Month: January 2018

That’s a Wrap…For Now?

Two podcasts recorded, edited and released and I am done with the challenge I set for myself this month. The process had it’s ups and downs but overall was a good learning experience.

To start, the first release was fun to sit down and record. I fear I was focusing a little too much on an outline I had set for myself. I had sources and a flow of conversation in mind, that just didn’t work for the format I presented to my guest, my friend Matt. I enjoyed the content, but my commitment to the structure I had in my head, I think was the biggest weakness. Also, there was an annoying hum or ringing that was in all my audio. I think some settings I tweaked later helped out in the second recording to save your ears.

Taking the lessons learned from the first recording, I tried a different approach with the latter and didn’t worry about a structure or outline and just treat the whole thing as a conversation. This change made things feel much more natural and overall a better experience. I had a few things in mind I wanted to mention, but not even close to the notes I had in the first. This less prepared approach I think is ideal for the format I am working with. My one thought after was to jot down the things I want to mention on a sticky note or something. Just to make sure any big takeaways or action items aren’t forgotten, like I almost did at the end of episode two.

All in all, I want to make a HUGE shout out to my guests and friends Matt and Nate who I couldn’t have done this without. Thank you to anyone who gave these episodes a listen. I have a handful of folks asking if they could guest start on a future episode, so I may have to squeeze some future releases later this year, so keep your eyes and ears open for that.

This month flew by, and I before finishing up I was worried I might not have made the two in time. Luckily, I have good friends that were able to help out, even in a pinch. With so much going on with the podcast, blog, and mail list on top of my day job, I almost forgot to come up with a trial to take on next. The theme of this month has been having great people in my life, because my cousin reached out and recommended I try doing yoga for a month. He said he’s going to be doing a similar personal trial, so perhaps I can get his input on here as well. You’ve got a lot to keep your eye out for in the coming weeks, so subscribe to the mail list for additional news on the projects I have going on!

002 – On Friendship (Nate Kimbrell)

My friend Nate and I look at what it means to have friends in an era of social media. Do you need to maintain old friendships, should you?

Tried a bit different of an approach with this episode. Was far less researched and didn’t come in with any kind of outline for what I wanted to discuss.

Let us know what you thought of the episode and leave any thoughts on the subject down below!

Dunbar’s Number

Trello for Friend Tracking Boards (Not for Hit Lists)

Looking for Title

Took longer than planned, but I finally put out episode one of the still-unnamed podcast. The experience overall was a ton of fun, but I cannot overstate the amount of work stringing together just 30 minutes of audio. Being able to simply sit down and talk about goals with a friend of mine and know afterward the conversation could be listened to by anyone was pretty cool.

Kicking off the potential series with a subject I’ve gathered info on for years and years. Through both personal experience and research, I dug up as much as I could about goals. Both setting them and sticking to them. The piece that I hope adds some flavor is the idea that the guest I have doesn’t know anything about the subject at hand. As mentioned in the episode, I have some research and notes prepared, but my guest has no idea what conversation will entail. Even if I don’t continue this at all, the experience was definitely a good one.

While the recording process was the especially fun part, the editing process was a mixture of hard work and learning. I knew a fair amount about the editing software, as I used it to edit a video I made a while back on a trip home. The major learning I did was recognizing all the mistakes made in the recording process. During recording, it felt like I was just talking and carrying on a normal conversation, but while listening over again, there were weird pauses and a ton of verbal pauses (uhhhs and ummms). I hope to take that knowledge and apply some of the basics of public speed classes I’ve taken in the past to try and make the next session (and ultimately the editing process) a lot smoother.

The amount of work that goes into making even a short piece of audio entertainment, education, news, etc. is an incredible amount of work. I give a ton of credit to every podcaster out there. I couldn’t imagine the work that goes into shows that are made daily. My frame of reference is a fraction of what others put into their shows as well. My guest was a friend of mine so I didn’t need much work in contacting him, the audio was pretty straightforward without any introduction or transitions throughout, and the research I did was relatively small compared to others who compile sources from all over and comb thru it meticulously. Next time you listen to a well-produced show, give them a rating on whatever platform you listen on, they deserve that minute of your time.

Overall, the experience has been fun so far. I really hope to apply some of the lessons learned in episode one to try and make the next one even better. I’m not going to make any bold promises like last time, so keep your eyes peeled for another post over the next few days. Thanks for reading, and especially thanks if you gave episode one a listen! Let me know what you thought of the episode, or if you have any ideas for names, in case I make this thing last longer than a couple shows.

