The Enthusiasm Project
The Enthusiasm Project
The Cons of Being a Pro
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What does it mean to be a professional in the world of audio and video, and if you are a pro, how can you share what you know in a way that bridges the "knowledge gap" of your audience?
🎙This week's mic:
•Rode Broadcaster
https://geni.us/raVo7Y (Amazon)
⚙️ Gear of the Week:
•Apple Keynote!
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——————————— CONNECT ———————————
Electronic Mail: tom@enthusiasmproject.com
Main Site: https://himynameistom.com
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——————————— PODCAST GEAR ———————————
•Rodecaster Video: https://bhpho.to/3Ub88j2 (B&H)
•Rodecaster Duo: https://geni.us/ULKDFkp (Amazon)
•Elgato Prompter: https://geni.us/elgatoprompter (Amazon)
•Mic Arm: https://geni.us/zc7hAbW (Amazon)
•Elgato Stream Deck Plus: https://geni.us/EzyY6o5 (Amazon)
•Headphones: https://bhpho.to/3JNacqg (B&H)
•XLR Cables: https://geni.us/bluexlr (Amazon)
S13E03 | Series Episode 177
Podcast Artwork by Kevin Ramirez
Original theme music written by Patrick Boberg and performed by Mike Alvarez
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. That's not where I intended that to go at all, but it is where it went. So we've got the third episode of this new season, of this new video situation, which I'm super excited about. So again, I really owe a huge thank you to everyone for being supportive of that, especially as I figured out this whole workflow and all of those things. So just thank you Very, very much appreciate that Tweaking and fine tuning things, trying to get segments figured out and get topics figured out.
Speaker 1:And what's really cool is like now I feel like I have multiple ideas, enough ideas where it's like, oh, hang on, that can't go in this episode, that needs to go in next week's episode, which is a very nice problem to have. It's like the best podcasting problem you could pretty much ever have. So I'm incredibly grateful for that. Got some really fun stuff to talk about today and then I don't know then it'll be time to wait for the next episode, I suppose. So first thing, first order of business, as always, is, we need to talk about the mic of the week the beautiful intro music there in the mic of the week segment, and I'm using something here that I have used. I've been using sort of I don't want to say low key, but I've used it on, like, the couples table and I've used it on some other streams and stuff. But it's something I got after this podcast went on you know, my break last year.
Speaker 1:This is the Rode Broadcaster, which is different than the Rodecaster Pro or the Procaster from Rode. Those are all different products. This is the Rode Broadcaster and this is a very interesting microphone. It is a little bit more expensive. I kind of feel like this is one of Rode. It is a little bit more expensive. I kind of feel like this is one of Rode's forgotten microphones in a way, because I never I do see it actually pop up.
Speaker 1:The place I see this and hear it most often is actually on YouTube commentary channels. There's a lot in the entertainment commentary niche, like Drew Gooden, for example, has millions and millions of subscribers. Every time he uploads a video it goes straight to the trending page, half the videos. He's holding this microphone and it for some reason is a very popular microphone in that niche, maybe because I don't have someone from Rode reach out to these people, but I kind of don't think so, because this is not like a new microphone. I feel like somebody told a friend and the friend that everybody just kind of got the thing.
Speaker 1:But it is interesting, especially in the world of Rode mics, because it's slightly more expensive. It has an MSRP of $419. So it's more expensive than an SM7B, although not by much, but it's not really comparable to an SM7B because it is a condenser microphone. So this is a large diaphragm condenser microphone and I don't want to say it makes it unique, but kind of it's an end address condenser which is not super common, something like the Earthworks Icon or the Earthworks Ethos. Those are, you know, end address condenser mics I can think of. There are definitely a lot out there, but typically condenser mics tend to be like side address microphones. So it's just sort of interesting.
Speaker 1:There's a switch on the side here that can engage. I don't have it turned on right now, but if I flip that switch now it can turn on a high pass filter and kind of get rid of some of those lows, if you want. It's a nice physical, like tactile switch. I don't use the high pass filter on the mic, though, because there is a broadcaster preset in the Rodecaster Duo that I'm running this through and I am using that right now, so I'm just going to kind of let that do the work right there. But also, I owe a huge thank you to my friend Bronson from the YouTube channel Audio Hotline, because he gave me this microphone, which we kind of like traded some mics back and forth a while ago, and this was one oh crap, I'm just realizing actually I have one that I need to send back to him. I should probably make a video about that and send it back.
Speaker 1:This one, though he was nice enough to just say like, hey, just keep it. It was one he didn't really use that much. Kind of going back to, I did the I guess this was on my channel. I thought this was a podcast episode, but it was on a Q&A video for my channel. It was like what's a microphone that you know is good but you never use? And my answer was the RE-20, which I gave to Bronson because I was like it's a great microphone, I admire it and respect its legacy and I never want to use it. It's just not something I'm interested in, and he uses it all the time and he was sort of in a situation with this where he's like I have this microphone, it's awesome, I never use it, you can have it. So, um, yeah. So thank you, bronson, for the the road broadcaster. He also sent me the SE Dynacaster and, if you don't remember, I am trying to use a different microphone on every episode of the season, all the 10 episodes, which is something I normally do anyway, because it's fun, but specifically I want to use different ones and then, uh, at the end of the season, see which one people thought sounded the best, because I think that sounds kind of fun.
Speaker 1:So that is the mic of the week this week and now we can dive straight into the main topic. So the way I've been sort of structuring episodes, if you couldn't tell, is sort of have, like you know, multiple segments and things, but kind of right off the bat, after the mic of the week, we jump into the main topic of the week, and this one. I feel like I need to do a few disclaimers here. I'm calling it the cons of being a pro bridging the gap. So I do not want to sound ranty. I think that's the first thing is like I was putting this together and kind of like going through my thoughts and making some notes and things and feeling like, okay, this could kind of easily sound like I'm, you know, middle-aged man yelling at clouds, and I don't really want that.
