If you want to really step up your podcast, video blog, or next live streaming event, here are some things to consider when setting up.  There’s a saying in the audio industry:

TV without picture is radio. TV without sound is useless.

Take your sound seriously. Other people are listening.

Set Your Gain Correctly.

This is hands down the most important stage of your signal chain.  If it isn’t correct, it compromises everything thereafter.  If you set your gain on your mic preamp to low, you’ll have a very low signal overall, resulting in a quiet and frustrating recording.  You’ll risk losing listeners or viewers.  However, if you have it set too high and it’s what would be considered “hot”, you’ll have clipping and will distort your signal.  This can be even more frustrating that a level that is too low.  It sounds harsh and unprofessional.  It sounds like an amateur recorded it in their garage without a clue.

So find a happy medium.  A gain setting that isn’t too low, but not so high that if you or your guest gets loud or excited it won’t clip. Do a few tests, record the same phrase each time, and then listen to them back to see which sounds the best.

Use a Compressor.

So you’ve set your gain at an appropriate level.  But it’s still not quite as loud as you’d like.  It doesn’t sound like “the pros” sound.  You know what I’m talking about.  Listen to the radio.  The DJs have that big, full, “pro” sound to their voice.  It’s not weak, thin, or tinny sounding.  It never clips, and you can always hear them over the background music.

I’ll let you in on an audio engineers secret weapon.  Compression.

Okay, so a compressor is not a secret.  What it does and how to use it correctly, though, is often a mystery to people.  Even in my line of work, I come across other “engineers” that admit they don’t fully understand how a compressor works.  Unfortunately, if you don’t understand how a tool works, you can’t maximize its potential.

Compressors basically hug your audio signal.  With the left arm wrapping around, it’s keeping the low signals from being too low.  Then, with the compressors right arm, it’s pulling in the signals that might be too loud.  What it’s doing is keeping the fringe signal levels in a more controllable, appropriate, and enjoyable dB range.  When used correctly, it truly helps polish a vocal signal.

You have a couple choices when looking to start using a compressor.  You can go with a nice little hardware version like the dbx 266XS 2 channel compressor.  This is a two channel compressor, so if you have a guest, you can run two mics through it and have a great sound.  In this setup, you’d plug your mic into the compressor, then run a line from the compressor to your existing audio interface.

Most audio recording software suites will have a plug-in that would also work just as well.  The nice thing about the software versions are the presets and the ability to save your settings for particular guests and scenarios.

It is very easy to get the settings wrong on your compressor and wind up peaking your signal.  I’ll be posting an article on how to use a compressor correctly following this post.

Maintain Proper Position.

One of the most simple things to do to improve your sound for your audio or video podcast is to use correct positioning of your mic.  In the audio engineering world, we call this proximity.  Maintaining proper distance from your microphone goes a long way.  If you’re too close, you’re using a bad mic, and you’ve got your gain set too high, you might as well light it on fire.  If you’re sitting too far from it and your gain is set too low, you’ll only be pulling your hair out when you listen to it back.  Or, if you’re too far away, you might boost the gain so that it picks up your voice.  The down side to this is what’s called the noise floor.  The noise floor is the ambient sounds in your surrounding environment.  For instance, you are recording in your office.  There is a dog barking outside, cars driving by, the HVAC pumping air, and a loud fan on your PC.  All of these noises, while not terribly distracting to us individually, when added together create a noise floor that you can’t get rid of.  If you boost your gain on your mic pre, you’ve made your mic more sensitive, thereby picking up all of these little noises even more and creating an unprofessional sounding recording or live stream.

So, stay close enough to the mic that you’re the only thing it’s picking up, keep your gain at a manageable level, and invest in a compressor.

Thanks for reading and as usual, I’m looking forward to your comments below.

Cheers,

Josh

I’ve got a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head.  Some are pretty solid while others are still blobs of unformed thought.  Regardless, I have had a difficult time in the past trying to make something out of these ideas.  I would wait on them (or forget about them altogether) while someone else accomplished them before I did.  This was extremely frustrating.  I didn’t get frustrated with that other person that did it before me; I got frustrated with myself for not devoting the time and effort to that one, singular idea.

