be making why content, they somehow end up selling it again and they pollute the whole thing. It's like mixing chocolate milk and Coke together. I like both of them, but I'm not going to drink them in the same can. It's nasty, right? Or we ask them to, let's make a series of how videos. So around your product or service, maybe you're an agency, you wanna get more clients, you do additional marketing. Okay, talk about how you set up PBC Canvas. Talk about how you optimize, talk about how, but do not ... Resist the urge to start selling because that's the what. So if you keep these things separate from the why to the how to the what, then you actually have a funnel, which is a circular funnel. That's the topic wheel, it's every day content meaning you don't have to keep replacing it. It doesn't go stale. I believe if you do it right, from the very outside are all these people that you're interviewing. That's personal branding. The outside layer of your topic wheel is personal branding. Personal branding is not some separate thing about ... I was thinking, it would be fun Kathleen, we could rent a Lamborghini, how about? You and I, we could rent a Lamborghini for one day and just make all kinds of silly videos and drive around real slow. Kathleen: That's like Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians and Cars Drinking Coffee. That's what he does. He does a different car each time and they just drive around and talk. He has a whole show that is just that. I love it. Dennis: Yeah, this is my garage. There's many ways of doing it. Kathleen: Yeah. Dennis: But that's the superficial kind of personal branding. That's look at me and look at my lifestyle. If you have actual depth, if you have a structure, you have a process, then you're gonna build the topic wheel because it's the personalities that are the outside that are sharing knowledge, that are organized by topic. The topics then go to the very center, which is your company, your figurehead, the product you sell, whatever it is that you're trying to monetize. When you link why to how to what, you use the what to fund all the why and the how, so it's a self-funding funnel. Because all the people that do personal branding, guess what? It costs money, just like SEO costs money. It costs money to produce video, it costs money to edit, it costs money to put traffic against it, right? So what's gonna pay for that? Kathleen: Right. Dennis: Are you just gonna spend money for the heck of it? Kathleen: Yeah, exactly. Dennis: I don't see ROI off of this. I ask any of these people to do personal branding and they can't answer this question. I say, "What's the ROI of your personal branding?" They can't answer the question. Why not? Kathleen: That's a great point. Now, that was a really fantastic explanation of the topic wheel. I think that gives everybody a very clear framework, at least, within which to begin to break down what are they gonna talk about on video. How To Create Your Videos Kathleen: So I feel like there's, what am I gonna talk about? Then there's making the video, and then there's distributing the video. So let's talk for a second about making it. Earlier, you mentioned a couple of different tools and my ears perked up because I started to experiment with making videos and I'm gonna just say, I am the least technically competent individual on the planet when it comes to video, but I discovered one of the tools you mentioned, which is Apple Clips. I think it is the best thing since ... I was gonna say since sliced bread, but I don't actually like sliced bread, so I think it might be better than sliced bread. It is the greatest thing ever. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the types of tools that the average person out there can use to do this and produce a decent looking video. Dennis: So, there are 30 different tools that we use. Kathleen: Wow. Dennis: But that's a mix. We organize them into people that are just everyday people like you and me. Intermediate folks that are specialists that have maybe a year or two of training. Then we have our pro level, the full Adobe Suite, where you're doing things in Premier and Aftereffects. That's pro. I don't think any of us, unless that's what we do for a living, we have 10 people full-time as pro video editors. They are doing things according to standards that we have. But should you and I be learning how to do that? No. Kathleen: No. Dennis: You and I should be learning how to use Apple Clips and Otter.ai and the different video tools built into Facebook ads manager, through transcription. We should be pushing things out to fancy hands and Fiver for lightweight editing. Some of the editing that you can do, for example, Apple Clips allows you to transcribe live and it's pretty accurate. Kathleen: I did that last week and it blew my mind. Then I didn't realize you could also go in and edit it's live transcription so that if it messes something up, you can correct it. It was so easy. Dennis: There are apps that are built into Snapchat and Instagram and Facebook has 10 different tools that are part of Facebook Mobile Data Studio that allow for editing for free. Adobe has Adobe Express. There's lot of these tools and every day, I get three or four more tools that people say, "Hey, try this editing tool. On your app, it'll add these really cool filters." I even bought a ton of apps on my phone that will add motion, that will add just super cool effects, that you can lose hours of your day downloading dozens of these different apps that do different kinds of things. I would say just use Apple Clips and one or two other ones, and not- Kathleen: I think that's great advice. I may or may not have spent six hours last week downloading apps and doing exactly what you just described. Then I discovered Apple Clips and that rabbit hole ended. Dennis: A lot of folks, I know will say, well I'm not a video person. They're secretly afraid of all these tools, like I don't really have time to learn all these different tools. You know what? You have something called an iPhone in your pocket, okay? When you hit video and you hit the red circle to record video, that camera is so smart. The way it does multi point filtering and focusing and light, that if you literally do that and you have decent sound and you don't point it directly into the sun, then you will get good enough video that you can pay $5.00 or $10.00 that someone who's a pro can do the editing for you. I've learned this the hard way because I've probably spent 100 hours, 200 hours of my time playing with all these different apps and figuring out exactly which effects I like from which app. That's a waste of your time. With that said, Apple Clips, Otter.ai, the native tools inside Instagram and inside Facebook Ads Manager, that's all you need to know. The pro stuff, for example, at TNC, I flew in one of my friends from Facebook to speak. Same thing at Social Media Marketing World, I brought three other people to speak at the conference. I had professional videographers that I flew in that recorded on expensive equipment, everything miced up properly, everything sent off to our VAs in the Philippines, that do the video editing. So we do understand the pro side, but you gotta know when you're doing a lightweight video that's just walking along do a cell phone style video at the beach reflecting on some thought that you had, versus on stage, speaker reel, high authority, in front of 10 thousand people giving a keynote address. You're not always using one tool. Sometimes you need a butter knife and sometimes you need a chainsaw. Kathleen: Yeah, that makes sense. I love that you just mentioned all those specific tools because I'm totally gonna go out right after this and check them out. Dennis: We have a guide, I'll give it to you. Kathleen: That's great. Oh yeah, a link to it in the show notes. Dennis: All the cool videos and then how they fit into our process. Just because you can use a tool, doesn't mean it's worth anything because you've gotta figure out how it fits into a process with all the other tools and who does what because it's unlikely that one person knows how to do everything. So then take the finished video and turn it into an ad and write copy against it in a headline and to be able to look at the performance of it and to be able to go back and re-shoot. Usually whoever is the one recording the video is not the one who's editing the video. So that requires a process step. Anytime something's gotta move between different people, it requires a process step, right? How to Promote and Distribute Your Videos Kathleen: Yeah. Now assuming people figure out a way to get these videos made, whether they make them themselves or they get help, they're gonna wind up with all of these one-minute videos. How do you then ... What is your process then for getting them in front of an audience because obviously that's the objective? If the tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, it doesn't matter. So can you talk a little bit about that? Dennis: So once we've gone through video production, which could be as simple as me doing a video on my iPhone and automatically saves to my Google Drive. By the way, that's my little secret, everything goes to my Google Drive. I also have Dropbox and I have the Apple, whatever that's called, the iCloud. I have everything saved multiple places because I'm paranoid about losing it. Whether it's as simple as that or whether it goes through complex editing because it's speaker footage from multiple cameras, like a professional interview. We then distribute that in multiple formats. We take the long format, so it could be a 40 minute interview, and we'll put that in landscape format on YouTube on a channel. Our buddy, Matthew Januszek, who is the CEO of Escape Fitness, he's interviewed all the top names in the world of fitness. It could be Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney, the CEOs of 24 Hour Fitness and Lifetime Fitness. All the people because he's the guy. He does professional interviews. So the full length episodes, we'll show on YouTube. Then, we take one-minute snippets that are square, just the highlights, think of it as like movie trailer compared to the movie. The trailer's only a minute, it shows you all the big explosions, all the big scenes, but you don't really get the whole story, just enough to tease you, right? You know, movie trailers. Kathleen: Yeah. Dennis: Then we put the movie trailer on Facebook and we boost those through video views to build re-marketing audiences, to then sequence them to other pieces within the topic wheel. We take vertical, 15 second commercials, and we put those on Instagram as stories. We take the same one-minute videos that I mentioned on Facebook and we post those to Twitter and we can promote those posts. We have an annual bid at three cents of engagement, we never select Twitter's automatic thing because they'll bid it to $2.00 and spend all your money. We also will post it organically to LinkedIn, to our profiles. That way, you can create one piece of content, chop it up into 30 or 40 other little pieces of content and be able to use it across all your different channels and obtain multiple, multiple value. Gary Vaynerchuk posted something on LinkedIn a week ago, showing how he does that in his content pyramid. It's the same thing that a lot of us that are prolific agencies do on behalf of our clients because often you can't get the client to do this everyday. If you put it as part of their process and teach their support people, every time they repair that HVAC and get the customer right there, saying, "Oh, how is it?" That's obviously the best time. Wedding photographers, get them right then when they're happy, when they just got married, don't try to get the feedback two weeks later and get their review later. Try to get it right then. If you can't build it into the process, then you have to collect it every three months or every six months and you try to collect it all at once, with multiple people and you can chop it up. The odds are, it may be, Kathleen, you and I were expert interviewers but we're not going to be able to get 60 minutes of quality content because it takes 15 minutes to warm up. In the middle, they'll say some things that are good, but are you gonna force someone to sit through a 60 minute video to be able to catch those pieces in the middle? No, you pull those out and use those as carrots. Kathleen: Yeah. Now, how often should somebody be posting these videos? Dennis: As often as you have good content. So I think of Facebook, you can get away with once per day, maybe twice per day. If you're in news and media, sports media, you can do maybe six, seven times per day. The Washington Post and some of these other local news guys will do 40 times per day, local sites, 20, 30 times per day. But most brands, once per day. But don't feel like you have to post once per day. What we'll do is, maybe we'll be at Social Media Marketing World and wander around in the hallways and interview a lot of people, just for one-minute interviews, not some scheduled thing, but just by walking around in the hallway, we'll run into people that we know. We'll collect a bunch of one-minute videos, all in one day, and then sprinkle them out over the course of several months. So I was on CNN in Atlanta, talking about the whole Facebook controversy and Russian interference and senator we run ads, the whole congress thing. I was in front of three and a half million people, live, where they were, in the studio, asking me questions about all this Facebook nonsense. I made the most of that because I got that four and a half minute clip and chopped it up into a few different pieces. I'm now able to recirculate that as different pieces of content, and I've taken some of those highlight components and I've sprinkled them in to my speaker reel, to our company mission reel, to other reels where we're teaching about personal branding. If I can mix and match from all different kinds of videos that we have an reassemble that. Do you know the analogy of Mexican food, Kathleen? Kathleen: No, tell me. Dennis: You can take meat, cheese, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and rearrange it into a chalupa or a tostada or an enchilada or a taco or a chimichanga or whatever it is, but it's the same ingredients, but just in a slightly different format, right? Kathleen: That's so funny and very true. Dennis: So that's what we're doing with our ingredients. So the wrong materials come in, meaning like the 30 minute interview with the client, right? Or you're doing it on behalf of a client and you're interviewing the customer and you have a continuous shot of 30 minutes where you're asking them a series of questions and saying, "Hey, don't worry about what you're saying because we're going to edit out the good pieces or whatever it is. If you stumble, just pause for two second and restart, and then we'll chop up different pieces and we can reuse those pieces into whatever combination that we want." So we think about the Mexican menu or the Chinese menu, you now have the ability to produce any kind of marketing material that you want. So a sales piece about a new product that you have, maybe you could reuse stuff that you already have. 80, 90% of what you have is what you can reuse and then the 10% is the stuff specifically about that new product. Then you don't have to create all this stuff from scratch again. Maybe it's because I'm lazy, but when we do this, it's like I don't want to have to keep redoing things about who we are and what we've done and who our best customers are. For example, when we first got Nike as a client, I thought that was incredible and making videos out there at the Nike campus, interviewing the executives at Nike is stuff that makes us look highly authoritative, but it also looks good because I can quote them. I can bring them to speak on stage like at the Adobe Summit where Nike says, "Hey, yeah, we use Blitz for social analytics." Well, how awesome is that? In front of the other people who are using Omniture, saying oh, yeah, Omniture doesn't do that. It's Adobe Analytics now, but oh yeah, we use Blitz for social analytics. I can reuse that, I guess we could call it a testimonial, but I can use that snippet in so many different places. Think about things that have been said to you, that have been said about you, that have been said about IMPACT, about your business partners, about the people that you have met. Think about all those amazing situations, imagine if you could wave a wand and you could reuse them anytime, anywhere, how powerful would that be? Kathleen: Well, and it certainly sounds like, from what you're saying, that it's making me realize, there are probably a lot of businesses that have a ton of gold nuggets in their B roll and in their video archives and it's like, half the battle is keeping it organized and knowing what you've got in there so you know when to pull those pieces back out and incorporate them. The other half, really what this is telling me, is that if you're gonna be serious about this, especially if you're gonna do it as a business, it probably makes sense to invest in in-house video expertise because you really just need to incorporate this into the fabric of your everyday life within your company. Outsourcing Your Video Process Dennis: Amen. You don't have to be a big agency, big budget, big team, or a big marketing group. We literally started with hiring VAs from the Philippines as $3.00 an hour. So you hire one person full-time. Do you know what that costs you for a year? Kathleen: No. Dennis: $500.00. Kathleen: Wow. Dennis: So $500.00 a month, Kathleen, for someone who's working for you full-time, 40 hours a week, college educated, a real human, they care about you deeply, they're better than Americans in the standpoint that they are loyal, they will stay with you, and they're happy, they're joyful, and we will send them stuff at the end of the day, say 5:00 PM, you know it's the other side of the world, so their time zone's upside down. When we wake up in the morning, it's ready. Kathleen: That's so crazy. That's the part that I think is actually kind of cool about working with folks in Asia is that if you're organized and you can get stuff to them at the end of the day, it's freaky how fast you can move. Dennis: Let me tell you my secret which is not so much of a secret anymore. There are one million Philippino's that do digital marketing at onlinejobs.ph. When I found this site 10 years ago, I could not believe my eyes. I said, "Wow, I can hire this guy at $1.50 per hour? Why don't I just hire this guy for fun, just to see. It's only $1.50 per hour. I'll buy him for like 50 hours, just see what happens," right? Kathleen: Right, can't hurt. That's a good tip. Side note, I absolutely love the people from the Philippines. I spent a lot of time there. Before I went into marketing, I did international development consulting and my last year that I did it, it was right before I had my son, I went to the Philippines, I think six times. That is such a cool place and the people are some of the best people. Dennis: We go there twice a year and it's just incredible. They love us and I love taking them out because I feel like I'm a big shot. We'll take them out to eat to the nicest places in Manila, send them off on a full day massage. I'll look at the bill, like we'll go to the nicest restaurants, right? Even Makati, which is the most expensive business area. Kathleen: That's where I used to stay. That's beautiful, yeah. Dennis: We're doing the penthouse thing and they think we're ballers. At the end of the meal or at the end of whatever it is, we'll go take them out karaoke. We have seventy in the Philippines. I'll look at the bill and I'll work it out, that's like four bucks a person. All right. Kathleen: Let's do it again tomorrow. Dennis: Yeah, maybe it's five bucks or whatever it is. I'm thinking, wow, you could live like a king for nothing. You could have an entourage, if you wanted to, I'm not saying do this. But you know this Kathleen, for $200.00 you could have six guys with machine guns follow you around the entire day as bodyguards. Kathleen: Yeah. Dennis: I've wanted to do that just for fun because I go there twice a year with our people. I was thinking, it would be cool if I had six guys with machine guns, all dressed up, walking with me as I'm walking downtown. Then have a couple people that follow me around with video cameras, just to see what would happen in the mall. This people think this guy walking in the middle here must be a celebrity. Kathleen: Yeah, this brings us full circle in our conversation because it goes right back to the very beginning where you talked about if you were in the penthouse standing on the balcony and if you were an influencer, you'd take a picture of yourself with a glass of champagne living the life. Instead, you were very real about, I flew Southwest. Your Philippines example's great because that's where you could be like, "This is just how I roll." Dennis: Yeah. Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: I love it. I could literally sit here and talk to you all day, but I'm sure you have things that you need to be doing and I want to be respectful of your time. The last two questions I have for you are questions that I ask every guest that comes on this podcast and I'm really curious to hear your response because you do know so many people in the world of digital marketing. Today, when you think about the concept of inbound marketing, company or individual, who do you think is really killing it and doing it well? Dennis: Nathan Latka. Kathleen: Ooh, there's a name I haven't heard before. Dennis: Oh, you need to look him up. I think he's number one or number two in business podcasts on iTunes. Kathleen: How do you spell his last name? Dennis: L-A-T-K-A. Kathleen: Okay. Dennis: I first met this kid because he signed up for one of my podcasts or webinar like 10 years ago. He's just some 17-year-old and I'm like, "Who is this punk?" He kept hitting me up. I saw that he had started a company that did Facebook ads and Facebook apps, and he grew it to millions of dollars and he sold it. Then he started to take his money, invest it in other companies. He would go to a taco truck, for example, and say, "Hey, I'm willing to write a check right now to buy your business. Let's make a deal." Then he started turning the camera on, then he wrote his book that became an actual best seller. Then he started interviewing all the people that were entrepreneurs and running SaaS companies and asking them about their revenue and their conversion rater and their cost per conversion and their lifetime value and all their stats. How much revenue, how many employees they had, what's their turnover, and turned it into the dominant podcast for SaaS entrepreneurs. Now he's on TV all over the place. I think we had lunch, I think it was three years ago, we were in Austin. He was living in downtown Austin, one of the high rises. We were remarking about Donald Trump and how Donald Trump, whatever you say about Donald Trump, who cares what your politics are, he knows how to get your attention. Kathleen: Yeah, he sure does. Dennis: Gary Vaynerchuk knows how to get your attention. I consider them the same person. Dennis, what if I became the Donald Trump of digital marketing? I'm like, "You know dude? You're exactly the kind of guy with the personality and the shine and the intelligence and the speed to be able to do it, but just like with Donald Trump or Gary, you're gonna have a lot of haters." If you're willing to deal with the haters, you will kill it. You are so good. That's what he did. The next day, I saw on Facebook, all this commotion and it was Michael Stelsner and the other folks saying, "Who does this Nathan Latka kid think he is?" He sent out this email to his mailing list of all his customers saying, "You know what? If you don't engage on my emails, I'm gonna delete you from my list." All these influential social media people are saying how dare he do that? He can't do that. He can't be saying things like that to his customers. He can't be saying that to Michael Stelsner. He did. He's like, "You know what, Michael? You don't like my stuff, you can leave." I'm like, Nathan, dude, I know we talked about that, but I didn't think he'd actually do it and he did. Look at how successful he is. Kathleen: That's cool. I can't wait to check that example out because I get a lot of interesting answers when I ask this question and it's always really fun to discover somebody completely new. Dennis: Look at his videos. It'll just be a minute, you're in line at Whole Foods and you open up and do a search on Facebook or Google or YouTube, and you're like, "Okay, I'll just watch a little bit of this video." Then before you know it, you've lost two hours watching his videos. Kathleen: Oh dangerous. So in other words, don't watch them when I'm under a deadline on something, I guess. Dennis: I'm warning you. He's so good. Full disclosure, he's a client. Kathleen: Well, thank you for alerting me to him. That's gonna be an interesting one to check out. Now, the other question I'm interested to hear about from you is digital marketing is obviously changing so quickly. Technology is fueling a lot of it. How do you personally stay up to date and keep yourself on the cutting edge? Dennis: I don't. I know it's kind of a flippant answer because you could say, "Oh yeah, but I know your network and you know these people and these people and these people." Here's my little trick. When I was a younger man, I thought that I could work harder than everybody and keep up with the news and read harder and work harder and I've since discovered, since I turned 40, that I can't do that. So all I do is I associate with the smartest people out there. So the reason I go to conferences is not because I want to be on stage or because I'm trying to get more clients or because I wanna be famous, it's because I want to hang out with the people that have that knowledge so that if I have a question, I know who I can chat up and they will answer my question. So I don't at all pretend like I'm somehow the most knowledgeable person about everything going on in digital. You and I know there's so many different thing and so many different niches, it's just, even if you had 500 hours in a day, you couldn't keep up with all the things that are going on. All the different tools for video editing, no way I could keep up with that. But I do know that if I have a question about anything, I can literally pick up the phone and I know who to call and I know I can get the answer. Kathleen: Yeah. Dennis: So that's my secret. It's not what I need to know, it's who I need to know and that list of who is my topic wheel. So the people that pay us money, the people that we've worked with to be able to create influence is also who I count on for my expertise. So the way I make money is also the way that I'm able to educate. Even if I didn't make money off of these people, I would even pay money to hang out with the people like Michael Stelsner and Nathan Latka and David Burg and Ryan Dice, but we're being paid by these people. Isn't that incredible? Kathleen: That's a pretty great gig if you can get it, I'll say. Dennis: Yeah. Kathleen: Yeah, for me it's my podcast. That's why I do this. People who listen, know I am always saying I would keep doing the podcast, even if nobody listened. Thank God, people do, but I learn so much and today is a great example of that. I feel like I've learned so much from you, so thank you. You Know What To Do Next Kathleen: If somebody is listening and wants to learn more about you or Blitzmetrics or has a question about personal branding, what's the best way for them to find you online? Dennis: They can go to blitzmetrics.com, of course, and they can also look me up on LinkedIn, but please do not friend me on Facebook. I've been at the five thousand friend limit for the last eight years. Don't ask me for a blue check mark, don't ask me if your ads were disapproved, but absolutely, if you want to reach out to me on LinkedIn or go to my website, happy to chat with you there. Kathleen: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Dennis. If you are listening and you learned something new or you liked what you heard, of course I'd love it if you'd give the podcast a review on iTunes or the platform of your choice. If you know somebody who's down kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me @workmommywork because they could be my next guest. Thanks so much Dennis. It was great chatting with you. Dennis: Thanks Kathleen.

