“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
Often we look at our gardens plant by plant – worrying over which is doing well, which is doing poorly, which one needs to be moved. At other times, we try to take in the big picture. We map, we plan and try to create one seamless whole. There are times, though, when inch-by-inch is the way we see it, and it brings a unique viewpoint.
The Edging
Recently we started a new edging project in the garden. Beginning with the smallest rose bed, we decided to use old wine and other glass water bottles to surround the bed. Previously we had used limbs from tree pruning, but these were now several years old and had deteriorated almost completely. I did a bit of research online, including looking for images of bottle edging, to make sure we wanted to proceed. It certainly seemed worth a try. The pictures looked attractive and it didn’t seem like a lot of work. We would do this small bed first and then decide if we wanted to continue it in others.
Of course, doing an edging project like this means getting “down and dirty” with your garden – usually on your hands and knees. You notice immediately how the soil differs from inside the bed to the hard, compacted soil of the surrounding paths. You get a clear view of the quality of the soil in the beds as you dig the trench alongside. You notice insects – good and bad – weeds, and maybe even the rust that is forming on the lower leaves of the roses that you hadn’t noticed before. Oh, oh, are those aphids?!? Ah, but then you also notice the ladybug larvae and adults ready to eat them up.
Your garden takes on a different meaning on this micro scale. You don’t notice the thistles and bindweed as much, but the blackspot and Japanese beetles really catch your eye. You don’t notice the bad pruning on the box hedges, yet the quality of the soil as it sits in your hand makes you sit in wonder for just a moment.
A project for you
If all this sounds very foreign to you, I am going to charge you with a project the next time you are in your garden. Take a 1-meter-square area of your garden and mark it off in some way. Use a piece of rope or string to outline the area. If you have seen archaeologists working in movies or on TV, think about what their digs look like — a series of neat squares marching across the landscape so they can catalog their finds. While this 1 meter can be a patch of lawn, consider placing it over the junction between a bed and the lawn. You’ll get better results in your experiment.
Now that you have marked out the area, sit down – better yet, lie down on your belly – and start to take note of every living thing you see there. First off you’ll see the grass, the daylilies, the small weeds. Then look deeper. You’ll see ants, aphids, beetles and a host of other insects. Keep looking. Dig down and turn the soil over a little or pull up a piece of turf. Now there are worms, spiders, sow bugs, spider mites and more. I can guarantee you that you will notice more than you ever thought possible in your small 1 meter area and all of it is there, teeming with life, all day long, every day.
I know that, for me, observing my garden in this macroscopic way brings a deeper appreciation and deeper understanding of my garden when I look out from my back door each morning, coffee cup in hand. I never see just the paths and the plants anymore. In my mind I see it all – everything that exists down there among the roots, as well as everything on the surface. This also leads me to think differently about what I might do in my garden — what I might add, what I might remove, what I might want to change. It is quite amazing how a small garden project can lead you down the merry path of deep thoughts, but, then again, isn’t that one major reason we garden in the first place?
Buy the Kindle ebook today for more gardening essays
Last year for me was the year of visibility. That was my focus for the last year. That was the focus that I was sharing with everyone last year. You can be the best consultant, the best accountant, the best computer person, the best plumber, the best whatever, but if people don’t know what you do, it dos you absolutely no good. you are working a vacuum. Blogging is one way — along with podcasting and online video sharing and other forms of new media to gain visibility for what you do. Ok? The other important part is getting your message out to the people who want to see it and hear it. Too often we rely on other people to get our message out for us. Frankly,that’s because that’s the way technology works. If we wanted to get press coverage, we had to go to — the press. You had to get in the newspapers. You had to get on television. You had to get on radio. You had to get on the talk shows, whatever. That was your only method of getting out to people. For the first time ever in the history of media, as we know it. Since cuneiform tablets said, you know, “Joe is a favorite of the king today” or whatever. We now have the ability to take our message directly to the people who want to hear it.
Come and join me in the garden while I talk of new media consulting, YouTube and more. Strictly an old school, talking podcast today. Off the cuff. Stream of conscience. No editing. Just me, the Zoom H2 and a cooling beverage in the garden.
