The Cons of Being a Pro

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thank you, hello and welcome.
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 13, episode 3, and OG.
If you're listening to this,you're an OG.

(00:44):
That's not where I intendedthat to go at all, but it is
where it went.
So we've got the third episodeof this new season, of this new
video situation, which I'm superexcited about.
So again, I really owe a hugethank you to everyone for being
supportive of that, especiallyas I figured out this whole
workflow and all of those things.
So just thank you Very, verymuch appreciate that Tweaking

(01:07):
and fine tuning things, tryingto get segments figured out and
get topics figured out.
And what's really cool is likenow I feel like I have multiple
ideas, enough ideas where it'slike, oh, hang on, that can't go
in this episode, that needs togo in next week's episode, which
is a very nice problem to have.

(01:27):
It's like the best podcastingproblem you could pretty much
ever have.
So I'm incredibly grateful forthat.
Got some really fun stuff totalk about today and then I
don't know then it'll be time towait for the next episode, I
suppose.
So first thing, first order ofbusiness, as always, is, we need
to talk about the mic of theweek the beautiful intro music

(01:49):
there in the mic of the weeksegment, and I'm using something
here that I have used.
I've been using sort of I don'twant to say low key, but I've
used it on, like, the couplestable and I've used it on some
other streams and stuff.
But it's something I got afterthis podcast went on you know,
my break last year.
This is the Rode Broadcaster,which is different than the

(02:11):
Rodecaster Pro or the Procasterfrom Rode.
Those are all differentproducts.
This is the Rode Broadcasterand this is a very interesting
microphone.
It is a little bit moreexpensive.
I kind of feel like this is oneof Rode.
It is a little bit moreexpensive.
I kind of feel like this is oneof Rode's forgotten microphones
in a way, because I never I dosee it actually pop up.
The place I see this and hear itmost often is actually on

(02:34):
YouTube commentary channels.
There's a lot in theentertainment commentary niche,
like Drew Gooden, for example,has millions and millions of
subscribers.
Every time he uploads a videoit goes straight to the trending
page, half the videos.
He's holding this microphoneand it for some reason is a very
popular microphone in thatniche, maybe because I don't
have someone from Rode reach outto these people, but I kind of
don't think so, because this isnot like a new microphone.

(02:55):
I feel like somebody told afriend and the friend that
everybody just kind of got thething.
But it is interesting,especially in the world of Rode
mics, because it's slightly moreexpensive.
It has an MSRP of $419.
So it's more expensive than anSM7B, although not by much, but
it's not really comparable to anSM7B because it is a condenser

(03:16):
microphone.
So this is a large diaphragmcondenser microphone and I don't
want to say it makes it unique,but kind of it's an end address
condenser which is not supercommon, something like the
Earthworks Icon or theEarthworks Ethos.
Those are, you know, endaddress condenser mics I can
think of.
There are definitely a lot outthere, but typically condenser
mics tend to be like sideaddress microphones.

(03:39):
So it's just sort ofinteresting.
There's a switch on the sidehere that can engage.
I don't have it turned on rightnow, but if I flip that switch
now it can turn on a high passfilter and kind of get rid of
some of those lows, if you want.
It's a nice physical, liketactile switch.
I don't use the high passfilter on the mic, though,
because there is a broadcasterpreset in the Rodecaster Duo

(04:00):
that I'm running this throughand I am using that right now,
so I'm just going to kind of letthat do the work right there.
But also, I owe a huge thankyou to my friend Bronson from
the YouTube channel AudioHotline, because he gave me this
microphone, which we kind oflike traded some mics back and
forth a while ago, and this wasone oh crap, I'm just realizing
actually I have one that I needto send back to him.

(04:22):
I should probably make a videoabout that and send it back.
This one, though he was niceenough to just say like, hey,
just keep it.
It was one he didn't really usethat much.
Kind of going back to, I didthe I guess this was on my
channel.
I thought this was a podcastepisode, but it was on a Q&A
video for my channel.
It was like what's a microphonethat you know is good but you
never use?

(04:43):
And my answer was the RE-20,which I gave to Bronson because
I was like it's a greatmicrophone, I admire it and
respect its legacy and I neverwant to use it.
It's just not something I'minterested in, and he uses it
all the time and he was sort ofin a situation with this where
he's like I have this microphone, it's awesome, I never use it,

(05:07):
you can have it.
So, um, yeah.
So thank you, bronson, for thethe road broadcaster.
He also sent me the SEDynacaster and, if you don't
remember, I am trying to use adifferent microphone on every
episode of the season, all the10 episodes, which is something
I normally do anyway, becauseit's fun, but specifically I
want to use different ones andthen, uh, at the end of the
season, see which one peoplethought sounded the best,
because I think that sounds kindof fun.
So that is the mic of the weekthis week and now we can dive

(05:30):
straight into the main topic.
So the way I've been sort ofstructuring episodes, if you
couldn't tell, is sort of have,like you know, multiple segments
and things, but kind of rightoff the bat, after the mic of
the week, we jump into the maintopic of the week, and this one.
I feel like I need to do a fewdisclaimers here.
I'm calling it the cons ofbeing a pro bridging the gap.
So I do not want to sound ranty.

(05:52):
I think that's the first thingis like I was putting this
together and kind of like goingthrough my thoughts and making
some notes and things andfeeling like, okay, this could
kind of easily sound like I'm,you know, middle-aged man
yelling at clouds, and I don'treally want that.
Where this kind of thing pops upis I just sort of noticed
patterns in online dialogue.

(06:12):
Like I noticed things that popup in the comments to my own
videos.
I noticed things I see online,you know different social media
websites or even something likeReddit topics that pop up,
especially in like thepodcasting and videography and
filmmaking subreddits and stuff.
And it's sort of that thingwhere you know one or two things
here and there doesn't reallystand out to me, but multiple of

(06:33):
the same things start to startto kind of stand out to me and
sort of spark, like you know,some thoughts and some
discussions and this onespecifically, the whole thing
about we're going to be talkingabout professionals like audio
and video professionals today,and there's a way.

(06:55):
It's kind of like there's a wayI think you can be a
professional and a way thatmaybe you don't want to be a
professional.
I wouldn't recommend it.
So, and the reason is, when itcomes to things like sharing
knowledge or sharing skill sets,things that can really help to
empower people.
I just I have a hard time whenI feel like someone misses the

(07:19):
mark.
I don't know if that's ifthat's the way to put it
Specifically.
I'm not going to, you know,like name any names or call
anyone out.
It's more of a general thing.
It's the thing I see in youknow, professional content
creators, as in content creatorswho are also industry
professionals.
But it's also the thing I seein, you know, comments and
messages on my channel, otherchannels a lot, and just sort of
the overall dialogue.
What do they call it?
The zeitgeist.

(07:40):
I don't know if that's the rightterm here, but yeah, the cons
of being a pro.
Sometimes you're just burdened.
You find yourself a bitburdened with knowledge, right,
and so I wanted to talk about mymain approach, which is I am
not in any way calling myself aprofessional and I've said this
many times I like to take theenthusiast point of view.

(08:03):
I like to look at audio videorelated stuff from the
perspective of an enthusiast.
I've done different, differinglevels of this stuff
professionally throughout mylife and also then amateurly and
hobby-y-y, so I've sort of,like you know, I've covered kind
of the whole spectrum there.

(08:24):
But I really like theenthusiast point of view because
I don't want to presume that Iknow what's best for anyone.
I don't want to make anyonefeel bad for what they're using
or how they're using it or howthey approach stuff, and that's
kind of my, my thing, especiallywith the YouTube channel.
I think there's a naturalprogression and I've sort of
seen this, can see this yourselfif you follow, like especially
things like filmmaking, youtubeor whatever, where you can go

(08:46):
back a number of years andpeople are getting their first
DSLRs, they're getting theirfirst mirrorless cameras, and
then you can see like now thosesame people have, you know, sony
Buranos, like giant, hugecinema rigs, $30,000 thing, it's
, and in some cases that's acool natural progression, but in
other cases I sort of feel likeit's.