M & M are back with you to discuss the Adobe Suite, crazy people who create antivirus programs, people who are not good at boarding planes, and Mike McCarthy's lack of skill at being interviewed.

Episode 16: Interview with Micah Hansen Prologue: Creating a Target Reader Main Story: Interview with Micah Hansen Micah Hanson Design: http://micahhansen.com/ Adobe Suite: https://www.adobe.com/products/cs6.html Epilogue: The Best Time to be an Author Napster (history): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster Napster (today): https://us.napster.com/ Amazon (history): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company) Kindle (history): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle  Music "Never Surrender" by Chasing Noise, off their album, Everything http://chasingnoise.wixsite.com/chasingnoise

Looking back at my first use of tech and comparing that to where I am now might help .make some integration decisions. Google Drive and Keep were my first primary apps but you might want to try something else. Remember student needs drive the integration of tech, but I also think tech can make your teaching life easier or more productive. Remember to patient and decide what works for you. This will ultimately lead to enhanced learning and achievement. Tech treats this week I started using Adobe Spark (https://spark.adobe.com/) and investigating the Adobe Suite. Looks cool, but... Headliner (https://www.headliner.app/) for easy video creation and sharing to social media. Create a class announcement or communication quickly and easily.

Anyone else overwhelmed with how many tech products there are out there to run your business? Today I'm breaking down everything I currently use to run my biz and giving you insight on how it all helps me work! I'll start with the highest priced products down to the free stuff. I've included a few links so feel free to check them out further! Tech Monthly Fees: Teachable: $99 Adobe Suite: $52.99 Shopify: $29 ConvertKit CRM: $29 Website Hosting + domains: $150/yr Quickbooks: $10.71 Dropbox: $9.99 Hostgator Email: $5 PayPal Fees :$depends on sales Etsy: $5 Calendly: $0 Canva: $0 Google Analytics: $0 Google Cal: $0 Social Media: $0 Venmo: $0 Society6: $0 Asana: $0 VSCO: $0 Things I"m looking into: Podcast VA: $5-10/hr Pinterest Automater: Tailwind: $9.99/mo Others: Office rent Utilities Health insurance Internet Phone Roth IRA Savings       And as always, have the best day ever!!! Thanks so much for listening!! I would love if you'd leave a review & subscribe on iTunes...HOW TO LEAVE A REVIEW FROM YOUR IPHONE: 1. Open podcast app   2. Search for "Passion Design Project"   3. Click on my Podcast   4. Tap Reviews & tap "Write review" Find out more on my website at www.PassionDesignProject.com Join me on Facebook at Passion Design Project & Subscribe to the Newsletter to get podcast updates!

- Boom, what's going on everyone. This is Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.   Today, we’re gonna talk about my content machine and how I'm pulling it off.   I've spent the last four years learning form the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.   The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.   Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.   My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. What's up guys?   Hey, I am excited to share this with you. You know when I first started listening to gurus on the internet, when I first started consuming their content, when I first started going through and reading it - I was grateful for the content. But... I don't know if you're like me?... I didn’t ever want to do any kind of publishing ever, ever.   I remember when I first went to my first Funnel Hacking Live. It was 2016. I remember this very clearly... I think I might have shared this with you before....   I was biking around the bay at San Diego because what cash we had, I didn't want to spend on a cab. So I was biking around on a hired bike and I remember thinking to myself, “I will do whatever Russell tells me to do, except I will not publish.” That was my actual thought.   Fast forward a week, and I'm working next to Russell Brunson, and this is what I see him doing. He's sitting there and he's on camera going, “What's up guys, this is Russell Brunson!” Then he's over on his podcast, “What's up guys, this is Russell Brunson!”  And then he's over on his blog... “What's up guys, this is Russell Brunson.” And I was like, there's something to this. This is really interesting.   Funnily enough, on the very first day at Funnel Hacking Live, he said, “Everyone needs to start publishing.” And I was like, “there's no way I'm not gonna do it. I will build the funnels. I'll do whatever you want me to do Russell. My life's already changed. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. But I will never, ever, Mr. Russell Brunson, ever be one of those podcasters.” And that was my thought.   Well, “What's up, how you doing?” I'm podcasting!   We've crossed over 160,000 downloads between the two shows that I have - which is awesome. It's gone really, really well. I remember after watching Russell publish…. We didn't do anything unless there was a camera around a lot of times, right. We’d go grab a camera...   One day it was like 4:00 a.m. and he voxed me; he goes, “Dude, I got this sick idea man - swing down to the office as soon as you can. I'm really, really pumped about this. I'm gonna make you famous.” I was like, what does that mean? And then he goes, “Dude, we're gonna start a reality TV show man!” And that's when we started Funnel Hacker TV.   So we had a visual show... and then a podcast so people could listen... then there were blogs so people could read. Dominating everywhere! I mean, to be completely honest with you, can you consume all of the content that ClickFunnels puts out? No, nobody can. But that's not the point. He's trying to dominate the conversation.   I remember about six weeks into working at CF,  I decided to get a handle on this whole content creation thing. There was no way to do this without actually publishing.   I know I'm gonna suck at first. Like I'm gonna be terrible. I'm gonna be awful. And I was awful. I was super bad. I really was not good. If you guys go listen to the first few episodes of Sales Funnel Radio - the content is good. What I'm talking about is great. But the delivery is terrible. I knew that. And I came to grips with the fact. I just needed to gut it out a little bit -  just start moving forward.   When I first started publishing, I was the only person in my content team. I was watching a lot of  major entrepreneurs, and they were never the only one doing the content. They had a content team.   I was like, “Oh my gosh, I'm not gonna be able to afford something like that… and how do you even put a team like that together.”   The whole point of this episode is to show with you guys the journey through my content team - because even though I have a team now - it didn’t start that way.   When I started, I was just using Libsyn. That's Liberated Syndication dot com. Libsyn.com. It's L-I-B-S-Y-N dot com. It's amazing, okay. It was like five bucks a month for me to start.   And what it allowed me to do was... I wanted to be able to push out on iTunes obviously.... But I knew that a lot of people want to read, but I didn't want to write a blog.   I like writing about this kind of stuff. But I'm not gonna take the time to write a blog for every podcast episode.   So what I did was rip the audio and get it transcribed at Rev.com. Then I took that transcription, and it became the blog post. So now I have an blog for every episode. That's all I did. I just took the transcription, I put it on WordPress, and pressed go. I believe in using tools for the intent they were created. ClickFunnels is not meant to be a blogging platform. So I don't blog on it.   I use WordPress because WordPress was built to be a blogging platform.   Some people do some weird things with WordPress and turn it into a sales platform. But it's not a sales funnel. So I don't use WordPress to sell things. I use WordPress to publish things. Does that make sense?   You could make a lot of things turn into a lot of other things with weird connections and stuff. I just don't.   It's kind of like going to a sushi place and  ordering a hamburger. I'm sure they could make it for you, but that's not their thing. You know what I mean?   I look at software the same way. Whatever the software was intended to do, that's what I use it for. And that's why I still use several different platforms and I'll tie them together.   ClickFunnels is built to sell crap. So I use it to sell my crap.   When I first started out, it was just me; it  took me about two hours per episode to get it out of the door. I would wake up at about 5:00 a.m -  I'd be at ClickFunnel's HQ at about 6:00 a.m - and I would take Russell's microphone 'cause I didn't have money to go get a microphone at that  time… I would unplug the microphone from his computer and I'd go over and plug it into mine. Then I'd record the episode 'cause I knew his mic was good.   And I was like, well crap. I gotta figure out how to use Adobe Audition, or some kind of software for editing, or something like that. I went through and I created my intros. And I make all my intros and outros by the way. I really like doing it.   I've been a sound junky and editor since I was like 12. And I would make a lot of music on a lot of different platforms. I spent a lot of Saturdays just making music. It was a bunch of fun. So I did my own sound editing. I would go to Fiverr and have somebody do a voiceover.   The way I wrote my intro, just so you guys know, is I went and I actually listened to all the top rated podcasts in the business category on iTunes.   I listened to all their intros, and transcribed them. I found all the similarities and grabbed some of those - and then I threw a few other things in as well.   Then I went to premiumbeat.com and downloaded a cool song I liked. Had a voiceover guy from Fiverr just say it. And then I just put 'em together. That's how I made the original Sales Funnel Radio intro and outro.  Guys I freakin' bootstrapped, okay. That's the whole point.   Before I was at ClickFunnels, I started putting together videos - I didn't have video editing software. So I thought, who does? I was like, ahh libraries. So I did all my video editing in libraries for like a year before working at ClickFunnels. I didn’t have a camera. So I went back to libraries and I would rent their cameras.   Entrepreneurs would hire me to get on planes film their events, and film them doing sales videos. Then I'd go back and edit them in libraries, and give the camera back that I didn't own.   I’d take those videos and put them up on the funnels that I was building, which I was just hacking from what Russell and other successful people were doing. The whole way is bootstrapping. All of it's been bootstrapping.  And it's been super fun.   My content has been no different. I bootstrapped it.  I didn't have a mic, so I just borrowed Russell’s really early in the morning. That's like how I did the first 50 episodes of Sales Funnel Radio. I got to CF HQ way before everyone else - so I was completely alone in the office - and grab Russell's mic.  My job required that I had the Adobe Suite - so I’d use Adobe Audition (because it came with it) to do all my sound editing on.   I didn't know which settings to use. So I went to YouTube and I googled, podcast sound editing. I didn't know what they meant. I have no idea what all those letters mean on the sound editing stuff. I just took them and pasted them in... and it's one of the reasons that my podcast sounds so good today. So many of you have complimented me on that. I don't know what the settings mean,  I just know it does really awesome stuff when I push the button and apply those settings.   I have literally bootstrapped the entire way. The obstacle is the way. Just follow  your questions - and the answer's on the other side usually.   So for a while, I was the producer, and the recorder, the attractive character, and the content creator. For  the first 40 episodes, it took me about two hours per episode to take the transcription, put it into WordPress, and make it look amazing.   Then I'd go in Libsyn and press the publish button - and blast out to 16 different platforms. Boosh!   I hate Twitter. I don't know why it's there. But I publish there 'cause people like it, right. I did it for a lot of different platforms. Pushed to YouTube, pushed to Facebook, pushed to the blog, pushed to iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify. Boosh, all over the place. Libsyn did all that. It really helped my time.   Around episode 40, I went and I hired my first VA. And it was my sister. A lot of you guys know who she is. She was in a position where she was interested in this kind of stuff.   I said look, “I'll train you how to do it all.”  I showed her exactly what I was doing, right. I would get the episode transcribed, and then I would just hand off the transcription and the episode, and she would do everything else. She put it in WordPress. She did SEO optimization on it with some cool plugins we had...   And that's what I did for quite a while from like episode 40 up until like episode 140. For the last few episodes, I’ve been doing something different. I'm just going through this so you guys see the content journey. Those of you who went to Funnel Hacking Live and saw Peng Joon’s presentation on how he does his content might  think that you need to start with a gigantic content machine, right?   I never started with that. Number one, because of the cost, right. I'm spending $26,000 in hard costs a month right now on my content generation process. My content machine costs me that much. But I would never have started that way.  There's no way. That's dumb. But I knew content was important.   If I could get my voice more out there and share  what I was learning as I was watching these gurus...  If I could document my journey (which I'm still doing)... You guys are watching me do it all the time… If I could just do that...   I know that whoever controls content in an industry controls the industry. If no one hears you speak, then no one knows you exist in your industry, okay.   That's why this whole content thing is so important and so powerful. If no one knows you're talking, you don't exist, okay.   One of my first mentors was the CMO of Denny's and also Pizza Hut. I spent a lot of one on one time with him. He was actually a professor of mine. And he and I got a friendship. I would ask him a lot of questions and I talked a lot with him. He invented stuffed crust pizza. Whoa, right. He's the man…   I remember I was sitting in his office with him once and I was talking with him. At the time we were in this semester of college where we don't do anything but run a business. That's it…   You start a business from scratch. They give you virtually no help. You start it....   Well I was voted the first CEO of this company.  We ended up making two to three grand a week during that semester, which was awesome. With no help, we built it up, and it was awesome.   I remember though, I was talking about marketing with him. It was at a time in my life where I had not yet totally decided to go into just marketing alone. I was like man, should I go do supply chain? Should I go do finance? Should I go do this, should I go do that?   Anyway, he and I were chatting. And I was like, “I feel like I'm yelling at people about our company... like hey, we're here, we're here. Come buy our thing.”  And he said, “You know what's funny about marketing? The moment that you feel like you are being annoying is the moment that people are just starting to realize you even exist.”   You're gonna get tired of your message. You're gonna get tired of your stories way before the market will - Far before. You are not yelling as loud as you might think you are. You're not, okay.   Now I'm pushing content around all over the place, and that's what I want to talk about real quick.  I want to show you how I've evolved. It's interesting to see the journey that it's taken…   Whoever controls content controls beliefs and ideas.   If you're barely talking, or if you're not even talking,  people just don't know you exist for the longest time.They really don't.   You're gonna have the core people who follow you, who love you, who do the crazy things, who are the fanatics over what your business does. But most people don't really know you that well. They know of maybe your podcast. They know maybe of your business. They don't know what it is. It just feels like you're yelling at them because to you, it feels like you're yelling. You're not, okay.   So get used to speaking or at least communicating in some way. If you don't want to do a podcast, don't, okay. If you want to do video, sweet. If you want to just blog, awesome. Neil Patel blew up that way, right.   Whatever medium you're comfortable doing most frequently, just marry it. Okay, marry it, right.   We just did the episode a little bit ago about the attractive character. It is the vehicle for your attractive character to explode on. Okay, that's why it's so important for you to do this stuff.   I remember at Funnel Hacking Live feeling that my content machine was good - even though it was just me handing it off to one person. However, I realized that I could do a lot more.   I was like, you know what, I've worked my butt off. I'm gonna go try and blow up some of these platforms a little bit better.   I love YouTube, okay. Facebook and I still have a love hate relationship - but I use it. Instagram, loving it...   At  Funnel Hacking Live, Russell stood up and he said... It was like his first presentation. He stood up and he goes, “Where's Stephen?” And I was like “Woo!”... 