Video Thrilled the Podcast Host | Season 13 Premiere - The Enthusiasm Project

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 1.
Isn't it fun.
And it also coincides with thesix year anniversary of the

(00:44):
podcast started January of 2019.
January 2025.
Still alive, even though therehas been a bit of a break.
So let's talk all about that.
And if you're listening to thislike you always have, you might
not notice this, but if you'rewatching this, what the podcast
live?
Not live, but in color.
I am alive and it is in color.

(01:04):
So those things are true.
Yes, there is finally a videoversion, a consistent video
version, of the EnthusiasmProject, which is something I
have been scared of butinterested in and toying with
for a long time, as a lot of youprobably know.
So I definitely want to talkabout that, share some insights
into that workflow and thatdecision and how everything's

(01:25):
happening, and just kind of justkind of get back into it.
You know it's been it's been awhile, but that extended break
was something that I reallyneeded to sort of reset my
approach to the podcast.
After 12 seasons of doing thepodcast kind of needed to like
make sure I'm not just repeatingmyself and what's the whole

(01:48):
purpose here and again, how do Imake this sustainable?
I would rather take half a yearoff and then be able to do it
for a long time to come, ratherthan just burn out and never do
it again, ever.
So that is kind of where we'reat, which is really really fun,
super exciting, I am aware,though I just want to make sure
that this is super clear.
Even though there is a videoversion, I also want to make

(02:09):
sure that it's still a deliciousthat's not the right word but a
good audio experience, becauseup until now, and probably for
the foreseeable future, the waymost people consume the show is
through the audio only version.
So that's not lost on me.
I don't want to do a bunch ofthings that only make sense
visually and if you're listeningyou're like well, I feel
totally left out.
Not the case at all If you'rewatching the video version.

(02:31):
I want things to you know,enhance the show, but not be
like required viewing for you toget you know, get the best out
of the show.
So there's all kinds of funstuff we can do which I am super
excited about.
Some things are new.
Some things are the same.
One thing that is the same, butin kind of a new version, is we
got to talk about the mic ofthe week.
Right, we got to talk about themic of the week, and what's

(02:53):
that music?
It's the mic of the week introsegment.
Wow, who is so pro over here?
So, as you know, I typicallylike to swap up different
microphones every week here,which makes getting consistent
audio a little bit tricky.

(03:14):
Typically, this is also where Italk about what gear I'm using,
but for this episode, I'm goingto go into so much detail about
the gear that I'm using to putthis show together, because I
think that will be reallyhelpful for people.
We're just kind of focusing onmic of the week because that's
the thing that's probably goingto change the most.
Ideally, the rest of the gearshouldn't change, because I have
spent so long putting this alltogether.

(03:35):
So the microphone you'relistening to me on right now is
the Shure SM7B running throughthe Rodecaster Duo with the
custom SM7B preset that I made,which is not like.
It's not like a super secretthing or whatever.
I just made a custom presetthat I liked on my voice and
that's what I'm doing right now.
I could even show you if I takethat off.
This is what the SM7B soundslike just out of the box,

(03:59):
running into the RODECaster Duo,and this is what it sounds like
with the preset.
So I just like this and itsounds broadcasty and fun and it
works with my voice and it.
I don't know, I just enjoy itquite a bit.
So the mic of the week they'relistening to me this week is the
Shure SM7B.
It is fun.
Actually, there was a reallygood idea someone gave me of I'm

(04:20):
just remembering this now.
I should have incorporated thisinto my notes Using a different
microphone, which I kind ofalways do for the 10 weeks of
the season and then at the endhave people vote on which one
they think sounds best.
So maybe that is a good idea.
I should definitely swap it upevery time.
If I'm lucky enough to have 10microphones to do that with, I
should take advantage of that.
So this week's microphone isthe Shure SM7B and that's what

(04:48):
you were listening to me on aswe move on and talk about this
new format, why I have beensomeone who has said you don't
necessarily have to have a videopodcast.
Why am I doing that to myself?
Why that's a lot of work.
It's a lot of extra work to dovideo.
I feel like I have streamlinedthe process as much as I can and
that was something I wanted tomake sure.

(05:10):
At least for me was the casethat I had the audio only
version pretty well streamlined,where it couldn't be any
quicker really to produce a show.
It was almost real time.
If the episode was, you know,100 minutes long, it took 104
minutes to make the show kind ofthing.

(05:31):
I planned it out more, you know, like the planning and stuff,
but the actual production timewas essentially real time, which
was real cool, and video justadds so much more.
It's such a beast to add in.
It's not just like oh, it's alittle icing on the cake, like
video is a whole separate beastand that changes things and

(05:51):
something that I wanted.
There's sort of two things thathappened that made it sort of
the perfect time for me to dothis.
One of them is that I sort oflike said everything I could say
in the podcast after six yearsand 12 seasons and it really
there's.
I got a couple messages thatI'm going to play like listener

(06:11):
messages, but I had asked forsome feedback, like hey, you
know, I restart the show for anew season, what are some things
that you would like to hear?
And Gil, who has replied, likemany, many times and I always
appreciate you, gil, you're thebest Gil was like you know, I'm
missing the show and I just goback and listen to old episodes,
which kind of meant the worldto me that someone would
actually take their time to goback and re-listen to episodes.

(06:34):
That is awesome.
And he's not the only personthat said that, which just blows
my mind.
So that's like a hugecompliment right there.
And he's like yeah, I listenedto old episodes.
I can still pull out likeinteresting nuggets and cool
things there.
He's like but you're right, youkind of talked about everything
and that was sort of what I hadsaid was like I have covered it
all.
Like I started the show is verypersonally.

(06:54):
There was like so much insidethat I just needed to get out
and that was kind of what theshow was for way before anyone
else ever listened to it.
And then, over years andepisodes and seasons, people
started listening to the showand and it started, you know,
picking up an audience of whichis crazy and super cool.

(07:17):
And so it did kind of shiftwhere it's like I have covered
kind of all the topics that Iwanted to cover personally not
necessarily forever.
Like you know, I live a lifeand new things happen and new
thoughts happen all the time andsometimes it's worth revisiting
things.
But it's very different whenyou have like your whole life
experiences to draw on versusand then you get all those out
and now it's like now what?
And so it was like harder andharder to find things that I

(07:42):
wanted to spend whole episodesdissecting and diving into that
I hadn't already talked aboutand didn't necessarily want to
be super repetitive.
So that was kind of a thingthere, in addition to that
transition of when I started theshow very much for me not
expecting another person to everlisten to it, but then over the
years, building the audience,becoming aware that people are

(08:03):
giving their time and do wantsomething, expect something out
of the show.
So that kind of shifted to likeokay, what can I do to make to
continue making the show likepossible to produce in terms of
just topics and subjects andstuff, and also something that
is actually valuable to thelisteners.
So shifting from a me focus toan audience focus.

(08:23):
That's something that happened,you know, a long time ago, but
something that I want to bereally, really conscious of,
which is why, when people ask,like, is there a video version?
Video version that was such apopular question it kind of was
like, okay, maybe I really needto look into this.
Not everybody needs a videoversion of their podcast.
Some of the more popularpodcasts that I listen to I

(08:47):
don't know if they're popular,the podcasts that I listen to
the most, the ones that are mostpopular to me, are audio only
versions.
They don't they don't evenoffer video versions.
Um, but for me it does kind ofmake sense, especially
considering my background.
I really like video.
Uh, my YouTube channel is allabout audio video production.
So this, you know, videos, likekind of half of audio video
production, right, and it justdoes kind of make sense, which
I'll talk about in a little bitthere.
But that was kind of the thingthere was okay.

(09:12):
I think incorporating video isgood.
I want to make sure that I'maware that the show doesn't just
belong to me anymore.
It belongs to the people whogive their time to listen to it
and to you know, consume theshow and I want to be able to
then restructure it in a waythat isn't just me trying to
find, like, what is this week'stopic?

(09:32):
Maybe you know?
A big thing I had talked aboutand tried to incorporate before,
and some feedback that I gotfrom a lot of people was yeah,
segments are great.
You know, like we can have amic of the week segment, we can
have a YouTube talk segment, wecan have all this kind of stuff
where it's like you don't haveto find something that you can
dive into for 60 minutesstraight.
Maybe you only need to share 10minutes on something or even

(09:53):
less, and that way there's.
It doesn't feel like thisoverwhelming thing and, in
addition to trying to thenfigure out a video workflow that
wasn't going to just take somuch time.
So that's kind of you know,those are sort of the things
that the universe put togetherin order to make, you know this,

(10:14):
possible for me to do it thisway.
So I kind of do want to diveinto a little bit more about
like why, why would you want todo that?
Because I am somebody, if youlisten to the show, who has said
like, yeah, you probably don'tneed a video version.
I don't think I want to do avideo version.
For me, the thing about theaudio version was not just the
ease of the workflow but alsothere's a very different vibe.
Like right now to do the videoversion, I am in my studio.