(09:06):
You know a case of like what'snext itis, where people just
feel like they they need to dosomething, like I don't know,
they just kind of need to keepmaxing things out and leveling
things up, even if it's notnecessarily 100% necessary, and
where I have found myself bothin just what seems to interest

(09:27):
me the most and what I feel Ican be the most helpful in is
kind of focusing on a lot ofconsumer and prosumer type stuff
.
You know, every once in a whileit's fun to throw something
like, I would say, my mainmicrophone, my main out of frame
microphone, the SennheiserMKH50, that's a pro level
microphone and I love you know,I love sharing things like that.

(09:47):
The Sony FX3 is a pro levelcamera, even though I guess you
could say, well, it's not an FX6or an FX9, but it's a pro level
camera.
But I'm also really interestedin things like the ZV-E10 or,
you know, the Zoom E-H1 recorder.
You know, I like the Rodecastervideo, which you could argue is
a little more pro, but I alsoreally like the Cam Link, which

(10:11):
ironically has the word pro init.
So kind of find myself in thiswhen it comes to talking about
tools and workflows and stuff, alot of the consumer and
prosumer realm.
And I feel like that's where Ican kind of be the most helpful,
because what I like to do thereis sort of share, what people
can expect.
And like I feel like there'ssort of the experience I had,

(10:37):
which I've talked about before,back in 2014, when I put
together my first podcast setup.
I was using just shotgunmicrophones that we had in the
program that I was teaching.
And over time what happenedwith those was we got a grant to
upgrade the podcast setup.
So immediately I was like I'mgetting a bunch of Shure SM7Bs
and I couldn't wait.

(10:58):
I remember they got delivered,I set them all up and I was so
disappointed in them.
It's why I didn't like the SM7Bfor like another six, seven
years after that.
And the reason I didn't like itwas because I didn't understand
it right, like I knew that itwas a popular microphone.
I knew that it was a goodmicrophone.
I'd heard it sounding wonderfuland when I got it and I plugged

(11:19):
it in it sounded really bad.
And the reason for that is weweren't in a location that was
really ideal for that microphone, but also we weren't really
running it through like a propermixer.
The mixer itself could havebeen fine, but I didn't know
about things like cloud liftersand boosters and all that kind
of stuff.
I had no idea.
And so the microphone like,honestly, the shotgun

(11:44):
microphones that we were usingbefore, which were condenser
mics that could just run offphantom power from the board
sounded significantly better,especially in the less than
ideal environment we wererecording in.
But I didn't know that, and Ifelt I felt dumb, felt like a
waste of money, felt like theproduct wasn't good, even though
I was just kind of using itincorrectly, incorrectly, and so

(12:05):
that's sort of a thing that I Ireally like to look at.
You know, when someone buyssomething or get something or
wants to invest in something,what can they expect?
When they get it, when theyopen the package and they start
using it, what can they expectit to be?
And that's that's somethingthat I feel like I'm more
passionate about than I realized.
And this kind of ties into lastweek's discussion about, like,
what makes a good review.

(12:25):
And this is where I feel, like,you know, tech spec, overload,
overload.
Overload can maybe it's lewd, Idon't know overload can like
poison the well, because so manytimes I do get like comments on
my own videos from people wherethey're saying something or
they're kind of complainingabout something.
You know, I might make acomment or a video that's like,

(12:46):
hey, this thing is really cooland you should check it out,
here's why I like it, blah, blah, blah.
And then a person will show upand say, well, here's the reason
that's not great, and theirreason is something that I feel
like is not their own thought.
I feel like I don't know thatyou actually care about this
thing.
I don't know that you actuallycare about this thing, but you

(13:08):
know like you.
A good example would be timecode in a 2.4 gigahertz wireless
systems.
So time code is something anaudio recorder can out or an
audio device can output timecode, and that makes it very
easy to sync multiple devices,multiple cameras, all that stuff
.
So it's a very, very helpfulthing to do cameras, all that
stuff.
So it's a very, very helpfulthing to do.
Certain 2.4 gig systems dooutput timecode, like the Rode

(13:28):
Wireless Pro.
The Sarmanic Ultra doestimecode as well, and I think
those might be some of the onlyones.
Most of them don't becausetimecode is something you
typically find in moreprofessional settings.
It's something you usuallydon't need when you're just
buying the most user-friendlykind of basic wireless mic
system you can get.
Usually you're not someone whoneeds timecode, so it's

(13:51):
something that can be reallyhelpful.
The vast majority of users donot use it in those systems.
But it's one of those thingswhere you know, somewhere down
the line someone decided in areview somewhere to go down
specs and hype up time codebecause, oh man, that's pro,
that's real pro-level stuff.
And so now people look at thesesystems and they feel like you

(14:14):
have to have time code or elseit's not a pro-level, it's not a
pro-level thing, and forgettingthe fact that it might not even
be useful to the majority ofpeople who even use that product
.
So, again, my approach is that Iam just not a spec heavy person
.
I don't spend a lot of timetalking about specs unless I

(14:36):
find them to be very, veryimportant or crucial to your
understanding of the tool andhow the tool works and getting
the most out of it and all thatkind of stuff.
And the reason for that is, Ithink, even if you have
professional knowledge and aprofessional skillset I'm trying
to think of the most diplomaticway to say this, but there's

(14:59):
something I've been thinkingabout which I'm calling bridging
the gap, and so this issomething where I do feel like a
lot of professionals,especially professionals I
shouldn't say professionals,because not every pro is trying
to like be a teacher, right, buta lot of times, though, when
they pop up in the commentsection and they start their own
channels and stuff, this iswhere I feel they fall

(15:23):
significantly short.
Is this thing of bridging thegap.
So I tried to use my keynote tomake a little diagram here, and
if you're just listening to theaudio version, basically you
know, imagine, you know I don'tknow a gap of some kind that
someone has to jump over, rightLike a cliff, whatever two
cliffs, and there's a space inthe middle and you got to jump

(15:44):
over it.
Helping people bridge that gap,I think, is a very important
thing to do if you're trying toexplain something, and I've
labeled these like one isexpectations and one is reality.
I don't know if those arenecessarily the proper terms,
but I'm thinking of somebody,like when they want to buy a new
microphone or a product of somekind.

(16:06):
Look at me with the SM7B.
Right, I wanted to buy that.
So I had expectations of I'mgoing to buy this microphone,
it's going to make everythingsound amazing.
I got the microphone,everything sounded worse, but I
just spent the money on four ofthem, so that was not
inexpensive and so that didn'twork.

(16:30):
What I like is to find thingsthat help bridge that gap, and
those are the things I tend torecommend the most and be the
most excited about.
So let's use the road pod micas an example.
So several years later you knowno longer teaching at school I'd
learned a little bit more aboutmicrophones.
The Rodecaster Pro the originalone came out.