'cause that's what I do, I yell. And he's like there he is. “Stephen's one of my favorite people on the planet. But he does not know what's on Instagram. He does not ever get on it.” Then he proceeded to pseudo make fun of me. Huh, I know you're watching man. Okay, proceeded to pseudo make fun of me for not using Instagram. I felt the stance of shame. Here's the stance of shame. That's the stance of shame. The very next day during a lunch break in Funnel Hacking Live, Colton and I went over to an Apple store and we grabbed myself an iPhone, a new one, and I have been Instagramming my face off. I started putting these different pieces together.   When I saw Peng Joon talk about how he does his content machine - I was like, you know what, with a few tweaks, I'm actually close to what he's doing.   So that's what I've been focusing on. It’s part of the reason why some of my other business has slowed down just a little bit - because my focus has been on this content machine. Setting up systems, setting up the business, getting my processes in place.   We've kept the ads small on my main product - but we're still very profitable. And I’ve been building up this content machine and the business. Like we have this crazy accelerant now guys. We got this insane power. And it's been really, really cool.   So here is my new content machine. I'm not gonna name names because they are my people, and it took me a while to find them, and I'm spending a lot of money to get them. So I'm  just gonna let you know what the roles are, okay. These are the roles that I filled and I really wanted to go hit, okay.   If you read Dotcom Secrets. These books are never really that far from me. Here they are. If you read Dotcom Secrets, one of the things that Dotcom Secrets talks about very early on is it talks about this whole concept of old media versus new media.   Old media, if you think about old media….That's things like newspapers, right, a lot of direct mail, the radio. It's still consumed, it's just that there's all these new media that you also need to be cognizant of and speak on.   If you look at the new media versus the old media you can see that podcasts are the new radio. What is the new TV? Kind of YouTube, right. YouTube and Facebook Lives, things like that. What's the new newspaper? Blogs, right.   If you go study guys like Ryan Holiday who's obsessed with the ideas of content creation... He's very good at placing ideas in places. Right, if you go look at what he's doing, he's just using different media sources against itself, right. Anyway, really, really fascinating okay.   So what I did is I said: I want to be on YouTube. I want to be on blogs. I want to be on Instagram. I want to be on Facebook groups. I want to be on…  And I started thinking through all these different platforms that I wanted to be seen on, even though that's not the format I was gonna publish on, okay.   I was like, well that causes a really interesting scenario because you need to match the content to the platform, right. Each platform has a context. You don't go on podcasts and listen to these podcasts typically while just standing in a room. You know, usually you're doing something else.   So on podcasters, I know I'm usually talking to like active individuals who are running around. They're getting something else done, typically.   If I want to get on Facebook... what's the intent of Facebook? People go on Facebook to get distracted usually, right. So I’ve gotta make sure that it's somewhat entertaining when my same content piece hits that platform.   People get on YouTube to either get distracted, entertained, or it's like a how to video … generally, it’s more instructional than Facebook's intent - I'm talking stereotypes here.   Why do people read blogs? There's not tons of story usually in blogs. I know it depends. Like in the space that I'm in, there's usually not tons of stories. It's usually a lot of how to stuff, right.   So that became the challenge; how do I just do a podcast and then repurpose the content for the different platform's context?   I believe that questions invite revelation. So that's been the question on my mind... How do I solve that problem? And cool enough, I solved it.   That's what happens when you ask the right questions. Questions aren't threatening. You'll answer the question, no matter what you're asking. If  you ask, “Oh, why am I broke?” You'll get the answer. Instead ask, “How can I make more money?’ and you'll start finding that answer. Isn't that funny. Total side note and rabbit hole.   So…   Here's my content machine:   The first thing I do is I have a video podcast now, right. I primarily do this on a video camera. This is the same camera type that we use for Funnel Hacker TV that Russell uses. And I like it. It's big though…. meaning the camera file is big. The camera itself is small. It's a 4K camera.   I film, and by the time this episode's over, it's gonna probably be like 10 gigs, no joke.   Then I go rip the audio from it and send it to my audio guy -he's the man. He adds whatever intro and outro I said I want to the episode (he already has those). He then adds on the settings that I like. He puts all those settings in there. And then he goes through and matches the volume loudness.   Have you guys ever wondered why my intro and my outro all sound the same volume as the actual episode?  It's because of some cool things he does in the background with post editing.   Up until this point, I’d  been adding the settings myself - but I had to remove myself from this process.   So he goes through and he does a whole bunch of cool sound editing, and he re-uploads it to our Google Drive folder that we use as a team.   Then the Trello card, yes we're using Trello to track this, gets assigned to the next person, right. And that person goes out and does crazy, amazing things on YouTube with it.   She takes the video that's been recorded - she's amazing - and she figures out really cool ways that I should be competing with different keywords on SEO to rank me in YouTube. Then she creates these cool, 15 second clips of neat things that I said and takes them out. And that's what gets passed into our assets folder again for future use for Instagram, right.   Next, she creates a thumbnail video... She does a whole bunch of other stuff. She's absolutely amazing.   The card then gets passed off to my incredible blog writer. She grabs the actual transcription from Rev when it comes in and writes a blog post.   So it's no longer just a transcription. She actually takes this, (which you guys reading right now) and turns it into a blog.   So now, you guys know what I'm doing with this after I stop recording... It's going through his machine that we've created with these amazing, brilliant, specialized people.   They're not cheap. They're incredible, okay. I wanted good people. And I found out a lot of them have their own agencies behind them too, which is another reason why they're so good.   It's taken me a long time to get to this stage - so don't feel like you have to do this when you start out. You don’t need to. This is something you will graduate to eventually.   And it'll keep blowing up from here I'm sure and we'll keep adding processes and cool things to it, but this is the core of what it is.   So anyway, after the writer uploads the blog post back to our individual episode asset in Google Drive, then the next person goes in and takes it.   She goes in and puts the blog post into WordPress, and makes it awesome....   We're gonna do a massive overhaul of the blog that's actually associated with this. It’s gonna be a massive overhaul of the look, the feel, the layout, everything! I want it to be cleaner, neater... everything...   Anyway, she goes in and she makes the blog look visually amazing inside of WordPress. This is the sixth episode that we've launched doing this process. Really cool.   Then the next person goes in and  launches everything on Libsyn. He does all the cool checks so that it can blast out to tons of platforms at one time.   Then the next person comes in... He goes in and puts it up on Instagram, on Facebook groups. I think he does a Twitter blast . He does a Chatbot blast. It's nuts guys… that whole team, that whole process.   What's cool about it is the deadline for the episode at the exact same for every platform. So everyone publishes at the exact same time. So at the exact same time (give or take maybe a few seconds), all this content is hitting the internet at the same time. Boom, from different platforms.   The same content, repurposed to suit the intent and context of each individual platform.   So because of this, there's over a week lag time in the preparation. So after I record, there's usually about a week and a half, or two weeks, while everyone's doing their role.   Anyways, it's freakin' awesome. It's super cool. That's my content machine.   I call it a machine, because I wanted to find a way to hit those all platforms in a systematized way.   I had to find people and pay them what they want to get paid, and what they're worth. They're worth a lot of money, okay.   If you go out and you start putting those people together. It's pretty interesting what happens... But for the love; if you're just starting out, do not try to build that from the get-go.   Like, good, great… eventually!  But be gentle with yourself until you can put 26 grand out on a team just for content's sake. It certainly, certainly pays me back more than that - but you can build up gradually, like I did.   So that's the content machine that I've got going on. I just wanted to give you guys an update.   Episode 60 and 61 of this podcast go through in depth on how I put my actual content together for the podcast. It dives more deeply through some of my tech setup, and the systems that I use as well. They're great ones to listen to if you are trying to build your own content machine, whether it's blog, or podcast, or video, whatever.   But with this episode, I wanted show the updated of what I've been doing here.   So anyways, you guys are awesome. You're rock stars, appreciate it. Keep at it.   I’d love if you could please, please, I know I keep asking... but what I'm putting out here, a lot of people charge a lot of money for. And I do it for free a lot of times. I really, really, really would love if you wouldn't mind, please go rate this podcast, review it on iTunes. It proves to iTunes that I'm not a schmuck and that this is all really good stuff.   It's been fun for me document my journey along the way. I am still telling you guys what I'm doing along the way so you can avoid pitfalls.   So, if that is worth anything to you and you've gotten any value from this, please go to iTunes.   Someone reached out once and they said, “I don't know how to leave a review on iTunes.”  Just go to iTunes, open it up, type in “Sales Funnel Radio”. I will show up. When you click on the show, right at the top there, it says ratings and reviews. Click there and it'll say write a review. Click write a review. I’d appreciate that. Thank you so much. It does mean a lot to me.   I want to keep showing funnel builders and entrepreneurs who are starting out and crushing it, the pitfalls to avoid, and some cool tactics along the way too.   All right guys, thanks so much, and I'll talk to you later, bye. Boom, thanks for listening.   Hey, please remember to rate and and subscribe. Hey, you want me to speak at your next event or Mastermind? Let me know what I can share that would be most valuable by going to stevejlarsen.com and book my time now.

I got the full Adobe Suite! It's awesome! I been wanting to get it for awhile! Get Adobe Audition as well as other software in Adobe Suite. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud I also got a Sterling Audio microphone. You can buy one too! https://amzn.to/2J8ohic Check out my website https://www.HotRapMix.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/brannuyu/support

On episode 3 of #OrdinaryFreaks graphic designer, illustrator, artist, music producer, and overall CREATIVE Michael CAMEone Cerda takes us on his journey of leaving his tagger lifestyle behind and being let go from his 9-5 to later launching his freelance business full force!KEY POINTS:Intro to art as a childThe people you meet and what you learn from them is valuableWhat you do after school is what countsPractice practice practiceSocial skills are key to execute as a leaderWorking for Moda3 and learning about selfA good relationship can motivate youKeep pushingThe power of the DM, social media is a toolNeed to drop some bad habits if you want to be successfulFreelance business & musicAttending the first ever ComplexConOrdinary Freaks QuestionsQUOTES:“When things get tough and clients stop calling you or things aren't really in your favor you gotta keep pushing.” - Michael CAMEone Cerda“The DM is king” - Gary Vee“You got to keep it moving, keeping winning more.” - Michael CAMEone CerdaFOLLOW Michael CAMEone CerdaWebsite: https://www.therealcameone.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.cerda.14 Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameoner Instagram: https://www.instgram.com/cameone MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:PEOPLECasey Neistat: https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat Gary Vee: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/ Bump J: https://www.instagram.com/_bumpj DJ Relly Rell: https://www.instagram.com/djrellyrell Mauricio Ramirez: https://www.instagram.com/mauriciopaints EVENTSComplexCon: https://www.complexcon.com/ COMPANYRoc Nation: http://rocnation.com/ Mazorca: https://www.facebook.com/mazorcamke/ FOLLOW ORDINARY FREAKS AT:Website: http://ordinaryfreaks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ordinaryfreaks Twitter: https://twitter.com/ordinaryfreaksInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ordinaryfreaks Kit: https://kit.com/ordinaryfreaks FOLLOW B:https://www.instagram.com/roblesmelgoz FOLLOW EDDIE:https://www.instagram.com/eddjuarezs

On episode 3 of #OrdinaryFreaks graphic designer, illustrator, artist, music producer, and overall CREATIVE Michael CAMEone Cerda takes us on his journey of leaving his tagger lifestyle behind and being let go from his 9-5 to later launching his freelance business full force!KEY POINTS:Intro to art as a childThe people you meet and what you learn from them is valuableWhat you do after school is what countsPractice practice practiceSocial skills are key to execute as a leaderWorking for Moda3 and learning about selfA good relationship can motivate youKeep pushingThe power of the DM, social media is a toolNeed to drop some bad habits if you want to be successfulFreelance business & musicAttending the first ever ComplexConOrdinary Freaks QuestionsQUOTES:“When things get tough and clients stop calling you or things aren't really in your favor you gotta keep pushing.” - Michael CAMEone Cerda“The DM is king” - Gary Vee“You got to keep it moving, keeping winning more.” - Michael CAMEone CerdaFOLLOW Michael CAMEone CerdaWebsite: https://www.therealcameone.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.cerda.14 Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameoner Instagram: https://www.instgram.com/cameone MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:PEOPLECasey Neistat: https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat Gary Vee: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/ Bump J: https://www.instagram.com/_bumpj DJ Relly Rell: https://www.instagram.com/djrellyrell Mauricio Ramirez: https://www.instagram.com/mauriciopaints EVENTSComplexCon: https://www.complexcon.com/ COMPANYRoc Nation: http://rocnation.com/ Mazorca: https://www.facebook.com/mazorcamke/ FOLLOW ORDINARY FREAKS AT:Website: http://ordinaryfreaks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ordinaryfreaks Twitter: https://twitter.com/ordinaryfreaksInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ordinaryfreaks Kit: https://kit.com/ordinaryfreaks FOLLOW B:https://www.instagram.com/roblesmelgoz FOLLOW EDDIE:https://www.instagram.com/eddjuarezs

Today I'm joined by a man who just wasn’t satisfied with the way that agencies and B2B brands were doing video... so he founded his own company, specialising in custom videos that help clients capture attention, motivate action, and drive more sales. Welcome to DMR, Eric Hinson. [You can find Eric over at Explainify.com.] [Note: As per Eric's kind offer, listeners can get 2 free chapters of Eric's book here.] On this episode of Digital Marketing Radio we discuss how to use video to share your company's story, with topics including: Should every company be using video? Why should a company use video to tell its own story? Is it essential for every business to tell its own story on its website? What are the some of the key elements to producing a successful video? How do you measure the value of a video? How do you use video as part of a funnel strategy to drive more leads and sales? Do you think companies should be producing their own videos in-house? If a business did wish to produce their own videos, how should they typically get started with the project? [Tweet ""Entrepreneurship is a game of inches and not yards" @erichinson f/ @explainify #entrepreneurship"] Software I couldn't live without What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success? Adobe Suite [Creative software] What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future? Drip [Marketing automation software] My number 1 takeaway What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses? It's about showing up for work, executing every day. I think of work as a game of inches, not yards. I'm pretty tired of these entrepreneurs - you see them retargeting us all the time on Facebook - hustle, hustle, hustle. Work hard. Chase this ego. That's just not what I'm about. I don't want to listen to those guys. I think that if you execute everyday. If you show up, remembering that entrepreneurship is a game of inches and not yards, you're setting your mind up for a better shot.