Speaker 1:Where this kind of thing pops up is I just sort of noticed patterns in online dialogue. Like I noticed things that pop up in the comments to my own videos. I noticed things I see online, you know different social media websites or even something like Reddit topics that pop up, especially in like the podcasting and videography and filmmaking subreddits and stuff. And it's sort of that thing where you know one or two things here and there doesn't really stand out to me, but multiple of the same things start to start to kind of stand out to me and sort of spark, like you know, some thoughts and some discussions and this one specifically, the whole thing about we're going to be talking about professionals like audio and video professionals today, and there's a way. It's kind of like there's a way I think you can be a professional and a way that maybe you don't want to be a professional.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't recommend it. So, and the reason is, when it comes to things like sharing knowledge or sharing skill sets, things that can really help to empower people. I just I have a hard time when I feel like someone misses the mark. I don't know if that's if that'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 you know, professional content creators, as in content creators who are also industry professionals. But it's also the thing I see in, you know, comments and messages on my channel, other channels a lot, and just sort of the overall dialogue. What do they call it? The zeitgeist.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that's the right term here, but yeah, the cons of being a pro. Sometimes you're just burdened. You find yourself a bit burdened with knowledge, right, and so I wanted to talk about my main approach, which is I am not in any way calling myself a professional and I've said this many times I like to take the enthusiast point of view. I like to look at audio video related stuff from the perspective of an enthusiast. I've done different, differing levels of this stuff professionally throughout my life 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. But I really like the enthusiast point of view because I don't want to presume that I know what's best for anyone. I don't want to make anyone feel bad for what they're using or how they're using it or how they approach stuff, and that's kind of my, my thing, especially with the YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:I think there's a natural progression and I've sort of seen this, can see this yourself if you follow, like especially things like filmmaking, youtube or whatever, where you can go back a number of years and people are getting their first DSLRs, they're getting their first mirrorless cameras, and then you can see like now those same people have, you know, sony Buranos, like giant, huge cinema rigs, $30,000 thing, it's, and in some cases that's a cool natural progression, but in other cases I sort of feel like it's. You know a case of like what's next itis, where people just feel like they they need to do something, like I don't know, they just kind of need to keep maxing things out and leveling things up, even if it's not necessarily 100% necessary, and where I have found myself both in just what seems to interest me the most and what I feel I can be the most helpful in is kind of focusing on a lot of consumer and prosumer type stuff. You know, every once in a while it's fun to throw something like, I would say, my main microphone, my main out of frame microphone, the Sennheiser MKH50, that's a pro level microphone and I love you know, I love sharing things like that. The Sony FX3 is a pro level camera, even though I guess you could say, well, it's not an FX6 or an FX9, but it's a pro level camera. But I'm also really interested in things like the ZV-E10 or, you know, the Zoom E-H1 recorder. You know, I like the Rodecaster video, which you could argue is a little more pro, but I also really like the Cam Link, which ironically has the word pro in it.
Speaker 1:So kind of find myself in this when it comes to talking about tools and workflows and stuff, a lot of the consumer and prosumer realm. And I feel like that's where I can kind of be the most helpful, because what I like to do there is sort of share, what people can expect. And like I feel like there's sort of the experience I had, which I've talked about before, back in 2014, when I put together my first podcast setup. I was using just shotgun microphones that we had in the program that I was teaching. And over time what happened with those was we got a grant to upgrade the podcast setup. So immediately I was like I'm getting a bunch of Shure SM7Bs and I couldn't wait. 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 SM7B for like another six, seven years after that.
Speaker 1:And the reason I didn't like it was because I didn't understand it right, like I knew that it was a popular microphone. I knew that it was a good microphone. I'd heard it sounding wonderful and when I got it and I plugged it in it sounded really bad. And the reason for that is we weren't in a location that was really ideal for that microphone, but also we weren't really running it through like a proper mixer. The mixer itself could have been fine, but I didn't know about things like cloud lifters and boosters and all that kind of stuff. I had no idea. And so the microphone like, honestly, the shotgun microphones that we were using before, which were condenser mics that could just run off phantom power from the board sounded significantly better, especially in the less than ideal environment we were recording in.
Speaker 1:But I didn't know that, and I felt I felt dumb, felt like a waste of money, felt like the product wasn't good, even though I was just kind of using it incorrectly, incorrectly, and so that's sort of a thing that I I really like to look at. You know, when someone buys something or get something or wants to invest in something, what can they expect? When they get it, when they open the package and they start using it, what can they expect it to be? And that's that's something that I feel like I'm more passionate about than I realized. And this kind of ties into last week's discussion about, like, what makes a good review. And this is where I feel, like, you know, tech spec, overload, overload. Overload can maybe it's lewd, I don't know overload can like poison the well, because so many times I do get like comments on my own videos from people where they're saying something or they're kind of complaining about something. You know, I might make a comment or a video that's like, hey, this thing is really cool and you should check it out, here's why I like it, blah, blah, blah. And then a person will show up and say, well, here's the reason that's not great, and their reason is something that I feel like is not their own thought. I feel like I don't know that you actually care about this thing. I don't know that you actually care about this thing, but you know like you.
Speaker 1:A good example would be time code in a 2.4 gigahertz wireless systems. So time code is something an audio recorder can out or an audio device can output time code, and that makes it very easy to sync multiple devices, multiple cameras, all that stuff. So it's a very, very helpful thing to do cameras, all that stuff. So it's a very, very helpful thing to do. Certain 2.4 gig systems do output timecode, like the Rode Wireless Pro. The Sarmanic Ultra does timecode as well, and I think those might be some of the only ones.
Speaker 1:Most of them don't because timecode is something you typically find in more professional settings. It's something you usually don't need when you're just buying the most user-friendly kind of basic wireless mic system you can get. Usually you're not someone who needs timecode, so it's something that can be really helpful. The vast majority of users do not use it in those systems. But it's one of those things where you know, somewhere down the line someone decided in a review somewhere to go down specs and hype up time code because, oh man, that's pro, that's real pro-level stuff. And so now people look at these systems and they feel like you have to have time code or else it's not a pro-level, it's not a pro-level thing, and forgetting the fact that it might not even be useful to the majority of people who even use that product.
Speaker 1:So, again, my approach is that I am just not a spec heavy person. I don't spend a lot of time talking about specs unless I find them to be very, very important or crucial to your understanding of the tool and how the tool works and getting the most out of it and all that kind of stuff. And the reason for that is, I think, even if you have professional knowledge and a professional skillset I'm trying to think of the most diplomatic way to say this, but there's something I've been thinking about which I'm calling bridging the gap, and so this is something 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, but a lot of times, though, when they pop up in the comment section and they start their own channels and stuff, this is where I feel they fall significantly short. Is this thing of bridging the gap. So I tried to use my keynote to make a little diagram here, and if you're just listening to the audio version, basically you know, imagine, you know I don't know a gap of some kind that someone has to jump over, right Like a cliff, whatever two cliffs, and there's a space in the middle and you got to jump over it. Helping people bridge that gap, I think, is a very important thing to do if you're trying to explain something, and I've labeled these like one is expectations and one is reality. I don't know if those are necessarily the proper terms, but I'm thinking of somebody, like when they want to buy a new microphone or a product of some kind. Look at me with the SM7B. Right, I wanted to buy that. So I had expectations of I'm going to buy this microphone, it's going to make everything sound amazing. I got the microphone, everything sounded worse, but I just spent the money on four of them, so that was not inexpensive and so that didn't work. What I like is to find things that help bridge that gap, and those are the things I tend to recommend the most and be the most excited about. So let's use the road pod mic as an example.