(10:36):
I had to, you know, get cameraready.
I didn't just roll out of bedlike this, I had to turn on
lights, set up cameras, set upgraphics.
Like that is very differentthan the audio only version,
where I could literally be in mypajamas sometimes I could be,
you know, it could be dimly litsituation that just felt like
comfy to be in but where acamera would not pick up a good

(10:58):
quality image at all and recorda great episode, and that that
was really kind of nice.
Like it does ease a lot ofpressure.
You know you don't have toworry about like the pimple on
your nose or something if you'redoing an audio only version of
a podcast, but video there's alittle bit more there.
So there's just being on cameraadds more to it.
Doing stuff like being able tomake graphics, being able to

(11:21):
make slides, being able to makesegments, organize things.
You know it takes a bit moretime, but the workflow I've
established is about, I think,as close as I could get to my
former audio only workflow interms of, like, once all the
pieces are prepped and ready togo, I can press record, do
everything in real time.
I'm sure, again, a pro wouldmaybe edit out some things, but

(11:45):
well, you're listening to meinstead, so that's not happening
.
So that's that's that.
Those are kind of reasons why,but also a big reason why is
it's 2025.
And if you heard me talk about,you know like I don't want to do
a video podcast, I I do thinkthat you know it's always
important to reevaluate youropinions and your stances on
things.
Over time change your opinionswith new information.

(12:08):
And you know I made a video inI think it was late 2017, about
why you don't need 4k, because Ihad just bought the Canon 6D
Mark II camera at the time,which was 1080.
And late 2017 was when a lot ofpeople were starting to kind of
get their first like 4kmirrorless cameras and I was
like you know, there's no needfor me to get a 4k camera

(12:28):
because at that time there wasnothing really reliable.
It's like overheating likecrazy.
The file sizes were ridiculous.
Most computers like had areally hard time editing.
So it's like, oh, I have to buysome crazy expensive computer
that's still going to be astruggle to edit on.
You know, I don't even know ifYouTube was totally accepting 4k
at the time, but even if it was, most people couldn't consume
4k, like they weren't evenwatching on a 4k stream or they

(12:50):
didn't have an internetconnection that could
accommodate 4k.
Like you could buy a 4k TV buteverything you're streaming on
it is in 1080.
You know, it was like it wasthat kind of time and so my
point was at that point at thattime, like 4k is awesome and
it's clearly going to be thefuture, but right now you
probably don't need it.
And that's kind of how I felt,you know, with video a while ago

(13:10):
was like, uh, video versions ofpodcasts are great if you can
do them and you know and andit's not, it's not totally
taxing on you, or or it'ssomething you do really want to
prioritize, but it's notnecessarily required.
And I still don't think it'stotally required, but there are
new reasons that I do think it'sit's worth considering in the

(13:31):
year 2025, especially becausepeople you know, people do kind
of expect it when you say youhave a podcast, I think.
I think the image that used tocome to mind was someone sort of
sitting at a desk talking intoa microphone, and now it's like
the image of like people oncamera talking into microphones.

(13:52):
I feel.
I feel like video podcast isbecoming very synonymous with
podcasts now.
So that's, that's a big one.
In addition to the fact this wasreally the biggest one for me
and this happened, you know, Ireally started taking advantage
of this last year, even with theaudio-only version of the
podcast is that YouTube supportspodcasting.
Youtube has always been a placewhere people could upload
podcasts.
They could upload a video andbe like this is a podcast, this

(14:13):
is a podcast channel, whatever.
But now that YouTube actuallycategorizes things as podcasts,
promotes them as podcasts,ingests existing RSS feeds of
podcasts, that's really huge.
And so last year I had put theRSS feeds of podcasts.
That's really huge.
And so last year I had put theRSS feed for the Enthusiasm
Project into my YouTube channel,which I did some episodes about
, and the workflow was very,very clunky because everything

(14:35):
got like.
It actually was not hard toingest the show.
Mixing it in with the videos ina way that wasn't super
distracting was reallyfrustrating and didn't really
let me take advantage of theYouTube platform and so doing
this version now I did.
Obviously, if you're watchingthis, you're watching this on a
brand new channel.
At the time of recording thisit has four subscribers, so I've

(14:57):
got to make room for thatsecond silver play button over
there over there.
But YouTube, I was able to notonly move all of my existing
episodes over there through myRSS feed, so YouTube just pulled
everything from Buzzsprout intothis new channel, so all I
think is 183 episodes total thatit just pulled over there.

(15:21):
I was able to get rid of thoseoff of my main channel, which
was very difficult and timeconsuming to do so.
Now the whole podcast is here.
The thing about having thepodcast on my main channel was
that the episodes were unlisted,and the reason for that was
because they would get thrown in.
If you went to my video page,there was just 183 episodes
mixed in with all the videos,and it was like messy and

(15:43):
confusing.
There was no way to separate,like here's all the videos and
then here's another page that'sonly the podcast videos, like
everything was mushed together,and so my way around that was to
make the podcast episodesunlisted, but the podcast itself
public.
So if people clicked on thepodcast they could have all the
episodes, but they would neverthen take advantage.
You can never search in YouTubefor an episode name or the

(16:07):
podcast in general and haveeverything pop up.
So now, having everything onits own channel, it can all just
be public and that means it canshow up in search results.
It can show up in the algorithm.
People can find it a lot moreeasily.
I pulled in all the audio onlyepisodes, and now I can just add
in the videos going forward,which is pretty awesome, and and
then I can just pull the audiofrom this as the audio version

(16:29):
and upload that.
So it's not a tremendously liketaxing workflow overall.
And that was that was soundsimple, but getting all those
pieces together which we'll talkabout when we talk about gear
in a little bit um, was why ittook, you know, seven months to
figure this out.
So a big reason for switchingvideo is the fact that YouTube

(16:50):
supports podcasting, and anotherreason is that it is something
new, kind of like I mentioned,you know, after that many
seasons and stuff, I kind oflike needed to shake it up a
little bit.
I needed a new challenge.
I needed a new, in a way alsoeven new creative constraints to
kind of play with and help moldthe show and keep the show
going and keep it sustainable,which is also something it's

(17:11):
also like a form, I think, ofprofessional development.
So you know, whether or notanyone watches the video version
of the podcast, every time I doone I learn something right
Putting everything together.
It's a lot of stuff that I knowhow to do already, but it's also
stuff that maybe I'm notpracticing as regularly, even
though I talk about it on mychannel all the time.

(17:31):
Here's microphones and gear andstuff you can use for
podcasting, but I'm not doing avideo podcast.
It's very similar to when I wasteaching and my you know, I'd
give my students these projects,which would have pretty tight
turnaround things Like, I knewhow to make videos, I knew how
to edit videos, but once Istarted my YouTube channel and I
was also doing things you know,very quickly with minimal

(17:54):
equipment you know tightturnaround times Suddenly a lot
of the pain points in mystudents' workflow that I wasn't
really aware of became a lotmore apparent to me because I
was now in their shoes, doingthe same thing and so doing the
video version kind of I'm hopingthat it's sort of that.
It is that professionaldevelopment.
I can establish a good workflowthat I can share, which
hopefully makes things easy forsome people if they're also

(18:15):
looking to do something similar.
But at the same time, it mightreally point out like, oh, this
is why, like, people are alwaysmentioning this thing in the
comments of my videos is becauseit is a pain, it's a huge, you
know, whatever you know it, itjust sort of keeps me current on
what's happening, and so Ithink that's.
I think those are all greatreasons to start a video podcast

(18:37):
in 2025 and or to add a videocomponent to a podcast in 2025.
So that's something I am superexcited about.
Like I mentioned, there wasquite a workflow to make this
happen and that a lot of thatrequires gear.
So I want to talk about thegear that I'm using.
So that way, you know I don'tknow if you have an idea I don't

(18:59):
have any crazy graphics orvideos, so if you listen to the
audio only version, you ain'tmissing out on anything here.
It's just going to be metalking on camera.
But speaking of that, let's gointo that right now.
So I do have, you know, somegraphics.
I do have some slides to kindof make things more visually
appealing.
The gear that I'm using, thething that really kind of made
it click for me to go okay, I'mgoing to do a video version of

(19:21):
the podcast was the Rodecastervideo release, which I knew a
long time before it was releasedthat it was coming out.
That was like one of the fewtimes that I've been like very
aware of something coming downthe pipeline for a long, long
time and I was waiting andwaiting and waiting for it,
because my goal with that wasthat is going to let me do what

(19:42):
I've already been doing with theRodecaster Pro the audio
version.
Now they're just a videoversion.
I can do the same thing.
Instead of just loading upsound clips and switching
between audio sources, I load upvideo clips and switch between
video sources, do everything inreal time and it's done, which
is true, and I am running.
The video you're looking at.
If you're watching, the videoversion is all through the
Rodecaster video.

(20:03):
But I did have to make I don'twant to call it a concession,
but kind of I really wanted thatto be on workflow, because the
Rodecaster video is so fun touse, it's so powerful and it's
also just there's somethingabout like the tactile nature of
it that I really really like.
But if you're watching this andyou're looking at the graphics,

(20:27):
you might go, hey, I don't knowhow the RODECaster video
generates those, or, you know,you kind of go like, hey, it
looks like your camera is alittle bit, you know, colored
there.
It kind of looks like almostlike you've got some presets or
some color adjustmentsInteresting.
That is because I am usingEcamm Live and so pretty much,
to be honest, most of the stuffI'm doing you do not need the
Rodecaster video for, eventhough it was the catalyst for
doing this, especially right now.