Click above to listen in iTunes... My 11 Point PDF Checklist + I'm Publicly Leaving Funnel Building :( DOWNLOAD THE FREE CHECKLIST AT SteveJLarsen.com What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Now, before I get into the episodes, or this episode, I just want you to see a little behind the scenes. Typically, what I do when I get these podcasts together, is I'll just write out a whole bunch of principles of things I know that you guys are struggling with, have questions about, or there's a challenge. I'll go directly address that so that I can just keep trying to provide value. Or, I'll go interview somebody and we'll go dive deep into their business. By the way, I've got about 20 more interviews lined up for you guys. It's going to be great... This podcast is actually a little bit different. This one actually took me about an hour and a half to two hours just to prep. There's a lot of cool things going in it, so I'm encouraging you right now before I start, get a pen and paper if you can. I think you're really going to enjoy this. Anyways, without further ado, let's jump into this. Again, welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. All right, all right. Now, while I was getting this all together, I was remembering the way I got into this industry. I've shared a little bit of this, but there's a certain part of it that I've been realizing that I haven't really shared. It's so key to success, I mean right out the gate. I had a little podcast episode a little bit ago called 'How I Broke into the Industry.' I almost wish I hadn't put that out there, so that you guys could hear a little bit more of some of the things that really happened behind the scenes. I was in college, and I was going around ... What happened was, and I've told parts of this, pieces and parts. What happened was I got married, my wife and I, we went up to college. I really hadn't had that much college done before we got married. It was only a semester or two, so I had the full brunt left. She actually had already graduated, although we're the same age. It took me ... I went on a mission for my church. I was gone for two years. I took a year off to work and get some stuff done, and put together. Anyway, through various things, I actually waited on college for a little bit. I was doing a lot of construction jobs and just trying to get money together for it. I told this story of when I walked away, and I was like, "Yeah, no more construction jobs. I'm done with this." I started going and learning, and I was doing door-to-door sales. I was like, "I got to learn how to sell stuff," so I was doing door-to-door sales. When we got married, we had like no money. You want to provide, especially as the man. Like, "I want to be the man. I want to provide for my misses." That's how I was feeling. The problem is that I couldn't. I didn't know business. I didn't know how to sell. I didn't know what marketing was. I had no idea on any of that stuff. I went into what I thought was going to be a prestigious thing going into a business degree, and going into a marketing degree. I started listening to this podcast called ... Actually, I can't even remember it. I can't remember what the name of it was, but it was a guy named Sean Terry. He was teaching how you could flip houses for zero cash, and it was totally legit. It was awesome. It was actually really, really cool. I learned a lot from him. He got me going and out the gates. I'll fast forward a little bit. There was failure after failure, after failure, and as I started getting into this funnel game ... I've told you a bit of this story before, I went to door-to-door sales. I realized that you could actually attract people who want to buy your stuff, rather than go door-to-door and ask people to buy who are not planning on it. I went from door-to-door sales to writing eBooks, and made my first funnel; although I didn't realize that's what I was making. I was using WordPress and all these tools and systems, and then I learned how to drive traffic because no one was buying my eBook. Then, I got hired by Paul Mitchell and started working on building sites and sending traffic for celebrities, which was kind of cool. I was like, "Man, none of this traffic's converting." That led me into Russell Brunson, and I found how to convert and actually sell online. That's really where money started happening. That was four years. I didn't stop. I kept going, and going, and going. Four years! It was painful. It was very painful, because I refused to get a normal job. We were living on student loans, and I was like, "Crap. Like, this is my time to figure this out big and I've got to do it now." I did not sleep much. I did not do any really extra-curricular activities at all. I worked my butt off, and I know I did, and I'm really proud of that. Here's one of the major lessons I learned... As soon as I learned what funnels were and I started building my own funnels, we launched a company called Fixed Insurance. We were doing smart phone insurance. We had customers and there was money coming in. It was great. I was brand new. We kind of mismanaged it a little bit. It wasn't the business I wanted to be in, insurance business. I wanted to go be in ... I wanted to work with people directly, one-on-one, and make their business explode. I wanted to do essentially what Russell now calls the certification program; but that didn't exist then. I was going around and I was going from client to client. I pitched to the owners of Vivant. I went over and I was working with some of the top leaders in different MLMs, building their product, MLM funnels, selling lots of their product. I was going and it was super, super awesome. The big problem was, was that none of them were big payouts. In between each of those successes that I was having was a crap ton of failure. It wasn't until I started looking back, like two days ago, literally. I was looking back and I was thinking, 'Why did this work, and why did that not? Why? Why did some funnels explode a business, and other funnels I mean, did nothing?' Even in the same business, every once in a while, a funnel would go in and it would blow up, and then would do nothing again afterwards. Like, 'What's the difference? Why? Why? Why did some ... Why did some businesses just not take?' I was going back and forth, and I was looking around. I said, "Oh my gosh, I think that there are times when a business is ready for a funnel." All right, now that's not normal thinking, right? We usually think that a funnel is good for any business at any time, always, ever; and yes, that's true. I'm not saying that you should not build funnels if you don't have all these elements but I started looking at all the people I've built funnels for. I've built over 150 funnels in the last year alone. Actually, 11 months; in the last 11 months alone. A lot from my own clients, a lot for obviously for Russell's, a lot for click funnels internal, for click funnels external, for all the clients that he's got. All over the place, from supplement funnels to funnels for toilet paper, no joke. Funnels for lots of webinar funnels, lots of info products, retail; I mean across the whole gambit, MLM, local clients. All over the place. It's been a lot of fun and a hardcore education, learned way more than my entire marketing degree combined. It's been fantastic. I started looked back and I started seeing the patterns. I noticed that there's a specific moment when a business is ready to accept a funnel. All right, you got your pen and paper now; because I created it's 11 pieces in this checklist to help you and I know when a business is ready. What I'm going to do is I'm actually going to go open this thing up. You can hear me clicking around right now, but what I did though is I figured out that ... it's not always ... I got to be careful of what I'm going say here, because I don't want any one of you to jump out and suddenly say "Well, Stephen said it's not good to build a funnel yet." That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is there's a moment when a funnel explodes the business. If you don't have one at all, if you have no extra income jumping in on you, that sucks. Build a funnel... All right, get it out there, start testing it; but there's a moment when the funnel explodes the business. What I did is I build what's called ... I've been calling it, it's just the pre-funnel build checklist. It's kind of a dumb generic name, should have probably made the name something different. I said, "How I know if the business is ready for a funnel." This is a checklist you guys can all go download right now if you want at Steve J. Larsen, my full name is Stephen Joseph Larsen, so SteveJLarsen.com. I said, "No, I'm not saying you should not ... I'm not saying that you shouldn't build a funnel if you don't have these things. " This is simply a list of the things I use to gauge how much I think a funnel is going to expand a current business. I've gone through and I've built a whole bunch of funnels for lots of people and my own personal clients, this bit of a checklist I'm running through, it was all mentally in my head until I sat down two days ago and wrote it out. I was like, "Holy crap, this is totally what I do." I created and personally use this list to vet out potential clients and prep my own businesses for a funnel. The point is to remember that funnels are not business models, or the complete business. There's been many times I've built funnels for people before I understood this. I built them just an awesome funnel. I will say that's the one constant is I build really good funnels; like a natural ... Not a natural ability at all, I shouldn't say that. Crazy enough, the things that I used to build funnels, I'm very good with the Adobe Suite. I'm very good at layout and design, and that's all I did in high school. I wish I did sports, but I was the head editor of yearbook. I got three state awards in Colorado for my layout and design. I know that's where a lot of it comes from, and super grateful for that. I had no idea it would apply to what I'm doing now, but it does. Anyways, this checklist helps me see to which extent the entrepreneur or myself knows his own company. This is one of the biggest pieces on here. What I want to do is I want to go through these items with you guys real quick. It's 11 things that help you know ... What's kind of cool is let's say you're not hitting all 11 of these things. That's totally fine, use it as a gauge. Go in and start to figure this out, because here's what happened. When I was in college and I started going back, and kind of walking back; I went and I started trying to find a client that I could blow up. I had all these start-ups. I had all these people that wanted funnels. I had 15 businesses on a waiting list in the middle of college during my marketing classes. I walked up to the teacher and I said, "I don't want to be here anymore. This is dumb." He said, "Honestly, I can see you're doing cool stuff. Why don't you just give me a cool deliverable at the end of the semester, and I'll see you at the end." I walked away and never came back to class. For three hours a day, I held my own class just trying to make as much money online as possible. It was the coolest thing on the planet. I call myself the student of exceptions. The answer's always 'Yes,' until you can get a 'No.' Just go freaking do it. Stop waiting for permission. Stop asking for permission, just do stuff. That's kind of my mentality. It's like get out of my way, that's kind of what it is. Anyway, what happened, though, is I was looking around. I was like, "Okay, I need to prove the market that I know what I'm doing on a lot of these things." Nobody knows who I am. I remember doing my first periscope and I was like, "Man, no one knows who I am. No one's going to watch this." I think I had one person watch it. The next day, I had maybe two. The next day I had maybe three. That's literally how I built this. I was like, "I got to prove to the market that I can do this stuff, and that I've been doing it, and that I can ... " I've just never marketed myself out as a person that does this. What I started doing is I started looking around. I didn't realize it, but I was using this checklist inadvertently to vet out businesses. I went and I said, "Okay," and a lot of you guys have asked this question to me, which is actually what has started spawning this podcast episode. You said, "Hey, Stephen. I've got to know how to start. How do I get going? How do I prove myself?" They're like, "Well, there's this cool start-up that wants me to." I'm like, "You said the word 'start-up.' Okay, if you're trying to prove quickly to the market that you know what you're doing, do not build for a start-up." I've told a lot of you guys that. I said, "You need to go build for a business that is ready for a funnel, and will just explode it. All right? It makes you look like a champion... It makes your funnel look like a champion, and makes the business look like a champion, all right? Because you've made them a bunch of money in a short amount of time. Well, you need certain things in place in order to actually do that. Does that make sense?" I started looking around and I was calling buddies. I'm going back to the story. I made a huge list of businesses that I thought would be cool to go build funnels for. I was sitting there and I was like, "Okay. I could my own. I could build one for a company that's already established, where they could blow it up. I could go," and I made this big list. I started going piece by piece, and I started shotgun emailing tons and tons of businesses. It's actually funny, Justin and Tara Williams in the inner circle, Russell's inner circle, they're one of the people I reached out to. They were just too slow to get back to me, so that's one of the reasons I work for Russell now and not them, which is kind of funny. I went out and I started shotgun telling people, I was like, "I will build you a funnel. I know you don't know what it is. I will do it for free, and I will show you once it's making revenue, then let's talk about me getting paid; but first, let me prove myself." It was like "Whoa." These people were like, "Who is this kid?" Then I had them proving themself to me, because then they came back to me and they're like, "Well, I want you. I want you." I was like, "Well, I can only take one of you guys, so who's it going to be?" About that time, I met a company down in Florida. I will keep them nameless, Echo. I went and I was checking out their stuff. I was like, "I could totally build for these guys. These guys would be a good candidate." I met the owner, and he was like, "That sounds amazing. I have no idea what you're talking about. Sales funnel, what does that even mean, right? That's all techno-babble. No one really knows what that is unless you're in the industry." I was like, "Well, I know you don't know what it is. I'm going to build it, and then let's just do this. So these are the things I need from you." I was like, "X, Y, and Z." I said, "I've got to have one, two, and three from you; and this is what we can expect in the timeline. Let's go," and I went to work. I started putting the funnel together. First I ran an ask campaign and I ran out there, and I got tons, like 150 responses in a day. He already had a pretty big customer base. I said, "Oh my gosh." I started looking through the responses of the ask campaign and I was like, "Oh my gosh, did you guys know that they want X, Y, and Z?" They're like, "No." We went and we built a ... We, I. I built a trip bar funnel and I launched it out to these guys. We made them like 20 grand in two days. It brought in an additional 30 grand on top of that over the next week or two, all to his internal list from an ask campaign. I was like, "Cool! I got my story. Woo!" I looked back and I was like, "Why did that really work?" That's because of this checklist. I've danced around it, but let's jump into it here. This is a slightly longer podcast, but I hope you see the value in what I'm about to say here to you guys. If you can't find a business that matches these, I'm not saying you shouldn't go do it, but look harder. If you're really trying to prove yourself, or you're trying to break into the industry, or your own business; let's say you're not building for other people but for your own business. You're trying to make these things work. You're trying to make your funnel work for your business. It might be because your business is not hitting these criteria, so let's jump in. Number one, is their business ... I'm going to share this with the standpoint of, 'Hey, I'm looking for a client,' because I've built a lot of funnels for other people. All right, so number one, is their business already making sales? Whether offline or online, I don't care. They could seriously be going door-to-door. I don't care. Are they already selling the product they're wishing a funnel was for? Do they have repeat buyers? This is all part of number one. I wrote in here this question alone is a major barrier. If the answer is 'No,' I don't work them because they haven't built the business enough to support a full-fledged funnel. Full-fledged funnel. Is there already sales happening, or is this a start-up? If it's a start-up, I usually will always say 'No,' unless they're throwing just an inordinate amount of money at me; because they haven't build the funnel around it, or they haven't build a business. You'll see more what I'm talking about as I move into this. This is a whole aspect of this business that most people don't think about, or know about, or we even really talk about. I don't think we've really thought about it before. Anyway, number two, what assets do they have? Do they have an email list? Do they have social presence, phone numbers? Do they have a website at least? Are they at least online? Do they have things like logos, images, videos, copy, sales copy. Do they have those things? What I'm really trying to figure out here is if they have enough people and enough following for me to run a successful ask campaign. An ask campaign, if you don't know what that is, is where you go out and you say, "Hey, what's your number one challenge with X, Y, and Z?" You get back a whole bunch of responses from this open-ended question, and it will tell you what to sell them next. It's really helpful. Number three, can they name and do they know who their competition is? This blows me away. When people can't say who their competition is, it's almost like an automatic 'No.' What it means is they haven't actually gone through and they don't know their own place in their own industry, and their own spot in the ecosystem inside their own industry. I wrote 'This is huge. If they can't name their own competition, but are telling me their revenue is massive, I'm going to strongly question that.' What I'm really looking for here is someone to funnel hack. If there's no one to funnel hack and they don't know who I can funnel hack, I get skeptical on the future success of the funnel right off the bat. I got to be able to funnel hack people who are being successful. It's the other reason why I don't do start-ups, because if there's no one to compete with, it's ... You're a pioneer. You're not modeling anybody. You're doing something that no one has done or no one's been successful with. That means that you might be drifting into an area where you're selling products that are based on improvement, not products that are new opportunities. Improvement-based offers are terrible. New opportunities sell a lot, just right off the bat. Anyway, you might be selling into a red ocean. Or, the ocean is so blue that the market isn't ready for it. How many of you guys use all the features in Excel, or do you just use the basic plus/minus multiplication, division features? It's the most ... Anyway. Different story. Are they trying to be a market disrupter, or are they trying to make money? You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to say. Number four, how many products are they selling or can they offer? If they're selling complimentary products to their customers, I would know how to structure the funnel almost immediately. If they're only selling one product, I know we're probably going to have to make some of their product not just a funnel. That's fine, I just charge more. That's what I wrote. Basically, are they selling more than one product? If they're selling more than one product, successfully, it's a really easy way to make the funnel. If they're only selling one thing, typically a funnel has at least two products, different variations at least, of the same product. If they don't have that and they want to make a ... That's the hard part when insurance companies come to me and is like, "You guys have a single product, and your only other product is more insurance." I'm like, "Ugh. Like, we got to create another product here." They're like, "Oh, okay." All right, number five, what is their current monthly revenue? Some people will quote their glory days revenue. Find out how much they're really making... If they're spending their last dime to build a funnel with you, feel sketchy about it. What money will they have to drive traffic with? Plus, they get too needy. It's like going to a five star restaurant after not eating for two days. You'll hardly taste it and no one will enjoy the five stardom. Don't sell broke people. I know that I build high level funnel, and I don't want to sell level two ... business a level ten funnel. That sounds harsh, but you're actually doing a disservice if you do that. Number six, do they already know what kind of funnel they want? This matters, because it's how I gauge their education level. If they know what kind of funnel they want already, I don't have to continually educate them on the vision of what I propose to build; and especially during the build. It's much easier. Again, not a deal breaker but I go from being a funnel builder to a funnel builder plus coach. I need to allocate my time accordingly. If someone doesn't even know what funnels are, it's kind of like ... It's fine if it's this way, but you're going to be educating them a lot further. One of the people I most recently built for, they pay the ten grand, they came in, they built ... Actually, I'm going to try and interview them here soon, so you guys can all see. It's really cool. It's a political campaign funnel for another country. I live in America, and it's for another country. He's actually about to get elected, and the funnel actually helped him take office. How freaking cool is that? Anyway, but they already knew what kind of funnel they wanted. It made it really easy, because I could just build. I didn't have to coach. It's fine if you have to coach, I just have to change some things. All right, number seven, do they know their numbers? Do they know how much it costs for them to acquire for somebody? CPA? Do they know what their average cart value is per customer? Do they know what their earnings per click are? Et cetera. If they already know the numbers, that helps a lot. Number eight, do they have current and consistent traffic? If not, what's the plan to get it? If they don't have any kind of traffic flow that I could just drop something into, that's going to be hard. It'd be like if I went to ... I live in Idaho now. I'm from Colorado. There's mountains and valleys all around us. There's rivers and dams where they put those hydroelectric generators in there to get electricity. It'd be like building a dam in the middle of a valley and then trying to find the water. That's what it's like when you're trying to build a funnel for somebody who does not already have traffic. It's very difficult. It's so much easier to go find somebody who's ... It's like the Nile, they already got tons of traffic. Just drop a whole bunch of dams in there, you're going to get electricity off of it. It's the exact same principle. It's hard to build for somebody who