My wife is always right alongside me, hearing my crazy ideas and business plans as I spout them out at the most random times.  I think she might have grown tired of them which led her to make a fantastic suggestion:

Use an “idea journal” to keep track of all my ideas and thoughts.

Genius!  I am now able to jot down that million-dollar idea that I got after talking with someone about an issue at their company, or in the middle of taking a shower. (I come up with some weird stuff at some random times.)

With an idea journal my ideas have started taking much more shape and are taking off in their own directions.  Without this outlet I’d still be tossing them around in my head instead of holding brainstorming meetings with other people.

Shortly after starting my idea journal, I realized that I was still not able to actually accomplish any of them; I was only able to keep track of them.  This prompted me to scrutinize how and on what exactly I was spending my time.  I am still in the process of this evaluation and am always trying to improve the use of my time to better facilite the cultivation of my ideas and projects.

I’ve started implementing the following habits that have helped me increase my productivity:

1.  Limit your interaction on multiple social networking sites.

This could very well be the biggest timewaster of them all.  Facebook.  Twitter.  LinkedIn.  MySpace.  Four Square.  Ning.  And the list goes on and on.  A lot of the data is duplicated from one site to the other, which leads to overlaps that could waste more time.

I evaluated what I used (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Foursquare) and how/why I used them.  This evaluation led me to to a 30-day break from Facebook and delete my Foursquare account altogether.  My time spent on MySpace is very, very minimal (though I make plans to interact more but never do), and Twitter is one of my main sources for gathering news and local updates from businesses and individuals.  It’s easier to sift through Twitter than it is Facebook.  LinkedIn is another site that I use with minimal time spent on updating.  I’ll do the occasional search for jobs and gigs in the area, but this is time spent being more productive than it is wasteful.

Do you have to completely give up one or the other?  This is up to you.  For me, I don’t get enough value back from Foursquare to justify the time spent interacting with it.  Maybe you do get a lot of value out of it.  Free wine or parking?  Each service varies from person to person and how they use it, so there is not definitive answer.  I do believe, however, that as a whole we’ve become infatuated with the newest services popping up and trying to be beta testers and early adopters.  For the record, businesses need to engage on many different platforms simultaneously in order to best reach the widest audience possible.

2.  Get into a routine.

Even if it means making your coffee at the same time every morning (or programming it the night before) and writing out the next day’s agenda on a real piece of paper.  Sometimes it can be beneficial to abandon technology for simple tasks such as to-do lists and similar items.  I’ve tried many iPhone and Mac OSX apps to help with this but find that I wind up getting sidetracked and eventually waste more time.

My routine is as simple as setting my coffee the night before and then sitting at my desk (not the kitchen table; I believe that your surroundings do affect your ability to focus in on things) to write out my list for the next day.  Otherwise I wind up getting up in the morning and spending 20 minutes trying to lay out my day instead of jumping right into it.  That first 20 minutes could have been spent knocking off an item from the list had I laid it out the night before.

3.  Track your results.

If you make progress on something, make a record of it.  Use Google Analytics to track extremely useful data on your website.  Use that data to make informed decisions regarding your next marketing campaign and where to focus your efforts or which pages to revamp that are not getting hits.

By tracking your progress you are able to look back over time and see how far you’ve come.  You’re able to see what worked and what didn’t.  Those things that didn’t work so well?  You’ll know not to do them again in the same context because you documented it.  Without this information, you might very well do it all over again in a similar scenario and fail again.  We want to avoid this.

Update your ideas and make notes regarding your progress.  If you don’t know how far you’ve come, you run the risk of losing motivation that could otherwise be just what you need to make it over the hump and release your product or service to a new market.

To keep up with me, follow me on Twitter – @josh_walker.  What are some of your ways you improve productivity?  Let’s hear them all.