(20:47):
Today I only have a singlecamera, so you definitely don't
need the Rodecaster video forthis, but that was kind of a big
thing.
So, using the Rodecaster videoin, you know, in collaboration
with Ecamm which could be, youknow, I could be using a Cam
Link, I could be using an ATEM,whatever I'm definitely planning

(21:08):
to have multiple cameras infuture episodes when I need them
.
So a multi switcher is reallycool.
The Rodecaster kind of crusheseverything when it comes to
audio.
So that ability, especially ifI do want to maybe record things
not in here, which is somethingwe'll talk about being able to
be a little more portable andhigh.
What was that?
Noise and high quality would bereally cool.
I got a cold like the beginningof December and it is just not

(21:30):
going away.
Anyway, speaking of that well,not speaking of that speaking of
cold, colds remind me of thingsthat are cool.
And what's cool is the othergear that I'm using.
There's a transition, so I amusing the Elgato prompter.
That's the thing that I'mstaring at right now, where I
have my Ecamm window up so I cansee what's on screen.
I can see what you're seeing inreal time, which is really,

(21:52):
really helpful.
And this is the A7IV, the SonyA7IV with my 24 millimeter lens.
That just you know.
That's my favorite setup.
So why not use it for thepodcast here?
Well, I usually use the FX3, Ishould say the A7IV has been my,
the camera that I swap in andout of my desk setup a lot.
It doesn't live here because Iuse that camera a lot for other

(22:13):
things, in videos and also useit for photos and stuff.
So it's getting a lot more usethan just being like the webcam.
But that is also what I'm usingit there.
So, but that is also what I'musing it there.
So there's the A7 IV mounted tomy desk.
I did a desk setup videorecently where I kind of showed
a lot of my desk things and alot of it's the same.
A couple of things are a littlebit different.
I talked about the microphone.
The microphone is on the ElgatoLow Profile Pro arm, which I

(22:37):
really love because if you'rewatching this, look at that.
I can easily with one fingermove the microphone around and
adjust it and it stays put.
If you've been using any of thelow profile arms since their
release, you know that that'snot something you can normally
do, and now I can.
This arm is so close to beingperfect.
It's just, of course, it'salways the end, the mount where

(22:59):
you connect the microphone, andthis is a good one.
It's a ball mount, it's justlike it's 95% of the way there,
and one day someone maybe mewill take part in making a mic
arm that is 100% of the waythere.
So anyway, that's the reasonthere.
I really do love this mic armquite a bit.

(23:19):
I am running the audio into theRodecaster Duo and just running
that into Ecamm Live, and thereason there's no.
It's all the Rodecaster's alsogoing into the Rodecaster Duo
and just running that into EcammLive, and the reason there's?
No, it's all the Rodecaster isalso going into the Rodecaster
video.
So there's no reason that Icouldn't just select the
Rodecaster video as my audio andvideo source in Ecamm Live.
But it was already set up thisway.
So, like you know, that is justlike there's no difference and

(23:44):
this is just how Ec can wasalready set up, so just doing it
that way.
But it is really cool becauseroadcaster pro the audio ones
you can just via USB connectthem to the roadcaster video and
use them, which is very, verycool.
So that is my audio sourcethere, where I'm kind of running
things through and, you know,getting all the signals and the

(24:05):
what should be mixed minus, whatshouldn't be mixed minus and
stuff.
You know, hopefully things willwork because I have slides that
have sound on them.
We've got listener messages,we've got my voice, we've got
videos, you know, like intro andoutro videos.
So all that's there andbasically that's what.
That's what's happening inEcamm and I think I can probably
pull this window over here andshow you, if you, if you're

(24:26):
watching the Ecamm setup.
So what I've got in Ecamm isI've got my keynote presentation
.
So the slides and the segmentsare all being done in keynote.
And what's cool is, even ifyou're just listening to this
and you can't see them, theyhelp keep me on track.
I do have my Apple Notesdocument down here, which is
usually what I used to use forum, for keeping myself on track

(24:48):
and podcasts.
I would just go through thenotes doc.
But I was like, why not justtake those same points and put
them into a keynote presentationwhere they're just going to
look better, Right, and it'sjust going to be more visually
interesting and engaging andhelp keep me on track?
So even if you're not seeingthose, you're hearing the
benefits of it because the showstays on track.
And once I made these, and as Imake them, especially if I have

(25:10):
recurring segments, then it'seasy because you know I'm
essentially creating a templateand then in Ecamm I only have a
few scenes.
For this one I have what?
Six scenes, I guess.
I have a black intro scenewhich is just when I hit record.
It starts at black and then itgoes to the intro.
There's this main shot which isjust me, there's the shot with
my keynote slides and there'salso a web browser share screen

(25:33):
if I need to share something ina web browser at some point,
which is something I do a lotduring podcasts.
And there's also the outro.
So those are really just my sixscenes and that's kind of all I
need there.
I do have down here I have somelistener messages that I've got
queued up ready to play and thenmy keynote presentation there.
So it's kind of cool when I'mdoing this and I'm on keynote.

(25:55):
Actually, I guess I can't do itin demo mode, but when I have
this little window in myprompter like my preview window,
there I can see what'shappening.
But I have the keynote likepresenter window here on my
computer monitor so I can seewhat slides are next.
I can have notes to myselfthere.
So this really has beensomething that I feel has helped
keep me uh, or will?

(26:17):
I've only done half an episodeso far, so we'll see but I think
it's something that's going tohelp keep me really on track in
in a super duper helpful way,and it's something that's going
to help keep me really on trackin a super duper helpful way,
and that's something that I'mpretty excited about.
So those are the main.
That's the main gear.
I don't think there's anythingelse.
You know, nice gear butrelatively simple.
I am using the Elgato StreamDeck Plus.

(26:40):
There we go.
It's the white one with blueknobs on there, and that just
lets me.
I could do hotkeys on mykeyboard.
I don't necessarily need that,but that lets me just switch
between the scenes.
So when I go to the keynoteslide or go to no, we don't need
to do that was the wrong thingthere.
I almost ended the podcast.
Don't want to do that.

(27:01):
And I like this one because ithas the dials on it, which is
cool because they work great.
With the Elgato prompter I cancontrol like the brightness and
the, you know, the margins andstuff I'm doing text.
But on the prompter right now Ihave the brightness at like 50%
If I turn that all the way up.
I don't know if you can see it,it kind of depends, but it
sometimes gives like a haze orreflection because the prompter
display is so bright.
So now, just without having togo into the software or anything

(27:23):
, I can just adjust that,basically try to make the video
look as good as possible whilealso being, as you know,
readable as possible to me.
So that is.
That's pretty much everythingI'm using for the workflow.
So everything's just beingrecorded in Ecamm.
The whole thing is being runcomputer-wise on my base model
M1 Mac mini from four years.

(27:44):
Four years ago, five years fouryears ago.
Yeah, so I.
I, the new M4 computers, m4 Macmini stuff seemed totally
awesome.
If I didn't have one, that'swhat I would get.
But this base model it stillgoes.
The only the only thing I'mlike hesitant about, which I
think should be fine, is, um,making sure it has enough space,

(28:06):
because it's the base model, soit only has a 256 gigabyte hard
drive.
Of that, I think about 120 gigsare free.
But this is this podcast is notin 4k, this is 1080, because it
it's something that does notneed to be in 4k.
Like you know, this is fine andI don't want to deal with 60 to
90 minute 4k video files.

(28:28):
It's just too 4k hard, if youask me.
And so this is 10 80.
Ecamm is very efficient with howit records files, so it should
be, it should be okay.
Um, and Ecamm should be fine.
I'm always a little nervous.
The thing with the Rodecastervideo when you plug your SSD and
record in there.
I have found that to just be soinsanely reliable that it and

(28:50):
especially you can connect, youknow, like a four terabyte SSD
or something, and you just youknow you're never going to run
out of space.
The Rodecaster is superreliable.
I just want to keep looking andmaking sure.
I see that Ecamm is recording.
So this is all being donethrough Ecamm, uh, and and we're
going to talk a lot more aboutEcamm next week in a new segment

(29:11):
that I'll be introducing nextweek, which will be super, super
fun Um, but that that kind ofcovers, uh, the gear and
everything for for what I'musing, at least for now.
I'm sure this obviously willevolve over time, but that is,
that is the gear right there.
And, oh, nuts, I was trying tobe all slick but my audio output

(29:34):
changed, so this is one ofthose problems there.
There was a new segment that Iwas waiting to introduce in this
really cool way, where I wasgoing to, like, start it and
you're going to hear the music,and then I was going to go to
the keynote and you're going tosee the slide.
We'll get there.
But, yeah, there's a segmenthere that I want to include

(29:54):
every week called Tube Talk,which is a content creator
corner.
So, historically, I'm wearingthe same shirt as I am in this
graphic, so I can actually maybetry to make it look.
There we go.
What this basically is is,historically, I've done a lot of
episodes just about the YouTubechannel and about things that

(30:14):
happen on YouTube and that kindof stuff, and I love that
Sometimes there's more to talkabout than others.
So I kind of figured, hey, ifit's not the whole episode but a
segment, that's really cool.
So the Tube Talk segment, whichis harder to say than it was
when I typed it out, issomething that I would like to
do every week, where I can kindof share some thoughts, updates,
experiences, whatever that areon my mind and that I hope are

(30:38):
interesting and maybe helpful toyou as well, or just updates,
like if it's just like hey, thisis a thing that's been going on
, like it has been a while, youknow, since we've done the
Enthusiasm Project.
So in the time since, there's alot of things that have happened
.
There's actually a pretty bigthing that happened very
recently, just last month, whichwas I won the RØDE Creator of

(31:00):
the Year People's Choice Awardin the Gear and Tech Reviews
category, which was kind ofcrazy.
So that is something I owe ahuge thank you to, because I
voted the one time for me, butit was a lot more than one vote
that let me win, so I reallyappreciate everybody kind of

(31:21):
going out of the way.
That was like one of the mostmeaningful things that has ever
happened, not even just in mylike content creator career, but
in my life.
The gear and tech reviewcategory the category winner was
Becca Farsaci Becca, who'sreally great.
She's from the Verge and thenstarted on, left the Verge and
started her own independentYouTube channel.