doesn't have traffic yet. It's fine, again, if they don't. You got to know what the plan is. Who's driving it? Do they think it's you? I've had people who thought I was going to drive it. I was like, "No." I'm like, "I'm not going to drive your traffic for you." Anyway, number nine, what software and systems do they already? This is so big. This is an element we don't really talk about a lot, but you're going to become an integrations master if you're trying to build for other people. Even if you're for your own funnel, you're going to have to be somewhat of an integrations master as well. Do they know they're going to require additional software and subscriptions to build their funnel? Here's a little story. I had some people who wanted me to build a funnel using Infusionsoft. I ran the other way. I said "No." Number ten, this is so big. Again, we don't really talk about this. Do they already have their own performing fulfillment? I wrote it all caps in here, selling and funnels is the sex of business. Fulfillment is the red headed stepchild with a mole on his forehead that no one wants to think about but will actually kill the business. I wrote a little story here. I said, "I once ... " Yeah, I was stupid once and built a funnel years ago for somebody who had no fulfillment. I was just excited to get the client. I made them some quick cash in a couple days. They frantically called me back and asked me to turn it off. They're like, "Turn it off! Turn it off!" I was like, "Why? You guys are making all these sales! Are you kidding me? I just like two X'ed your company." They're like, "I know, but we don't have ... We can't handle it." I ended up having to go build this whole inventory system in the back end. They got so gun shy from it making all these sales that they never turned it back on. I was like, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." They still wouldn't do it, though. Number 11, I said "Finally, have they ever been successful in anything at all, ever?" That sounds harsh, but ... Anyway, I wrote a little note on this one, too. I said, "This might seem like a joke, but someone who's never done anything, ever, in life, at all, but who has all the previously mentioned steps, has potential to be a massive basket case of emotions. Then, you'll turn into an icky life coach again." Unless they're really, really upping the price, I'd run the other way... You're not trying to keep people out, but what you need to understand is that there's been people ... There's a guy I was building a funnel with once. It was for ... He was selling a book that was, once people read it, they automatically wanted to buy product for some supplement thing. It was a long time ago. It was probably, that was about four years ago, probably. Three and a half, four years ago. I was building a funnel for him. This was before click funnels existed, but I was using things like Get Response, and WordPress, and things like that. I was building a funnel for him and literally every move I made, he was excited about but questioned like crazy. It was the most ... It was damming to my progress, just like a dam with water, but where it doesn't let the water through. I had to verify every single step the whole way, because he had never been successful in something before. He was having little successes here and there, but nothing where he could let go a little bit and say "Okay, you take the reins. I trust the expertise, and you should back off ... I'm going to back off a little bit and you just go build this thing." These are all some of the lessons I've learned. Again, this is kind of a long podcast but I wanted to show you guys some of that. Final note, and you can get this checklist and I'll show you out. I said, "Final note, this list sifts out a lot of people, and I realize that. But, that's why I made this checklist for my personal use. Your goal, and it's honestly what I've been using in my head all along, and I had no idea; but if they didn't meet these criteria, which was different than a lot of the criteria that I've seen out there for other people... But anyways, your goal is to match your funnel building skill level with the correct client for you. I waded through three plus years of bad, bad, bad clients to learn this. All right." Then, I put the actual website there. It's a little checklist, a little asset that I put together for you guys. I think you're going to really like it. There's some spelling errors and stuff like that, but anyway I think you'll understand the point of it. Guys, I wanted to ask you something. I've got actually a bit of announcement here, this is kind of a bittersweet thing for me, personally. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I'm actually leaving the public funnel building game. I'm pretty sad about it... Click Funnels is growing so fast. It's growing so incredibly fast. We're actually just trying to keep up. We've 3X'd, two years in a row. We're on track to do the same thing again this year. By the way, just so you know, that kind of thing doesn't really happen. We're extremely unique as a company, Click Funnels is. To commemorate this whole 'Hey, I'm no longer going to be doing this thing,' I wanted to just take on my last few clients. I'm excited. I want to be able to focus more. It's actually Russell has asked me. This is the reason I'm doing this is Russell's asked me to no longer really be doing anything more publicly, and to focus on helping him with Click Funnels. I completely understand what he's asking. I love Click Funnels, you guys, we are changing the world. It's so fun, but understand what I'm saying here. What I'm going to do is I'm totally going to make you a cool deal for the last few people who want me to build for them. I have until the end of March to make this happen. I only have space for three people because I put my heart and soul into these funnels. The thing I can promise and guarantee you, all my integrity, my very name, and maybe even my kids, is that I'll give you a sweet funnel. That that's something that that's what I do. It's all I do, every day, all day for ... It's been years, especially this last year with Russell. I've given some pretty big info on this podcast, you know what I mean? I just wanted to obviously this type of information I'm giving you is not ... It's not going to do anything for you if you don't actually go build one. The reason I'm doing this is like I said, I am publicly going to no longer be offering funnel building services. I've had to increase my coaching price. I first started hundred dollars an hour and I coached a lot of people and it was great; but I had no life. So I increased my price to take people even more serious, to $400 an hour; but it still, again, I had to stop. I bumped my price up again, just because I can't handle the volume. I'm being totally honest and vulnerable with you guys right now as I say this. I'm going to make this quick. I know I've been going for about 30 minutes here, and I apologize. Hopefully you guys hear what I'm telling you. You can get this checklist by going to SteveJLarsen.com. Also, there is a spot on there where you're going to see if you want to be one of my last three people, there's a spot for you to put down your name and a deposit. What will happen is I'll go through this checklist with you and I'll vet out your situation. If we're a fit, that deposit will go towards the price I charge for the funnel; which is ten grand. I thought about doubling my price, and that would be totally appropriate; but it's not even that. He wants me to stop building altogether; as far as external funnels. I'll still have my own projects that I'm building out, but I will no longer be doing it for other people. I legitimately am taking four people, but I already have one gone. I'm building for my dad right now. His is almost done and I'm going to share behind the scenes of that here soon, just so you guys can learn what we did. It's kind of cool. It's very clever. I don't think anyone really in the financial area is doing what we just pulled off. Then, I'm also building for a company called 'A Statue of Responsibility.' There's the State of Liberty on the East Coast, an equal sized statue called the Statue of Responsibility's going on the West Coast. They've asked me to build the funnel for them to make all the donations so that that statue can get built on the West Coast. They're just trying to figure out which city it's going to go in; so super cool stuff. That's basically it, so I mean technically that's five, but one of them's about done. I only have room for three more clients. This is real urgency and scarcity, you guys. I know that we teach you guys to do the real urgency and scarcity, like 'Oh, it's never going to happen again!' This probably literally will never happen again, because I'm going to sink my teeth even farther into Click Funnels. I know that there are, and ... I didn't just want to come out and say "Oh, you can't get any more funnels from me. I'm out and out of the count." Yeah, right. You can't. I'm tapping out. I literally had to ... I'm going to show you guys some of the things in here, but I literally had two choices. Russell and I have had some heart-to-hearts on it. Two choices. Russell said, "Okay, man. Like, I really need more help with what I'm doing. You can go build your own stuff and keep this going, or stay with Click Funnels. And I want to help you, um, help you there, as well." I was like, "Man, like this is just nice. My wife and I have been talking about it. She's like "This is a weird, nice problem to have. You know, which direction are you going to take?" That doesn't mean ... It will probably be like five years before I go and accept a funnel build for somebody else, you know what I mean? Unless again, it's like this inordinate amount of money. There's no way that I have time to do it anymore. This last little rah-rah. I just want to remind you guys that there's a lot of you guys I know that are thinking about hiring me. I've had 27 applications to build funnels just in the last little bit. 27! 90% of you guys I know sadly, you don't meet some of these criteria, or the ten grand is too much. That's okay, just keep pushing it, keep rushing it. I can't build for you, and that's okay; but there are a lot of you, though, who do have the ten grand, who are wanting me to build. I'm trying to give you this real urgency and scarcity and tell you that like, "Look, I cannot. I am not allowed. I can't. I can't move forward anymore building funnels after these three clients." Those are my two choices. Literally, your two choices are whether or not I'm going to go build for you because this is real urgency and scarcity. I have to move on. The landscape of my profession and my path is starting to change. For three years, I built for start-ups. For this past year, I've only built for professionals, people with at least ten grand. I have a buddy who sells $50,000 funnels. Anyway, ten grand for a funnel, the type that I build, I know it's actually dirt cheap... I just want to remind you guys that ... It's kind of funny. You think about the attractive character, this is the reluctant hero category. I'm trying to show you guys the magician's hands, kind of like what Russell calls it. I'm trying to show you what I'm doing here. I am closing this, and so I actually wanted to make you guys an offer. I'm going to make you guys an offer right now. I'm excited to do it. Not only are you guys gonna get a funnel that writes $10,000, I'll build you guys whatever kind of funnel you want. I'll do all the images. I'll help put the copy together. Videos will probably have to be done by you, so it's your face on them, but I'll help you put those together as well. I'll help you write the emails, the fulfillment emails, which there's a lot more to do on those than I've noticed you guys do. All right, help you write the soap opera series, helping you write sticky emails that will get people back in to buy, even several weeks after they've left your funny. All the different communication pieces, and that's $10,000. That's a value of ten grand. I remember the first time I charged ten grand. I was like, "This is crazy!" Then they went off and they did these amazing things. I was like, "Wow! Ten grand was nothing!" All right, I'm also going to give you guys every funnel I charge for. Every single one of them. That's about $1,000 value, almost; so I'm going to give you guys every single funnel. You'll get the $10,000, and then you'll get the about another $1,000 in funnels that I use for MLM; the funnel that I used to get 650 people to a live event, which was crazy. It was in the middle of college. That was so amazing. We raised seven grand for charity. It was awesome, but I built that funnel. I'll give you that one. You guys are going to get my insurance funnel. You'll get my podcasting funnel. You'll get my live coaching funnels, the funnel I use to get all my coaching stuff in. Which by the way, does quite a bit, monetarily. Anyway, you guys are going to get all those for free. I'm just going to share funnel them over to you. I'm going to build the funnel for you. Then, I'll give you every funnel that I charge, I'll give it to you for free. That's 11 grand in value. I'm also going to give you guys two coaching sessions post-build. This is huge. I charge $1,000 for an hour now. That's a $2,000 value. A lot of you guys, post-build, I've noticed will want to ... Obviously you're going to want another coaching session. It's like a check-up, it's like going back to the doctor after a surgery. 100% totally get it, so I'm going to give you guys two coaching sessions for free. I'll do it like two weeks after, and then one month after I'm done building. Usually my building period is two weeks, so within two weeks you'll have your funnel back; dependent on how quick you can get me the assets that I need. There's the built funnel for ten grand. Every funnel that I charge, for free, I'll give that to you for free. That's another $1,000. Two coaching sessions, that's $2,000. Then, I'm also going to give you ... Guys, I don't think a lot of you guys know, but I do a lot of stuff with the affiliate game. I've only got like 20 affiliates for Click Funnels, but it makes an extra grand a month; which is awesome. I don't do anything for that. I'm going to give you the email series I use to get people in the door. It's worth a $1,000 a month to me, right now. A real, real cost and I don't do anything. I should drive ads. I should drive traffic to it. I don't, and it still makes a $1,000 a month. I'm going to give you that specific email sequence, which is awesome. It's worth $1,000 a month. Again, get the funnel built. I'll give you ever funnel I've ever charged for, for free. Two coaching sessions, my affiliate email sequence. Then, the last thing I'm going to give you guys is I want to feature you guys on the podcast. I think it'd be cool for everybody if you guys, if we go and we peel back the funnel, maybe after the coaching sessions are done or whatever. We go through and we show the progression of the funnel, and we show how what we're doing. I thought it'd be really cool to feature you guys on the podcast so that everyone can see what we did and how we pulled it off. All together, that's like $15,000 in value. Obviously I charge ten grand for it. I'm going to give you guys $5,000 off, free for that. That's real urgency and scarcity. If you guys go to SteveJLarsen.com, you'll be able to download the checklist. Then, right after that on the next page, you can hold your spot. Again, it's $500 just as the deposit to hold your place. The reason I do that is because a lot of people want me to build their funnels, but the $500 helps me know that you're serious and in a position for me to build your funnel. If it doesn't work, I give you the $500 back. That's no risk to you at all. If we are building the funnel together, then it just goes towards the $10,000 price. That's only $9500 after that. That's it, guys. Go to SteveJLarsen.com. Again, my full name is Stephen Joseph Larsen but it's SteveJLarsen.com. You can download the checklist that I use to vet companies. You can use it to vet your own, and how much a funnel will blow up your business. Then you can also reserve one of my last three places for funnel building. Some real urgency and scarcity on this, okay? You guys have 'til the very last day in March to do this. The very last day in March. I have to do this now. You know what? Actually, what's the date? I only have two weeks, because I have to have the funnels almost done by the end of March. Anyway, the countdown clock for the real world time that I have to stop building funnels publicly, or I get in trouble, because I need to focus inwardly on Click Funnels. It will be done. Go to SteveJLarsen.com, get the checklist, and go to the next page. You'll be able to see what that all is. Guys, thanks so much. Again, you get the funnel built, ten grand. Get every funnel I've built and charged for free. I'll give you everything I have. Then, I'm going to give you guys two coaching sessions for free, for two grand; and then my email sequence for all my affiliates that gets loaded straight into your Actionetics. I can share link all my email sequence straight into your Actionetics account, which is awesome. Then, I'm going to feature you on the podcast. I think everyone will get a lot of value from that, actually. That's going to be really cool. That's real world value of over 15 grand. I'm going to give it to you for $10,000. Anyways, guys, again, SteveJLarsen.com. I will talk to you guys later. Bye.

Click above to listen in iTunes... "Oh the economy, the economy!" Guess What? There's TWO Of Them… Which Are You In??? (Bit Of A Secret To The Mainstream) Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and this is Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. Man, I'm not going to lie. I'm trying to just sit up straight. I'm so tired. It's almost midnight, which is not that late, but the last month has just been crazy. Been filming a lot for Funnel Hacking TV. I built out 11 funnels. 11 sales funnels in a single day... It was crazy. It can't take credit all on my own for that one, but I did take 11 funnels in a day. It was fantastic. Really, really cool. It is ... Like I said, it's almost midnight, and I'm here still at the office and I'm waiting for the dumb video to finish rendering and it's going to take like 40 minutes. It's crazy. The only problem with really liking to do video stuff and loving most of the Adobe Suite and... funnels and writing script and like I feel like I'm a renaissance man on some of those things. I'm not trying to pat my own back, I'm just saying oh my gosh. I need to go take a break. Someone else can do some of this for a little while, all right? Hey, so I got something here that's actually been on my mind a little bit and I was listening to Dan Sullivan and soon as I heard it I was like, "Oh my gosh, people need to hear this. If they've not heard this, this can actually effect the way they look at the world. This is great." It's from his book or program or whatever it is, Pure Genius, and he was talking ... I'll just tell you, I got to it. I was listening to his program. I was kind of driving around. Most of the time I was listening to music, something like that just kind of relaxes me. Sometimes I just ... For a while go through these huge stints where I'd just listen to audiobooks and programs. I'd put them on 2 times speed so I can get them down faster. It's funny though because I pause them enough to just think about what someone said. It would probably be just as fast if I just played it at normal speed. Anyways. Hey, so I was listening to Dan Sullivan thing and he came across this concept and he was talking and he as saying, "I want you guys to know, think about this, think about where you are. Put yourself in this scenario." He said, "There are actually 2 economies in the world... ...Most people go and they talk about the economy. Oh, the economy's this. The economy's that. The economy's bad or whatever it is, or the economy's gone up. But they talk about it like it's one economy." Dan says that's actually not true at all. A lot of the conflict that comes from like you know the difference between a white collar worker and a blue collar worker and a lot of the clashing comes because of this. He said, "Hey, there's actually 2 different economies. The first is the economy of time and effort." Now, I used to do residential pool construction, like swimming pools. I did ... I worked at a golf course. I worked at a tire factory, or discount tire. I was a tire buster. I worked at a plastics factory. We made anything from syringes to M16 boat stocks to CD cases. I mean everything. It was all over the place. It was crazy. I worked at a sports store for a while. I had a ton of jobs. A ton of jobs growing up. It was very much in the time and effort economy. If I was not there, I did not make money. You know what I mean? It's kind of cool, so I was talking to one of my coworker's sons about this. Chandler, if you're listening, big old shout out to you, buddy. I was talking to him and he was saying ... I think he asked for some kind of advice or something like that. I said, "You understand that there's two different economies. The first [inaudible 00:04:06] said is the time and the effort economy. That's where most people live. That's where most people breathe. That's what they know. It's just time and effort and all the leverage they have over their life. But there is a second economy. It is so real. It's so real. It is the results economy." Now, I can come in to work and build out a funnel, build out 11 funnels in a single day and have someone else drive some traffic to it or drive it myself and walk away the rest of the week and as long as I know it actually converts and I've done my homework so to speak, I've made sure it does convert, it actually does make money. That's a results based economy. I can walk way from that, right? That's a full out asset. That's amazing. Like I said, I have this ... It's called the MLM Down Line Recruiting Funnel. I'm not actually in an MLM right now. I know MLM... love what I create for funnel stuff. I got one of those funnels in the market place. I... market place, and it makes like 500 to $1000 a week. It's nuts. That's completely the results based economy. You know what I went and did today? I bought a motorcycle because of that. I just walked over to the dealer and that's the fastest sale that dude's ever had. I was like, "Yeah, I already know I want this." He was like, "Well, what's holding you back?" I said, "Nothing," so I walked inside and signed the paper work and walked away. Like, "I'll be back tomorrow night and pick it up." Like, "Okay." I think I shocked him pretty bad. Anyways, kind of funny. As a result of the results based economy. Ask yourself, are you actually in the results based economy? It's possible to be working in a results based I guess enabled company but still not be benefiting from it. Meaning, I could be completely obsessed with building sales funnels, which I am, and even though I could benefit from being in a results based economy, I could still be addicted to the fact that I need to build funnels all the time. Tim Farris talks about this actually in the 4 hour work week. He talked about how a lot of times even though your basic needs to live and go do the cool dreams that you want, even though you'll have those means to do that, the mere fact that you don't know what else you want to do with your life keeps you working at your job. That's kind of the next step of the results based economy is that you might be in an industry where you could benefit from just results. Right? Well, I produced X, Y and Z. What else do I do? I don't know, just work I guess. That's one of the dangers of it. There's cool stories out there like, hey, there's a really cool CPA that he does all of his taxes for all of his clients