(16:53):
I didn't have.
I had my Shure SM57, but Ididn't have it really set up to
be a good vocal mic.
That was really like the onlymicrophone I owned, other than
like my video mic on my camera.
And so I got the Rodecaster Proand I wanted to buy a mic to go
with it.
Rode conveniently released thePodMic at that same time and so

(17:14):
I bought the PodMic and it blewmy mind Like I loved that
microphone so much.
It was not really superexpensive.
I thought that it leveled up mysound tremendously.
It was built really well.
It just like it made everythingbetter as soon as I got it.
So when we're talking aboutbridging that gap, I'm someone

(17:35):
who didn't know a lot about micsat the time.
I bought this microphoneexpecting it to make things
sound better and then, when Igot the microphone to make
things sound better and thenwhen I got the microphone boop,
it bridged the gap and thingssounded better.
It improved things a lot.
And the importance of bridgingthat gap is then the person can
do the rest, because they'vejumped, they've cleared the gap

(17:56):
right, they're on the other sidenow and they can just stay
there.
Like I could have just used thePodMic running into the
Rodecaster Pro forever and itwould have sounded fine.
But as time went on I startedusing it more and more.
That's when I started thinkinglike initially I wasn't using
any EQ or any processing oranything with it, I was just
using the PodMic by itself.
And I then decided like I'mgoing to dig into these menus of

(18:18):
this Rodecaster a little bitand kind of figure out how some
of this processing the originalRodecaster didn't have the
presets like the Rodecaster thenewer ones do.
So you kind of had to play withthings for yourself a little
bit.
But I realized like, oh, I cansort of dial this into my
specific voice a little better.
I can make the mic sound alittle fuller.
You know, like it it is kind ofa harsh sounding microphone.

(18:40):
Maybe I can adjust that andtame that a little bit.
And I was like, oh, I can usesome EQ to make this sound a
little bit better.
And then even after that, youknow, I'd always I've always
liked microphones.
But the idea of I have onemouth, why do I need more than
one microphone?
Right?
The idea of like, well, I couldget another microphone, like
that, kind of popped in my headjust out of curiosity, like,
well, what does this one do?

(19:00):
What does this one sound like,how does that work?
And then jumping into othermicrophones that I ended up
liking more and understanding.
You know now I guess it's beensix years since that point.
You know, I have had a lot ofmicrophones, like it's a thing
that I feel like I understandpretty well.
I have more experience withLots of trial and error, lots of

(19:24):
success and failures, and thatwas because I was able to bridge
that gap right.
I was able to understand.
Just getting the microphone gotme where I wanted to be and
then I could start askingquestions and learning more.
After that.
The problem is we can go back tothis bridging the gap thing.
If that gap is too big, peoplecannot bridge the gap, and so

(19:47):
this was me with the SM7B.
Was my expectation get amicrophone, have it sound really
good?
I try to bridge the gap, Idon't clear it, I just fall
straight to the ground there.
So the problem with that isthen you end up with somebody
who is discouraged.
You end up with somebody whoeither they feel bad about

(20:10):
themselves because they can't doit, or they feel they don't
understand it or they're notcapable of it, or they just give
up and their stuff just sits ona shelf or they sell it, or
they just never use it.
They never do the thing theyset out to do because the gap
was too big to bridge.
And the same thing.
I'm wearing my Seattle Krakensweatshirt right now because I

(20:31):
live in the desert.
So for the like one month ayear it's sweatshirt weather.
You better believe I'm wearingsweaters every day.
When I started learning how toplay hockey, for example, a
couple years ago, I went to myfirst learn to play class, which
was called learn to play right.
I went to my first learn toplay class, which was called
learn to play right.
Well, long story short, thatnight I ended up getting a
concussion cut in the chest,hurt my ankle I don't wanna say

(20:53):
sprained my ankle, hurt my ankle, hurt my knee.
I didn't have a great timebecause it was a learn to play
class, but of the 29 people inthe class, I was the only person
who was actually new.
Everyone else had taken theclass like at least two or three
times before, a lot of twomonths ago, and I never held a

(21:15):
stick on the ice and that kindof thing and it was not fun and
it was very dangerous and itmade me almost want to quit
entirely, like I literally camehome that night in tears because

(21:36):
I felt so dumb for thinking Icould even try to do something
like this and I was alsoconcussed.
So maybe that was also part ofit, which is a very that was a
weird feeling.
But and it was Heather who waslike I you know she had taken
some learn to play classes outin like the Los Angeles area a

(21:56):
number of years ago before weknew each other, and she was
like mine weren't anything likethat and they were free.
Maybe you should.
I ended up finding a class likea hundred miles away that I
spent several weeks going outthere for and it was like you're
not allowed to be in the classif you have prior experience.
It was very, very basic learnto play stuff that built up my
skillset so I could come back.
I spent several more monthsjust practicing on my own before

(22:20):
then I felt comfortable divinginto the class that was offered
locally, which then I was alittle more able to help myself
in.
But the thing I bring that upwith is now, a couple years
later, I actually enjoy playingwith people who are above me in
skill set.
I think that that's like reallyfun because it helps me learn
to be better.

(22:40):
I find when I play, it's fun toplay with anybody, but when I
find with people at lower skillsets, it can also then form bad
habits for me if that's all thatI'm doing, whereas people above
me, like I'm trying to rise totheir level.
So I usually don't meet it butI'm kind of exceeding what I
thought I could do and that'sreally, really helpful.
So the idea of being a beginnerin this case playing a sport

(23:03):
and then playing with peopleabove you there's that gap that
can be a really helpful thing.
If that gap is too large, likein my first experience, it not
only is not fun but it's likelegitimately dangerous and
incredibly discouraging.
I was super close to quittingbecause that experience made me
think that it was something Iwas not capable of doing.
And the same thing is true with, you know, audio video

(23:26):
production gear and equipmentand stuff.
If that gap is just too big, itis going to be discouraging for
people, and this is where Ifeel, like the you know, the
cons of being a pro come intoplay.
So what does all of this evenhave to do with professionals?
I do want to disclaim that Ifeel like this might be

(23:47):
controversial, because I do know, like I'm friends with several
professional audio video people.
I know several professionalslisten to this podcast, watch
the YouTube channel, all thatstuff, so this could potentially
be semi-controversial.
Please know that I am notanti-pro.
I'm not saying pros suck oranything like that.
What I do wish, though, is thatprofessionals who want to put

(24:12):
themselves out there asinstructors, educators, trainers
, whatever you might say content, sharing your knowledge to help
other people understand it.
I do wish more of them weremore self-aware.
I do wish more of them weremore self-aware.
It's pretty rare to find proswho are self-aware, especially

(24:34):
as all these tools become moreaccessible.
Back a long time ago, it waspretty rare that just an average
person would find themselveswith studio-quality equipment,
but now, without even havingmuch of a massive budget, you
can find yourself with somepretty pro level equipment, and

(24:54):
I almost feel like there is someresentment.
You know, and I've seen thatbefore too Like I've seen people
say why do you need the SonyFX3 to just make YouTube videos?
A whole episode about that inthe past called like it's just
for YouTube.
There are reasons that thereare all kinds of reasons people
might have this equipment andthe equipment's becoming more
accessible.
You can find someone who canget time code and 32-bit float

(25:15):
audio in a small audio recorderfor like $200,.
You know, like these things arebecoming more accessible, more
attainable.
So now people are findingthemselves in this world that
was traditionally inhabited onlyby, like, trained professionals
, and now it's not.
What I would encourageprofessionals to do.
If you are a professional, iskeep in mind where other people

(25:35):
are and where they actually wantto be, where they actually want
to end up in their journeys,because not everybody wants to
be a professional.
You know, like not everyone'strying to do this full time, not
everyone's trying to do it as acareer, not even, you know,
some people just want, just wantto get the job done basically,
and that's why I recently didthat video about the Hollyland
Lark M2.

(25:56):
And that's what made that mademe so interested in that in the
first place was the fact that Isaw so many people using it who
were not in the audio videoworld.
They're not interested in thisstuff normally, they just needed
good audio.
This thing was small andaffordable, so they bought it
and they sounded great and likethat is something that bridges
the gap and then from there theycould learn about other systems
.
They could learn about EQing ifthey wanted to, but they don't

(26:18):
even have to.
They could just use that theway that it is forever and sound
great and get great results,and that's that's something I
want to keep.
That's something I would like alot more professionals to keep
in mind, rather than the um.
Actually, that tends to pop up alot, especially in the comments
on my videos and things.
I will make videos about stuffand I will have people show up.