(31:42):
So you know she has like anEmmy award in the background of
her videos and all this crazyexperience and stuff.
So she was the category winnerand then I was the People's
Choice winner in that categoryand category winner Beans Road
also had a panel of judges,which is pretty crazy because of
the creator of the year thing.
You know, I didn't know reallywhat to expect, but it turns out

(32:02):
there were 11,000 entrantsacross 20 something, 22
categories, 24 categories,something like that, so 11,000
people to choose from.
There were 46 winners total,which is pretty, pretty nuts
because each category had to thepeople's choice and the
category winner, which wasbasically they had a panel of

(32:26):
people, not just road people,but like industry people go
through each category, choosethe finalists and then the
judges also chose that categorywinner and then there was votes
that chose a People's Choicewinner, which is pretty crazy,
because the total People'sChoice voting not for me, but
for everybody was 250,000 voteswere cast for people in
different categories, so that is, that's a lot.

(32:47):
It's not one of those thingswhere, like, you got six votes
and they got five votes, so youwin's like shoot, like it is
genuinely a like a thing, thingthat happened, a thing to be
proud of and and it.
I don't want like I never wantit to seem like you need that
kind of recognition.
You need awards to be valuableor to be validated or anything.

(33:08):
But it's nice, you know, andnow that I've been doing this
almost four years full time andI love it and I don't want to do
anything else.
There is still the thing,though, where you kind of feel
like you're just floating out inopen water in the ocean
sometimes and you're like am Idoing things right?
Is this good?
2024 was a really good year,fortunately, to have different

(33:28):
experiences, like going to NABand talking to people, getting
to go to a couple differentevents at B&H Photo in New York,
being part of the Roadcastervideo launch at B&H Photo in New
York City was pretty crazy.
Those were all things that letme like in real life,
face-to-face connections, learnthat the channel is a valuable,

(33:49):
helpful thing for people.
And the podcast too.
People talk about this podcastto me in person which was so
cool, so that was.
And then the people's choicething is like I mean, I made a
video about it but I neverthought it'd be the people's
choice for anything.
So that's pretty wild and ithelps me feel like I'm on the
right track, even thoughsometimes it feels like I don't

(34:10):
know what the heck's going on.
And Sometimes it feels like Idon't know what the heck's going
on and there's sort of a thingthat, like this is sort of
strange.
But not to harp too much on myteaching career, but when I
started teaching I was anEnglish teacher and then I moved
into digital media and when Imoved into my first digital
media program I was teachinglike the video side of there was

(34:34):
sort of like two pathways withtwo different teachers, two
different classrooms, twodifferent, you know things
within the same program, and onewas digital imaging, the other
was digital storytelling.
I was a digital storytellingteacher and that was basically
like video production, audio andvideo production.
The other side was a lot oflike photo and graphics.
So if you wanted to do designstuff, graphics, they can get a

(34:54):
little bit into 3d stuff too,which is very, very cool.
And that's just because digitalmedia is so huge Like it is
tough to cover with one personin one class cover all those
needs.
So we had two things there.
The program had been around forseveral years before I moved
into it.
The digital imaging side wasalways going strong, but the
digital storytelling side waslike it was kind of like working

(35:16):
really well for a handful ofstudents but not all students
and it was honestly kind of amess.
And so I revamped everything,like basically rebuilt the
studio by hand, the classroom byhand, worked to get all new
equipment, all new resources.
I rewrote all of the coursesand got them all approved.

(35:36):
So, like the you know, insteadof whatever random classes were
being taught, they were, youknow.
Students were able to get theyou know, the credits they
needed towards collegeacceptance from these classes.
Like there were UC approvedclasses, board of education
approved classes, all that kindof stuff, uh, which was very,
very cool.
Um, and the program did reallywell and it's still doing well

(35:59):
to this day and there was a partof me that always knew like I
put years into this program,into rebuilding it and into
making it something special.
So I feel like you know, I feellike I did a good job and I'm
capable of doing that, but itwas something.
There was an infrastructurethat was already there.
There was.
There was already a program.

(36:20):
Half of it was already firingand all cylinders.
There was administrativesupport.
There was already likescheduling built in and, uh,
like a culture on campus wherestudents knew what the program
was, and so part of me was also,like you know, almost feeling
insecure of like, well, couldany would this have been
successful if anyone took itover?
Or did I actually do something?

(36:41):
You know, would it was actuallyable to use my skills and
abilities in a unique way here?
And I thought I'd was, but Iwasn't 100% sure.
So when the chance came up tothen go to a new school in a new
district and start a programfrom scratch like there was
nothing there, the campus hadjust been rebuilt, so it was
literally like empty space, zeroequipment, zero students, zero

(37:03):
culture, zero knowledge,expectations whatever, and
basically build it all fromscratch.
That was kind of the mosttempting reason why I wanted to
take that opportunity and leavewhat was a really good position
and go do that Um, because, geez, when are you ever going to get
that chance again?
And it happened.
It took years, you know it tookit took years, but after you

(37:25):
know four or five years it wasup and running and going like
just as strong as my otherprogram was and it was a part of
not even just the campusculture but the district and the
community and all this stuffwhich is super cool.
And then there were things likeevery year, you know, there's
teacher of the year awards,which are always kind of cool.
Some of them are student voted,some of them are like district

(37:47):
voted or whatever, and I prettymuch won like at least a campus
one every year which was likereally cool.
I won the student's choice onepretty much every year, which
sounds braggy, but like I don'tknow, they voted.
I didn't bribe them, uh, andthat that was really cool
because it's the same thing as,like the road, people's choice

(38:07):
one, like it's like I thestudents are the ones that I
wanted to be voting Like, I wantthem to, you know, be happy
with their program and theirteacher and stuff.
So that meant a lot to me.
And then, so crazy, it was allright.
Before COVID, I was the 2020, Iwas the 2019 teacher of the
year for our school district andthen I was the 2020 teacher of

(38:31):
the year for our entire countyand then I was the 2020 teacher
of the year for our entirecounty, which was one of the
biggest counties in California.
There's 22,000 teachers in ourcounty.
So that was crazy and you knowthat was definitely a highlight
of my career.
And then I promptly leftteaching.
So hopefully they don't regretthat.

(38:51):
That was a crazy experience anddefinitely something that was
like okay, like if I canliterally build this program out
of nothing, get to that point,I feel like I'm at least
somewhat capable, maybe.
And then I left and went to bea content creator, you know, and
do all that where you have noidea, like, are you doing a good
job or not?
And so it's interesting because, like the students choice

(39:13):
teacher of the year stuff, andnow like a road people's choice
creative of the year, it feelslike the closest version to that
, which makes me feel reallygood.
Because it's the thing of like,it just makes me feel like I
have found a way to use specialskills, abilities and experience
in a way that seems to behelpful, unique and beneficial.

(39:37):
And you know, and that's that'ssomething that I think
everybody wants to do, but it's,you know, it's always hard when
you're just trying to navigateregular life and figure out how
to, you know, survive like, andthen you're trying to go up your
hierarchy of needs of, like,self-fulfillment and things.
So when you're able to sort ofcheck all those boxes, it's a
pretty special, magical,impressive thing.

(39:57):
And the road creator of theyear award was something that
really it just it really stuckout in a huge way to me, so
that's a huge thing.
The channel also crossed150,000 subscribers, actually
over 155,000 currently.
Um, which is nuts.
So that is very, very, veryexciting.
Um been making videos.

(40:18):
Nothing changed.
They're having tons of funmaking all kinds of different
videos, tons of ideas.
Um been doing a lot of stuffwith Heather on her gaming
channel, which she re like, yeah, rebooted.
Basically, um called Heatherjust play.
So we've been she's been doinga lot over there and I've been
doing some final fantasy 14gaming streams, which are really
fun, and videos too, um, sothat's a that's a super fun

(40:41):
channel and it's fun to just dosomething you know different.
Um been playing around with mysecond channel a lot, which is
cool Cause that is where it'sjust like throw whatever at the
wall and just have fun with itand you don't have to worry
about all the strategy and stuff.
In addition to starting a newYouTube channel for this podcast
, which was you know, it soundssimple, but, oi, it's like so
much work to get a channel upand running.