Speaker 1:So several years later you know no longer teaching at school I'd learned a little bit more about microphones. The Rodecaster Pro the original one came out. I didn't have. I had my Shure SM57, but I didn't have it really set up to be a good vocal mic. That was really like the only microphone I owned, other than like my video mic on my camera. And so I got the Rodecaster Pro and I wanted to buy a mic to go with it. Rode conveniently released the PodMic at that same time and so I bought the PodMic and it blew my mind Like I loved that microphone so much. It was not really super expensive. I thought that it leveled up my sound tremendously. It was built really well. It just like it made everything better as soon as I got it.
Speaker 1:So when we're talking about bridging that gap, I'm someone who didn't know a lot about mics at the time. I bought this microphone expecting it to make things sound better and then, when I got the microphone to make things sound better and then when I got the microphone boop, it bridged the gap and things sounded better. It improved things a lot. And the importance of bridging that gap is then the person can do the rest, because they've jumped, they've cleared the gap right, they're on the other side now and they can just stay there. Like I could have just used the PodMic running into the Rodecaster Pro forever and it would have sounded fine.
Speaker 1:But as time went on I started using it more and more. That's when I started thinking like initially I wasn't using any EQ or any processing or anything with it, I was just using the PodMic by itself. And I then decided like I'm going to dig into these menus of this Rodecaster a little bit and kind of figure out how some of this processing the original Rodecaster didn't have the presets like the Rodecaster the newer ones do. So you kind of had to play with things for yourself a little bit. But I realized like, oh, I can sort of dial this into my specific voice a little better. I can make the mic sound a little fuller. You know, like it it is kind of a harsh sounding microphone. Maybe I can adjust that and tame that a little bit. And I was like, oh, I can use some EQ to make this sound a little bit better.
Speaker 1:And then even after that, you know, I'd always I've always liked microphones. But the idea of I have one mouth, why do I need more than one microphone? Right? The idea of like, well, I could get another microphone, like that, kind of popped in my head just out of curiosity, like, well, what does this one do? What does this one sound like, how does that work? And then jumping into other microphones that I ended up liking more and understanding. You know now I guess it's been six years since that point. You know, I have had a lot of microphones, like it's a thing that I feel like I understand pretty well. I have more experience with Lots of trial and error, lots of success and failures, and that was because I was able to bridge that gap right. I was able to understand. Just getting the microphone got me where I wanted to be and then I could start asking questions and learning more. After that.
Speaker 1:The problem is we can go back to this bridging the gap thing. If that gap is too big, people cannot bridge the gap, and so this was me with the SM7B. Was my expectation get a microphone, have it sound really good? I try to bridge the gap, I don't clear it, I just fall straight to the ground there. So the problem with that is then you end up with somebody who is discouraged. You end up with somebody who either they feel bad about themselves because they can't do it, or they feel they don't understand it or they're not capable of it, or they just give up and their stuff just sits on a shelf or they sell it, or they just never use it. They never do the thing they set out to do because the gap was too big to bridge. And the same thing. I'm wearing my Seattle Kraken sweatshirt right now because I live in the desert. So for the like one month a year it's sweatshirt weather. You better believe I'm wearing sweaters every day.
Speaker 1:When I started learning how to play hockey, for example, a couple years ago, I went to my first learn to play class, which was called learn to play right. I went to my first learn to play class, which was called learn to play right. Well, long story short, that night I ended up getting a concussion cut in the chest, hurt my ankle I don't wanna say sprained my ankle, hurt my ankle, hurt my knee. I didn't have a great time because it was a learn to play class, but of the 29 people in the class, I was the only person who was actually new. Everyone else had taken the class like at least two or three times before, a lot of two months ago, and I never held a stick on the ice and that kind of thing and it was not fun and it was very dangerous and it made me almost want to quit entirely, like I literally came home that night in tears because I felt so dumb for thinking I could even try to do something like this and I was also concussed. So maybe that was also part of it, which is a very that was a weird feeling.
Speaker 1:But and it was Heather who was like I you know she had taken some learn to play classes out in like the Los Angeles area a number of years ago before we knew each other, and she was like mine weren't anything like that and they were free. Maybe you should. I ended up finding a class like a hundred miles away that I spent several weeks going out there for and it was like you're not allowed to be in the class if you have prior experience. It was very, very basic learn to play stuff that built up my skillset so I could come back. I spent several more months just practicing on my own before then I felt comfortable diving into the class that was offered locally, which then I was a little more able to help myself in.
Speaker 1:But the thing I bring that up with is now, a couple years later, I actually enjoy playing with people who are above me in skill set. I think that that's like really fun because it helps me learn to be better. I find when I play, it's fun to play with anybody, but when I find with people at lower skill sets, it can also then form bad habits for me if that's all that I'm doing, whereas people above me, like I'm trying to rise to their level. So I usually don't meet it but I'm kind of exceeding what I thought I could do and that's really, really helpful. So the idea of being a beginner in this case playing a sport and then playing with people above you there's that gap that can be a really helpful thing. If that gap is too large, like in my first experience, it not only is not fun but it's like legitimately dangerous and incredibly discouraging. I was super close to quitting because that experience made me think that it was something I was not capable of doing. And the same thing is true with, you know, audio video production gear and equipment and stuff. If that gap is just too big, it is going to be discouraging for people, and this is where I feel, like the you know, the cons of being a pro come into play.
Speaker 1:So what does all of this even have to do with professionals? I do want to disclaim that I feel like this might be controversial, because I do know, like I'm friends with several professional audio video people. I know several professionals listen to this podcast, watch the YouTube channel, all that stuff, so this could potentially be semi-controversial. Please know that I am not anti-pro. I'm not saying pros suck or anything like that. What I do wish, though, is that professionals who want to put themselves out there as instructors, educators, trainers, whatever you might say content, sharing your knowledge to help other people understand it. I do wish more of them were more self-aware. I do wish more of them were more self-aware.