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
The strawberry runner we potted up on July 31, 2014 is already growing on its own, so I moved it to the potting bench and started the same process with another runner today. I hope to create at least 4 plants to start filling in one of our newly retrofitted garden beds.
Check out my collection of gardening essays, “From A Gardener’s Notebook” now available as a Kindle eBook. (You don’t need a Kindle to read it, though. Read it on your PC, Link: http://j.mp/fagnbook
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
Working with any client is a dance — or at least it should be. Dancing partners have to learn a lot about each other — how they move, where they move, how they communicate their moves — and working with any freelance client is much the same. Just as when you are learning to dance, there will be mistakes, missteps and a few toes are sure to be stepped upon. It is part of the nature of learning and developing any relationship.
Still, despite the difficulties, freelancing and working with individual clients can be very rewarding. You have the ability to more directly effect the life and business of a client than you ever would in a larger, more corporate environment. You can develop personalized and unique solutions for their needs. You also learn much about yourself, your work and your own wants, needs and desires. You find your likes, your dislikes, your preferences. You’ll also learn what you do best, what you need to improve and what you need to learn.
It can sometimes feel like a harsh learning environment for you, but despite whatever stress you may feel, it will benefit you greatly. Sometimes the only way we come to understand our skills and expertise is in being forced to exercise them. We have to try — and fail — and succeed — to truly learn our own limits and where our interests lie.
This is another part of the client dance. Many will come to you with one question, but that might lead to other questions in far reaching areas of their life and business. With each question, you will need to decide how much expertise to you can bring to your answer — or, sometimes, if you have any expertise at all.
For example, In my New Media work, I am most comfortable working with the technology and the underlying philosophy of how it can be used to improve a person’s life, career and business. Due to the nature of New Media being used in all aspects of business, though, clients will often start to ask me questions about sales and marketing, business plans, billing, pricing and a host of other topics which are outside my usual areas of expertise. It is important for me to actively defer many of those questions elsewhere.
In any client relationship, I want it to be very clear where my expertise lies. I might offer my personal opinions on these questions, but I am always sure to preface my thoughts with the standard disclaimer, “I am not a (enter expert’s name here)” It is not in my best interest, nor yours, to pretend expertise in something you do not have. In fact, it can greatly damage your relationship with a client if you do. Do not put yourself in the position to disappoint your client. Be honest and clear with them the limits of your own expertise and the client dance will be much easier and more productive.
Sure, you might feel a bit inadequate or fear that the client will think less of you, but I have found over many years that people respect honesty in others and that will far outweigh any perceived inadequacies. They will see your honesty as respect and appreciate it more as your relationship grows. I never want people to feel I have taken advantage of them and this honesty about my expertise is one way of avoiding such situations.
That doesn’t mean you don’t still have a role with that client, though. I have often become a translator of sorts between the client and another consultant. Often clients can’t speak the language of a web designer or programmer. Perhaps I couldn’t help develop the program or site for the client myself, but I can help them communicate their desires to these consultants and translate the consultant’s technical talk into something the client can better understand. This focuses on one of my strengths instead of disappointing my client by claiming expertise that I do not have.
If you are considering freelancing, I hope you will see it — as I do — as a long and complicated dance. Starting the dance can be difficult and fraught with mistakes, but over time you will come to be better partners who can anticipate each other’s movements and needs. It is at this level where the best work, the best products, the best lives are created. Do the client dance well and you are well on the road to building the career you deserve.
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
Today it’s time for cornbread to take over to a friend’s house for a BBQ dinner. This recipe, combined with a well-seasoned cast iron skillet makes a great cornbread — fluffy on the inside with a great crispy crust.
To get some of those great collapsible measuring cups as seen in the video, visit this Amazon.com link
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
Why do you do it? we;;. first of all, to feed the search engines. My joke is — you may hear the term Search Engine Optimization. there are company’s out there — some of you may actually be doing this for people — of where you try to improve their search engine ranking. My joke is, my method of Search Engine Optimization is to bury Google in data. Ok? If you search on Douglas E. Welch. If you search on Doug Welch. I am the first hit in Google for Douglas Welch. I am the second hit for Doug Welch. That is a pretty common name. I know, because I see all the other Doug Welch’s that pop up. I dont’ do any gaming. I don’t do anything special. I don’t really thing about it that much, but what I do do is when I have something to say, I make sure it gets on one of my blogs. I put it out there. Google indexes it. It knows more about me because I put more out there. That actually is one of your first goals in a blog. It is to simply get more information out there. Why? Visibility for what you do and how well you do it.