*DISCLAIMER* It is always a good practice to make a backup of your calendars.  The reader assumes all responsibility by following the steps listed below and understands that it is their responsibility to backup their files prior to beginning the sync process.

1.  Set up your Google Calendars

- If you don’t already have one, sign up for Google Calendar.  It’s free and easy to use.
- After you’ve set up your Google Calendar, go ahead and create multiple calendars if you’d like.  For instance, make one “Family”, “Work”, and “Church”, etc.

- Click on the down arrow next to one of the calendars and click on “Calendar Settings”
- Next, scroll down to “Calendar Address” and click on the green iCal button.  A dialogue box will pop up.  Make sure you copy the full address here!

2.  Set up iCal on your Mac

- in iCal, go to the iCal main menu and click on “Preferences”.  From here, you’ll click the + sign in the bottom left of the window.

- Under “Account Type”, choose “CalDAV”.
- For your username, use the Google email address that you used to sign up for your Google Calendar account.  The password is the corresponding Google password that you chose.  For the server, use google.com.
- Click “Create”.  You should see some of your appointments populating the calendar at this point (assuming you already added some in Google Calendar).
- Now, click on the “Calendar” menu and then on “Subscribe”.

- In the dialogue box that opens up, paste the address that you copied from your Google Calendar settings.
- Next, click on the main iCal menu and go to “Preferences”.
- Click on the “Accounts” tab and go to the right under “Delegation”; check the boxes next to your Google Calendars so that you can post to them directly out of iCal.  After this, you’re finished with iCal.

3.  Set up iPhone Calendar

- Click on the “Settings” icon.
- Next, open the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” menu under “Settings”.
- Under “Accounts”, click on “Add Account”.
- Next, choose “Microsoft Exchange” from the very top.

- For “Email”, use the same address that you used for the Google Calendar.
- For “Username”, again, use that same email address.  And for “Password”, use the Google password you set.
- Under “Description”, I recommend labeling it as “Google”.  Click “Next”.
- When the dialogue box pops up, click “Accept” and then put “m.google.com” in the new “Server” field.
- The next menu gives you the option to sync your Google Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.  For the purpose of this article, turn off Mail and Contacts so that we’re only syncing the calendars.

- Now, open Safari on your iPhone and in the address bar type “m.google.com/sync”.
- From here, choose the calendars that you want to sync on your iPhone Calendar and click “Save”

That should do it!  Comment below to let me know if you have any issues, or how easy/hard you thought the whole process was.  Once it’s set up, though, you’ll never have to worry about saying “Let me check my iCal when I get home”.  Do it on your iPhone.  On your Mac.  Or on someone else’s computer with Google Calendars.

We’ve been using Facebook and Twitter now for awhile.  Some prefer one over the other.  Some only use one tool.  Others are addicted to both. (Then there’s MySpace.  Remember that?  Facebook needs to take a hint.  But that’s another post…)

Twitter and Facebook.  They’re two completely different platforms.

Like oil and water, they both have their place.  We use both.  Yet they don’t always mix.  Likewise, Twitter and Facebook are two very different mediums with two very different niches.

Facebook.

When Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard, he had an idea.

He and three classmates got together and developed their idea into a platform that connected them with their friends.  They kept it exclusive to begin with (you had to have a .edu email address).  This allowed them to test it out and have their ideal demographic figure out how they wanted to use it.  Once they were able to set the standards, they slowly started opening the gates to other people.  This exclusivity only helped to build anticipation (can we say Apple?) for the release of updates and the allowing of everyone to participate.

On Facebook you are able to post native pictures, embed links, write comments and replies, send personal messages, and more.  You can see full conversations at a glance.  Entire photo albums.  All within Facebook.  You aren’t limited too much in terms of content length, either.