Speaker 1:It's pretty rare to find pros who are self-aware, especially as all these tools become more accessible. Back a long time ago, it was pretty rare that just an average person would find themselves with studio-quality equipment, but now, without even having much of a massive budget, you can find yourself with some pretty pro level equipment, and I almost feel like there is some resentment. You know, and I've seen that before too Like I've seen people say why do you need the Sony FX3 to just make YouTube videos? A whole episode about that in the past called like it's just for YouTube. There are reasons that there are all kinds of reasons people might have this equipment and the equipment's becoming more accessible. You can find someone who can get time code and 32-bit float audio in a small audio recorder for like $200,. You know, like these things are becoming more accessible, more attainable. So now people are finding themselves in this world that was traditionally inhabited only by, like, trained professionals, and now it's not.
Speaker 1:What I would encourage professionals to do. If you are a professional, is keep in mind where other people are and where they actually want to be, where they actually want to end up in their journeys, because not everybody wants to be a professional. You know, like not everyone's trying to do this full time, not everyone's trying to do it as a career, not even, you know, some people just want, just want to get the job done basically, and that's why I recently did that video about the Hollyland Lark M2. And that's what made that made me so interested in that in the first place was the fact that I saw so many people using it who were not in the audio video world. They're not interested in this stuff normally, they just needed good audio. This thing was small and affordable, so they bought it and they sounded great and like that is something that bridges the gap and then from there they could learn about other systems. They could learn about EQing if they wanted to, but they don't even have to. They could just use that the way 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 a lot more professionals to keep in mind, rather than the um.
Speaker 1:Actually, that tends to pop up a lot, especially in the comments on my videos and things. I will make videos about stuff and I will have people show up. 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 know professionals show up in the comments that literally like actually I've been doing this for X number of years and I would never use something like that. I would recommend you know I would never use the. I guess here's an example. This is a little teaser for next week's episode, but the Rode Interview Pro was featured in my simple podcast setup that I talked about previously and that's a video that I did recently.
Speaker 1:This is not the most. It's not either the cheapest or the most expensive mic in the world. It's $250. So some people, if you've never bought a microphone, you're going to look at this and be like $250 is way more than I would ever want to spend on a microphone. I'm looking for a $40 option. If you're a pro, $250 for a microphone is not too expensive at all. It's very reasonable. If anything, it's kind of inexpensive. But then you know my whole thing there is.
Speaker 1:I'm recommending this microphone for a bunch of reasons because of how it performs and the fact that you can have zero experience with microphones. You can hand it to someone with no experience and it's going to sound great. They're not going to have to know anything about mic technique. They're not going to know anything about EQ or anything or positioning, nothing. They're just going to use a microphone and sound great, and that might be as far as it needs to go, or it could be something that encourages people to learn more about that stuff and to continue improving their skill set and building their skill set.
Speaker 1:The number of comments I got in that video that are people saying, well, actually this doesn't sound nearly as good. It's like you need this studio microphone running through this signal chain into this kind of mixer and then you need to go into this software, you need to apply these plugins and do this, and it's like, yeah, you are not wrong, the people are not wrong, the people who wrote those comments, yes, that's going to give you a great result. That gap is so big for the person who's like, hey, I just want to be able to record a podcast, not in a studio, what do I need? It's too big of a skill gap and that's why it's like I don't know who you're trying to help there, because you're not helping the people who this is intended for. The info you're saying is correct, but the people that's going to help are people who probably already know that information right, like you're just 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 help anybody and I think something.
Speaker 1:This is where I'm getting critical of professionals who position themselves as teachers. Not everything is intended for pro use, right? So if I'm saying the Hollyland Lark is a good mic system and somebody says I would never use that in a professional setting. Okay, that's not what it's intended for. It's like it comes with a phone connector right To connect to your phone, like it is clearly a consumer device. A trained pro, an experienced pro, can make anything work, can make anything sound good. So it wouldn't be surprising that a pro could take something like the Lark, could incorporate into a professional workflow and could get great results out of it. But they would probably want to use something else that they trust more, they're more familiar with or something like that.
Speaker 1:So, like, not everything is intended to be pro use and not everyone wants to be a professional. Sometimes people just need to solve 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, very often forgotten and not totally understood a lot. So that's where I'm getting ranty. I'm not saying every professional does this. There are good professional teachers, content creators out there. There are professionals who have no interest in sharing knowledge and helping other people. They just want to do their thing. That doesn't apply. It's the people kind of who are. You know, there's a very big difference between having knowledge and sharing knowledge. Those things are just not always the same, and especially, like I said, when people not everyone has professional aspirations.
Speaker 1:And here's some good examples. I don't want to list, like the bad examples and annoying examples, but if I look at the two that popped to mind, there's a channel called Gaffer and Gear, which is a guy who's a pro, like pro gaffer, who talks about gear, believe it or not. So he talks a lot about lighting setups, rigging setups, all kinds of stuff, and he is really great at making things simple, clear and understandable. His videos are to the point. He clearly has decades of experience, but he doesn't need to like prove that in every video. And he also understands.
Speaker 1:You know, if he's looking at, say, he's doing a review on a light that is intended for professional use it costs thousands of dollars and that's what he's reviewing he's gonna look at it from that angle, like how does it perform?
Speaker 1: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 I don't know if he's done Godox lights, but if he's doing something that's clearly intended for consumer or prosumer levels. He's gonna look at it through that lens and be like, okay, how does this perform with the fact that 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 either experience with this and he's going to explain it in a way where, if you do have all that existing knowledge, you're on his level of being a professional. You're going to get the info that you want about the product or the workflow or the tool, but if 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 to feel talked down to or dumb.
Speaker 1:It's a really good balance of just down to earth professional skill sharing. You know, in the audio world closer to my niche, I think Curtis Judd is also a really fantastic example who's a working professional who can share knowledge and experience and insights and workflows in ways that totally make sense and isn't afraid to, you know, to tackle more affordable consumer type products but also then will go up into pro level things, just kind of whatever I guess catches his fancy, whatever he's interested in, you know, that's somebody who also can share their knowledge, really inform everybody and do a good job at it. It's not somebody who's just telling you how dumb you are because you don't use time code or you don't do things in a very specific, certain way, and that you know again that, keeping in mind that a true professional can make anything work. So when you, when you show up to someone and you're like, oh, you just need to take, you have this little cheap recorder, this little cheap microphone, you just need to run it through this insane signal chain, do this insane processing sequence and then you're going to get it to sound good, like, yeah, of course, the person who bought that $29, you know cheapo thing on Amazon, not knowing any better, probably doesn't want to do that. So that's where I'm.