(41:02):
But it's cool and I I am superexcited to have that, even if
it's one more, you know, onemore email account or whatever
to keep track of and to checkand stuff.
So that's, that's pretty cool.
I have a lot more tube talk.
I guess you could say that Iwant to dive in in the future,
but this is the beauty ofsegments.
We can save that for futuresegments, because there's

(41:24):
actually even more that I wantto get into today.
Specifically, I want to go intosegment music, listener
messages.
Yes, probably have morelistener messages than I
normally will.
Maybe I don't know, becauseit's not just stuff for this
episode, but also catching up onthings during the break.

(41:46):
So some of these I apologize,they were sent in months ago.
They're not there.
So one thing I want to startwith, though, when it comes to
listener messages, are somefeedback and ideas for the
podcast.
So a while back, when I waslike, okay, I have everything
here, I have everything in placein terms of the workflow.
Now I'm ready to, like, make anepisode.

(42:06):
I have these ideas.
I did some community posts andstuff asking people like what
would you like?
Like, if you like the podcastand you're spending your time on
it, what would you like me todo with it?
Like, where would you like tosee it go?
And I got amazing feedback.
So thank you so much toeverybody who sent in, whatever
it was, whether it's a voicemessage or an email or a text,
whatever you sent, I reallyappreciate it.

(42:28):
I listened to everything, tookeverything to heart, definitely
gleaned something to incorporatein the show from every episode
whether that's in this, fromevery message, whether that's in
this episode or not.
So you know, I really appreciatethat because it makes it feel
like a homegrown communityeffort kind of thing, which is
which is super, super fun.

(42:48):
Like I mentioned, gil sent amessage, but some of them were
ones that they're messages to me.
They're not messages to play onthe podcast, but there is one
and I'm not sure this sort ofrides alive, but I don't think
he'll care.
So this is from Patrick Boberg,who also wrote the theme song
to this podcast, which isactually for my Ska podcast that

(43:11):
I had several years ago andthen I commandeered it for this
one.
That one I Tom-andeered it forthis show when that ended a
while ago and I just thoughtPatrick's message was really,
really good, and so I want toshare that with you right now.
So this is let's hear whatPatrick had to say.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Hey Tom, this is Pat from Iowa.
I've been missing your voice.
Glad to see you're looking forideas to keep the podcast going,
because I love the podcast.
One thought you could doepisodes, or once a month
episodes, with people who areenthusiastic or jazzed about
something and then they canshare why they're up on it and

(43:50):
you can just riff and have agood time and really broaden
people's horizons about whatpeople are getting creative with
out there.
You can talk about it from youknow making it their nine to
five.
You just talk about it, abouthow they fill the hours with it,
how they spend their nights,you know building yo-yos or
something.
However, you know people aregetting enthusiastic just to

(44:11):
kind of hit that niche of thename of the show, and I love
talking to people who areexcited and hearing people and
what makes them excited.
I'm getting a call so I'm gonnalet you go.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Thanks, pat.
That's the best way to end amessage.
This is so interesting becausethis feedback about like
interviews and people that thatis literally like, and I'm sure
maybe you know this, but thatwas the the thesis, the impetus
behind the channel in the firstplace, like the youtube channel
was supposed to be like, I wantto sort of share stories and

(44:46):
perspectives of people who areenthusiastic about stuff,
because the channel used to becalled the enthusiasm project um
, um, and so I think the idea ofincorporating that into the
podcast, which still retainsthat name, is a great one.
I also one of my favoritethings lately, let me tell you,
uh, not just because of thecreator of the award, but the

(45:07):
road interview pro microphonethere's.
This thing is so cool and Ithink, as part of the creator of
your thing, I think there's aprize pack where I get another
one of these, so I have one.
I've been wanting two of thembecause I feel like these are
like the perfect mobile podcastsetup.
Obviously, it's good forinterviews it's literally called
the interview pro and you cando this with other things.

(45:28):
You know, there's audiorecorders, wireless systems,
cameras, whatever, but what Ireally love about these is now,
this is just the gear segment.
What I really love about theInterview Pro is the lack of
handling noise.
So when you're out in otherenvironments it makes it so easy
to not have to worry aboutpicking up handling noise.
And the omnidirectional pickuppattern just means that you also

(45:52):
don't have to worry aboutperfect mic technique, which is
great when you're you know, ifyou hand the microphone to
someone else who's not used totalking to microphones, pretty
much wherever they position it,as long as it's somewhere near
their face, it's going to soundgreat, and if they move it it's
not going to change the sound,there's not going to be crazy
proximity effect or anything.
And of course, they're wireless.

(46:16):
You can run them wirelesslyinto a camera or whatever.
But they also just got built in32 bit float recording, so
they're just little audiorecorders as well, and to me, I
want to do a whole thing where Ithink this might be the best
mobile podcasting setup whereyou can literally just take two
of these, record them, have acamera going.
So all that to say some feedbackthat popped up in several
different messages, includingpast just now, was doing
interviews and bringing in otherpeople in all different ways,

(46:39):
and that is something Idefinitely want to include.
It's been intimidating in thepast because I were at something
like NAB and I just talked tosomeone really cool for five
minutes 10 minutes.
You know that's not a wholepodcast episode and it might

(47:02):
feel kind of shoehorned intolike a video collab situation,
but it would be the perfectthing to include in a podcast
segment and so I definitely wantto include that and I think
that'd be really fun in whateverform it takes, and I think
seeing how things evolve overtime is going to be really,
really fun, because that's, youknow, that's kind of the beauty

(47:24):
of starting something kind ofnew is you get to see how it
evolves and changes, like thesevery flashy keynote transitions
that I have.
So some other messages I havesome other voice messages from
people.
These are not about the show orthe direction of show.
These are more traditionalvoice messages, all sent through
SpeakPipe.
If you don't know what SpeakPipeis, it is the app, the service
that I use to collect voicemessages for the podcast, and

(47:46):
you can do that athimynameistomcom If you go right
to my website homepage.
Oh, actually, hey, hi, I'm Tom.
I can do this because it's avideo version.
Look, my website is right here.
Hi, my name is Tomcom.
You scroll down a little bit.
There's a thing that says leavea message for the podcast and
you can click start recording.
And if you do that, you willstart recording.

(48:08):
You can use whatever you want,which is really cool.
So if you have a um, if youhave a cool podcasting set up
and a good microphone, you canuse that.
If you're just on your phone,you just use your phone like
whatever device you're on thathas a microphone.
That's what you can use torecord and does not have to be
polished audio.
If you're someone who haspolished audio, that's always
fun to hear what differentpeople's setups and stuff sound

(48:29):
like, but you don't have to dothat.
So don't feel never feelobligated to do anything like
that if it's, if it's a littletoo difficult, but yeah.
So we got a few messages herefrom SpeakPipe, which is super
cool.
Some of these again go backmonths, so I apologize for that.
The first one is from Gordonand this is about wireless audio

(48:50):
quality and my lovely Mac miniswitched my audio inputs again
For some reason.
It just really likes to do thatand I don't know why, keeps
switching it from the Rodecasterto just the Mac mini speaker,
for some reason.
So anyway, gordon, what's upwith your wireless audio quality
?

Speaker 5 (49:11):
Hey Tom, I run a podcast called the EMS Lounge
using predominantly Rode gear.
What I found is, when I'mrecording though with my
wireless mic setup, which is thewireless me, it doesn't sound
as full as the recordings do onmy road caster.
So I'm wondering if you haveany tips or tricks to get it to
sound a little better.
I've tried running it throughthe road caster post-production

(49:32):
and see if that will boost it.
However, I'm just not gettingthat big bottom sound or the
effects processing that I'mlooking for.
Any help on that would be great.
Thanks, love your show.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
So I'm hoping Gordon solved this problem many months
ago.
He's not still lamenting itright now.
But basically he's using someof the Rode wireless things the
Wireless Me and the audioquality is just not sounding as
good as when he runs through hisRodecaster Pro, which can
definitely be frustrating,especially if you're trying to
mix those audio things togetherin a podcast episode and you
have this you know beautiful EQ,bassy sound coming from the

(50:04):
Rodecaster and you have thisthin, harsh sound coming from
the wireless thing.
It's going to be a little bitfunky.
So it sounds like what you'redescribing is the audio directly
from you know essentially how Ican use this interview pro as a
standalone recorder, using thewireless me like as a recorder.
Is that like the audio justcoming from that?
I guess running into a cameraor whatever?