Here is my introduction to this years Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge. Join me for the audio, video and photographic podcasts to come each day this month.
“Essentially, it is a challenge to do a podcast for 30 days in a row.
In 2012 Kreg Steppe was looking to give himself a little push in regards to recording his own personal podcast since he wasn’t recording it very often. That turned into a challenge for himself to record a show everyday for 30 days believing that after 30 days it would turn into a habit. Once it was mentioned to Chuck Tomasi he took the challenge too and they decided it would be a great idea to record starting 30 days before Dragon*Con, culminating with the last episode where they would record it together when they saw each other there.”
When I first thought about including GenerikB in the Subscribed series today, I thought for sure that I had already linked to him for his Minecraft videos on YouTube. We have been watching — and greatly enjoying his channels for quite a while now. More recently, we have begun tuning into his live stream via Twitch.TV, too. The live stream is a different feeling, almost like watching a live show on television. You can also interact with GenerikB and other viewers in the on-going chat stream on the Twitch site.
GernerikB is a member of the Mindcrack server, whose many members we also follow and watch on a regular basis. He often collaborates with BDoubelO in the hilarious hijinks of the B Team. They work together so well, they recently launched their own Minecraft server and mod pack called “Attack of the B-Team” along with several other Minecraft YouTubers.
In the real world, GenerikB recently relocated to Sofia, Bulgaria to be near his wife’s family, so we have seen a glimpse of life in Eastern Europe with vlogs about their move and around scenic sites of the city. Since Bulgaria is about 10 ours different from Los Angeles, the live stream works well as mid-morning entertainment for us as he streams in his evening in Bulgaria.
GenerikB is a prankster, a truly funny guy, and a great entertainer. He also seems like a really nice guy, which is so important for the people I watch. I don’t need to fill my entertainment time with trolls and nasty people, so it is always great to find someone like GenerikB to keep the day light and entertaining.
Subscribed is a Careers in New Media series highlighting the Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Check out this entry, and past entries, for some great New Media Content — Douglas
The fact is, the search engines actively try to prevent from gaming the system and so they hide their algorithms — the way they rank people behind, inside a “black box.” We don’t know actually what’s going on inside of that black box. We can make some assumptions and that assumption that I just gave you is one, which is, it seems to be through, you know, if you we study our stats and everything else, the more often we update our web sites, the more likely that search engine is going to come back and reindex our site. Because it learns. It says, “Wow, this site is updated on a daily basis. I need to go back there every day.” And you can actually text this. You may know that there are ways of putting in searches in Google — a system called Google Alerts — you can actually put in a vanity search and say put in your company name, put in your personal name, whatever. You’ll actually see then, when you post something, you’ll see an alert come back once Google has indexed that site and, in my case, I know that can post something on one of my blogs today and, within about 3-4 hours, I will see the result come back. So, I can, through kind of a weird way of testing, actually see that, Dang, that GoogleBot came around about every 4 hours and just taps my site. If you check your log files for your web site — which a lot of people don’t actually monitor their web sites and their analytics and analyze their log files — in your log files you can actually see every time, when one of these search engine “bots” comes and indexes your site. It’s another thing to kind of be aware of.
Why do we want to update our web sites every single day? The fact is, there are a number of reasons for that. First and foremost is, if you haven’t realized it already, most of the hits to your web site today do not come from people sitting down at their computer and typing in www.blahdeblah RETURN. If you’re like me and most people, 90% plus of the hits of the people that come to your web site come there through a search engine. Ok?
Now, search engines — Google being one of the better known ones — they have a variety of criteria of how they rank web sites in search results. One of the foremost ways they rank information is, how current is it? AND how often is is updated. Well, guess what? Blogs give you a way to feed these search engines a constant stream of new information — that’s constantly being updated. And the more you update your blogs, the more often the Google searchbot will come through your web site and check it for information.