(26:39):
You know I'll talk about hey,this microphone's great, this
microphone, you know, it's cool,it's relatively affordable,
blah, blah, blah.
And then I have, you knowprofessionals show up in the
comments that literally likeactually I've been doing this
for X number of years and Iwould never use something like
that.
I would recommend you know Iwould never use the.
I guess here's an example.
This is a little teaser fornext week's episode, but the

(27:01):
Rode Interview Pro was featuredin my simple podcast setup that
I talked about previously andthat's a video that I did
recently.
This is not the most.
It's not either the cheapest orthe most expensive mic in the
world.
It's $250.
So some people, if you've neverbought a microphone, you're
going to look at this and belike $250 is way more than I
would ever want to spend on amicrophone.
I'm looking for a $40 option.

(27:22):
If you're a pro, $250 for amicrophone is not too expensive
at all.
It's very reasonable.
If anything, it's kind ofinexpensive.
But then you know my wholething there is.
I'm recommending this microphonefor a bunch of reasons because
of how it performs and the factthat you can have zero
experience with microphones.
You can hand it to someone withno experience and it's going to

(27:43):
sound great.
They're not going to have toknow anything about mic
technique.
They're not going to knowanything about EQ or anything or
positioning, nothing.
They're just going to use amicrophone and sound great, and
that might be as far as it needsto go, or it could be something
that encourages people to learnmore about that stuff and to
continue improving their skillset and building their skill set
.

(28:04):
The number of comments I got inthat video that are people
saying, well, actually thisdoesn't sound nearly as good.
It's like you need this studiomicrophone running through this
signal chain into this kind ofmixer and then you need to go
into this software, you need toapply these plugins and do this,
and it's like, yeah, you arenot wrong, the people are not
wrong, the people who wrotethose comments, yes, that's

(28:29):
going to give you a great result.
That gap is so big for theperson who's like, hey, I just
want to be able to record apodcast, not in a studio, what
do I need?
It's too big of a skill gap andthat's why it's like I don't
know who you're trying to helpthere, because you're not
helping the people who this isintended for.

(28:52):
The info you're saying iscorrect, but the people that's
going to help are people whoprobably already know that
information right, like you'rejust looking for other pros to
come in and go.
Yeah, this is the way to do it,that's the way it's done.
Who cares?
Like that doesn't actually helpanybody and I think something.
This is where I'm gettingcritical of professionals who

(29:12):
position themselves as teachers.
Not everything is intended forpro use, right?
So if I'm saying the HollylandLark is a good mic system and
somebody says I would never usethat in a professional setting.
Okay, that's not what it'sintended for.
It's like it comes with a phoneconnector right To connect to
your phone, like it is clearly aconsumer device.

(29:33):
A trained pro, an experiencedpro, can make anything work, can
make anything sound good.
So it wouldn't be surprisingthat a pro could take something
like the Lark, could incorporateinto a professional workflow
and could get great results outof it.
But they would probably want touse something else that they
trust more, they're morefamiliar with or something like
that.
So, like, not everything isintended to be pro use and not

(29:58):
everyone wants to be aprofessional.
Sometimes people just need tosolve a problem.
They just need to get a good,simple, reliable result and
that's as far as they need to go, and I feel like that is
something that is very, veryoften forgotten and not totally
understood a lot.
So that's where I'm gettingranty.
I'm not saying everyprofessional does this.

(30:18):
There are good professionalteachers, content creators out
there.
There are professionals whohave no interest in sharing
knowledge and helping otherpeople.
They just want to do theirthing.
That doesn't apply.
It's the people kind of who are.
You know, there's a very bigdifference between having
knowledge and sharing knowledge.

(30:38):
Those things are just notalways the same, and especially,
like I said, when people noteveryone has professional
aspirations.
And here's some good examples.
I don't want to list, like thebad examples and annoying
examples, but if I look at thetwo that popped to mind, there's
a channel called Gaffer andGear, which is a guy who's a pro
, like pro gaffer, who talksabout gear, believe it or not.

(31:01):
So he talks a lot aboutlighting setups, rigging setups,
all kinds of stuff, and he isreally great at making things
simple, clear and understandable.
His videos are to the point.
He clearly has decades ofexperience, but he doesn't need
to like prove that in everyvideo.

(31:22):
And he also understands.
You know, if he's looking at,say, he's doing a review on a
light that is intended forprofessional use it costs
thousands of dollars and that'swhat he's reviewing he's gonna
look at it from that angle, likehow does it perform?
What would you use it for?
Who's this for?
But if he's reviewing, you know, like something like an Amaran
light or something, or a Godox Idon't know if he's done Godox
lights, but if he's doingsomething that's clearly

(31:43):
intended for consumer orprosumer levels.
He's gonna look at it throughthat lens and be like, okay, how
does this perform with the factthat this is a $100 thing you
can get on Amazon or whatever,or it's intended to be used by
someone who doesn't have eitherexperience with this and he's
going to explain it in a waywhere, if you do have all that
existing knowledge, you're onhis level of being a

(32:04):
professional.
You're going to get the infothat you want about the product
or the workflow or the tool, butif you're also brand new and
you don't understand that stuff,you're not going to feel lost
and you're not also not going tofeel talked down to or dumb.
It's a really good balance ofjust down to earth professional
skill sharing.
You know, in the audio worldcloser to my niche, I think

(32:25):
Curtis Judd is also a reallyfantastic example who's a
working professional who canshare knowledge and experience
and insights and workflows inways that totally make sense and
isn't afraid to, you know, totackle more affordable consumer
type products but also then willgo up into pro level things,

(32:47):
just kind of whatever I guesscatches his fancy, whatever he's
interested in, you know, that'ssomebody who also can share
their knowledge, really informeverybody and do a good job at
it.
It's not somebody who's justtelling you how dumb you are
because you don't use time codeor you don't do things in a very
specific, certain way, and thatyou know again that, keeping in

(33:09):
mind that a true professionalcan make anything work.
So when you, when you show upto someone and you're like, oh,
you just need to take, you havethis little cheap recorder, this
little cheap microphone, youjust need to run it through this
insane signal chain, do thisinsane processing sequence and
then you're going to get it tosound good, like, yeah, of
course, the person who boughtthat $29, you know cheapo thing

(33:30):
on Amazon, not knowing anybetter, probably doesn't want to
do that.
So that's where I'm.
I find myself being interestedin like what, what the person
can expect when you you knowit's not like here's how to take
the Rode Interview Pro andprocess it and workflow it and
EQ it and all the things to makeit as optimized, professional

(33:54):
and efficient as possible.
That's not really what I'minterested in, because I can
figure those things out on myown.
I can do those things on my own, but what I'm interested in is
here's the thing that I think isreally cool.
Here's what you can expect whenyou get it with zero experience
and you start to use it.
This is what the results mightbe like what road bumps or speed

(34:18):
bumps you might run into, allthat kind of stuff Like a
realistic look at what thenormal person, the average
consumer, average prosumer,could experience when they get
their hands on these tools.
And then, if you bridge that gap, just like I did with the pod
mic, people can start askingtheir own questions.
You know, like, once youtrigger people to ask their own

(34:39):
questions, you're done, likeyour job is done.
They will take care of the rest.
Rest.
But you can only get to thatpoint if you can actually bridge
the gap between, like noexperience and knowledge and
enough to get the job done,potentially then triggering on
further questions.
If you just rub in how far offthey are and how you know
impassable this gap is betweenthings, then no one's going to

(35:02):
make it and you're just going toend up losing a bunch of people
and I see that happening a lotonline.
When you know professionals talkabout their subject area and in
any niche, any genre, anyindustry, and it really stands
out to me when someone isexcellent at sharing what they
do and bridging the gap forpeople and where people fall

(35:23):
short.
Which it confuses me.
When people fall short becausewho are you making this for,
right?
Like, are you making this for?
Who is it for?
Is it for you Cause you alreadyknow this stuff?
You're speaking at such a highlevel.
It's for other people whoprobably already know this stuff
.
Like who is it even for?
Or is it just kind of an egothing of like, look how much I
know, look how much experience Ihave?