(50:25):
It's just not as good as whatyou're getting in the road
caster.
How do you fix that?
You can do presets.
You can connect it to roadcentral and adjust some of the
presets, but it sounds likethose aren't, aren't scratching
the itch, aren't sticking theway that they should, which is
strange and frustrating.
But yeah, it's a weird device inthat way where sometimes it

(50:46):
works and sometimes it doesn'twhat I would recommend.
I mean the place to start.
There's two things actually.
The first one might be a verysimple fix, which is if there's
noise cancellation I can'tremember if the wireless Mi has
noise cancellation or not.
If it does, make sure it's notaccidentally turned on, cause
that could be.
The whole problem is that a lotof these, like recorders and
small mics, have noisecancellation and it's very easy

(51:08):
to like accidentally press onebutton or click one setting and
turn it on without realizing itand they give you no
notification.
That's turned on and that'sgoing to immediately sap, like
all of the life out of youraudio because it's trying to do
noise canceling, especially ifthings aren't sounding bassy,
and they are sounding you know,just kind of tinny and crunchy
or whatever.
You might have noisecancellation turned on, so that

(51:29):
could be super simple.
Solution number one that's thebest solution because you push
one button and everything soundsgreat.
If that's not the problem, thenwhat I would do is it's not too
much of a hassle, hopefully isspend more time on the
post-production workflow, not inthe Rodecaster or in Rode
Central.
So taking that audio andputting it into your software
whether it's audio video editingsoftware and working with those

(51:55):
EQs to it sounds likeespecially the low end really
needs some work.
So you know probably some sortof graphic equalizer where you
can play with some of the lowerfrequencies and maybe boost
those.
You might want to dive into aparametric equalizer.
I have a video on my channel allabout sort of making things
sound better with a parametricequalizer.
I talk about in Final Cut Pro,but it's the same in any
application, so it doesn'treally matter.

(52:16):
And then probably you know alittle bit compression stuff
like that.
I also have a video, a newvideo, that's three simple steps
to making your voice sound goodfor podcasting and streaming.
So that might be helpful forfor this very specific situation
and that's what I would do, andso basically putting the audio
into software and forgetting allthe road stuff, but just using

(52:40):
the software to create the soundthat you want.
And then, once you have that,you should be able to do this in
just about any software, butcreating a preset so that way in
the future, when you bring inyour audio from the Wireless Me,
you don't have to do that fromscratch Every time, you just
drop your preset on it.
Maybe you have to do that fromscratch every time, you just
drop your preset on it.
Maybe you have to fine tune it,maybe you don't, but it'll make
the workflow a lot easier andthat's that's what I would

(53:00):
recommend, if you haven'talready found a solution to that
because again, this was thiswas a bit of an older message we
should say All right, so upnext we have a message from
Jeremy.
I have two messages from Jeremy, but they were sent like a
month apart.
So Jeremy's asking aboutopen-back headphones.
So take it away, jeremy, hi.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
Tom, this is Jeremy, big fan of your podcast and of
the channel.
I was just wondering if youhave ever experimented with
using open-back headphones.
I've seen that you use the Rodeclosed-back headphones.
In my experience, it's a loteasier to listen to without that
kind of echo chamber sound ofhaving the closed back, and I

(53:40):
just wondered if you've everexperimented with any open back
headphones like the headphonesfrom Sennheiser.
If you haven't, I wouldrecommend trying them out.
I think that you might reallyenjoy them, and for me they
sound a lot more natural whenI'm on a microphone using those

(54:00):
than closed-back headphones do.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Thanks so much for your time.
Cool Thanks for that question,jeremy.
Or, I guess, suggestion.
It is a question and asuggestion.
I don't think I've usedopen-back headphones.
I've been using the RodeNTH-100s since they came out
several years ago now and Ireally like them.
I use them a lot well forpodcasts and stuff.
I use them for all my videoediting and I also use them when
I'm playing like guitar andbass and stuff.
I have them all the timebecause I think they sound

(54:23):
really really good.
I have a pair of Shureheadphones that I did a video on
as well and those are almostmaybe a little more fun for
music and bass because they pumpup the bass kind of like
artificially.
But if I'm not doing productionstuff where I need things to
sound accurate, that's kind offun, right?
The Sennheiser ones though Ihaven't used them, I would
imagine if it's a Sennheiserthing, it's got to be really
good.
Yeah, and I don't know what theI honestly don't know the

(54:47):
difference between open back andclosed back headphones, other
than what the name implies.
But I am curious because theRhodes the reason I like these
so much is that they are socomfortable.
I wear them for many hours at atime, sometimes many days in a
row.
Pretty much wear them at somepoint basically every day for
some amount of time, and there'sa lot of times where I I'm not.

(55:08):
I basically forget that I havethem on.
I stopped using the audio butthey're just on and I really
like them, even though they areclosed back and they're not
isolating but a little bit.
And I really like them eventhough they are closed back and
they're not isolating but alittle bit.
I really like them and I findthem super comfortable.
So it's interesting if openback headphones might even might
provide the same comfort, thesame quality, but without

(55:29):
feeling like even less isolated,feeling Like having headphones
that have noise cancellation,isolation.
You know it's a nice thing, butif you're wearing them for a
long time and you're working andyou want to like talk to
someone and go over here listen,you know like you don't always
want to be totally isolated fromthe world around you, so I
don't know that could be a cool,could be a cool solution.
I've got another one fromJeremy, this one's about

(55:50):
Rodecaster Pro Hiss.
Let me see if we can make thathistory.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
Hi Tom, this is Jeremy.
Thanks so much for all you do.
Yeah, I watch a lot of yourstuff and I noticed that on the
Roadcaster one of your reviewsyou mentioned that you have a
lot of feedback on yourheadphones, on the Roadcaster,
and there was a product that Iuse called the iFi.
That's iFi Ear Buddy, whichisn't available anymore, but I

(56:19):
used it on a full-sized stereoamplifier to listen to earbuds
just for fun, and it basicallytook care of a lot of what
you're describing as the loudhiss, especially on powerful
outputs on larger equipment, andthat isn't available anymore.
But they do make somethingcalled the IFIE Match.

(56:41):
So that's I-F-I-I-E-M-A-T-C-Hand anyway it's about 50 bucks
and I thought it might be worthtrying if that's your biggest
complaint with the RODECaster,because I know it does tame a
lot of the hiss that I get whenI was using it in the situation
that I was grabbed.
So anyway, I just appreciateall you do and thought that that

(57:03):
might be helpful.
Have a great day.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Cool.
Thank you for the kind words,jeremy, and also the suggestion.
So I'm curious which videoyou're referring to where I talk
about the Rodecaster, becauseI'm curious which Rodecaster
we're talking about.
For me, the Rodecaster Pro 2and the Rodecaster Duo and the
Rodecaster Video all those likesecond generation and up devices
have good headphone preamps.
I don't have any complaints.

(57:25):
I stopped to see if I couldhear anything Like they're clear
, they're clean, I like them, noproblems.
Yeah, so I love them.
The original Rodecaster which isright here behind me on the
shelf, that is the one that hadsome really not great headphone
amps and I didn't know at thetime when I bought the
Rodecaster.

(57:46):
You know I could heareverything that's happening, but
the issue with it was that youcould hear there was hiss in the
headphones and so you're like,oh my gosh, like there's hiss on
my microphone and you play backyour audio recording and
there's no hiss.
And so you're like, oh my gosh,like there's hiss on my
microphone and you play backyour audio recording and there's
no hiss.
And so you realize it's not thepreamp that the microphone is
running into.
Those are clean.
It's the headphone amp thatyou're hearing isn't as high

(58:07):
quality and is giving you somehiss and some noise, and that
can be maddening.
Once you understand that andyou use the same gear all the
time, you can kind of trustyourself and be like, okay, I
know, I'm hearing a little bitof hiss, but I know it's not
gonna end up on the recording.
But there's always this littlebit of you that's like am I just
recording something that I knowsounds bad or doesn't sound as

(58:27):
good as it could?
So that, for me, was only astill using the original
Rodecaster or another mixer oranother interface.
There are tons of things outthere that do have noisy
headphone amps and, don't youknow it doesn't sound great.
And so the suggestions thatJeremy offered if you have that

(58:48):
extra 50 bucks, it could be agreat way to not have to update
your whole gear or changeanything, but just add in one
little solution that cleansthings up and gives you a better
idea of how things sound.
So, fortunately for me, thathasn't been a problem anymore.
Um, since I upgraded to, youknow, the newer roadcasters a
while back, but um, that's stillsomething that's definitely an
issue for a lot of people and Iwant to.

(59:10):
I wanted to share thisspecifically because I think
it's really helpful for them.
So our last voice message mightbe one of my favorite questions
of all time, and this is fromDave.
We're gonna see what Dave hasto say.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Tom.
Hey, it's Dave Jackson.
I did not know you had thisenthusiasm podcast and just I'm
sitting here listening to toshill or not to shill, and so
I'm clicking around.
I'm like, well, what website isthis on so I can share it?
And I'm now at him.
Himmy name is Tom.
Him, why name?
What's the why?