Speaker 1:I find myself being interested in like what, what the person can expect when you you know it's not like here's how to take the Rode Interview Pro and process it and workflow it and EQ it and all the things to make it as optimized, professional and efficient as possible. That's not really what I'm interested in, because I can figure those things out on my own. I can do those things on my own, but what I'm interested in is here's the thing that I think is really cool. Here's what you can expect when you get it with zero experience and you start to use it. This is what the results might be like what road bumps or speed bumps you might run into, all that kind of stuff Like a realistic look at what the normal person, the average consumer, average prosumer, could experience when they get their hands on these tools.
Speaker 1:And then, if you bridge that gap, just like I did with the pod mic, people can start asking their own questions. You know, like, once you trigger people to ask their own questions, you're done, like your job is done. They will take care of the rest. Rest. But you can only get to that point if you can actually bridge the gap between, like no experience and knowledge and enough to get the job done, potentially then triggering on further questions. If you just rub in how far off they are and how you know impassable this gap is between things, then no one's going to make it and you're just going to end up losing a bunch of people and I see that happening a lot online.
Speaker 1:When you know professionals talk about their subject area and in any niche, any genre, any industry, and it really stands out to me when someone is excellent at sharing what they do and bridging the gap for people and where people fall short. Which it confuses me. When people fall short because who are you making this for, right? Like, are you making this for? Who is it for? Is it for you Cause you already know this stuff? You're speaking at such a high level. It's for other people who probably already know this stuff. Like who is it even for? Or is it just kind of an ego thing of like, look how much I know, look how much experience I have? I don't know. And that's where it's like I don't, it's, it's, it's just sort of a thing. Just because you have knowledge doesn't necessarily mean you're good. You're good at sharing that knowledge. It doesn't mean you have to be either. There are plenty of people who are super skilled at what they do and they have no desire to try to teach that to other people or help other people, and that's totally fine too, like that's nothing wrong with that at all. The thing is, it's it's.
Speaker 1:I guess the last example is like I'll take a talk about the filmmaking YouTube community, which I see. You know I'm not a fan of everything that happens in that niche by far. But you know, I see a lot of people who work really hard. They make good work at different levels. Whether that's their their work is, you know, I see a lot of people who work really hard. They make good work at different levels. Whether that's their work is, you know their YouTube channel, their tutorials, their reviews, or they throw in short films. They throw in, you know, skits or sketches or sequences or whatever into videos, whatever it might be on their channel. I see the YouTube filmmaking community get bad mouth a lot online and different discussions and things and different comment sections and different social media platforms and I get it. I get where some people are coming from, but it's sort of this. It's sort of this strange thing of like.
Speaker 1:I have also found filmmaking channels from professional filmmakers producers, directors, cinematographers where their channels, directors, cinematographers where their channels. Well, first off, I'm just gonna say this their channels never last and I know it's not making it sound like a jerk, but I I see these channels where someone says I'm gonna I'm a real cinematographer, I'm gonna start a YouTube channel that talks about real cinematography and they make five videos and you never hear from them again because it turns out talks about real cinematography and they make five videos and you never hear from them again. Because it turns out running a YouTube channel for a long time is tough. It's not as easy as you think it is. When you're just talking bad about influencers and content creators, it turns out that's actually pretty difficult.
Speaker 1:It turns out also if you're a working professional, you might not always have the time to do a big, you know an undertaking like that, but a thing that I see so much is a lot of those people will end up with technically perfect videos like beautiful framing, beautiful, like everything is. You know the colors, the lighting, the, the I don't know what you would call it Not just composition, but like the exposure, like everything color, grading, the style of their videos, the sound quality, the audio quality phenomenal, like absolutely pro level. You can see, they know what they're doing. You can see and hear. They know what they're doing by what you're seeing and hearing in the video.
Speaker 1:And then they try to teach you about something or explain something and they talk for 20 minutes and you have no idea what you have. No, no idea. They're not great at sharing the knowledge, because just because you have knowledge doesn't mean you're great at sharing that. Knowledge doesn't mean you have to be, but it is a thing of like there's a skill set in being able to teach something, and not everybody. Just because you have knowledge doesn't mean that you know how to do it, or people don't know how to talk down. This is probably the more common one is I see people just not knowing how to take their knowledge and and you know make it more accessible to people. So they're it's sort of like how dumb are you that you don't understand what I'm talking about? You need to understand this and you need to understand it this way. It's kind of the tone that I see in a lot of videos versus like here's this thing, here. It can feel really complicated, but all it really is is this and like now you can bring people with you on the journey To kind of wrap that up there and go back to the hockey example.
Speaker 1:A couple of years ago, when the hockey rink, the arena, opened up near me and we got a new professional hockey team, a lot of people, myself included, were new to hockey. We did not understand the rules. It was really fun that first season to see people, like at the first game, not know what was happening. And then by the end of the season you know everyone has signs, everyone's yelling at the refs 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 and they understood things.
Speaker 1:We have an amazing play-by-play broadcast announcer for like the radio and actually now there's even TV. He's like amazing. It's super sad because he's clearly 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 that I noticed he did and then I actually like heard him say specifically is when you're doing play-by-play things in a market where a lot of people are new to hockey, you have to find a way to sort of explain things without being condescending. So you know, he's been around hockey since he was a small child. He knows all the rules, all the terms, all everything.
Speaker 1:And so figuring out ways to go like you know, to sort of you know, instead of saying like oh, that play was whistle dead because it was offsides If you're an idiot and you don't know what offsides means, like you know, how could some player not get offsides Like instead of making it sound like. What does that even mean? You can say, oh, the play was whistle dead because it was offsides, since the puck was not the first thing to enter the zone. Just you can throw in a explanation that's going to make it clear what's happening. So, even if you know what the rule is, okay, it's fine. And if you don't know what it is, now you've learned oh, offside.
Speaker 1:And sometimes he'll be explicit. He'll say like oh, if you're a new fan or if you're new to hockey, what is happening here is blah, blah, blah. Or oh, here's a penalty that you 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 that means. But other times just sort of slipping in explanations, definitions, clarifications that are in no way out of line or condescending. It's like a masterclass in how to do that kind of thing and that, to me, being able to do that is really the mark of a true, true professional. So, speaking of things that might not be, um, a hundred percent professional, let's jump into talking about my channel. So, um, yeah, I, this is a.