An interesting thing has happend with Facebook.  The original users (mostly college students) set the standard methods of use.  After a few years, we’ve seen the way Facebook is used transform into something that it wasn’t originally.  This is most apparent with all of the Farmville and Chef’s World updates you probably see in your Live Feed.  The people that started out with Facebook in its early days are easily frustrated by this and many other little things that have popped up, such as privacy issues.  Yet the new Facebook users have no preexisting concept of how it is supposed to be used; to them, it’s a networking/gaming platform.  Others use it specifically to share photos from family trips.  Still others use it for the messaging and chat.  It’s quickly developing into a catch-all platform where you can do just about everything you need.

These things aren’t necessarily bad.  It’s to be expected with anything.  Facebook started with an idea.  Mark Zuckerberg had no idea what it would become. Evolution and growth.  Adaptation.  These all propel success.

Twitter.

If you can’t adapt to this format, it’s probably because you wish it were more like Facebook.  But it’s not, nor is it supposed to be.  Twitter is a different platform where a different language is spoken.  Hashtags (#), replies (@), and retweets (RT) are just a few items.  Then there’s Follow Friday (#followfriday or #ff) and Music Monday (#musicmonday or #mm).  And the ever popular Tweetups (#tweetup) in their various formats and locations.

Twitter was developed to allow people to communicate and update what was happening in their lives at that moment.  It was not designed as a sales tool for businesses. Too often I see companies just using it to throw out their sales pitch in hopes that people will respond to the call-to-action and buy the product or service. These companies spew out their content without adding value to anything other than their own messages.  It’s a shame to see this misuse of a wonderful communication medium.  To use it effectively, listen more than you speak.  Create relationships.  Build networks.  Engage in conversation. Neither was it designed so much as a communication tool where you see a back-and-forth conversation, though this does happen routinely.  It is more of a tool that helps you propagate your content, ideas, and thoughts to the masses.  Let people know what’s going on.  Quickly and efficiently.

We’ve seen Twitter expand and adapt as well.  From the news anchors using it to update the world to the bands keeping fans posted on show times.  Twitter has helped me gain new real life friends and freelance work.  I’ve been able to meet some really great and interesting people thanks to Twitter.  When I first started using Twitter, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had 13 followers while these other guys had 5,000 or more.  Then I realized that it’s not about how many followers you have, it’s about the relationships you build.  When people see that you’re using Twitter effictively and unselfishly, they will be more likely to follow you.  Then your numbers go up, and all without the help of a third-party app or bot.

If you’re looking to find ways to use Twitter more effectively and live in the Northern Indiana area, the #nwitweetup is a great place to meet people that are using social media in one way or another.  There are many, many more Tweetups around the country.  I encourage you to find one close to you and see what it’s all about.  It there isn’t one in your area, start one!

That’s about it for this post.  I’d love to hear your comments and experiences concerning Facebook and Twitter.  How do you use these tools?  And remember, it’s not that one is better than the other.  It’s not apples to apples here.  We need to learn how to maximize the effectiveness of each tool while realizing what works on one platform won’t always work on the other.  Now, go take a look at this video by @equalman that shows the magnitude of social media today.

As an Indiana commercial builder, he knows the importance of staying on the forefront of his industry and doing what it takes to keep connected to his potential customer base.  One way he does this is through multiple web sites.  If you’re looking for anything to do with construction, architecture, or the solid waste industries, you only need to visit one website for a Northwest Indiana general contractor.  Here you’ll find links to his blog, www.constructionandwaste.com where you can read about tips, insight, and more on these industries, and you’ll be able to access his site for Northwest Indiana design and architecture company, IN-Cambridge Architects.

If you or a business you know is looking for a company to handle your construction needs, or if you’re just looking for someone with experience to talk to, contact Jeff Eriks and his company one of the following ways:

On the website

Jeff on Facebook

Cambridge Construction on Facebook

Cambridge Construction on Twitter

As usual, thanks for reading!  I hope that I’m able to help expose everyone that reads to some new and useful resources in northern Indiana.