We’re Experiencing Technical Difficulties…Please Stand By

Without a properly soundproofed room I “sounded like I was in a cave.” So, back under the bed for now.

After quite the week, I’m between tearing my hair out and jumping for joy. As the title suggests there were some minor technical difficulties, which led to the delay of recording until yesterday. Now, I get to enjoy the editing process of listening to myself talk for hours and hours.

The experience overall was a lot of fun. I sat down and discussed several concepts and ideas revolving around a single question with a good friend of mine. I’m hoping to leave the topic a mystery still, but it’s something I find particularly interesting and find myself researching quite often. Throughout the episode, you’ll get to hear both our perspectives.

With this being the first recording I’ve put out online, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to feedback or dreading the criticism I’m sure I’ll be getting when I release the episode over the next couple days. Just looking back on the recording, I know there are a few things that I can’t really go back and fix, I don’t know if there’s an editor on this planet that can make my first go at this sound “good.” Maybe some extra-terrestrials can get their hands on it?

It was really glad to have a good friend working on this first episode with me, and I hope he was able to learn a lot. The jury’s still out on my opinion on how the format turned out. There were elements of what I was hoping to capture with the guest not knowing the topic, things like raw, unprepared answers and feedback, but there were a couple moments where I didn’t have much else to say, and neither did he so we had some long pauses. Those should be edited out, so if you didn’t read the last sentence, you’d never it happened at all…

I really do think recording one more episode will help cement my interest or not. The process is a bit more involved than I was expecting but not in a bad way.  I enjoyed some parts of the recording, but not others. Hopefully, in the next and any possible subsequent episodes, I could find out how to minimize the pain points and maximize the fun.

Thanks for reading and stop by tomorrow or Friday to see if the podcast is up. I’ll create a new post for it with a short write-up and include some links to what was discussed.

Mic Check…Is This Thing On?

My current at home recording setup.
This different approach to a trial has left me without too much to discuss today in terms of tangible progress, but it’s been an enjoyable process over the past few days. Setting up and testing has been the theme of this week. It’s also given me a chance to reflect on the other half of balancing adding a new habit, routine or project, which is to no longer do an old activity.
Luckily, some of my existing activities made setting up my “recording studio” extremely easy. The only thing I had to set up was a sound mixer that I’ve had sitting in its box, only briefly removed to play around with before. About a year ago, when this podcast idea first dawned on me, I bought a bunch of hardware for recording. After having it sit in a box in a closet, then a box under my bed, moved to the closet again, it has finally become time to actually use the mixer I bought a while back. While definitely unnecessary at this point in production, it feels nice to actually use it.
Practicing the use of the hardware has probably been the biggest item on my to-do list this week. Trying to find a way to sound alive when talking only to yourself is more difficult than I really expected. I think I’ll try recording actual conversation sometime soon, and see how that is different. Luckily, the plan for the show encourages engagement and dialogue which should help with energy levels of recording.
Overall, this week has me thinking a lot about what it takes to add new things to our lives. There are only so many hours in the day, days in the week and weeks in the year, and so forth. Adding new tasks, habits, etc. means we need to make space for those new things by dropping some of the old. Even just a few months ago, I would spend hours every week playing video games or watching TV (which was Netflix or some other streaming service, do people still watch actual television these days?). Lately, I feel like I am trying to cook up some project in one way or another. I still spend time gaming or relaxing with a familiar show, but I just don’t feel I have the time to commit like I used to.
Stay tuned, next week, I’ll try to have at least a sample of the podcast. My plan is to record the first episode this weekend. How long that sample is will depend on how editing goes. My idea from about a year ago was to not edit this at all, but I’m sure the first time around is going to require some digital surgery in order to be tolerable.

I’m Back

After a few weeks off, I’m back and ready to tackle the new year. The time off was nice, even though I didn’t do as much as I wanted. I think it was good and important to just take some time off and let my mind rest a bit.

Though I didn’t get many things done, the time off was a good break to sort some things out in my mind. I did also make significant plans for the coming months and year as a whole. To kick this year off, I’m trying something new. Instead of trying out a habit or routine for four weeks, I’m going to try and accomplish a goal. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be recording, editing and releasing two podcast episodes.

The premise is the show would be an advice column with a guest and/or co-host that doesn’t know the request. I hope to inspire interesting, off the cuff advice that may not be seen in other places, but also have some prepared material to leave a listener with some definite answers. If I enjoy the process, I may consider a long-term run with the podcast.

I’m still looking for some questions to address in those episodes. If you’re interested, feel free to leave a comment, contact me thru social media, or email me ryan@tryingoutbeforebuyingin.xyz. Thanks and have a good week!