(35:45):
I don't know.
And that's where it's like Idon't, it's, it's, it's just
sort of a thing.
Just because you have knowledgedoesn't necessarily mean you're
good.
You're good at sharing thatknowledge.
It doesn't mean you have to beeither.
There are plenty of people whoare super skilled at what they
do and they have no desire totry to teach that to other
people or help other people, andthat's totally fine too, like
that's nothing wrong with thatat all.

(36:06):
The thing is, it's it's.
I guess the last example is likeI'll take a talk about the
filmmaking YouTube community,which I see.
You know I'm not a fan ofeverything that happens in that
niche by far.
But you know, I see a lot ofpeople who work really hard.
They make good work atdifferent levels.
Whether that's their their workis, you know, I see a lot of
people who work really hard.
They make good work atdifferent levels.
Whether that's their work is,you know their YouTube channel,

(36:28):
their tutorials, their reviews,or they throw in short films.
They throw in, you know, skitsor sketches or sequences or
whatever into videos, whateverit might be on their channel.
I see the YouTube filmmakingcommunity get bad mouth a lot
online and different discussionsand things and different
comment sections and differentsocial media platforms and I get

(36:51):
it.
I get where some people arecoming from, but it's sort of
this.
It's sort of this strange thingof like.
I have also found filmmakingchannels from professional
filmmakers producers, directors,cinematographers where their
channels, directors,cinematographers where their
channels.
Well, first off, I'm just gonnasay this their channels never
last and I know it's not makingit sound like a jerk, but I I

(37:14):
see these channels where someonesays I'm gonna I'm a real
cinematographer, I'm gonna starta YouTube channel that talks
about real cinematography andthey make five videos and you
never hear from them againbecause it turns out talks about
real cinematography and theymake five videos and you never
hear from them again.
Because it turns out running aYouTube channel for a long time
is tough.
It's not as easy as you thinkit is.
When you're just talking badabout influencers and content
creators, it turns out that'sactually pretty difficult.

(37:36):
It turns out also if you're aworking professional, you might
not always have the time to do abig, you know an undertaking
like that, but a thing that Isee so much is a lot of those
people will end up withtechnically perfect videos like
beautiful framing, beautiful,like everything is.
You know the colors, thelighting, the, the I don't know
what you would call it Not justcomposition, but like the

(37:59):
exposure, like everything color,grading, the style of their
videos, the sound quality, theaudio quality phenomenal, like
absolutely pro level.
You can see, they know whatthey're doing.
You can see and hear.
They know what they're doing bywhat you're seeing and hearing
in the video.
And then they try to teach youabout something or explain
something and they talk for 20minutes and you have no idea

(38:23):
what you have.
No, no idea.
They're not great at sharingthe knowledge, because just
because you have knowledgedoesn't mean you're great at
sharing that.
Knowledge doesn't mean you haveto be, but it is a thing of
like there's a skill set inbeing able to teach something,
and not everybody.
Just because you have knowledgedoesn't mean that you know how
to do it, or people don't knowhow to talk down.
This is probably the morecommon one is I see people just

(38:44):
not knowing how to take theirknowledge and and you know make
it more accessible to people.
So they're it's sort of likehow dumb are you that you don't
understand what I'm talkingabout?
You need to understand this andyou need to understand it this
way.
It's kind of the tone that Isee in a lot of videos versus
like here's this thing, here.
It can feel really complicated,but all it really is is this

(39:07):
and like now you can bringpeople with you on the journey
To kind of wrap that up thereand go back to the hockey
example.
A couple of years ago, when thehockey rink, the arena, opened
up near me and we got a newprofessional hockey team, a lot
of people, myself included, werenew to hockey.
We did not understand the rules.
It was really fun that firstseason to see people, like at

(39:27):
the first game, not know whatwas happening.
And then by the end of theseason you know everyone has
signs, everyone's yelling at therefs and like you know, what do
you mean?
That's offside.
Are you blind?
Like all that kind of stuff?
Like people learn the rules andthey understood things.
We have an amazing play-by-playbroadcast announcer for like the
radio and actually now there'seven TV.
He's like amazing.

(39:48):
It's super sad because he'sclearly going to move on to like
bigger things at some point,but he's just one of the best
broadcasters I've ever heard.
And something that he does thatI noticed he did and then I
actually like heard him sayspecifically is when you're
doing play-by-play things in amarket where a lot of people are
new to hockey, you have to finda way to sort of explain things

(40:12):
without being condescending.
So you know, he's been aroundhockey since he was a small
child.
He knows all the rules, all theterms, all everything.
And so figuring out ways to golike you know, to sort of you
know, instead of saying like oh,that play was whistle dead
because it was offsides Ifyou're an idiot and you don't
know what offsides means, likeyou know, how could some player

(40:34):
not get offsides Like instead ofmaking it sound like.
What does that even mean?
You can say, oh, the play waswhistle dead because it was
offsides, since the puck was notthe first thing to enter the
zone.
Just you can throw in aexplanation that's going to make
it clear what's happening.
So, even if you know what therule is, okay, it's fine.
And if you don't know what itis, now you've learned oh,
offside.
And sometimes he'll be explicit.

(40:54):
He'll say like oh, if you're anew fan or if you're new to
hockey, what is happening hereis blah, blah, blah.
Or oh, here's a penalty thatyou don't see.
That often what that means is X, y, z, like he does a good job,
sometimes explicitly saying oh,this is a strange situation,
here's what that means.
If you're new, here's what thatmeans.
But other times just sort ofslipping in explanations,
definitions, clarifications thatare in no way out of line or

(41:20):
condescending.
It's like a masterclass in howto do that kind of thing and
that, to me, being able to dothat is really the mark of a
true, true professional.
So, speaking of things thatmight not be, um, a hundred
percent professional, let's jumpinto talking about my channel.
So, um, yeah, I, this is a.

(41:43):
There's a segment I've beenwanting to put in the in this in
the podcast called well, Idon't know what.
I'm calling it channel check-inbecause it's got some beautiful
alliteration, but basicallywhere it's like I can talk about
what's happening on the channeland maybe what I've been
working on or something that'spopped up or whatever.
Sometimes that bleeds over intothe main topic of the show, but
sometimes not.
I was calling this tube talk,but for some reason it just
wasn't stick.

(42:03):
I just I felt I don't knowsomething about, it didn't work.
So let's call it channelcheck-in and I think that works
out.
It works out really well.
So a couple of things I want toshare with you that I've been
working on that are happening onthe channel here what's cooking
, basically, the next video thatI'm going to be filming is very
in line with what we've beentalking about and it's called

(42:23):
cheap versus expensive, lavaliermicrophones, and I'm holding.
What I'm holding up right hereis what I found online for $6.
And this is a professional.
I don't know if I can get mycamera to focus in here, if you
can see this, but this is aprofessional, lavalier
microphone again $6.
And what's crazy with this isit comes with a lot of things.

(42:48):
It's not just the microphonebut it comes with different
adapters and clips and stuff.
You know, of course you wouldexpect a lavalier microphone to
have a clip and a windscreen,but it comes with all these
different adapters and extensioncables and all the things which
, like again, is the microphoneitself like a $3 microphone with
all that stuff in there.
And so I basically I went onAmazon and was like what's the

(43:08):
cheapest mic I can find?
I found this for $6.
And then I went to compare thisto my main goal was to the most
expensive lavalier microphone Ihave is the Sennheiser Omni
Essential, which I believe is$250.
So you know, it's kind of likeother microphones broadcast
microphones, studio microphones.