Cheers,

Josh Walker

As I’m getting close to wrapping up my networking series, I’ll be writing about yet another individual in the Indiana mortgage loan industry.  Steve Dalton is a Northwest Indiana mortgage banker that knows the first time home buyer market.  He is also an expert on first time home buyer and VA loans as well.

My wife and I just bought a house a few months ago, so it’s somewhat funny that after moving back to northern Indiana I’ve gotten to know a few of the best Northwest Indiana mortgage lenders in the area.  They would have come in handy before I moved back!  However, I know that my wife and I intend to purchase another home at some point, so it’s always good to keep in contact with the people that know what they’re doing.  And I’ll be making sure to recommend Steve to friends and other people I know that are in the market in Northwest Indiana.

Steve takes a personal approach to the lending process.  If you go to his Northwest Indiana mortgage website you’ll see that he takes time to answer people’s questions about the process.  He is also very good at keeping an eye on the market in general and updating readers about any fluctuations and changes to look out for.  If you’re looking for a solid lender to help you in the new home buying process, give Steve Dalton a call.

I’ve had the chance to talk with Steve a few times.  He knows the industry, but he’s also just a great guy to get to know all around.  Even if you’ve already bought a house, it’s still a great idea to keep up with the latest news.  Steve can help you make the right decision at the right time.

You can also follow Steve on Twitter and keep up to date on his Northwest Indiana mortgage blog.

As usual, thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Josh Walker

It seems fewer and fewer people are turning to the Yellow Pages for help and research these days.  Anymore they go online to find what they’re looking for.  Successful people and businesses will go to the internet to be the providers of that information.  And that is exactly what Evelyn Johnston is doing.

If you’re looking for a house for sale in Elkhart, she makes your search that much easier.  Evelyn has put together a fairly comprehensive website that details all of the subdivisions in Elkhart and the homes for sale there.  On her site is a page that lists the local Elkhart schools and links to them as well.  She doesn’t stop there, though.  She also has a listing page for local movie theaters in Elkhart as well as garage sales and more.

I’m always encouraged to see people using technology to their benefit while helping make other people’s lives easier at the same time.  A lot of people think that you only need a website if you’re in the tech industries or build websites.  On the contrary, if you have any sort of information to disseminate, you should consider having a website to assist.

You can contact Evelyn by email at evelyn@evelynjohnston.com to find out more about what she does and how she can help you.

Cheers,

Josh Walker

If you’re online and have any sort of web prescence, you need to understand the importance of search engine optimization, or as it’s also known, SEO.  You don’t necessarily need to know all about SEO, but you should at least know someone who does.  And that person is Nate Findling.

The internet has transformed.  It is changing month by month.  Day by day, for that matter.  And we need to keep up.  If you are looking for a way to maximize your online presence, check out what Nate is capable of.  Todays internet, and our presence there, is much broader than just one url; now, all of our social media activity is a part of who we are online.  Our reputation and legitimacy.  Not all of us have a way with words that communicates our ideals fluently; that’s where a copywriter comes in.  Someone that can take your idea and concept and translate it into an understandable and comprehensible story.

Nate is that guy.  He can help your company or organization really reach your target audience.  In words they’ll understand.  Not only does he write for other people and companies, he’s writing a book of blues himself.  A book about the ups and downs of life, and how he got to where he is.  Where he’s going.  And everything in between.  As an internet marketing specialist for Chicago and Indiana,  he understands the importance of using digital media to help make his publishing dreams come to fruition.  Don’t think for one second that because you’re writing a book for print that you don’t need a solid and sharp online presence.  Let Nate take a look at your situation and set you up for a successful journey.

If you have a website for your company (and if you don’t, you should), you need to talk to Nate about how to maximize the potential of your site.  You, like many others, may not realize the full potential of the content on your site.  Nate Findling can and will.

Again, thanks for reading.  We’re all in this together, so why not take a few minutes every day to get to know those around you?  You never know when they’ll come in handy.  Even if you never need their services or talents, they will bring a little joy into your life that would otherwise have been absent.