This a clip of my segment during this talk at the WGA (Writers Guild of America West) – Toot Your Own Horn: Self-Promotion In The Digital Age
WGA Panel entitled “Toot Your Own Horn,” with Writers’ Program alum Zoanne Clack (Grey’s Anatomy), and moderated by Writers’ Program Instructor Bill Taub, offers great insight into promoting yourself as a writer.
“TOOT YOUR OWN HORN: SELF-PROMOTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE”
In these challenging times, it is imperative that writers take control of their own careers. Be proactive, “do it yourself,” especially regarding publicity and marketing. Technology has swiftly changed, providing writers with new avenues to promote themselves and their work. Have you tapped in?
A DIY panel features publicist Henri Bollinger, president of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society, discussing personal publicity vs. when to bring on a “professional”; screen and TV writer/author/award-winning columnist W. Bruce Cameron (8 Simple Rules, A Dog’s Purpose); Zoanne Clack (Executive Producer — “Grey’s Anatomy” and former Writers’ Program student), Gregg Kilday (film editor at The Hollywood Reporter); psychotherapist Rebecca Roy (TheIndustryTherapist.com) to broach writers’ resistance to self-promotion; and independent new media consultant Douglas Welch (also a Writers’ Program instructor) addressing new media and social marketing platforms.
Panel followed by smaller hands-on breakout sessions. Moderated by Bill Taub.
Blogging is at its very heart, a web site, like every other web site. Google’s a web site. My web site’s a web site. You web site’s a web site. A blog is just simply one way of presenting a web site. It is a web site, but easier. That’s what I try to tell people everyone about it. The fact is, with a blog — I often describe a blog as being like a piece of boilerplate letterhead. Where, you know, you have the company name, your logo, the address, all printed, then you print on that letterhead.
A blog is very similar, but for your web site. It’s designed on a template. Its designed on all your typical information is around the outside frame and the, if you want to put something new up — you want to put new content up — you want to announce a new press release, you want to have some new piece of information there, you can easily go to one page, much like a word processor, you type or cut and paste into that site what you want, hit publish and it’s on your web site.
Our web sites are arid fields of old information, in most cases and the reason is — it’s not your fault — it really isn’t. It’s technology’s fault. It’s people like me who can’t write — or couldn’t write — systems that allowed you update your web sites easily.
If you have to bring up Dreamweaver. If you have to bring up a web site editor program to edit your web site, guess what? You will never update your web site. (indistinct audience comment) If you have to bring up a huge program and actually edit static pages, you’re probably not going to update your web site. Simply because it is too difficult for your average person.
You need to capture ideas as they occur to you, because we tend to throw away lots of content every day. We simply have a great idea on our walk or in the shower, whatever, and don’t capture it and it’s gone. It’s very rare that you get those ideas back unless there’s similar stimulus to trigger them again. Most times, they just kind of go down the river of thought and you never think about them again.
Integrate it into your life. Think about those questions that come into your life that you’re answering for other people. Think about the opinions that you’re being asked for at a party, at a dinner, by friends, by family. What are your opinions? Maybe that’s worth sharing in your podcast, if it’s on the topic of your podcast. Read the news. Read your RSS feeds. Read blogs. Check out stuff on the Internet. Set up Google News Alerts to trigger you with — to send you email when there’s a new news items on your topic. I’ll think you’ll be surprised how much content is really out there and how much information is available to you to draw upon to use in your own shows.
We have so many tools at our fingertips today that simply weren’t available 10 years ago. It’s easy to go out and shoot a video — of very high quality. It’s easy to go out and record audio of very high quality. We carry a little movie studio — for the most part — a little audio studio, in our pockets these days, along with a camera, a video camera, and a ton of other tools. There’s really no reason for you not to be marketing yourself every single day because the tools are there. The tools are no longer your limitation. It still tends to be our own limitations about marketing that hold us back.
One of things I recommend to people, too, is to get good at grabbing the content that you already create. If I’m at a museum and I’m visiting and looking around the collection, I’ll take photos. I’ll take some video. I’ll maybe do some audio. I’m going to be there anyway. I’m going to be engaging in activity anyway. It’s not like I made a special trip out there or anything like that. I’m already there doing the event. Why wouldn’t I capture some of the content from that event to later share on my blog, on my podcast, whatever? I see a lot of people who don’t do that. They go off and do some very cool things, but then they don’t capture anything to share with their friends, their family, and their audience, later.