(43:29):
They visually look so different.
You know some of them try tocopycat each other.
But you know you can look atsomething like the newer NW800.
It is shiny and gold andreflective and stuff.
But you can also be like, well,it's half plastic and, like you
know, build quality is bad andall that kind of stuff and all
that kind of stuff.
It's a little easier to see thedifference, especially in terms
of price, with othermicrophones, with lavalier

(43:52):
microphones, they all kind oflook the same, and unless you're
able to really like hold themyourself and look at them, they
all kind of feel the same, likethey're way harder to
distinguish.
Why is this one $6?
Why is this other one $250?
Why are some others, you know,thousands of dollars?
And it's just that the $250 oneis just the most expensive one

(44:12):
I happen to have and it's alsoit is, my favorite one.
So I basically just want to do avideo where I'm comparing those
and this.
It's funny because it saysprofessional on it.
So what does that even mean?
That's one thing we can maybecover in the video, and then
I'll probably put in some in themiddle as well.
Originally I just wanted to dothe cheapest one versus that and
just see what the difference isin sound, and I actually
haven't tried this one yet, thecheap one because I want to open

(44:37):
it in the video and stuff.
So I haven't done that yet.
I'm hoping it's actually notterrible, like I don't think
it's going to be as good as theSennheiser is, but I'm hoping
it's usable and maybe that's achance that in the video I could
apply some basic EQ so that Ican like show some examples of
you know, this is how it sounds,it's okay, but if you do this,

(45:00):
this and this, it can soundpretty good.
And another video I have comingout soon is three, three steps
to make your podcast soundbetter.
So it's like three basic EQsteps that you can do in any
software application, and thatwould be a good thing to kind of
tie in, like if you just followthe steps from that video, with
this you can make it sounddecent.
So that's what I'm hopinghappens, and we'll see.

(45:20):
Um, it could.
This is.
This is kind of fun with thesesorts of videos, cause I don't
know how they're going to gountil I actually start making
them, because the other optionis like I guess that's kind of.
I guess that's what I'mexpecting is that both
microphones are going to soundusable, but not great, and with
a little tweaking could sounddecent.

(45:42):
And the Sennheiser's does soundphenomenal Like it's.
It's the, the one lavaliermicrophone I found that sounds
closest to like a big broadcastmic like this, and I can mix it
in pretty easily.
I've used it a ton in videos.
I really love it.
Uh, so I definitely get why itcosts more money.
The flip side would be, though,if there's maybe not that much
of a difference between them.
If this is just a good soundingmic and, like you know, I'm

(46:05):
sure the Sennheiser will soundbetter, but maybe it won't sound
$250, $244 better.
So it'll be interesting to seeand then, if that's the case, we
can talk about why you wouldwant to maybe spend more money
or maybe not spend more money.
I don't know, it'll beinteresting.
That's kind of a fun thing toexplore sort of in real time.
I like those videos and then Iprobably will throw in some

(46:26):
comparisons with some of my moremid-level ones.
Like, I have some $40 to $100lavalier microphones that maybe
just you know, if the $6 onedoes leave a bit to be desired,
but you don't want to spend $250on a lav, what do you get for
$50?
You know that kind of thingit's always sort of helpful.
Originally I just wanted to dothe cheap and the expensive one,
but I kind of feel like I canimagine, if that's the video I

(46:51):
put out, a bunch of commentswill be well, what about?
You know, it would be nice tohear or see examples that are,
you know, not as expensive butstill decent, and so it's like
well, I should just include thatbefore people have to ask me to
include that.
Sometimes it's nice when you'remaking videos to be able to,
you know, kind of predict whatpeople might say.

(47:11):
Another video that I'm workingon this is these two little
bullet points are out of orderhere.
I did two switching videos.
I have recorded, uploaded andscheduled two switcher videos.
I was mentioning these lastweek.
One of them is the Feel WorldL4, which is the video switcher
that has the big built-indisplay, and the other one is
the Ulanzi DDO2, which kind oflooks like an ATEM Mini, except

(47:34):
the top panel pops off.
So basically what that means isyou can have the bottom part of
the switcher where all of yourcables connect to.
So you have all your HDMIs,your power cable, your USB,
maybe some audio.
All that stuff can be somewhereelse.
You can even mount it to a wallbecause it has like mounting
brackets built into it, and thenjust one usb-c cable goes to
the top panel.
That has all the actual buttonsand switchers and stuff and so,

(47:57):
um, that was kind of cool to tofinally be able to get those
videos taken care of.
And I did those um one afteranother, because doing switcher
videos is tough, because youneed a multi-camera setup to do
it.
So it's like luckily I found aworkflow that kind of works

(48:17):
pretty well, but those are veryintimidating videos to make
because video switchers can becomplicated.
Luckily these two are bothpretty simple.
But exploring what's differentbetween them and then just
getting the setup I needdifferent inputs, how's my audio
gonna work, how's all thisgonna work and all that is.
You know, those videos are alittle bit tricky, but they both
came out great.
I like both switchers.

(48:39):
The DDO2 is great because it'sinexpensive and I would almost
recommend it.
I think I do recommend it overan ATEM for the most part,
except that it has a crazy loudfan in it.
The fan noise is so loud inthat thing Just as soon as you
turn it on.
Fortunately you can take thebottom part with the fan and
just move it somewhere else sothe fan noise disappears.
But you know, if you it, it isa thing to be aware of.

(49:02):
The fan noise is loud.
And the feel world L4 is alittle bit more expensive a
couple hundred dollars moreexpensive, but it has the giant
built-in display and I did thefeel world video first and a
couple of days later I did theDDO2 video and I've been using
both switches for months now,but using them back to back for
video reviews like that.
As soon as I was doing the DDO2, it was like I wish this had a

(49:22):
screen built into it, and youknow I had to connect an
external display and stuff, butit's like wow, the L4 with the
big screen.
It really, it really reallydoes make a difference.
And finally, you know I'vetalked about the Rodecaster
video a lot and I've done a lotof those videos, which there's
more that I want to do, becausethat thing just keeps I keep
figuring stuff out about it andit keeps getting updated.
A big one, though, is I have notmade a dedicated video on the

(49:44):
YoloBox Ultra, even though Italk about it every time I talk
about video switchers, and Ithink I think making these other
switcher videos has me kind ofin the in the groove of a
workflow that would work to dothe YoloBox Ultra.
The reason I've avoided that isbecause it can do so much, kind
of like the Rodecaster video,but almost even more because

(50:06):
it's like Rode with theRodecaster video is a little bit
conservative with the featuresthey're implementing and how
they're doing updates, and theywant things to be as polished
and reliable and perfect aspossible.
Yolo box obviously wants thingsto be polished and reliable too
, but they are literally maybelike once or twice a week sorry,
not once or twice a month.
Um, every one or two weeks youget firmware updates that bring

(50:29):
in new features.
So it's like I have beenavoiding making the video on the
Ultra.
I've done a few other YoloBoxvideos for previous models in
the past, but the Ultra has sortof been like.
It is sort of like.
It's like the what is it calledPeak?
Yeah, it's like, not PeakDesign, because that's a company
, but it is like the peakversion of a YoloBox where it

(50:51):
can do so much and it's soreliable and it's super powerful
.
But because it can do so much,it's like how do I make a video
that explains all this?
And so again, trying not to bespec heavy, trying to remember
my own stuff, I don't need tonecessarily explain every single
thing it can do, but I want toshow, you know, some of the
highlights and thencontextualize it.
Because it is also the mostexpensive All these.