(59:47):
For Inquiring minds want toknow I get his name.
Yeah, I know it's an insidejoke, but why is it himmy name
is Tom?
Because I must know.
Thanks, buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
All right, dave, I appreciate it.
Your audio sounds great, by theway.
So the answer to your questionis fairly simple.
If you want to know exactlywhat we're talking about here,
you can go to himymynameistomcom, which is my website, and
that's the URL there and I was.
The reason I was laughing wasbecause during the keynote, I

(01:00:22):
have a little message down herewhere I have a graphic if you're
just listening to this, thathas, you know, speak pipe
listener audio and haseverybody's name so you can hear
the messages and stuff.
But there's a thing at thebottom says you can leave
messages at hi, my name istomcom.
And it's one of those thingswhere this happens to me all the
time your brain just can't seesomething.
Um, it's like those pictures,those like what's like the magic

(01:00:46):
eye pictures where you have to,like, look through it and then
the picture you know, like youjust can't see it, but then
eventually it clicks and you'relike, oh my gosh, happens to me
all the time with people whohave a personalized license
plates, I like cannot I alwaysread them wrong.
Uh, and usually the wrong wayis is the funny way.
But yeah, the the website URLis just hi my name is tomcom.

(01:01:06):
Uh, like, hi, my name is tomcom, that's all that.
It is, um, and there's actuallysort of a funny story behind
that.
So that has been my website URL, I think, since 2010, maybe
2009.
It has been a while 15, maybe16 years.

(01:01:26):
At this point, I had finished upmy bachelor's degree, but we
were right in the middle of thecrazy Great Recession where
there were no jobs and I wastrying to be a teacher but there
were no teaching jobs, and Iwas really debating do I
continue on and getting mycredentials, or do I do

(01:01:47):
something else and just startfrom scratch, because there's no
jobs available right now?
And so I was actually applyingto go to art school for graphic
design, because graphic designis my passion and so I need.
I was putting together aportfolio website and I was also
doing some freelance like photostuff, um, and I just needed,
like a portfolio website, apersonal website, and tombuckcom

(01:02:07):
was taken, uh, which actuallyI'm kind of curious.
Now, actually, we can do somefree promo.
Tombuckcom.
Is it still taken?
Let's?
I should maybe not put that upon video until we see.
Here it is, yeah, and this isactually very interesting.
So the TomBuck of TomBuckcomhas owned this website forever
and he's a voiceover artist.
So it's actually not like.

(01:02:29):
The crazy thing is, if someonewent to TomBuckcom, it might
take them a minute to be likewait, this isn't the same guy
from YouTube.
Because it's like you see amicrophone, you see voiceover,
it's like, oh, it kind of makessense, like that would be what
Tom does, but it's a totallydifferent guy who's been doing
it way longer than me.
So he yeah, he's a voiceoverartist.

(01:02:49):
Anyway, he yeah, that's whoowns that website, that URL.
So I needed something else andthis was when I don't know if it
was when Twitter was new, butit was relatively new and the
first time, like, I signed upfor Twitter, I think in 2009,
but I didn't actually even useit until 2017.
And now it is like not a thinganymore.

(01:03:13):
The first time I went onTwitter, I was trying to find
people.
Somebody who popped up in myfeed was Mark Hoppus, the bass
player from Blink-182, of whom Ihave a signature series bass
sitting right here that I'mpointing right on the wall
behind me.
So he popped up and he's alwaysbeen like funny on internet and

(01:03:33):
social media from like theearliest days, and his screen
name on Twitter was hi, my nameis Mark, just all one word.
And for some reason I justthought that was like really
clever and really funny, like I,you know it's 2009.
Keep in mind there's like.
It's like you could do that onthe internet.
You could do something likegoofy or whatever like that.
And it reminded me many yearsbefore, back in high school, um,

(01:03:56):
when I was.
You know, you get home fromschool in the early two
thousands and you would go onlike AOL instant messenger or
MSN messenger and people wouldhave their screen names or their
away messages or whatever.
And one of my friends screenname for the day was just crap,
the space bar is broke.
But it was all one word, uh,and I was like that's funny.
And I said hey, and he was likeno, my space bar is broken, so

(01:04:19):
I cannot add spaces in any of mymessages.
And all of his messages forlike the next several days were
just like walls of text withthose like I'm just trying to
use like the period to add aspace or whatever.
But it was just.
It really made me laugh.
I don't know like the phrasethat was all one word, just made
me laugh.
And then, seeing, I don't, Idon't know why seeing someone
who I felt was very well knownjust use like a goofy phrase

(01:04:42):
like hi my name is Mark, Ithought it was really funny.
So then I went and was like hey, hi my name is Tom would be a
good URL and it was availableand so I bought it and I have
had it ever since and the thethe reason that's kind of, so
that's the origin of where thatcame from.
But the goofier part of it isI've actually had people offer
to buy it several times over theyears because it's a good one.

(01:05:05):
But also something I didn'trealize which, like, shouldn't
really be a problem is that itwasn't just a goofy thing that
Mark Hoppus did, I think in 2004, 2005,.
Once I looked into it, hestarted like a company, a brand
called Hi my Name is Mark, andhe has done like merchandise and
products like this is theguitar, the bass that's behind
me is a Fender release.

(01:05:26):
But he's even done like customsignature guitar release, bass
releases through his brand LikeHi my Name is Mark, like it's,
it's a thing, like you know,it's a thing.
And then I got worried like oh,I didn't know.
I literally didn't know thatuntil like a year ago, I thought
it was just your screen name,so I had no idea.
And then by that time I hadbeen using this for so many

(01:05:49):
years and then I had alsoevolved into this weird thing
where, like, I sort of also hadan online brand and I was so
worried like, oh my God, am Iaccidentally like copying a
thing that I didn't realize wasa thing Like, oh no, yeah, I
don't know.
It's like I'm going to start anonline bookstore called
brazilcom or something Like.

(01:06:10):
Wait, there's already like aSouth American themed online
thing, whatever.
I didn't know, I didn't know.
And fortunately I don't thinkit's a problem, because I don't
do any like.
That is, as Dave points out, itthe only place that I use that
name is on, uh, the website URLand that's it, and that's

(01:06:30):
because I think it's funny.
And it's in my emails, becauseI have email email addresses at
that domain and it makes peoplelaugh every time I give them my
email and it makes people laughevery time I give them my email
and it makes me laugh every timeand that has been worth it for
all these years.
But I don't.
It's not like my brand.
I don't sell anything under itor conduct any business under it
.
So I don't think there's anyissues there, but I was like,
wow, what from just somethingthat like made me giggle back in

(01:06:52):
2009 to like a thing that nowDave is confused about, now in
2025.
I think that's really funny.
Um, that's, that's kind of thestory behind that.
And then the little semi likeother goofy little quantum
surprise with that is that it issort of funny because of the
three people in Blink-182, oneof the other ones is named Tom,

(01:07:13):
and so I kind of wondersometimes how many people have
come to my website over theyears because they find Mark's
and like, hi, my name is markcom.
And then they go like, oh,maybe every member of the band
has their own website like this,and they go to hi, my name is
tomcom and it's just me.
It's not, it is not anyone fromLinguine 82.
And I, but, but then it's mewho's like also a fan of
Linguine 82.

(01:07:33):
So like, is it a fan ofBlink-182.
?
So like, is it a fan site?
I don't know, it's just a thingthat happened.
So anyway, dave, thank you forletting me tell that story.
I apologize for the confusion.
Hopefully it makes sense nowand things aren't as kooky now.
Now we have a few other messages, but these are interesting ones
that I've never been able to doon the podcast before, because
it's a feature that was releasedafter I finished the last

(01:07:55):
season and this is called FanMail, which is actually a
feature specific to Buzzsprout.
So this is really really cool.
This is something Buzzsproutadded, which is my podcast host.
Basically, now, at the top ofevery description of every
episode audio episode there's athing that says send a text
message to the show, and if youtap on that, you can just send a

(01:08:15):
message that goes directly tothe show, basically like a text
message.
It is not two-way communication, so there's no replies or
anything like that.
You can keep it totallyanonymous if you want.
You can include your name ifyou want, but it's really cool
because then I just get amessage that says like hey, new
fan mail, and then it pops uphere.
It is super cool If yourpodcast is hosted with

(01:08:43):
Buzzsprout.
I know it sounds like an ad, itdoes not, but if your podcast is
hosted with Buzzsprout, you canenable fan mail and it's a very
cool way for people to engagewith your show, especially now
that I have a video version onYouTube.
It opens up the opportunity tojust do YouTube comments, which
is a really cool way that Ihaven't been able to have people
interact with the show ever.
But if you're doing audio only,this is kind of a way to do
something similar.
So I have several fan mailmessages that popped up.
Uh, the first one says hey, tom, I'm a teacher full time and

(01:09:04):
I'm also lucky enough to be theentertainer in residence at the
world famous sip and dip loungein great falls, montana.
That sounds fit.
That goes top line on theresume.
I just discovered your work andfeel like you've been speaking
directly to me.
Although not the techie you are, I love all things road.
I'm looking to start mybroadcasting life through
YouTube podcasts and livestreams.

(01:09:25):
I'm on the lookout for yourcoaching slots, because if
anyone were to understand thestruggle of being a teacher
while trying to nurture outsidedreams, well, sounds like you.
All that to say thank you foryour work.
I to say thank you for yourwork.
I love it.
I really, really appreciatethis message.
There's not really a questionhere, it's just.
It's just a kind message, thatagain going back to what I

(01:09:46):
talked about earlier, like whenyou, when you're in the world of
content creation, it's verytough to know if you're on the
right track or or not, and beingable to talk to people like
this and get messages like thisplay such a big part in helping
me to feel like I am on theright track, regardless of what
any numbers might say oranalytics or whatever.
Like this is like okay, yeah,I'm doing the right thing.
I do occasionally haveconsultation slots open.