Speaker 1:There's a segment I've been wanting to put in the in this in the podcast called well, I don't know what. I'm calling it channel check-in because it's got some beautiful alliteration, but basically where it's like I can talk about what's happening on the channel and maybe what I've been working on or something that's popped up or whatever. Sometimes that bleeds over into the main topic of the show, but sometimes not. I was calling this tube talk, but for some reason it just wasn't stick. I just I felt I don't know something about, it didn't work. So let's call it channel check-in and I think that works out. It works out really well.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things I want to share with you that I've been working on that are happening on the channel here what's cooking, basically, the next video that I'm going to be filming is very in line with what we've been talking about and it's called cheap versus expensive, lavalier microphones, and I'm holding. What I'm holding up right here is what I found online for $6. And this is a professional. I don't know if I can get my camera to focus in here, if you can see this, but this is a professional, lavalier microphone again $6. And what's crazy with this is it comes with a lot of things. It's not just the microphone but it comes with different adapters and clips and stuff. You know, of course you would expect a lavalier microphone to have a clip and a windscreen, but it comes with all these different adapters and extension cables and all the things which, like again, is the microphone itself like a $3 microphone with all that stuff in there. And so I basically I went on Amazon and was like what's the cheapest mic I can find? I found this for $6. And then I went to compare this to my main goal was to the most expensive lavalier microphone I have is the Sennheiser Omni Essential, which I believe is $250.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's kind of like other microphones broadcast microphones, studio microphones. They visually look so different. You know some of them try to copycat each other. But you know you can look at something like the newer NW800. It is shiny and gold and reflective and stuff. But you can also be like, well, it's half plastic and, like you know, build quality is bad and all that kind of stuff and all that kind of stuff. It's a little easier to see the difference, especially in terms of price, with other microphones, with lavalier microphones, they all kind of look the same, and unless you're able to really like hold them yourself and look at them, they all kind of feel the same, like they'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 one is just the most expensive one I happen to have and it's also it is, my favorite one.
Speaker 1:So I basically just want to do a video where I'm comparing those and this. It's funny because it says professional on it. So what does that even mean? That's one thing we can maybe cover in the video, and then I'll probably put in some in the middle as well. Originally I just wanted to do the cheapest one versus that and just see what the difference is in sound, and I actually haven't tried this one yet, the cheap one because I want to open it in the video and stuff. So I haven't done that yet.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping it's actually not terrible, like I don't think it's going to be as good as the Sennheiser is, but I'm hoping it's usable and maybe that's a chance that in the video I could apply some basic EQ so that I can like show some examples of you know, this is how it sounds, it's okay, but if you do this, this and this, it can sound pretty good. And another video I have coming out soon is three, three steps to make your podcast sound better. So it's like three basic EQ steps that you can do in any software application, and that would be a good thing to kind of tie in, like if you just follow the steps from that video, with this you can make it sound decent. So that's what I'm hoping happens, and we'll see. Um, it could. This is. This is kind of fun with these sorts of videos, cause I don't know how they're going to go until I actually start making them, because the other option is like I guess that's kind of.
Speaker 1:I guess that's what I'm expecting is that both microphones are going to sound usable, but not great, and with a little tweaking could sound decent. And the Sennheiser's does sound phenomenal Like it's. It's the, the one lavalier microphone I found that sounds closest to like a big broadcast mic 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 it costs 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 sounding mic and, like you know, I'm sure the Sennheiser will sound better, but maybe it won't sound $250, $244 better. So it'll be interesting to see and then, if that's the case, we can talk about why you would want to maybe spend more money or maybe not spend more money. I don't know, it'll be interesting. That's kind of a fun thing to explore sort of in real time.
Speaker 1:I like those videos and then I probably will throw in some comparisons with some of my more mid-level ones. Like, I have some $40 to $100 lavalier microphones that maybe just you know, if the $6 one does leave a bit to be desired, but you don't want to spend $250 on a lav, what do you get for $50? You know that kind of thing it's always sort of helpful. Originally I just wanted to do the cheap and the expensive one, but I kind of feel like I can imagine, if that's the video I put out, a bunch of comments will be well, what about? You know, it would be nice to hear or see examples that are, you know, not as expensive but still decent, and so it's like well, I should just include that before people have to ask me to include that. Sometimes it's nice when you're making videos to be able to, you know, kind of predict what people might say. Another video that I'm working on this is these two little bullet points are out of order here.
Speaker 1:I did two switching videos. I have recorded, uploaded and scheduled two switcher videos. I was mentioning these last week. One of them is the Feel World L4, which is the video switcher that has the big built-in display, and the other one is the Ulanzi DDO2, which kind of looks like an ATEM Mini, except the top panel pops off. So basically what that means is you can have the bottom part of the switcher where all of your cables connect to. So you have all your HDMIs, your power cable, your USB, maybe some audio. All that stuff can be somewhere else. You can even mount it to a wall because it has like mounting brackets built into it, and then just one usb-c cable goes to the top panel. That has all the actual buttons and switchers and stuff and so, um, that was kind of cool to to finally be able to get those videos taken care of. And I did those um one after another, because doing switcher videos is tough, because you need a multi-camera setup to do it. So it's like luckily I found a workflow that kind of works pretty well, but those are very intimidating videos to make because video switchers can be complicated. Luckily these two are both pretty simple. But exploring what's different between them and then just getting the setup I need different inputs, how's my audio gonna work, how's all this gonna work and all that is. You know, those videos are a little bit tricky, but they both came out great. I like both switchers.
Speaker 1:The DDO2 is great because it's inexpensive and I would almost recommend it. I think I do recommend it over an ATEM for the most part, except that it has a crazy loud fan in it. The fan noise is so loud in that thing Just as soon as you turn it on. Fortunately you can take the bottom part with the fan and just move it somewhere else so the fan noise disappears. But you know, if you it, it is a thing to be aware of. The fan noise is loud.
Speaker 1:And the feel world L4 is a little bit more expensive a couple hundred dollars more expensive, but it has the giant built-in display and I did the feel world video first and a couple of days later I did the DDO2 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 screen built into it, and you know I had to connect an external display and stuff, but it's like wow, the L4 with the big screen. It really, it really really does make a difference. And finally, you know I've talked about the Rodecaster video a lot and I've done a lot of those videos, which there's more that I want to do, because that thing just keeps I keep figuring stuff out about it and it keeps getting updated.
Speaker 1:A big one, though, is I have not made a dedicated video on the YoloBox Ultra, even though I talk about it every time I talk about video switchers, and I think I think making these other switcher videos has me kind of in the in the groove of a workflow that would work to do the YoloBox Ultra. The reason I've avoided that is because it can do so much, kind of like the Rodecaster video, but almost even more because it's like Rode with the Rodecaster video is a little bit conservative with the features they're implementing and how they're doing updates, and they want things to be as polished and reliable and perfect as possible. Yolo box obviously wants things to be polished and reliable too, but they are literally maybe like once or twice a week sorry, not once or twice a month. Um, every one or two weeks you get firmware updates that bring in new features. So it's like I have been avoiding making the video on the Ultra.
