On Friday I woke up early, had breakfast and then turned off all the distractions and worked at my laptop. I got an amazing amount of stuff done. I was really excited. I worked on planning and strategic things for one of my online projects and spent the afternoon researching custom dynamic WordPress ‘pages.’ The next day I realised I had missed a deadline for a video project for a friend. I decided instead of beating myself up about it, I’d use it as creative inspiration to make a video and promote my friend. It came together wonderfully. I used my Yamaha Audiogram 6 audio interface and microphone and recorded a voice over right into Sony Vegas Movie Studio. It was so easy and it sounded so much better than the horrible on-camera condenser microphone that I usually worked with. The details themselves aren’t that important. What is important is that I was achieving things and I had a renewed sense of accomplishment and confidence.
Oh I should probably tell you. I am also writing at my other blog. As far as I am concerned, this is my personal blog. I have another one which is obstensibly a professional blog at JohnLacey.com. I find myself writing lengthy, interesting email to the Internet Marketing Masterminds group I am a part of and I decided I would collect many of them and publish them there with other content about social media, content creation and creativity. I replied to a few emails and published one of them on that website and put another one in the drafts section of the blog.
I thought about writing a Sensational Sabbath column here on Sunday but ultimately gave up on the idea. Erratic sleeping patterns rendered me zombie-like for much of the day. Sunday Night Safran, even now three months into 2009, is still best of “reruns.” I wonder if Triple J haven’t sacked Father Bob and John Safran.
This morning the weekend was over and I could get back to serious productivity. Or so I thought. I couldn’t bring myself to shut down TweetDeck. For some reason I couldn’t form words intelligently enough to make the drafts public. All I wanted to do today was revise the notes I made on Friday and write some articles and I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was full of energy but I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I sort of played Mario Brothers for much of the day and listened to random podcasts. (iProcrastinate, incidentally, is the name of an actual podcast. Turns out procrastination is a failure to self-regulate and can apparently be overcome with ‘mindfulness meditation.’ The true beauty of this podcast though is that while hosted by an actual Professor at a Canadian University it invariably starts with an apology for not having updated the podcast sooner.)
I was telling someone about my day and it was only then when I thought about what I was saying did it start to make sense. I really didn’t think I could do the things I wanted to do. I had this well of unarticulated anxiety. The Podcast, which was my pride and joy, had stalled. At first it was fairly effortless because people were lining up volunteering to be interviewed. I had hoped to supplement the interviews with shorter episodes featuring tips and ideas for video makers. To be honest I felt silly recording these solo pieces. I did one about YouTube Resolutions – essentially asking people what they wanted to achieve in terms of video creation in 2009. Its funny I got a lot of response from people inferring they had heard the podcast though nobody actually responded to the central question. Two weeks later I had some issues with my audio setup and after a day of frustration I took my piece on video syndication tool Tubemogul and turned it into a PDF document. This way the iTunes subscribers would still receive something in their feed.
I guess on some level I feel kind of stupid talking in an authorative way. I don’t know why exactly. I may not know everything on the subject of online video but my interactions with others have lead me to believe I know a lot, and a lot more than a lot of other people. People quiz me on different things all the time. Usually if I don’t know, I can find out. In 2009, my YouTube Resolution was going to be a testimony to what I thought was my own changing role within this community. One which was more technical in nature, one that offered support and knowledge to others within this community. There were going to be interviews and profiles and tips. I was determined to get the best experts I could find on various subjects I felt would interest my readers and listeners.
The ever-changing nature of YouTube though drives me nuts. Once I think I’ve gotten the technical details figured out, that I’ve got my workflow streamlined, they change a fundamental setting and my time is eaten up with technical concerns when they should’ve been devoted almost exclusively to creative ones. I appreciate that technology is change and that the site itself is evolving over time, but the issue really comes in the form of the complete lack of communication from the company. I used to think that people protested new features and changes at YouTube too much, but the truth is the YouTube company is in partnership with a lot of content creators – many of whom rely on the service as a primary or secondary source of income. Can you imagine what would happen on a movie set if the crew stopped communicating with the actors? YouTube isn’t the only game in town, infact it’s not even the best game in town. Its strength comes from its brand’s awareness and that a lot of people congregate there. As much as it frustrates me I am reluctant to jump ship. Certainly I have content on other video sharing sites, but it is still the heart of my operation. My friends are there. They consider themselves ‘YouTubers’ not video creators. Even the premise of the reworked JohnOfJordan website is more about that community than it is about me as an individual. I am emotionally invested.
And I realised that I had been flying much lower under the proverbial radar than I had previously anticipated. I resisted the urge to promote the podcast very much since I felt like I was still finding my feet. The other day I casually asked on Twitter if anyone was listening to it. I was dumbfounded by how many people didn’t know it existed. Despite talking about it constantly on Twitter, despite linking to it from within Facebook, despite even writing about, and linking to, it in a video description. (I joked to Rohan that nobody reads video descriptions but I am really beginning to think it’s true.) I wasn’t disappointed, I was just amazed that people didn’t know about it. Its time to step up marketing efforts. Its time to arrange more interviews. If I can’t bring YouTubers to the Podcast, I’ll bring the Podcast to YouTube… and 12seconds.tv and… other places too.
I want to connect with more people, but in ways that offer more immediate feedback. I was hoping to do a show at BlogTalkRadio but realised that it would require me to ring a US phone number just to host the show. (A potentially expensive proposition for an hour long show.) Non-live audio work has made lazy. There is no pressure to speak fluidly the first time since you can always go again. I want to put myself in a situation where I have to think on my feet. I am tempted to return to local community radio but part of me thinks this might be a distraction to my online aspirations. I would really like to host a regular BlogTV, Stickam or UStream show, but I am severely hampered by my internet speed.
I also wish I had someone to talk to on a regular basis about my efforts and my progress. I would love to think I wasn’t alone in my process. I’m sure knowing somebody will check on my status would be a great source of motivation too.
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I’ve been following your blogs more closely the last few months and that’s when I found out about your podcasts, so they’re fairly new to me. You are a very intelligent, thoughtful and well spoken person, it would be a shame to let that go. Get more interviews, rev up the marketing…
And when you said “They consider themselves ‘YouTubers’ not video creators” is very true indeed. I tried vloggerheads for a while, but had to leave. For one, I couldn’t keep up both sites but moreover, I felt like I was out of my comfort zone. Even though I knew more then half the people and the comments were much nicer, I just wasn’t that into it… I’m a Youtuber.