(01:10:09):
My schedule is just so weirdthat it's hard to reliably throw
those in there, sounfortunately I don't do it as
often or consistently as I wasable to in the past.
But that is a thing, and youcan always feel free to message
the podcast as well.
Next fan mail says hey, tom, oh,this is this one Blew my mind

(01:10:31):
to read, and it's it's on a.
In a similar vein, I guess.
It says Hi, tom, I'm not sureif you know this, but you've
become a symbol of hope for manyof us.
There are many teachers thatare trying YouTube or
technically anything totransition out of education, and
while I enjoy my job 3Dprinting at a middle school, I'm
in.
We reference you as a templateand a goal for our financial

(01:10:51):
futures.
Thank you for being our symbol,adrian, this blows my mind.
I feel like I know you, adrian,but I didn't want to make that
super clear.
But this is crazy because thisis something that I kind of
talked about way back when I wasleaving my job as a teacher,
and I think I even covered it inlike the secret series episodes

(01:11:14):
which kind of cover that wholetransition Basically, when I
gave my notice that I wasleaving and there was still like
a month or two before Iactually left.
What was crazy to me was everyperson I talked to, every
teacher, every administrator,every person I talked to, from

(01:11:36):
my school site, other schoolsites, district, other districts
, like whatever every personsaid.
I wish I could leave too.
Keeping in mind this was early2021.
Teaching is always a difficultjob.
A year into a pandemic, a lotof people teaching online,
remotely, trying to, you know,go back in person with you know,
questionable safety practices Alot of people.

(01:11:59):
It was a very, very rough time.
That's why I left at that time,like it was that bad.
But it was shocking to me thatevery person had the same thing
of like I wish I could do that.
I wish I could leave, whetherit was YouTube or something else
.
And what it made me realize,you know, the reason I had to
leave when I did was because Ihad the YouTube channel and the
teaching job, pandemic aside.

(01:12:21):
At that point it was like twofull-time jobs it was.
They were taking, I mean, moreway more than 40 hours a week
for each of them, and that justwasn't sustainable.
And so it was like, okay, Ineed to give up one of these
things.
Do I give up my YouTube channeland stick with the stable
career, or do I give up thestable career and go all in on
the YouTube channel, which iscrazy, the YouTube channel being

(01:12:43):
, you know, I've talked aboutthis before, but an investment
in myself, like that's not up tosomebody else who could just
decide to eliminate a program,eliminate a position, move
something around, whatever.
That's me, like, it's all me.
Investing in yourself is alwaysthe thing I recommend over
investing in something thatsomebody else is in charge of.

(01:13:03):
And then I lost my train ofthought.
But I guess I could edit thatout, but I'm not going to
because I'm such a pro.
The thing was just like it waskind of a once in a lifetime
opportunity.
I wasn't going to get thatchance again.
It might not be as ideal aswhat I currently had, but

(01:13:26):
teaching positions are thingsthat, like you know, there's a
teacher shortage.
I feel like that's somethingthat could potentially be a
thing that I come back to,whereas that was sort of like if
I want to make this leap, thisis the time to do it, and if I
don't, I'm definitely going toregret it.
What I didn't realize, though,was, up until that point, there
was you know that that pressurebreaking point of like I can't

(01:13:46):
sustain this anymore, but upuntil then, as the channel was
growing, that was obviously notwhy I started the channel in the
first place.
I started just to have aYouTube channel.
I just want to make stuff, Ijust want to share stuff.
You know all that, and as thechannel grew, I didn't realize I
was making a lifeboat.
When I was building the channel, I had no idea that was not the
intent, not the purpose, notthe strategy by any means, and

(01:14:06):
the way everybody talked to meand the way Adrian's talking in
this message, it really showsthe importance of having
something.
I don't necessarily want to saylike everyone needs a side
hustle, but like buildingsomething that is your chance to
invest in you and you alone, Ithink is really important and
really valuable, because itcould potentially be your
lifeboat career wise career wiseone day you never know.

(01:14:29):
But also, at the same time, itcould just be your.
You know your connection tosanity.
It could be the thing that youget to be in charge of and and
your outlet, when other places,like maybe your job, your career
, really feel stifling andaren't your outlet and stuff
like that.
So, um, this, this is awesomeand it is something like I, I, I

(01:14:55):
know I don't have likeconsultation slots or stuff or
whatever, but whether it'sthrough comments on here,
messages, emails, whatever, I uh, I'm always interested in
talking about this stuff becauseI think it's really important
and I know, I know that feelingof being trapped and people who
feel like they're trapped andyou're just like, well, I guess
I can just do 20 more years ofthis, right, like just 20 more
years of my life, the best yearsof my life.

(01:15:16):
I'll just throw those away to athing I don't want to do.
That's not great.
So if there's something I cando, even if it's just like proof
that it might be possible, I'mhappy to do that and that means
a lot.
Our last fan mail message isfrom Julie and Julie says hey,
tom, it's Julie Gayhart,longtime listener and YouTube
subscriber.
Totally understand YouTubesubscriber, totally understand
what you're going through withpodcasting.

(01:15:36):
I just hit my five yearanniversary of my podcast
Congratulations and I feel likeI'm all talked out.
It's about hiking long distancetrails and I've covered
everything I can think of,including going live for the
show using Ecamm.
Of course, I love behind thescenes type podcasts and I
really enjoyed hearing aboutyour leaving education and
becoming a full time YouTuber.
What a theme right betweenthese messages.
I know you've shared a lot withHeather over the couples table,

(01:15:58):
but maybe a season of howthings have gone since leaving
education good, bad ugly,leading up to your most recent
win with road.
Congrats, by the way, happyholidays and thanks for all you
do for all the creators outthere.
Such great content.
Thank you, julie.
I really appreciate that.
I hope that everything youmentioned here is something that
I can now include in thepodcast in future segments,
future episodes, all that stuffand hearing like knowing that

(01:16:24):
you're interested in it makes mefeel better about.
Like you know, sometimes isthis something that's
interesting?
Is this self-indulgent?
Is it whatever it's like okay,no, I know, you know Julie will
benefit from this.
As long as I know there's likethe one person at least that
will benefit from this, thenthere's probably others.
Right, it's one person has aquestion, other people probably
have that question.
So if one person might findthat interesting, hopefully
other people find thatinteresting as well.
So that is the end of our fanmail.

(01:16:44):
I should bring us to the end ofthe episode.
That was fun.
I like that a lot.
If you want to leave a messagefor the show a bunch of ways to
do that and you can do whateveryou'd like.
You can click the leave a textfor the show, send a message to
the show, fan mail thing.
If you're listening on theaudio version, that's right in
the top line of the description.
You can always send emails toTom at enthusiasmprojectcom.

(01:17:07):
You can always leave a speakpipe message at hi, my name is
Tomcom and now that this is onYouTube, you can also just leave
a YouTube comment and I'll domy best to reply to those and
incorporate them into futureepisodes If it makes sense.
You do not have to wait to a Qand a episode.
I love Q and a episodes, sothat's definitely something that
we're going to be sticking toin the new format, but you do
not have to wait.

(01:17:27):
So I'm like, okay, it's a Q anda episode.
Now you can send your questions.
Like, if you've got comments,you've got questions, go for it.
I was tempted actually to kindof like batch record several
episodes so I could really feellike I hit the ground running.
But I don't want to do thatbecause I want this episode to
come out so people can reply toit and then the next episode I
can.
If there are messages, I can dothat.

(01:17:47):
If there are no messages, thenmaybe I can batch record, but I
want to make sure I can include,make it the dialogue and the
back and forth as much aspossible.
So, really appreciate you.
Here's the thing I reallyappreciate.
One of the most common questionsanytime I did anything like
Couples Table Podcasts, my ownlive streams, whatever was.
When is the Enthusiasm Projectcoming back?

(01:18:09):
And that blew my mind thatpeople missed it and cared about
it and wanted it to come back,and that definitely was a reason
of me.
You know, I had the question oflike, maybe I'm done, maybe it
doesn't need to come back.
I did 12 seasons like over fiveyears five and a half years,
maybe that's enough.
The fact that you know people,it actually meant something to
people and people enjoyed itreally made me wanna make sure

(01:18:32):
that I could keep it going andfind a way to do that.
So I really appreciate that andjust all the support over all
the years for both YouTubepodcasts anything.
It does mean the world to meand I hope you enjoyed this.
Definitely.
Let me know what you think ofthe new format.
Even if you're just listeningin audio, like how's that If
you're watching the video, how'sthat?

(01:18:52):
Let me know, I appreciate it.
I hope you have a safe, happy,healthy, fun rest of your day,
rest of your week and I'll seeyou next time or you'll see me

(01:19:14):
next time because this is video.
Right, it's video, take care.

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Video Thrilled the Podcast Host | Season 13 Premiere

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Video Thrilled the Podcast Host | Season 13 Premiere