Speaker 1:I've done a few other YoloBox videos for previous models in the past, but the Ultra has sort of been like. It is sort of like. It's like the what is it called Peak? Yeah, it's like, not Peak Design, because that's a company, but it is like the peak version of a YoloBox where it can do so much and it's so reliable 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 be spec heavy, trying to remember my own stuff, I don't need to necessarily explain every single thing it can do, but I want to show, you know, some of the highlights and then contextualize it. Because it is also the most expensive All these. It's a 15 or $1,600 more than the, the roadcaster video. But then I need to, you know, test stuff and show stuff and there's sort of a complicated thing because it's kind of a 4k switcher but kind of not a 4k switcher, so it gets. It gets a little confusing, but these have been fun videos I've been working on lately.
Speaker 1:I do still have some retro ones that I need to do because, um, not need to want to do, but I've just been putting them off. Things like my eight millimeter VCR and stuff that kind of go in line with, like the projector handy cam quarter video that I did recently. Um, something that I do like to do just if you've been wondering, um, and I feel like I've hit a nice stride lately is balancing out audio versus video videos. So you know, I don't usually like to just do like here's four mic reviews in a row, because then I just become a mic review channel. Or here's video you know videos only about audio because it's only an audio channel, or vice versa. So what I've been trying to be very conscious of lately I've always done this, but I think I've been more aware of it in recent times is one week do a video that relates to an audio topic and the next week do a video that relates to a video topic.
Speaker 1:Sometimes there's both, like if you're doing a, you know, a streaming setup or a podcasting setup that's going to incorporate both audio and video elements as well, like that, because both things not only do both, both things interest me and I think they're important, but they go together. And so being able to like being able to try to address questions and workflows and things that people might have from both sides of that the audio and the video side I think is really helpful and it's a fun challenge to do. And it's also like I don't want to make too many videos. And then it seems weird if I upload a video about a camera but also I want to do don't do too many video related things, where suddenly it's like oh, you guess you don't like microphones anymore and I think I do tend to lean a little more towards audio. Um, mainly because it is so underrated and so underappreciated.
Speaker 1:And it's one of those things where people you know it's weird you don't really think that the best way to level up the quality of your video is to improve your audio. You know people want new cameras, they want new lenses, they want new lights, they want all that stuff they don't really think about. Like maybe a mic is the way to go, maybe a new mixer or an interface or figuring out some processing. That kind of stuff is usually not at top of mind and I know the difference that it can make in video related projects and so I just sort of like it kind of became my thing that I like to share and talk about and help people figure out. So that's kind of what I've been working on lately.
Speaker 1:And the last thing well, actually second to last thing Gear, gear spotlight, which I'm laughing because it's just the giant keynote icon on the screen right now. Yes, I like to do the mic of the week segment because I like to change my microphones each week, but that's not necessarily the gear of the week. I like to highlight a specific piece of gear each week, and this week last week was Ecamm Live, which I love because that's the software that I use for a lot of my streaming software. I use to put the podcast together, what I'm recording into right now. Similarly, the other thing that's really making this video version of the podcast possible is Keynote, just Apple Keynote, which is like their slideshow PowerPoint software that's been around forever. I have used Keynote since 2006.
Speaker 1:I got my own first Mac. It was an iMac Core Duo in January of 2006, so 19 years ago, which is pretty crazy. And it's funny because, you know, I used some Macs in school at the time, like my high school had like the old Performas. You know well, if you want to go way back, like the first computer I ever used was an Apple II in the computer lab at like my elementary school, and then we had we also had like the original Macs, like the old Macintoshes, so I always liked Apples and stuff. And then I was like in high school 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. Uh, but it was like there's no way, like not only could my family not afford, you know, like your kid get a laptop or whatever, but it was also like even in college, uh, I remember my mom, my stepdad. One Christmas they were like we really want to get you a new computer for college. And I was like awesome, I'd really love a Mac. And they're like absolutely not, dude, you're getting a Dell. And I was like cool, that doesn't do the things that I want to do on it though, but they were just so anti Apple at the time. So then, finally, I saved up. Well, that was in 2004. So I spent a couple years saving up money and got my own iMac in 2006. And I loved it and that's all I've been using since.
Speaker 1:I got to say the the shine is a bit off the Apple at this point. I'm not quite. I'm in the Apple ecosystem pretty deep and PCs have gotten so much better and I just appreciate them more than I would have in the past or than they really. They're're better now. Um, and the Apple user experience is worse now. So you know, yeah, uh, but I still really like Apple overall. I'm in that ecosystem and I've been using I remember it was just called. I work with pages and keynote and numbers, and that is just what I've been using.
Speaker 1:It used to be something I had to buy separately and they started just including it with Mac OS. That's something I've been using exclusively, which is really funny because it's a little more common now, especially as, like Google docs and stuff and Google slides and sheets and everything became more popular. But there was Microsoft office was the main thing using Word, you're using PowerPoint, you're using Excel and the idea that I was in college and I was like not going to open Microsoft Word, like people were appalled at this idea, like there's no way you can do that. Like classmates, parents, whatever. How dare you not use Microsoft Word? And I refused, knowing I had bought iWork for like 80 bucks and then eventually just became free, versus like having to upgrade Microsoft Office every year 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 especially so. Anyway, I say that because I was an English major, so it's a lot of writing, a lot of typing.
Speaker 1:A lot of people lived in Microsoft Word and we obviously did a lot of presentations with PowerPoint and I was like no, turns out you can just export Word documents from pages and PowerPoint presentation and all that kind of stuff. And it's only gotten better and better as time has gone on over the past like two decades since then. But I went through all my English undergrad. I went through my teaching credential program with my master's program, done everything, did all of my teaching for 11 years just using Pages and Keynote, and Keynote specifically is so much better than PowerPoint it's not even close in so many ways the usability things you can do. But I haven't used Keynote in a while. I used to use it daily pretty much when I was teaching, because that's how I would do a lot of my lessons and workshops and things. I would use Keynote but I haven't been teaching for a lot of my lessons and workshops and things, or just keynote, but I haven't been teaching for you know a number of years now.
Speaker 1:And so jumping back into keynote to um, start doing the podcast, was like dang. Not only do I remember how much I like this, but wow, they actually improved a whole lot of stuff. So, like that even has like image processing, which isn't it's not like you know, Lightroom or anything, but you can add a photo and you can adjust color temperature, highlight, saturation, which is sounds basic, but like you couldn't do that before, um, you know incorporating all the, all the stuff. Like I made the little animation earlier in this with the, the gap and the person jumping over it and stuff. Like I did that and I don't know 10 minutes in keynote before making this, which is super cool, um, and it is free with you have to buy an Apple computer, so that's your entry fee. But once you have your Mac which now, like you get an M4 Mac mini or even an older model Mac mini cheaper than you can get a lot of PCs and then you get keynote and pages and numbers for free, which is and iMovie, like you get a lot of stuff for free.