like every February. He doesn't even wait. He actually tells all of these people, "Hey, I'm actually traveling the entire month of April, so get your taxes in." He has people collect all these forms, all these things. Suddenly people open up their schedules. They know he's fantastic and he does tons of client work in February, goes and does whatever he wants the rest of the year. That's a client based economy, but people wouldn't normally look at a CPA as a results based economic job or whatever. What can you do? That's the only reason I wanted to point it out, is what could you do for a results based economy? I remember when I worked at this pool construction place for a while. We would go build the pools and then a lot of times go service them. It was actually a really cool job. I was in the middle of college at the time, was kind of just starting college at the time. I was cleaning pools for a lot of the Denver Broncos team players, like Denver Nuggets, the Rockies baseball team. It was pretty cool actually. A lot of cool huge golf players and things like that. It was actually a pretty rare job and it was actually pretty cool. There was one issue I had with it... I got really fast at the job. Really fast. It's not like I still got the same pay, I got home earlier and got paid less. I was like what the heck? I realized this like a month in. I'm like this is getting dumb. I'm getting paid less because I'm getting better at my job. That's stupid, I hate this... I remember I was really pissed off about it and I remember at the last day, getting up and grabbing this ... There was this piece of broken tile on the ground and I had worked a lot of construction jobs at the time, a lot of labor intensive jobs at the time. Some of them made me really sick, some of them made me miss out a lot of health at the time, I wasn't taking care of myself, wasn't doing the cool things I want to with friends and things like that. I remember there was this piece of broken tile on the ground and I picked it up and I swore to myself, I will never do another job like this again for the rest of my entire life and I never have. That's kind of when I pledged to at least start learning how to get into the results based economy. I didn't realize that's what I was doing at the time, but that's what I was doing. What's nice about it is the harder you work when you're in a results based economy, your income actually can go up. If it doesn't, it means you're in the time and effort economy. That's one of the catch alls, so ask yourself. If I work harder at my job, will I make more money? If you aren't, you are not in the correct economy. Unless you want to stay there, but I don't know why you would. That's one of the big tall tale things that you can go through and say ... Find a way to leverage your position and leverage your job so you are in a more results based thing. That way if you want and you want to take on more work and take on more money you can. I want a little side project, want a little side job that I can go build a little business on the side or whatever, do something on my own. Then you'll have the leeway to do so, but otherwise, you will stay in a time and effort economy which will keep you there forever. It's not like anyone wants you to get out. No one wants you to get out of ... Your boss doesn't. That's not the normal thing to go do. I'm not trying to tell you guys you should jump out and quit your job or whatever. It's midnight. I'm here still at the office. I'm rendering out this video for a super cool affiliate thing. This is a results based activity that I'm doing right now. I know that me making this, there are thousands of people that are going to go see it and then my income's going to go up. It is. It's real exciting. This is one of the things that keeps me motivated, because I know when I'm actually pushing forward on things, I have control over it. It's kind of a base amount of money that I make just by having a job, but there's all these other things that I can go do and all these other fun stuff that is totally a results based thing. I want to offer to you guys something. I got up this morning ... I've actually almost been working for 24 hours now. I'm completely exhausted. I've been doing this for like a month. I'm really super tired right now to be honest. We're in the middle of a results season and we know that next month is going to be really relaxed and we're just going to be excited about it. We're pushing out super hard right now results and results on top of results. It's really exciting. Super cool. But it's going to pay off. It already has been. It's actually been really fun to watch monetary results come in which is not something that usually a boss in a normal job or some other employer that you might have that he's not going to give you that thing. Hey, they reward you with some sports tickets or something like that. You can't control your own monetary income then I said you are not in a results based economy at all. This is what I would say to you guys though. I got up early. I got here way before 6:00 this morning and it's already past midnight. I'm super tired but the reason I did it is because I am getting one to three people every day ask me if not to build their funnel then at least some other funnel related question. Tons of you are and it's awesome because I love building funnels. I was like man, I got to control this a little more. I got a wife and 2 kids, I want to go and hang out with them. I can't do this all the time. It's understandable you're there but this is not a lifestyle I want to keep going at. What I did, and if you guys are interested in it, go to sales funnel broker dot com forward slash services, or you could just go to sales funnel broker dot com and click on services on the top and you'll see there are 4 categories or questions that I continuously get asked over and over again... It's pretty interesting. The first one is people want me to build their funnel for them. That's understandable. I like doing it and I think it's awesome. It's one of my natural, unique abilities. You have your natural, unique abilities. Mine is building funnels for marketing and stuff. The second category of question I get, sometimes people just want me to critique their current funnel, which I actually get a lot of those. A lot of people want me to critique it, go through it, kind of break it down, figure out what kinds of things, issues they might be having, explore those with them, maybe things they can do to make them extra money they didn't know about, things they can leverage. The third category is people a lot of times ... It's almost like the Papa Murphy's model. They want me to go plan it, but then they go build it, right? Go pick up the pizza and then go cook it on your own. The fourth is people just have general questions. I have a lot of people just, "Hey, can I pick your brain?" That's awesome, but again, I'm trying to stay in a results based economy so it's really hard. I haven't taken a lunch in like 5 months. I don't know if people do take lunch. I don't get it... I like instead to just push out results and you can just live really cool like that. If you have any question that has to do with funnels, I am totally pitching you right now. I want you to know that I can 100% help you with your funnel questions. It is ... I do charge a little bit more for a one hour consultation call... It's like nothing compared to the cost of a funnel. It's just for me to start vetting out the people who are serious about this so I actually work with people who are willing to go out and take action on what I tell them to do. There seems to be a correlation. If you don't pay for the advice, a lot of times, you don't value it. You're not going to do what I say anyway, so why should I sit here and tell you things to do that I know your not going to do. This is a favor for both of us. If you pay me money, you're going to do a lot more what I tell you to go do. I'll tell you to do freaking cool stuff that makes rocking tunnel. Anyways, I am ... This is me telling you, I am staying in a results based economy so I went and built that. Again, go check out sales funnel broker dot com forward slash services and then you guys, go do the same thing. Create something that can make money without you being there and only requires ads. Secret MLM hacks dot com is that for me. There's a lot of other little funnels I have that are out there also that is that for me. You can come back and my favorite noise is the one the strike makes when I see money came in. Chirps on my phone. I never like to turn that noise off. Anyways guys, I'm rambling on right now. I'm getting super tired. My throat hurts. It's crazy late, but I know that next month is going to be awesome because it's going to be a lot more relaxing. Anyways, guys I'll talk to you later. Yeah, get in the right economy... Thanks for listening to sales funnel radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Have a question you want answered on the show? Get your free t-shirt when your question gets answered on the live "HeySteve!" show. Visit sales funnel broker dot com now to submit your question.    

Discuss this episode in the Muse community Follow @MuseAppHQ on Twitter Show notes 00:00:00 - Speaker 1: I think at some point I would love to go back to just work on, I don’t know, album artwork, or just lock myself away in a cabin and just draw typography. But for now, I feel like there’s some stories I want to tell. And for some of those stories to really resonate, they need to be put into people’s hands and experience. And so until I’ve told those stories, I feel like there’s unfinished business. 00:00:25 - Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Meta Muse. Us is a tool for thought on iPad. This podcast isn’t about use the product, it’s about mus the company and the small team behind it. My name is Adam Wiggins. I’m here today with my colleague Mark McGranaghan. Hey, Adam. And our guest, Jason Yuan. Hello. And Jason, you are a prolific creator of all sorts. The one that struck me as very interesting from your background is that you got your start in stage design, which you described as a bit of a two-way interface. I’d love to hear about that. 00:00:59 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what’s interesting about stage design and theater design in general is that It’s so inherently multidisciplinary. So even if you say I’m designing on a show, you might mean costume design, stage design, set design, sound design, and all of those have to be choreographed perfectly. They have to work together. And then, obviously, the stage needs to be used by the actors. It needs to be functional. People need to be able to enter and exit. It needs to be safe. So that’s one aspect of like, I guess the people that it needs to work for and then obviously you have the audience who rely on. The culmination of how the stage design works in conjunction with all the other elements to bring them into a world and to tell the story. And so it’s fairly high pressure because so many people rely on it and because theater is sort of in the moment, if something doesn’t work or God forbid if something unsafe happens, like that’s on you, partially, so. Design has always sort of felt very high stakes, even in interaction design now where you could always ship a bug fix or you might be able to delay the launch or incrementally improve things over time in theater unless you’re a very prolific show, you don’t really get that luxury. 00:02:12 - Speaker 2: Yeah, I can imagine the live performance element creates a sense of, well, I suppose drama would be the word for it, but for the people who are creating it as well, you have this showtime moment and everything’s got to come together and work right, and if it doesn’t, the problems are all up there for everyone in the audience to see very dramatically. 00:02:32 - Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, something that frustrates a lot of people that I’ve worked with in tech, sort of, I’ve always carried the show must go on mentality. That sometimes, you know, applies, but then if you’re working on indie projects where like there’s no real deadline, people are like, why, why though? It’s ready when it’s ready. And I’m like, no, like the show must go on. So that’s been interesting trying to find elements I want to keep from my past now that I’m practicing something that’s fairly different. 00:03:01 - Speaker 2: At some point you made the transition to the digital technology world and lots of interesting work in your portfolio there, including Mercury OS we’ll talk maybe a bit on a little bit, which was how I first discovered your work. You’ve also been working on MakeSpace. What else is on the recent portfolio. 00:03:21 - Speaker 1: You know, after Mercury came out, there was so much feedback from people who wanted to see it become real in some way. I worked on several smaller spin-off projects that were inspired by the initial vision, like, I don’t think it was ever designed to be a thing that I saw ship as this. It’s a very point of view. Mercury was designed from a very specific point of view through the lens of someone who is frustrated that my own mind as someone who lives with ADHD and PTSD and just, I find a lot of things particularly stressful in computers like file systems and how I have to constantly open and close apps and switch context uses. It was a very specific point of view there about like operating systems, but, you know, trying to think about a way to make some of the ideas actually happen. Has taken up a lot of my past year, I think. And in some ways makespace is kind of an offshoot of that in the sense that I think the spirit of reimagining something that I felt like could have a lot more potential exists in Maspace. And, you know, when Asa and I first started working on it, the code name was untitled OS. So I think from Makespace came this fascination. Of like exploring platforms, but then also exploring smaller, more contained experiences that attempt to deliver sort of flow state to people. I think I’ll be sharing some of them soon, is what I’ll say. There’s two particularly I’m excited about. The first one is sort of looking at screenshots as a metaphor, sort of inspired by. I saw this guy tweet once like screenshots and then you save and then obviously Omar’s work on screen notate. 00:05:15 - Speaker 2: Universal solvent is usually the way we put that now. 00:05:18 - Speaker 1: A screenshot sort of experience is something I’ve been working on with a collaborator called Tyler Egert, and he’s currently at this startup called Reple. And then a separate project is sort of like a take on a to do list that sort of imagines to do lists in the context of your social media feed. But that’s a much longer conversation, and I’m looking forward to sharing some of that soon. 00:05:40 - Speaker 2: We’ll be excited to see those. Well, yeah, I’ll link the projects we’re mentioning here other than the ones that aren’t out yet, of course, in the show notes. So yeah, Mercury OS, which is kind of a rethink everything in the sort of the operating system interface, and then MakeSpace, I can see the thread there, I can see how that’s related. Makespace is an app for lack of better word for kind of spatial video chat experience if I’m understanding that correct. But you can see how that’s an offshoot or a different way to cut the kind of the operating system space, but maybe a little bit more focused specifically around the video meeting domain. Does that sound about right? 00:06:18 - Speaker 1: Yes, and I think the original prototype that Asa hacked together was just spatial browsing. I think video was the second thing we added. Oh, interesting. Yeah, so it kind of started as a vision for a spatial browser. And when we brought Wei Wei into the project, she had all these amazing ideas about like bidirectional linking and then we had ideas about like how to use web apps, like how this might enable people to disassemble and reassemble web apps. And like use them as modules and how you could essentially author your own ideal interface environments. And then sort of the faces going into that experience is sort of like COVID was raging here. It was having a grand old time and we just felt like, why not coexist next to, we think about breaking boundaries between app silos. What about the silo between what I do on my computer and people. So yeah, that’s a little bit about how that project came together. 00:07:14 - Speaker 2: Maybe that’s a good way to tee up the topic that we’re kind of theming around today, which is rethinking the OS, and I wrote an article recently kind of talking about some core interactions and I listed off some of these what I would call concept projects. You tell me if you think it’s fair to group these together, but I put Mercury Desktop Neo is one that our colleague. Leonard, the Muse designer did while he was in university. There’s another one called artifacts, which is very interesting, goes very deep, and all of these have maybe the quality of sort of really rethinking from the ground up. It’s not just how do we remake one part of this, but if we really had a blank slate, how would we, how, how would we want. to be knowing what we know now in terms of new software, new paradigms with, yeah, whether it’s social media or video capabilities or really large screens or touch screens. A lot has changed since the core interactions that make up certainly the desktop operating systems, even mobile in a way is now well established compared to all that’s come up. 00:08:19 - Speaker 1: I remember I seen Desktop Neo and then this other project artifacts and around the time that I was writing the story around Mercury, and I remember thinking like, oh fuck, am I allowed to swear? 00:08:32 - Speaker 2: Oh, it just means that when I edit the XML for the episode, I have to flip the explicit switch from yes to no. Although it is very good that the podcast RSS feed format lets you flag specific episodes. I had to first do this for Josh Miller from the browser company. He was an enthusiastic swearer, and I felt like editing that out would be taking away some of the. The character. So please proceed. 00:08:55 - Speaker 1: You, you can feel free to add a bleep somewhere. I think that’s always fun and dramatic and it feels like you’re in a sitcom. Anyway, so, yeah, I remember seeing Desktop Neo and artifacts, and I was like, fuck. People are gonna be like, you ripped them off, because the things that I recognized was this desire to extend the desktop horizontally. To have the component of like your windows should be able to flow horizontally and off this arbitrary bounding box. And I think like Mercury is definitely not the first project to sort of envision that. And I really think that all of these speculative projects point towards that future of people wanting, for lack of a better word, more space, and also, I think it’s something that I would be curious to see. Happening in some way. I mean, one could argue that with iOS 14 widgets, I know that it seems like quite an incremental or even catch up, so to speak, but if you look into the future and you imagine like widgets and also app clips, and now things can live in your home screen that are more than just icons, and then your home screen having the ability to obviously swipe between pages, some interesting connections there that I would be curious to see where that leads. 00:10:11 - Speaker 2: Hm. Mark, what’s your take on rethinking the OS, these concept projects, and then more to the point maybe where they point, which is, do we need or is there value in a fairly dramatic rethink of the fundamental interactions versus, you know, what we have is tried and true. 00:10:30 - Speaker 3: Well, I think it’s certainly always worth trying. There’s so much upside if you get it right, if you land on something interesting. So I’m glad to see all the experiments, and I do think that the fundamentals underpinning all of our work are changing, so we’re getting bigger screens, we’re getting touch screens, we’re getting new. Graphics pipelines that are much more GPUs and parallellyzed, and I think a huge one is we’re getting very different economic models around the operating systems and the platforms and all of those have, and I think will continue to drive changes. So iOS was about touch and the new economic model mostly. And things like these new desktop explorations, I would say are more powerful, bigger screens and touch moving into the desktop platform and things like that, as well as having enough processing power and media that things become much more rich, interactive, visual in a way that they weren’t really even 10 years ago. So, I think it’s worth pursuing. 00:11:21 - Speaker 2: Yeah, that’s one of the things I think a lot about with what do computing for productive uses look like in the relatively near future is we now have this huge screens, the multimedia stuff, you know, video is just absolutely everywhere, for example, but we also have the diversity of input. This is one thing I like a lot about the. iPad stylus, touch with the fingers, trackpad, keyboard, you can throw voice in the mix there, and then if you go to, OK, everyone’s waiting for that drafting table sized or maybe just IMAX sized iPad that seems likely to come in the not too distant future or something like it. And then you can imagine something that feels a lot more like a room-sized thing where maybe you have multiple screens, which is already the case that we all kind of have our phones sitting there in the desktop and maybe you’ve also got the tablet. You got the voice interfaces, you’ve got the different kinds of inputs, and you put all that together and I don’t know what it adds up to necessarily, but it does seem to imply some fundamentally different relationship with your computing devices, even just how you relate to them in physical space, your posture as you use them. 00:12:28 - Speaker 3: And speaking of the human element here, we’ve done a kind of systems analysis of why might you different operating systems to emerge. There’s also the human side, which is when you put these new OS’s in front of people, you get a very positive reaction. They say things like, yes, this is how I want to feel as a user of my computer. It’s a very visceral reaction. And so I think there is a, there’s a gap between how computers currently work and how people want to feel when they’re using their tools. And that I think is still a big space to explore. 