(51:11):
It's a 15 or $1,600 more thanthe, the roadcaster video.
But then I need to, you know,test stuff and show stuff and
there's sort of a complicatedthing because it's kind of a 4k
switcher but kind of not a 4kswitcher, so it gets.
It gets a little confusing, butthese have been fun videos I've
been working on lately.
I do still have some retro onesthat I need to do because, um,

(51:32):
not need to want to do, but I'vejust been putting them off.
Things like my eight millimeterVCR and stuff that kind of go
in line with, like the projectorhandy cam quarter video that I
did recently.
Um, something that I do like todo just if you've been
wondering, um, and I feel likeI've hit a nice stride lately is
balancing out audio versusvideo videos.
So you know, I don't usuallylike to just do like here's four

(51:55):
mic reviews in a row, becausethen I just become a mic review
channel.
Or here's video you know videosonly about audio because it's
only an audio channel, or viceversa.
So what I've been trying to bevery conscious of lately I've
always done this, but I thinkI've been more aware of it in
recent times is one week do avideo that relates to an audio
topic and the next week do avideo that relates to a video

(52:17):
topic.
Sometimes there's both, like ifyou're doing a, you know, a
streaming setup or a podcastingsetup that's going to
incorporate both audio and videoelements as well, like that,
because both things not only doboth, both things interest me
and I think they're important,but they go together.
And so being able to like beingable to try to address
questions and workflows andthings that people might have

(52:40):
from both sides of that theaudio and the video side I think
is really helpful and it's afun challenge to do.
And it's also like I don't wantto make too many videos.
And then it seems weird if Iupload a video about a camera
but also I want to do don't dotoo many video related things,
where suddenly it's like oh, youguess you don't like
microphones anymore and I thinkI do tend to lean a little more
towards audio.
Um, mainly because it is sounderrated and so

(53:06):
underappreciated.
And it's one of those thingswhere people you know it's weird
you don't really think that thebest way to level up the
quality of your video is toimprove your audio.
You know people want newcameras, they want new lenses,
they want new lights, they wantall that stuff they don't really
think about.
Like maybe a mic is the way togo, maybe a new mixer or an
interface or figuring out someprocessing.

(53:26):
That kind of stuff is usuallynot at top of mind and I know
the difference that it can makein video related projects and so
I just sort of like it kind ofbecame my thing that I like to
share and talk about and helppeople figure out.
So that's kind of what I'vebeen working on lately.
And the last thing well,actually second to last thing

(53:48):
Gear, gear spotlight, which I'mlaughing because it's just the
giant keynote icon on the screenright now.
Yes, I like to do the mic ofthe week segment because I like
to change my microphones eachweek, but that's not necessarily
the gear of the week.
I like to highlight a specificpiece of gear each week, and
this week last week was EcammLive, which I love because

(54:09):
that's the software that I usefor a lot of my streaming
software.
I use to put the podcasttogether, what I'm recording
into right now.
Similarly, the other thingthat's really making this video
version of the podcast possibleis Keynote, just Apple Keynote,
which is like their slideshowPowerPoint software that's been
around forever.
I have used Keynote since 2006.

(54:30):
I got my own first Mac.
It was an iMac Core Duo inJanuary of 2006, so 19 years ago
, which is pretty crazy.
And it's funny because, youknow, I used some Macs in school
at the time, like my highschool had like the old
Performas.
You know well, if you want togo way back, like the first
computer I ever used was anApple II in the computer lab at

(54:52):
like my elementary school, andthen we had we also had like the
original Macs, like the oldMacintoshes, so I always liked
Apples and stuff.
And then I was like in highschool right when the iMac and
iMovie 1 came out.
So it was like the perfect,like let's jump into digital
video editing Isn't this crazy?
And I always wanted one.

(55:13):
Uh, but it was like there's noway, like not only could my
family not afford, you know,like your kid get a laptop or
whatever, but it was also likeeven in college, uh, I remember
my mom, my stepdad.
One Christmas they were like wereally want to get you a new
computer for college.
And I was like awesome, I'dreally love a Mac.
And they're like absolutely not, dude, you're getting a Dell.

(55:34):
And I was like cool, thatdoesn't do the things that I
want to do on it though, butthey were just so anti Apple at
the time.
So then, finally, I saved up.
Well, that was in 2004.
So I spent a couple yearssaving up money and got my own

(55:54):
iMac in 2006.
And I loved it and that's allI've been using since.
I got to say the the shine is abit off the Apple at this point.
I'm not quite.
I'm in the Apple ecosystempretty deep and PCs have gotten
so much better and I justappreciate them more than I
would have in the past or thanthey really.
They're're better now.
Um, and the Apple userexperience is worse now.
So you know, yeah, uh, but Istill really like Apple overall.

(56:16):
I'm in that ecosystem and I'vebeen using I remember it was
just called.
I work with pages and keynoteand numbers, and that is just
what I've been using.
It used to be something I had tobuy separately and they started
just including it with Mac OS.
That's something I've beenusing exclusively, which is
really funny because it's alittle more common now,
especially as, like Google docsand stuff and Google slides and

(56:37):
sheets and everything becamemore popular.
But there was Microsoft officewas the main thing using Word,
you're using PowerPoint, you'reusing Excel and the idea that I
was in college and I was likenot going to open Microsoft Word
, like people were appalled atthis idea, like there's no way
you can do that.
Like classmates, parents,whatever.

(56:57):
How dare you not use MicrosoftWord?
And I refused, knowing I hadbought iWork for like 80 bucks
and then eventually just becamefree, versus like having to
upgrade Microsoft Office everyyear and it getting more bloated
and more complicated.
I was like there's no chance,I'm no chance, I'm going back to
that, and especially especiallyso.

(57:19):
Anyway, I say that because Iwas an English major, so it's a
lot of writing, a lot of typing.
A lot of people lived inMicrosoft Word and we obviously
did a lot of presentations withPowerPoint and I was like no,
turns out you can just exportWord documents from pages and
PowerPoint presentation and allthat kind of stuff.
And it's only gotten better andbetter as time has gone on over
the past like two decades sincethen.
But I went through all myEnglish undergrad.

(57:40):
I went through my teachingcredential program with my
master's program, doneeverything, did all of my
teaching for 11 years just usingPages and Keynote, and Keynote
specifically is so much betterthan PowerPoint it's not even
close in so many ways theusability things you can do.
But I haven't used Keynote in awhile.

(58:01):
I used to use it daily prettymuch when I was teaching,
because that's how I would do alot of my lessons and workshops
and things.
I would use Keynote but Ihaven't been teaching for a lot
of my lessons and workshops andthings, or just keynote, but I
haven't been teaching for youknow a number of years now.
And so jumping back into keynoteto um, start doing the podcast,
was like dang.
Not only do I remember how muchI like this, but wow, they
actually improved a whole lot ofstuff.
So, like that even has likeimage processing, which isn't

(58:24):
it's not like you know,Lightroom or anything, but you
can add a photo and you canadjust color temperature,
highlight, saturation, which issounds basic, but like you
couldn't do that before, um, youknow incorporating all the, all
the stuff.
Like I made the littleanimation earlier in this with
the, the gap and the personjumping over it and stuff.
Like I did that and I don'tknow 10 minutes in keynote
before making this, which issuper cool, um, and it is free

(58:45):
with you have to buy an Applecomputer, so that's your entry
fee.
But once you have your Macwhich now, like you get an M4
Mac mini or even an older modelMac mini cheaper than you can
get a lot of PCs and then youget keynote and pages and
numbers for free, which is andiMovie, like you get a lot of
stuff for free.
So you know the criticisms Igave the Apple ecosystem.