Speaker 1:So you know the criticisms I gave the Apple ecosystem. There's actually a lot of benefits and it's significantly more cost effective than you would have expected. So I really love Keynote. It's been really fun to dive into it. It definitely makes this workflow possible, and something that I know has actually been around a long time but I have not taken advantage of is the cloud feature, cloud functionality, because it's not something I ever really needed in the past or just maybe wasn't aware of. But the fact that you can just save 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 old school now, but it does not have a lot of internal storage and keynote presentations can get big. So the fact that I can save this not locally hugely helpful, but also the fact that I can be on my MacBook pro in Heather's office or somewhere else, or not even at home, and I can um work on the presentation, put things together and then just open up, come in here, turn everything on, get ready to go and it's all right. There is incredibly helpful and makes again the the planning and the preparation for this podcast so much easier, and I couldn't do that without Keynote.
Speaker 1:So this week's gear of the week there's no affiliate link there. You just got to buy a Mac, so I don't know, using my affiliate link and buy a Mac and then get Keynote. If you have a Mac and you haven'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 for your Mac Messages. This is our last segment of the show Listener messages. We don't have that many this week.
Speaker 1:So something I've been doing or not doing, I guess, is the first episode of this I put on like my YouTube community page where I could share it with people and go hey, you know, like video version, here's a link, and way more people than I expected like, watched it, commented, talked about it. For the second episode I was like I'm not going to do that, I'm just gonna let the new podcast channel see what YouTube does with it. Significantly less turns out, it turns out it's not. It is not on the recommended page quite yet, so didn't get nearly as much like comments and feedback and stuff. Or maybe people just didn't care. You know, it could just be. Maybe it's not YouTube, maybe it's, maybe it's me, but I got a couple of messages to share that are just kind of fun and nice. So this is from the YouTube comment section on last week's episode. It's from Gil who said great episode.
Speaker 1:Really picked up a few nuggets when you're talking about not Gerald undone-ing a video. So, again, talking about tech specs, the thing I mentioned last week was that Gerald does a lot of tech specs in his video but he contextualizes them. Contextualizes them. That sounds weird, but he's not just reading off lists of specs, he's explaining why they matter and he's also then like verifying them. Essentially and some people have misconstrued that to mean a good review is just very tech spec heavy and I don't think that's the case. And Gil was sort of feeling the same way because now he's feeling that he can focus. Let's see, it's so much better to focus on how to use something and why you like it. I definitely struggle with comparison sometimes and it can really block the flow of the video to the point where it doesn't even get finished.
Speaker 1:Awesome episode, yeah, and that's what I wanted to point out was like anybody can read the tech specs of a product and some of them are important to include in reviews and stuff. But what's more important is your perspective, because the way you know, gil, somebody who does podcasting for clients, mobile podcast setups you're podcasting outside, inside all these different locations the way that a tool would work for you is very different than somebody else and it might not apply to everybody, but there are certain people for whom it's going to apply like perfectly exactly, and they're the ones who it's going to be the most valuable thing in the world for them to see and hear that, versus just like another tech spec rundown by you know, the same video they've already watched four times. So your unique perspective, the things you focus on, things you actually care about, that's the stuff that actually makes things stand out and be more helpful. The next comment we have is actually a fan mail. So, fan mail this is the actual name of the Buzz Sprout feature. So, on the audio version of this, right at the top of all the descriptions there's a link that says send a message to the show. If you click on that link, it'll basically just be like you're sending a text message directly 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 your name if you don't want to or anything. But yeah, you can send a message directly there and I get it. So we got a fan mail last week that says hey, tom, it's John from Virginia Been thinking about you guys recently with all the devastation around the city with wildfires.
Speaker 1:I hope you and Heather and safe and doing are safe and doing well. Also, here's your daily reminder that you are making a difference and having an impact, especially us folks in digital, for us folks in digital media education. Uh, I really appreciate that, john. So thank you very much. I need that. I need that daily. I need to just put this in like the bathroom mirror. It doesn't make a huge difference and I really appreciate the thoughts about the fires.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, where we're at, even though we're in Southern California, southern California is still really big, so we're not we're a couple hours away not really affected at all in our daily lives, except that tons of people we know, especially Heather's. Like all of her friends and family, she grew up in Los Angeles, so a lot of people there she's had friends lose homes to fires, wildfires in the past and a couple of her friends had to be evacuated this time but fortunately they were okay. Her parents almost had to get evacuated but luckily didn't. Uh, so fortunately the people in our worlds are safe and okay, but there's a lot of people who aren't and, um, it is terrifying and awful and I don't I don't even know how to process the devastation, other than just that I feel really bad about it and it's really scary and my heart goes out to all those people who are affected in any way by that.
Speaker 1:Uh, but fortunately we're okay. So I know it's really scary and my heart goes out to all those people who are affected in any way by that, but fortunately we're okay. So I know it's that thing of like you know it happens with Heather all the time, because to me I'm not from Los Angeles, so that whole area I'm like I think it's like 80 cities or something. I'm like it's LA and she's like no, 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 Southern California, it's like Southern California is synonymous with Los Angeles, but Southern California is actually huge too. So there's different cities, different regions, different ecosystems and whatever, and we're fortunately far enough away that we weren't in any kind of risk from those fires, which is uh, which is good so. But I appreciate the concern.
Speaker 1:A number of people have sent out concerns. So thank you for that and thank you for being concerned for people who are affected and are impacted by those, because it is 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 episode episode five if you don't didn't know or don't remember, episode five is still going to be a Q and a episode, so a couple next week I'll really start doing a push for questions specifically for a Q and a episode, but you don't have to wait for that. You can send messages anytime. You can use the fan mail link there, you can leave YouTube comments or you can also just send an email to tom at enthusiasmprojectcom. Or, if you want to share a voice message. You can go to hi my name is tomcom and just scroll down and click the link that says leave a message for the show, and all those ways, whatever's easiest for you, and if you don't want to do any of that, you don't have to.
Speaker 1:So, all that being said, thank you for listening, thank you for watching, thank you for all your kindness and all your support. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Maybe took away a couple nuggets, a couple useful, helpful nuggets. I hope and hope to see you next time. Have a safe, happy, healthy week and yeah, and I'll see you next time. I said that out of order anyway. Bye, everybody, you.