00:12:55 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when I started with Mercury, it started as a purely like surface level ergonomics project. It was so funny. It started as a design system of like, let’s make things look better. And then I’m like, wait, no, like that’s not actually why I don’t like my computer. Things look OK, generally, and I’m like, OK, well, maybe let’s make things move better. And then I’m like, hm I don’t know that the choreography is necessarily a problem that much. And then there was a phase where I realized that the ways that we are conditioned to think about interaction design. When I first started learning about it, it was like you use sketch, and then you, which is basically illustrator, and you have art boards, and then you link art boards together and then you basically make a choose your own adventure presentation thing. And that’s interaction design. And I realized like the real ergonomics part that I felt like was missing was the in between. Each moment of transition should feel like a moment of power, should feel like you can sort of change your mind or keep going, but the way that we’ve been conditioned to design sort of digital products don’t really. I don’t really feel like it affords that way of thinking about how interfaces work, unless you use something like origami or court composer or code. And so it was at that moment that I’m like, maybe this ergonomic problem goes a little deeper, and that’s when I started to think on more of like a system level. I think before that, I didn’t feel like I had permission to, you know? During my internship at Apple, it was actually a friend of mine, Marissa. We were just having a conversation about Siri one night and she just started asking like, do you think this is really like what voice interfaces should be like? Do you think there should be all these different modes? Do you think that having a little brick in your phone that holds all the power is the right way for computers to sort of expand into and. I had just never thought about things like that before. I was just trying to make screens that moved, that looked and felt ergonomic. I wasn’t thinking about the actual base layer, why? And so after that, it sort of felt like suddenly a whole new world of just asking questions and digging myself into a rabbit hole was just possible. And the process behind thinking of Mercury was very similar. It was basically that, but in a design process. And I think what you’re saying about people being drawn to These very tactile experiences, I think, in the process of researching for Mercury, I read a lot of like white paper style things. And I was just incredibly bored or not stimulated by them because I’m like, yeah, you kind of have these drawings that look like memes of diagrams that look like they go in a patent. I care about this because I happen to like designing computers, but you put it in front of anyone else, and they’re like, why should I care? And so it became apparent that If I wanted to create a vision that people cared about, that I would have to focus a lot on the craftsmanship, the visual design, and also the storytelling delivery. 00:15:45 - Speaker 3: It’s funny you mentioned that Adam and I were just talking about this this morning. You basically can’t explainm to people with text. It just doesn’t work as an empirical matter. What really works is video and animation. And I think this is resonant with what you were saying, where you need the right medium to convey your emotional message. 00:16:01 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I learned about the concept of a tool for thought after moving to the bay. It’s one of those things where I just like kind of don’t get it, where kind of everything is a tool for thought. Um, but I kind of understand why there is this specific community that’s very obsessed over thinking about thinking tools, essentially. And I think giving something a phrase gives it power sort of reference points. And so I think absolutely like, I think when I first found news, I can’t remember the copywriting, but I can remember seeing the gesture on the iPad and seeing things zoom in and out and seeing writing being just all over it and just thinking like, yeah, that’s how it should work. And I think it’s successful in that it makes things seem very obvious in hindsight, and I think that’s sort of a quality that I really aspire to achieve when I design. News is interesting because you can tell a lot of OS or platform level thinking goes into it and it’s an app. And same with sort of makespace where even though internally we think about it as like a social collaborative operating system, it’s an app. And then my instinct is that there’s going to be a lot more in the coming years slash months, and I would be curious to see like, you know how Android has like launchers, that, but for my desktop experience. Though I’m unclear how that might happen. But something very compelling someone said to me was like, Google search is basically an OS now. And when I think about operating systems, it’s less like Unix and like how you actually what this is, and engineers are probably going to send me death threats, but like I really don’t care. Why should I care about that? As a person who likes computers and likes to play with computers, I just want to worry about how it feels and looks, and that’s really how customers were users. I don’t like that word either, but customers would think about it or people. So double edged sword, probably. 00:17:51 - Speaker 3: I think this is also kind of inevitable because operating systems are, by definition very general and complex. It’s about being able to host other programs, and it’s the nature of complex things that they inevitably arise from simple things. I forget the person this is named after, but that’s a lie if we can put it in the show notes. So that’s why we see most of the platforms evolve from something simpler, either from an app, so I would put the Web browser in this category, it started as an app on, you know, Windows and Mac and so on, but now it’s basically a whole other platform. Or you see basically a small kernel of fixed apps evolve into a platform. This is the iOS story. There wasn’t an app store, remember, it was just, there was the calculator and the male app and Safari, and that was, you know, kind of it. If you want something else too bad. But eventually they generalized it into a real platform, a real OS that can run user supplied apps. 00:18:36 - Speaker 2: If you want that back even further, I usually think the iPod is the start of the iOS story. So it really was a completely dedicated device for playing music and had a very, very simple, but in fact innovative interface, the little wheel was recognizable. It was fit for the purpose of on the go, music listening. Very simple screen, but all designed to really solve that problem extremely well in a way that maybe MP3 players at the time didn’t. And then yeah, that evolved upwards into more and more complex platforms to the point that today I think it’s one of the world’s most sophisticated places to build applications. 00:19:12 - Speaker 3: And this to me is a really interesting and important research question in. Operating systems, what’s the path that you take in the path dependent sense to get to the place you want to be? Like you need to have a vision, you need some provocations for, OK, I think we want this style of operating system, but it’s very much a social, economic path dependent question on how you actually get there. It’s extraordinarily expensive to develop an operating system these days. So you can’t just suppose the final step. 00:19:38 - Speaker 1: Yeah, and now it also has to live up to everyone’s expectations of not only what it can do, but the ecosystem that it brings. And I think, you know, I have zero idea how any of this will happen, slash if it’s ever going to happen, but I would love to live in a world one day where instead of having like 500 note taking apps, I can just piece together and buy a la carte elements of different experiences that I like. Obviously there’s an entire conversation around like how capitalism works and what’s profitable and blah blah blah, but, you know, one can dream. Mainly I’m just tired of I’m tired of opening all my Adobe apps, and they’re basically like a canvas that you draw things on and then different ways to make things adhere to or not adhere to the grid and treating things as faster versus vector blah blah blah. Like to me, uh, it just seems like mentally I just envisioned it as a canvas that I can bring in different tools as needed and that should be how my workflow is, which one day like, it would be amazing if something like Makespace would turn into that sort of platform. Given its inherently spatial nature. 00:20:50 - Speaker 3: The Canvas thing is interesting. We’ve seen that emerge as a key content type, I would argue over the past few years. By Canvas, I mean it’s free form, it’s mixed media, uh, you have some flexibility, so Figma, Makerspace, makespace, Muse, a lot of these apps have developed this and they’re all kind of circling around a similar idea. It’s like this thing where you can put whatever you want, however you want. And that hasn’t quite been baked into an operating system proper yet, although it’s funny, it kind of harkens back to the old school classic desktops, which we almost forget about, but that’s like the OG canvas. 00:21:26 - Speaker 1: Yeah. Something that we’ve talked about a lot internally is how used to our people to this canvas metaphor when they don’t spend their days clicking around in FigMA or using Adobe Suite. 00:21:38 - Speaker 2: Yeah, it’s sort of the opposite of the particularly the phone innovation of you have one app at a time, it’s full screen, and that’s all you can do. And actually that’s an improvement for certain cases on the desktop complex windows that overlap with buttons on them, and you can minimize things and they have these menus and there’s focus and there’s all this confusing stuff to keep track of, but at the same time. Time for a more powerful environment where you do have multiple documents open, you need to move things around between them. You have different kinds of media, different kinds of things that you need to look alongside each other, move stuff between things, copy paste, and so on, the mobile one app at a time is the wrong metaphor. And so yeah, in a way, these tools where the primary document is a canvas that you can put things on in a very free form way that does. and back to the GUI operating system, uh, metaphor that came out of Xerox PARC, but there you had something where you have one document, which is sort of your desktop, maybe you have 4 if you have virtual workspaces, and then the windows that you arrange, they’re very kind of temporary, right? They’re just what’s in memory, there’s no persistence, there’s no sense of a board and certainly I can’t share it. I guess there’s screen share, but. So in a way, there is something to that metaphor. I think what you find when you reinvent or rethink something is that the best qualities of a previous or of an older idea come through, but you also leave behind a lot of the things that maybe you don’t want or you can improve upon it in a dramatic way, but you can only do that, I think by having a little bit of a break. It would be hard to imagine, for example, Linux, Windows and Mac. Evolving into Figma or evolving into makespace or uses. I don’t think that could happen. They have too much baggage in history. 00:23:25 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the primary change that I’ve experienced in my year in the valley is, you know, last year I was all like, it’s not too late to we start delete everything, you know, everything sucks. We need to start from scratch, just everyone to stop, like, no more software. Um, whereas now I’m a lot less. I mean, I still live for speculative proposals or provocations. I love when people ask questions and when people rebel a little bit, but I think working on the sort of future stuff like it’s Tends to be a very lonely process, and you don’t get that satisfaction of like opening night when like audiences actually get to experience the work and walk away with a little bit of their lives may be changed. Sound like such a theater kid right now, but I swear that part has not died. Silicon Valley can’t kill me. Um, but I think I’m learning more as a creator to hold both truths at once, to have a series of clear North stars that I think. would really help people that I’m curious about exploring and also finding practical concrete ways to head there. So I’m not just like randomly in a lab somewhere, which is like that’s fine too, but I don’t think I’m there yet. 00:24:38 - Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that duality is really important. You got to dream big, but also be willing to find ways to bring that into practice. I feel like you have the one extreme, which is, you might call it ivory tower head in the clouds, dreamer thing, and it’s much easier to think the big thoughts and the inspiring ideas because you’re free of the baggage of, I don’t know, reality or the status quo or what have you. But I think it’s ultimately unsatisfying and I think I’ve seen people who are Maybe tend towards that dreamer side, be even frustrated or even become bitter because they think I have all these great ideas. I figured it all out, but those ideas, if they don’t see them come to fruition somehow, it ultimately feels sort of unsatisfying. But the flip side of that, of course, which is people who are really in the day to day and the practical and being very pragmatic and incremental, which I think certainly the tech world has a very strong iterative, you know, just make your MVP and build on that. thing which I think is very good for getting going and discovering a problem and so on, but sometimes you do that that means you’re losing the ability to think big thoughts, dream big dreams, go further, move past what’s here today. And so there’s some, I feel there is some way to resolve that duality, although in a way, I think as an industry and certainly for me as an individual, I’m still trying to figure out exactly how you get the best of both worlds and hopefully the worst of neither. 00:26:04 - Speaker 1: I kind of just do things through the lens of culture to get anything to actually take off or have impact. Essentially, you need to change culture in a certain way or to have an idea influence culture. And I think there’s a place for it, you know, speculative or utopian dystopian ideas, and certainly, you know, those ideas are exciting and can excite a lot of people as like sort of aspirational pressure. Which is a term I stole from Asa, where you make something and then if enough people care about it, then that creates momentum towards that one day. And then the sort of more incremental thing is a slower way to more immediately start bending culture. I don’t think everyone should care about computers as deeply as like, maybe I do, or obviously you guys do, cause people have their own stuff going on, divorces, and I think that’s it. I think that’s the only thing that happens to people. But Um, so like, like we don’t have time. Like, don’t make me fucking worry about that. But at the same time, because computers are basically worlds that we live in now, people should feel empowered to think about it or question it if they want to. It’s sort of like, I guess politics in a way. It affects you whether you like it or not. And I think more people feel empowered to have an opinion on politics versus on like the operating system. And I think I would love to help make that conversation more accessible in some way. 00:27:24 - Speaker 3: You might not be interested in operating systems, but operating systems are interested in you. 00:27:30 - Speaker 1: The old saying, oh my goodness, is that it really, that’s that’s the same. 00:27:34 - Speaker 3: Well, it’s a classic thing with politics, right, 00:27:37 - Speaker 2: um, yeah, right, you can ignore that I don’t want to think about that, but in the end it does affect your life and that’s why it’s important for us all to be concerned citizens. Now happily, part of the magic of capitalism or just the world we live in generally is that there’s specialization. And so it’s OK that there’s people like 3 of us who for some unknown reason seem to be. obsessed with computers and we’re devoting our careers to trying to make them better as we, um, as we see, take that word to mean, whereas there’s others who are obsessed with other things and they can work on those things and hopefully we can all together make a better world for all of us. But that said, I think it is a really great point. I’m often struck when I speak to friends who are not from the tech world, and I can talk about. I don’t know, a design decision that Facebook is making, for example, and for them, it’s more like just a force of nature. There’s no the concept that there’s people behind it who are actively making a decision to do one thing versus another thing versus that it’s far away, yeah, unchangeable thing, doesn’t even enter their minds. And I understand why technology is hard to understand if you’re not in the field. Even if you’re in the field, frankly, it’s pretty hard to understand to keep up with everything, but as you said, empowered to have an opinion at the very least seems worthwhile. 00:28:55 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember as I was trying to think about Mercury or operating systems, I think certain people I worked with were mentors would be like, why is it something you care about? Like, are you gonna ship this thing? Like, are you gonna go propose it to like Craig Federation? Like, why? Like it’s not gonna ship. What’s the point? And I disagree still, I think. If we just stop caring about anything that we can’t change, you might as well just stop caring, period. Certainly these days it’s quite easy to just associate your life away. I mean I’ve I’ve certainly been doing a lot of that. I think something that was very interesting to me when I first arrived here, I think one of the first things. I did was my friend took me to Dynamicland. but my friend informed me of who Brett Victor was slash I, I knew who Warrior Dream was, but not who Brett Victor was, you know, and then about Dynamic land and that it existed. So I went and like the first thing that I thought was like, oh my God, people should be using this to make theater. This is interactive theater. Like, why isn’t this in my black box? Where are the artists, you know? And that’s something that from what I understand, maybe community outreach is not necessarily like a focus of theirs in this present moment, but I think if you’re serious about getting people excited and therefore affecting change on a cultural level, I think it starts with getting culture makers excited and. It takes me longer to do write-ups than to design things because it’s so important to me that people who had no idea of why they should care about an operating system can read the story I wrote and then walk away feeling like, yeah, I care now too. And I received lots of emails from people who are also had certain neurodiverse tendencies or just like friends in theater who I didn’t think I had permission. Like, I, I didn’t know that. Like, now I’m a lot more angry at my devices, and I’m like, you’re welcome. And I love that. I want to be remembered for making lots of people really angry. In a good way. 00:30:56 - Speaker 2: Well, yeah, people in my life often point out how I seem to be more dissatisfied with the digital technologies that we interact with every day than anyone else they know, and that sort of maybe seems like a strange, a surprising juxtaposition when I work in the field and claim to enjoy computers and the internet and software and all those sorts of things, but my patience for things that, you know, are trying to hijack my attention. Or faces that are too slow, or things that just treat me in ways that I think are not the way that these devices which are designed to serve us and help us and make us better, often do sadly these days, but it’s connected part of my passion for it is precisely because I think we can do better. Yeah. So when you talk about Brett Victor, his work is just the pinnacle of inspiring, but as far as I know, he is not doing things to really Bring his work to practical. He’s not trying to produce spin out startups or take one of his code bases and make it open source so someone can build on it. He’s trying to show what might be possible to get us to aspire to something higher to to get us excited. And I know many people who point directly to his work as something that got them maybe specifically interested in design or specifically interested in productivity tools design or specifically interested in. And user programming or some other aspect of this kind of computing for thinking and productivity and creativity. And so you could say that that, you know, you could do it just that way and Jason, I see your work is seeing a lot of that. You do these pieces where it’s not just the design you’ve made, of course, but it’s also like you said, the write up where your intention is to help people understand why. And get excited and follow the story and you probably would be OK to stop there. Now you don’t have much say over maybe you lack the satisfaction of getting to deliver something all the way through to a customer and see it put a smile on their face. But one way to do it is kind of say, well, I’ve done my part, which is to inspire and step away, assuming that you can make that into a livelihood and let others kind of productionize, you might say. But it sounds like you don’t find that satisfying enough, or you want to take it past just that inspiration stage. 00:33:13 - Speaker 1: Um, I think if I lived in my ideal world, I would never worry about shipping anything ever. I kind of view that sort of more as art though, versus design in a way. Like it feels more like a personal provocation expression, like a need to do something driven internally and design is a lot more. I interpret it as a service, and you could argue that doing aspirational conceptual work is kind of a service, but I think of it more as art versus design. And so I think if I was able to, and if I had that pedigree and following and just sweet, sweet cash. Live in capitalism, can’t pretend to live out of it, you know, whatever. I would do it. To be honest, I don’t know how long I will spend in the tech industry because I think at some point, I would love to go back to just work on, I don’t know, album artwork, or just lock myself away in a cabin and just draw typography. But for now, I feel like there’s some stories I want to tell, and for some of those stories to really resonate, they need to be put into people’s hands and experience. And so until I’ve told those stories, I feel like there’s unfinished business just for me personally. 00:34:18 - Speaker 3: Yeah, and to me, part of the motivation for bringing things into the real world is to understand if you got it right, because here’s the deal with reality. It’s so complex, you can’t actually understand it. These design heuristics are about coming up with a better guess and then incrementally perhaps arriving at the solution and really the only way to know is to try it. So that’s one of the reasons why I like the balance we struck with ink and switch and Muse. You have this combination of academic thinking, far out planning and vision. But then you also force that to confront reality and see what comes up, and often it’s surprising, and it’s a little bit of a bummer when your visions are contradicted by the cold hard truth, but that’s important data if you ultimately want to move the needle in the real world. 00:34:59 - Speaker 1: Yeah, I love exploring all the interesting gestures that you guys have in use, and there’s a certain point where I’m like, if I wanted to take this out of a layer, do I just hold on to it and then move and it turns out you actually just do that, which I loved. I love when things just naturally feel like. Connected to my intent in some weird magical way. Just ergonomically, I love it. And I think on the note of like designing productivity software, I think something that I wish I had done with Mercury or just in general, is thinking about all the ways that new paradigms are fun and playful. Like, I’m sure notion and Air Table are exciting advances towards tool for thought or whatever. But like, I don’t really associate spreadsheets and databases with fun. It’s like intriguing, but it’s not fun. And the thing you mentioned with iPod click wheel was it’s just fun. It was inherently fun. There’s no like real reason why that is more efficient than buttons or like a deep pad, but it was fun and because it was fun, people cared about it and it was also great for fidgeting, which I love. I think. Part of the reasons why I get so distracted in social media nowadays is my computer. I can’t really fidget. I can like move my mouse around and or I can like sort of just like fidge on my screen just by like moving things up now. But the interface itself is not really designed to let you fidget. Anyways, so iPod was so fun, and I want to see more tools for fun. Or tools for thoughts that happen to be playful and fun and really unapologetic about it. Like I could care less about bi-directional linking, like I have no fucking clue what that even means if it’s not fun and visually palatable. 