(59:08):
There's actually a lot ofbenefits and it's significantly
more cost effective than youwould have expected.
So I really love Keynote.
It's been really fun to diveinto it.
It definitely makes thisworkflow possible, and something
that I know has actually beenaround a long time but I have
not taken advantage of is thecloud feature, cloud
functionality, because it's notsomething I ever really needed

(59:29):
in the past or just maybe wasn'taware of.
But the fact that you can justsave your presentations to the
cloud really really helps,because I'm using my base model,
old school M1 Mac mini here.
It's crazy to call it oldschool now, but it does not have
a lot of internal storage andkeynote presentations can get
big.
So the fact that I can savethis not locally hugely helpful,
but also the fact that I can beon my MacBook pro in Heather's

(59:54):
office or somewhere else, or noteven at home, and I can um work
on the presentation, put thingstogether and then just open up,
come in here, turn everythingon, get ready to go and it's all
right.
There is incredibly helpful andmakes again the the planning
and the preparation for thispodcast so much easier, and I
couldn't do that without Keynote.
So this week's gear of the weekthere's no affiliate link there.

(01:00:15):
You just got to buy a Mac, so Idon't know, using my affiliate
link and buy a Mac and then getKeynote.
If you have a Mac and youhaven't used Keynote, definitely
give it a try.
If you don't have it installed,definitely download it and
install it because it's free foryour Mac Messages.
This is our last segment of theshow Listener messages.
We don't have that many thisweek.
So something I've been doing ornot doing, I guess, is the first

(01:00:37):
episode of this I put on likemy YouTube community page where
I could share it with people andgo hey, you know, like video
version, here's a link, and waymore people than I expected like
, watched it, commented, talkedabout it.
For the second episode I waslike I'm not going to do that,
I'm just gonna let the newpodcast channel see what YouTube

(01:00:57):
does with it.
Significantly less turns out,it turns out it's not.
It is not on the recommendedpage quite yet, so didn't get
nearly as much like comments andfeedback and stuff.
Or maybe people just didn'tcare.
You know, it could just be.
Maybe it's not YouTube, maybeit's, maybe it's me, but I got a
couple of messages to sharethat are just kind of fun and
nice.
So this is from the YouTubecomment section on last week's

(01:01:21):
episode.
It's from Gil who said greatepisode.
Really picked up a few nuggetswhen you're talking about not
Gerald undone-ing a video.
So, again, talking about techspecs, the thing I mentioned
last week was that Gerald does alot of tech specs in his video
but he contextualizes them.
Contextualizes them.
That sounds weird, but he's notjust reading off lists of specs

(01:01:42):
, he's explaining why theymatter and he's also then like
verifying them.
Essentially and some peoplehave misconstrued that to mean a
good review is just very techspec heavy and I don't think
that's the case.
And Gil was sort of feeling thesame way because now he's
feeling that he can focus.
Let's see, it's so much betterto focus on how to use something
and why you like it.
I definitely struggle withcomparison sometimes and it can

(01:02:03):
really block the flow of thevideo to the point where it
doesn't even get finished.
Awesome episode, yeah, andthat's what I wanted to point
out was like anybody can readthe tech specs of a product and
some of them are important toinclude in reviews and stuff.
But what's more important isyour perspective, because the
way you know, gil, somebody whodoes podcasting for clients,
mobile podcast setups you'repodcasting outside, inside all

(01:02:25):
these different locations theway that a tool would work for
you is very different thansomebody else and it might not
apply to everybody, but thereare certain people for whom it's
going to apply like perfectlyexactly, and they're the ones
who it's going to be the mostvaluable thing in the world for
them to see and hear that,versus just like another tech

(01:02:46):
spec rundown by you know, thesame video they've already
watched four times.
So your unique perspective, thethings you focus on, things you
actually care about, that's thestuff that actually makes
things stand out and be morehelpful.
The next comment we have isactually a fan mail.
So, fan mail this is the actualname of the Buzz Sprout feature
.
So, on the audio version ofthis, right at the top of all

(01:03:08):
the descriptions there's a linkthat says send a message to the
show.
If you click on that link,it'll basically just be like
you're sending a text messagedirectly to the show.
It's only one way communication, though I can't text you back
or respond.
You don't even have to put yourname if you don't want to or
anything.
But yeah, you can send amessage directly there and I get
it.
So we got a fan mail last weekthat says hey, tom, it's John

(01:03:29):
from Virginia Been thinkingabout you guys recently with all
the devastation around the citywith wildfires.
I hope you and Heather and safeand doing are safe and doing
well.
Also, here's your dailyreminder that you are making a
difference and having an impact,especially us folks in digital,
for us folks in digital mediaeducation.
Uh, I really appreciate that,john.
So thank you very much.
I need that.
I need that daily.

(01:03:49):
I need to just put this in likethe bathroom mirror.
It doesn't make a hugedifference and I really
appreciate the thoughts aboutthe fires.
Fortunately, where we're at,even though we're in Southern
California, southern Californiais still really big, so we're
not we're a couple hours awaynot really affected at all in
our daily lives, except thattons of people we know,

(01:04:11):
especially Heather's.
Like all of her friends andfamily, she grew up in Los
Angeles, so a lot of peoplethere she's had friends lose
homes to fires, wildfires in thepast and a couple of her
friends had to be evacuated thistime but fortunately they were
okay.
Her parents almost had to getevacuated but luckily didn't.
Uh, so fortunately the peoplein our worlds are safe and okay,

(01:04:33):
but there's a lot of people whoaren't and, um, it is
terrifying and awful and I don'tI don't even know how to
process the devastation, otherthan just that I feel really bad
about it and it's really scaryand my heart goes out to all
those people who are affected inany way by that.
Uh, but fortunately we're okay.
So I know it's really scary andmy heart goes out to all those
people who are affected in anyway by that, but fortunately
we're okay.
So I know it's that thing oflike you know it happens with

(01:04:56):
Heather all the time, because tome I'm not from Los Angeles, so
that whole area I'm like Ithink it's like 80 cities or
something.
I'm like it's LA and she's likeno, that's Glendale, that's
Burbank and no, that's Glendale,that's Burbank and that's the
Valley and that's this.
I'm like it's LA.
So if you're not from SouthernCalifornia, it's like Southern
California is synonymous withLos Angeles, but Southern
California is actually huge too.

(01:05:17):
So there's different cities,different regions, different
ecosystems and whatever, andwe're fortunately far enough
away that we weren't in any kindof risk from those fires, which
is uh, which is good so.
But I appreciate the concern.
A number of people have sent outconcerns.
So thank you for that and thankyou for being concerned for
people who are affected and areimpacted by those, because it is

(01:05:40):
awful and terrifying and scary.
So, on that awful, terrifying,scary note, if you want to send
messages to the, to the episode,to the episode, to the show to
be included in a future episodeepisode five if you don't didn't
know or don't remember, episodefive is still going to be a Q
and a episode, so a couple nextweek I'll really start doing a
push for questions specificallyfor a Q and a episode, but you

(01:06:03):
don't have to wait for that.
You can send messages anytime.
You can use the fan mail linkthere, you can leave YouTube
comments or you can also justsend an email to tom at
enthusiasmprojectcom.
Or, if you want to share avoice message.
You can go to hi my name istomcom and just scroll down and
click the link that says leave amessage for the show, and all
those ways, whatever's easiestfor you, and if you don't want

(01:06:24):
to do any of that, you don'thave to.
So, all that being said, thankyou for listening, thank you for
watching, thank you for allyour kindness and all your
support.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Maybe took away a couplenuggets, a couple useful,
helpful nuggets.
I hope and hope to see you nexttime.
Have a safe, happy, healthyweek and yeah, and I'll see you
next time.
I said that out of order anyway.
Bye, everybody, you.

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