Cheers,

Josh Walker

We discussed things such as the Haiti relief efforts and how positive the response from the American people has been.  I know that I was really impressed to find out that as a nation we’ve contributed over $30,000,000.00 just via text messages.  But that’s just a portion of the $305,000,000.00 that has been raised as of January 21st.  It’s amazing to see how much people world wide have responded.  With times such as these, people have been cutting costs everywhere they can to save money.  So to see how willing people have been to give money to the Haitian people is really encouraging.  It’s not always easy to part with $10, let alone $1,000,000.00 or more.  But realizing that there are people that need it more than we do is what makes the difference.  Action is what makes a difference.

We also discussed how the internet has transformed the way we get our news.  We are no longer simply content consumers, being fed advertising ,marketing, and spin by the conglomerates.  We are now content producers.  Whether by blogs, Twitter, crowd sourcing sites, and all the other options, we are able to tell the world what is happening and how we feel about it.  In addition to that, we are able to decide how we get our news.  Whether this is good or bad is up for discussion.  On one hand, you no longer have to just take whatever news is fed to you.  You can avoid the opinion and spin.  On the other hand, a person could easily only consume news that is in line with their opinion and views.  I do believe that there is value in hearing the spectrum.  There is a benefit to having a balance.

We also talked briefly about the validity of social media.  Some may scoff at Twitter, Facebook, and foursquare, but the reality is that these platforms are helping advance businesses, relationships, and more.  These tools have not been around nearly long enough for us to realize their full benefit.  We are constantly revising the way we interact with these tools.  With that, I look forward to seeing how we use them in 5 years.  Or if they’re even still around for that matter.

Overall, I really enjoyed talking with Molly and Brad.  I encourage you to keep up with them on Twitter and their individual sites.

You can connect with Molly by following:

Vocalo.org on Twitter or
Molly on Twitter
Molly’s blog

and keep up with Brad at:

Brad Flora on Twitter
The Windy Citizen on Twitter
The Windy Citizen website

As usual, thank you all for reading and following.  We’re all in this together, so let me know your thoughts and feedback.

Cheers,

Josh Walker

When it comes to the internet, social media is absolutely the direction we’re all headed.  If you are a business, an individual, a band, or a presidential candidate, you can and should be utilizing the whole social media concept.  Gone are the days that the internet was only for gaining information on a certain topic.  Now we use it to communicate and network with people both locally and globally.

Kathy provides great social media training seminars.  She is also available for various lengths of general social media consulting and auditing, as well as her Social Media Bootcamp.  This is a four hour workshop that will educate attendees on the best ways to use Facebook and Twitter for their business or organization.  More in-depth topics are discussed as well.  I believe that you’ll find her social media training and consulting very beneficial.

Not only is Kathy recognized for her work in Northwest Indiana social media, she was recently voted as the “Social Media Name of the Year” in the female category for 2009 at the Indiana Inaugural Social Media Summit.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend this year, but from the people that were there I hear that it was a great time.  She won because of her work and dedication to educating others about easy as well as intricate ways to use the internet and social media.  No one is too young or too old to start learning.

I know that I’m continuing to learn more and more about social media on a daily basis.  Little things like frequency, the value of content, how to give back, and more.  Some of it I learn by simply doing, while a lot of my insight has come from people like Kathy.  We can all learn from one another, so I encourage you to check out Kathy Sipple and see how she can help you implement solid social media marketing services and practices.  She will show you how to effectively use Facebook, Twitter, and more to expand your business and gain positive exposure.  I know that a lot of people only use it for keeping up with pictures of family members.  Kathy will show you how to really use it.

If you aren’t already, follow Kathy Sipple on Twitter, or check out her Facebook page.  Take the time to do yourself a favor and find out more about how to improve the way you interact with customers, fans, clients, and people in general.  You can catch up with her at various networking events or her workshops.  Follow her on Twitter and she’ll be sure to fill you in and give you great tips and advice.

Thanks for reading, and till next time, pass this along.  After all, it’s all about the people.

Cheers,

Josh Walker