00:36:44 - Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is a huge deal. And to my mind, the real poster child for this is emojis, and emojis, they seem goofy and insignificant, but they’re actually a huge deal. They’re a huge deal for Slack and to me, they’re a huge deal in notion. I was having trouble. It’s like, isn’t this kind of just like Google Docs, but you know, better and it’s like, well, yeah, but I can pick the emoji for each of my docs, oh, you know, and it just it gives you much more energy and it also allows you to communicate. more effectively, I would argue so. Yes, I think that’s a big thread. 00:37:15 - Speaker 2: The fun, the playfulness, the maybe joy, I think is one of the biggest things to come out of the mobile touchscreen iOS world. And of course, consumer applications sort of were the first to get that, but I absolutely think yeah, even the term productivity tools I use that just because, well, it’s the kind of the industry name. But I think when you look at, I’ve used the example before of Slack, and why I think Slack was successful is they make talking to your teammates fun. And it wasn’t really that much fun with hip chat and Campfire and IRC somewhat the Slack somehow tipped over between, I don’t know, animated gifts and unfurl cards and emojis and a couple of other things and just maybe the sleekness of the overall experience, good mobile app and stuff like that. They just made it the thing you wanted to do. And I think there is a version of that for almost any, yeah, what’s a spreadsheet for the TikTok generation, right? 00:38:11 - Speaker 1: So a cursed phrase. Oh my God, no. Oh my goodness. 00:38:17 - Speaker 2: But sort of embracing that, hopefully not the bad, you know, I think there’s a lot of downsides to the kind of engagement oriented social media stuff that is dominating a lot of, let’s say mainstream design thinking, but there is a version of that which does come down to the fun, the playfulness, the emotiveness, the just general joy you get when you think I want to use this. to do the thing you’re going to do more of it. And that’s, that was absolutely our thinking with Muse. We’re a little more understated. We’re less of the emojis everywhere and animated gifts everywhere thing, but we do try to make it fun and interesting and fast and a little bit playful to interact with your ideas. And so I think thinking of our overall mission to help people. Be more thoughtful when I talk to people about sort of deep thinking who maybe they know, maybe, for example, there’s an important decision in their life, they should really think through deeply, but it’s really hard. Deep thinking is hard. But if you had a tool that made it fun and you thought, well, this was a chance to use that thing, and I know it’s fun to use that thing, so therefore, you’re likely to do the activity, then maybe just a few more for more folks will want to do that. 00:39:25 - Speaker 1: I feel like play and fidgeting are just my tools for thought. I can’t think if I’m strapped to a chair somewhere. And some of my most exciting sort of revelations just always come from doing improv, which I deeply miss. But it seems like the world is kind of just on improv right now, in a way that’s really hard to say yes to. Anyway. 00:39:56 - Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, a little more specific nerdy tangent is like part of the reason why I think spring dampening works so well is because when you give something physics, Spring dampening here you’re talking about when you have a transition of some kind that instead of being a linear movement, it sort of speeds up at the beginning and then slows down as the transition is coming to a close, yeah. 00:40:06 - Speaker 1: Yeah, except I don’t even like to think of it as a transition. I kind of think of it as just reaction, um, because like if something is like If, if something is responsive to physics, you like bounce something a certain way, then theoretically you could also bounce it from the other way and you can start to play with it. And it doesn’t actually have to serve a concrete purpose. It’s just by nature of being responsive to physics, it makes it more playful because it kind of grounds it in the real world somehow. Whereas like, the reason why I don’t think of this transition is sort of Because it’s not like a set timing that you’re like, this transition will last for 1 2nd, it means if it’s the middle of doing something and you want it to stop, you Very difficult to describe. But that’s the more nerdy take on it is that because when you think about motion, not animation, but motion design and how things respond and react to your touch, they enforce, they create the physical world of your application. And when there is that sense of physics, there is a sense of play because then people can start experimenting with like plotting things together or breaking them apart or things like that. And to me, that’s fun. Although I feel like I hesitate to promote this. 00:41:26 - Speaker 3: It’s like very trendy right now, so you’re just like throwing it everywhere and I feel like not everything has to bounce be bouncy, but anyway, well, I think you’ve come to a very interesting distinction here because transition and animation, it almost implies that there is this point where as a user, you’ve indicated what wants to happen, the machine will now take over and for the next 200 milliseconds will direct the activities and until then you can’t do anything else. And at the end, OK, the transition is complete. Now you can go resume clicking on things, whereas physics is more like every millisecond, you’re doing something and the machine is responding to what you’re doing and you’re never giving up control. And to me, the animation for the point of showing something isn’t as interesting as making it responsive to what you’re always doing, right, 00:41:58 - Speaker 3: the physics. 00:41:59 - Speaker 1: My pet peeve is when. Everyone designs motion for interfaces on the aftereffects and just have these like really specific 3 point motion curves and I’m like, literally no one’s gonna like that after the first round. They think, oh, this is fun and smooth. And the second time they’re gonna swipe something and it’s gonna have this perfectly choreographed transition and you’re like, oh, I don’t feel like that’s because I did something. I feel like I just triggered a 1 or 0. And that’s actually like, I think like for touch, like bounce and spring dampening works because your fingers are soft, so there is the inherent element of the input device has bounced. Whereas like, I don’t, for example, for mouse cursor interactions, since it’s very much like your mouse is either down or it’s not, it might be less appropriate. Yeah. But on the most surface level, it’s fun and that was my first impression, you know, I wasn’t like, oh, this responds to my input and therefore, it’s a prosthetic to like, no, this is super fun swipe to unlock. So therefore, I shall sell out my soul to tech forever. 00:42:56 - Speaker 2: Maybe what you said there ties together a couple of themes we’ve touched on here, which is the mouse versus touch and how the system should respond in terms of like how things feel within the physics of the virtual world you’re interacting with. I think there is this tendency, Mark usually calls it transliteration, which is if you take an application or a type of application that’s sort of for the desktop and you put it on to say a tablet or. vice versa, to basically bring across some of those same basic interactions. But in fact, the mouse or the trackpad is a much more precise tool than the finger. And there’s pros and cons to that. Sometimes the precision is actually really annoying. It’s too precise, it’s too fussy, and then other times it’s what you want, but in any case, the system responding to that. And so I think, for example, one of the places that the Windows. The surface platform falls down a little bit is that it essentially treats those as the same thing. When you touch the screen, it’s essentially just kind of moving your mouse cursor there and clicking. And you know, that’s a very sort of obvious thing. They’re both ways to point, so why not do the same thing? And to be fair, they were pretty early, so they were still just exploring this, but a more thoughtful or a more considered way to go about it is to think of each of these input devices and as we have more and more of them and the diversity of them, as we talked about before, and making each one serve its different purpose, and that also means that the physics of the system should react and feel different. And obviously, it will take us a long time to build all that out potentially, but I think it’s really worth doing to make the kind of creative environment, at least that I want to have. 00:44:31 - Speaker 1: When I think about things like head tracking or eye tracking or even voice recognition, those are the moments that I’m curious to look at. You know, not necessarily like, hey Alexa do blah blah blah blah blah, and it’s like very clear start and end, and you have a single thing you want to do, but more like as you’re in the process of doing something, maybe there are small ways that your body naturally responds to something that informs some part of the UI or how, I don’t know. That starts a whole other conversation about muscle memory, modular interfaces, pros and cons, but it is a specific curiosity of mine, especially as I think we start moving away from. We’ve been accumulating more and more devices and now I think we’re naturally headed to a world where your points of contact and essentially the, the power of the computer is more distributed. It could be all over your home, it could be everywhere you go because of headphones that you’re wearing or certain headsets. And I think when that world arrives, I’m interested in seeing the ways that interfaces change to sort of see if interfaces kind of move towards the direction of like multimodal input, if at all. 00:45:39 - Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it’s exciting. This is another example of where the fundamentals are changing because until basically very recently, voice recognition wasn’t viable, wasn’t fast enough, it wasn’t cheap enough, it wasn’t accurate enough, and it’s just now, I think, crossing the threshold and probably similarly with eye tracking, but I know for a while they’ve had specialized hardware that you can use at labs but it was expensive and uncomfortable. That’s also, I think they can do it with commodity cameras now. So interesting times for sure. 00:46:03 - Speaker 1: Yeah, and something that I hope to see more in new tools for thought or productivity tools is just, as I mentioned, more embrace of just fun, physics, and also things just being more sexy in general. I think making something desirable is Oh God, I was reading this tweet the other day of some like thought leader going like, if you have to pick between like what you’re wearing in the morning, that you’re not doing real work, I’m like, shut the fuck up. Like, literally take your Patagonia vest and I don’t know, jump off the go but that’s too harsh. Just like, no, like, that’s so important to people like that. That’s what makes people human. Like we just naturally or instinctively, we just find certain things desirable, and that’s OK. And that should absolutely be a part of the consideration and focus for when we design new sort of environments and interactions that we hope people will care about. And right now, Adam, I think you mentioned that it’s very hip and trendy to work on things like, you know, perhaps Instagram. Although probably not anymore, but like maybe TikTok, spreadsheets less. And I think part of it is just the inherent fun factor. And the other part of it is like, you don’t really associate culture with spreadsheets, but you absolutely associate culture with social media. And so I really think that if you can create software with the intention of creating a cultural movement or a cultural shift, that will really perhaps help you in some way. I say you as like a disembodied you, not like you, um. It’s like if I were, I don’t know, a meme generator, I would just have that diagram of Steve Jobs with the liberal arts and technology crossroads in his background, but yeah. 00:47:45 - Speaker 2: Now I love that tools are about the communities and the culture that come along with them. We don’t use them in a vacuum. We don’t get excited to use them, and we don’t continue to use them and we don’t certainly in a collaborative work environment which we almost all find ourselves in, yeah, sharing. You could argue that for For example, a collaboration tool like GitHub or one like Figma, those bring along with them certain culture. And that’s part of why you, let’s say get into the tool and part of what keeps you there and part of what shapes your work and part of what makes it fun, and part of what inspires you or upsets you, maybe depending. But the point is, it’s not this dry, sterile, just kind of solving a problem and moving on. Uh there is culture with it. 00:48:30 - Speaker 1: I love that. And there’s that continued discourse between culture and impact and what you’re making. And something I hope to see more is like, you know, as we create these new environments to live in and live with. That we become more aware of certain implications or results of use and misuse, and that we take responsibility for those results. That if our tool for, I don’t know, if I were to create a collaborative tool for thought and it was used to orchestrate DDOS attacks on women and minorities, I would personally take a long hard look on like the things that enable that, the culture that I have created around my tool and recognize that like. I’m a human, I’m a creator. It is OK to bring your own perspective into things because you’ve made it, and that’s just something that is on my mind a lot these days, and there really is no way to ensure that your tool is not being misused to harm people, I don’t think. 00:49:27 - Speaker 2: Design ethics has become much more of a topic or perhaps technology ethics very broadly and more here you see this in social media news and news tools and things like that that are more about spreading ideas on a wide scale, but one could imagine that coming to more sort of productivity tools style space and then maybe you want to think ahead and think, OK, so the folks that were working on social media 15 years ago didn’t really picture the ways that their work could be used for harm. And of course, you can never stop something. There’s always the potential to use something for harm, but there are ways to design it that maybe encourage more positive uses and strongly discourage more negative uses. And I think there’s a tendency for tech world people who skew young, who skew optimistic to just think of the positive cases and not think of the negative cases and therefore not hedge against potential risk and think about the responsibility of the power that they’re wielding. 00:50:27 - Speaker 1: Something I hear a lot is like you’re so negative, but I think at the root of everything, I think I’m very optimistic about what people can be as a species, as cultures, and what technology could help with. I’m very optimistic about technology and people in general, but because of that optimism, sometimes it is expressed as anger or negativity, but I really admire those who kind of just believe. Uh, fuck, I’m just gonna head into some, I’m gonna not say sappy shit on your on your podcast. I’m gonna save it for my memoir or my stand or my Netflix special. My Netflix special is coming out in about 15 years. It will be called My Career, and that is the joke. Um, I, I predict massive success from over two audience members, but um. Yeah, oops, nice. 00:51:22 - Speaker 2: I actually just watched uh David Attenborough’s uh sort of career memoir. So yeah, all, all you got to do is have um 60 years of really impressive career like that guy, and then you two can have an inspiring Netflix special. 00:51:38 - Speaker 1: 60 years is a long time. Um, I don’t know. It, I’m curious for you both is thinking about computers and tools for thought and operating systems and essentially world building. When was the first time in your life that you noticed that instinct or curiosity? 00:51:59 - Speaker 3: For me, computer programming in particular came relatively late. I didn’t really get into it until college, which is late for a lot of people that are, for example, currently in the industry, but I’d always had an interest in building things more generally, you know, model planes and rockets and Other things like that. So I think I just more struck on the right medium eventually versus a general interest. 00:52:20 - Speaker 2: Yeah, well, for me, I certainly was fascinated by computers from my first encounter, but I think it probably connects to exactly what you said, which is the world building. So the interest in computers and the interest in games kind of came together and I pretty quickly got on from playing games to making my own games, and making games is fundamentally an act of world building and the really appeal to the systematic part of my mind. And I think it definitely influenced a lot of my views on the world, which includes calling back to right where we started, which is that the world around us is mostly constructed, the society we live in, the governments, even the physical structures, they’re constructed by humans and we can choose to make them different. very hard to change those things, but they’re not, well, I would say not set in stone, but some things actually are set in stone. But actually, even those are changeable. You just need a good jackhammer, right? And thinking of it as both this combination of, if you think systematically about the emergent effects of the world you’re building, whether that’s a game or something in the real world, something economic or social. And then similarly, as we have these increasing virtual worlds, even beyond games, but productivity tools. And collaboration spaces and online forums for a meeting to converse with our fellow citizens about the society we all live in. These are all things that we construct and we have the ability to think systematically about how the design choices that go into them, the outputs in the form of the world that we live in, and the way that that causes people to be prosperous and happy or not. And so to me, yeah, right from the start, I think that shaped how I see everything about the world. 00:54:06 - Speaker 1: When was that start for you? 00:54:10 - Speaker 2: I think maybe about 8 years old. 00:54:12 - Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah. Oh my goodness. To paraphrase one of my friends and collaborators on Makespace Maily, she often speaks of her different disciplines. I mean, she’s an interaction designer and also a DJ and also she’s interested in the culinary arts, and she just thinks about like those different practices as kind of canvases of art, and then You connect the canvases through your life to eventually create a path of your own. That’s purely paraphrasing and probably fucked it up. My fascination also began with video games. Tomb Raider was the first movie I ever saw, very interesting choice for a 5 year old. But after that, I was just obsessed with this idea that you could inhabit someone’s life and body and adventure, and inhabit a space that might feel safer in some ways. Obviously a very utopian view on computation. And then I started graphic designing and PowerPoint. I don’t think I used a real design tool until college. 00:55:12 - Speaker 3: It’s the power of general purpose tools. 00:55:15 - Speaker 2: Well, it’s to your earlier point that everything is a tool for thought and so in this case, everything can be a way to design, right? I do designs and text files with AskiR where needed, so. 00:55:27 - Speaker 1: Yeah. What’s exciting about talking to folks like you is it reminds me of, and it opens my eyes to all the things that I’m so deeply curious about exploring and learning about. And it’s really inspiring in the sense that It feels like if you’re digging for diamonds and the more you dig, there’s more interesting shiny things and you just want to keep going until you end up burying yourself and then you end up living in Oakland forever alone. But that’s a different fanfiction. 00:55:56 - Speaker 2: That metaphor did not end the way I was expecting it to. 00:55:59 - Speaker 1: I don’t know. I feel like if you dig a tunnel deep enough, it’s eventually going to end up in Oakland. I feel like, I don’t know why everyone’s like, I’m in Oakland. Like how did you get there? But yeah, something I’m curious to hear your thoughts on. It’s sort of, as I’ve been more acquainted with the culture of human computer interaction, including important cultural figures and milestones and perhaps dreams that once were. I’ve moved through several stages of like, let’s say grief. Of like denial and then sort of acceptance or Hm, that’s poorly phrase. As I’ve I’ve accumulated more knowledge into this specific cultural dome. I hear from a lot of people that their North Star is they want to achieve Engelbart’s vision of computation, or they want to, you know, make Brett Victor proud or something, something Ted Nelson, Alan Kay, something something Xanadu, you know. And I’m curious to hear if that sounds familiar and in what ways do you relate or not relate to those modes of thought. 00:57:04 - Speaker 2: Oh, incredibly familiar. Mark, I’m curious to hear what your journey was on this, but there was a kind of Let’s call a research rabbit hole or just path to go down of discovering the works of these visionary folks that you just described and seeing the big ideas that they had and so long ago that it’s just really eye opening when you compare to on one hand that we’ve achieved so much and technology has come such a long way, particularly when you look at say just the raw horsepower, computational power of computers, but then you look and you feel like maybe we haven’t quite achieved. As much as it seems like we should in terms of what computers actually do for us, and all of those folks that you mentioned and others in that world are absolutely a source of inspiration and ideas in work that I’ve been doing in the last, I don’t know, now 5 or 6 years of my career. At the same time, I do think you can over, not sure what the word is, fetishize that, which is this kind of romanticized past or You know, first of all, that these folks as visionaries, they didn’t fully manage to make their ideas come true, and I think that is a gap and that is one reason why I’m so interested in the topic we talked about earlier, which is not just how to have the big inspiring ideas, but how to bring them to reality. And then the second part of it I think is that there is a version of the kind of the Aristotle problem, right, which is you don’t move on with new ideas because you’re so busy kind of treating the ancients as having the ultimate wisdom and you just need to unlock, you’re searching for the philosopher’s stone, and you know you can find it in the books, the coded books written by the ancients, and if you just look long enough rather than thinking, well, These folks were really impressive and amazing humans that did amazing work, but at the same time, I can do that kind of work too. And maybe there’s new ideas and fresh directions for us to explore. It’s not about somehow achieving some ideal that was set forth previously, but more that we can fold those ideas in, and also learn from what worked and didn’t work with them and then make new ideas for an inspiring future. 00:59:14 - Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a lot of similar thoughts. For me, certainly the desiderata that were lai